A Fable for Tomorrow
In "A Fable for Tomorrow," Rachel Carson presents a fable to her audience describing a town in the heart of America. This town was alive and well until an "evil spell" settled over it. This spell brought death along with it, in large quantities. However, the spell was not one of magic proportions, but one that the people of the town had brought upon themselves.
(piximus.net)
"No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves." (Carson, page 151)
- As human beings, we feel entitled to certain aspects of the environment that we honestly shouldn't. We experiment with no indication of the pros or the cons that will result. Only when it's too late do we realize the damage that we have caused and try to go back and reverse it, usually to no avail.
"A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imaged tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know." (Carson, page 152)
- In Carson's excerpt from Silent Spring, she combines many tragedies that have happened historically in our environment into one horror story of epic proportions. Although the combinations of all of these events makes the fable seem very far fetched, it isn't that preposterous. As I said before, our trial and error way of going about handling our environment is not the right way to go. Usually, it is extremely difficult to reverse the damage that has been done.
The Obligation to Endure
"The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings....Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species - man - acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world." (Carson, page 153)
- Carson begins "The Obligation to Endure" with this quote. This quote struck me because humans have only been on earth for a very short amount of time compared to how long the earth has been here and even how long other species have inhabited it before us. Why do we think that we have the right to alter anything about the nature of our world? Yes, we all must interact. Sometimes those interactions will result in negative consequences for the environment. However, we should take each interaction carefully and not intentionally harm our planet because we are a "superior species." If we ruin the earth, what else is left?
Carson lists many ways in which we, as a human race, are harming our environment.
- Chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests
- Radiation
- Pesticides and insecticides
- DDT
- Invasives
- Etc.
(globalhealingcenter.com)
"The rapidity of change and the speed with which new situations are created follow the impetuous and heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature." (Carson, 154)
- We are trying to make nature adapt to us instead of adapting to nature. We inflict such pain with chemicals in order to benefit from what nature can offer us in a timely manner instead of just waiting for nature to run it's course naturally. Everything that we give to the environment to "help" it grow is ultimately coming around to hurt us in the end.
Watch the world change over the course of nearly three decades of satellite photography - Time-lapse
