Question

1. How did DDT come to be so depended upon in the United States & Canada? Why were alternative pesticides not used?

2. Why is time a key factor in dealing with the effects of pesticides?

3. According to Carson, what are the central problems of our age? Why are these problems central? Why is Carson so concerned about these problems?

4. What problems did pesticides solve? What new problems were created when pesticides began to be used?

5. How does Carson balance alarmist phrases such as “chain of evil” and impetuous and heedless pace of man with the calm language of a scientist?

6. Is Carson an alarmist? Is the essay first published in 1962, still relevant today?

Answer 1

1-DDT is an insecticide that was first produced in 1874. It was used to control malaria, typhus, bubonic plague, farmers used DDT on their crops to kill crop destroying insects.It was produced in form of spray, aerosols, dust etc. It was used widely because it is very effective in killing insects, relatively cheap, and last in the environment for a very long time. Hence, it is widely used pesticide over other pesticides.

2-Pesticides like DDT last in the environment for a very long time. Their effects stay in the environment for a very long time and the y continue to persist in the form of residues in soil, water and in the bodies of fishes etc.

3- The central problems of our age is extinction of mankind due to nuclear war. The contamination of environment with harmful chemicals which accumulates in animal and plant tissues and also penetrate the germ cell. These pesticides are highly poisonous and persist in the environment for a long time and cause birth defects. According to Carson pesticides were produced to kill harmful crop destroying and disease causing insects but instead it ended up destroying mankind.

4- Pesticides are used to kill disease causing pests, crop destroying insects, etc . But instead it lead to Arsenic poisoning, in arsenic contaminated environment which caused death and sickness in cow, horses, pig, fishes, bees. It destroyed the bee-keeping industry in South America.

5- The pollution caused by DDT pesticide is irreversible. Carson called it a chain of evil because, it is the build up of chemicals in the environment which causes never-ending deaths and spread disease.

6- Carson was a scientist, journalist he made people aware of the future hazards due to prolonged used of DDT. He made people aware of the alarming effects of prolonged use of DDT like cancers, hereditary birth defects due to presence of harmful chemicals in mothers milk, presence of DDT residues on agricultural crops, in water streams, lake. Presence of toxic residues in bodies of fishes and human tissues, animal tissues leading to death.