Environmental Conservation Videos

Laboratory 11

Environmental Conservation Videos

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Kari Schultheis

C 321-01: Morning Session

Due Date: 15 November 2016

Silent Spring

The film “Silent Spring” tells the story of Rachel Carson’s life, the publication of her book Silent Spring, and her battle to draw attention to our close interdependence with nature. Silent Spring brought public attention to the consequences of humankind’s reckless overuse of pesticides and our insatiable need to control every aspect of our environment. When Ms. Carson published Silent Spring, there was massive public outcry, and many chemical companies responded with immediate denials. While Rachel Carson did not survive to see it, her book eventually did bring about the large-scale change she hoped for, with the formation of the EPA and the increasing study and regulation of harmful chemical.

Ms. Carson began her career as a biologist, attaining her master's degree before leaving school to care for her family after the deaths of her father and sister. She began working with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as one of their few female employees. While she was employed there, she also put her considerable writing skills to use publishing numerous books and articles about the environments she studied. After publishing her book The Sea Around Us, she was financially able to end her employment with the Fish and Wildlife Service and begin to pursue her own projects.

One of these projects was Silent Spring, which she began to research after a friend’s bird refuge suffered from the spraying of these pesticides. She spent many years, often in poor health, researching the many effects of various pesticides and other chemicals applied to the land. When she finally did publish the book, it received critical acclaim, and was well received by the general public as well. Publication of this book marked the beginning of a radical change in the view of our environment, and is often credited as the fountainhead of the modern environmental movement.

Blind Spots

“Blind Spots” documented several modern, often overlooked issues facing our waterways today. Some issues addressed included the effects of extremely low levels of Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (ppcp’s) in waterways, the sedimentation and nutrient overloads facing the Chesapeake Bay, and the pollution of the Susquehanna River. Though not nearly as eye-catching as some of the previous issues our environment has faced, these issues are beginning to reach a critical point.

Ppcp’s are enter water systems almost entirely unregulated, primarily due to our uncertainty of their exact effects or safe concentrations. They can enter through runoff from field where livestock was treated with hormones, flushed pills, or human waste. Recent studies have shown that these chemicals act like hormones to fish, causing many male fish begin developing eggs. Studies are only beginning to be conducted to determine exactly how these chemicals affect the environments they are released into, and their exact effect of animals, including humans, exposed to them.

Another modern issue is reflected in the Susquehanna River, considered the most endangered river in the US. It is contaminated with large amounts of sewage, sediment, and other toxic runoff. In addition, many dams hold back massive amounts of toxic, contaminated sludge. Not only does this negatively affect the river itself, which suffers from high nutrient content and turbidity, but also affects downstream ecosystems.

The Chesapeake Bay is one such ecosystem which suffers from the poor quality of the Susquehanna, as well as that of many other rivers which feed into it. The Chesapeake is beginning to reach its carrying capacity for pollutants, and negative effects of even low levels of pollution are becoming apparent. From an overabundance of nutrients causing algae growth and deoxygenated dead zones, to sediment burying entire ecosystems, these problems clearly need to be addressed

Then and Now

Ways We Have Changed

Since the time of Rachel Carson and Silent Spring, much has changed with respect to our treatment of the environment. When she published Silent Spring, a general attitude of “Public Be Damned” pervaded the governmental and corporate approach to the use of chemical. Many chemicals quickly came into wide use with little testing, no understanding of why they accomplished what they did, or any unintended effects of their use. Additionally, they were used in huge quantities. The pesticide sprayed on fields in California at the time could have killed the world’s population 5 to 10 times. Nature was viewed as something to be bent to the will of man, conquered and put in its place. The government seemed uninterested in changing the status quo, often ignoring or even concealing possible problems.

Now, we have begun to realize that nature does not exist for our own convenience, and to work under Rachel Carson’s assertion that people have a fundamental right to a healthy environment free of poisons. Since Silent Spring, the EPA and the DEP have been founded to attempt to ensure that Americans do have this right. Many regulations have been put into effect which limit the harmful things we can put into our environment. Additionally, our mindset has seen a significant change. Chemicals are now tested extensively to uncover unintended consequences, and regulated to maximize the health of ecosystems. Most importantly, we have begun to realize how much we depend on nature and the balance within ecosystems. We have begun to uncover and address the negative impacts of our actions. Though we still have far to go, our realization of our interdependence with and reliance on the ecosystems around us has dramatically changed both our worldview and our actions.

In addition, the problems we face environmentally have changed in scope and visibility. Many current problems are not nearly as visible to the public, or much slower and subtler, making sparking change much more of a challenge.

Ways We Have Stayed the Same

Though we have made many positive strides toward treating the environment with respect, we still have much in common with the people of Rachel Carson’s time. Many people and corporations are still more concerned with their own personal (often monetary) gain than with the health of the environment. In addition, though we have addressed many of the more apparent ways in which we are damaging our environment, there are still many subtler, easier-to-ignore ways that we are still harming the natural world. As in Rachel Carson’s time, it is not easy to gain the public or governmental attention to change these issues which are often even more costly and difficult-to-address in modern times.

Conclusion

Silent Spring highlighted our intimate relationship with the ecosystems around us, and the many valuable services we rely on them for. It also emphasized the need to study and understand the unintended consequences of our actions, and work to fix new problems we create. Blind Spots pointed out that, in spite of the progress we have made, we still have a long way to go in protecting the future of our environment. It also demonstrated the increasing subtlety of the environmental problems we as a society face. Together, these videos reaffirmed the immense progress we have made with respect to living in harmony with our environment, but also the many ways we continue to fall short. They emphasize the need to continue furthering our understanding of nature, and the huge positive impacts that such inquisitiveness can produce.