Our Environment, Our Choice - The choice, after all, is ours to make...

Age is everything but nothing at all and perspective is the key to understanding how old this book really is. Is age our guiding factor or is it knowledge? Therefore 50 is not my determining factor for the accessibility of this book, but rather the knowledge that reverberates through the essence of knowing that what Rachel Carson lays out in her book Silent Spring may be the environmental key that we have chosen to participate in. "The choice, after all, is ours to make. If having endured much, we have at last asserted our "right to know" and if, knowing, we have concluded that we are being asked to take senseless and frightening risks...we should look about and see what other course is open to us." (Pgs. 277, 278) 

The issue of environmental concern is not a yes or no answer, this makes it hard to solve. Almost everything we have built our society on was built on an older concept that used our natural resources in an irresponsible and misleading way. We are changing gradually, but is this fast enough? Probably not, and frankly this is why our richest man, Elon Musk, is proposing that we start to colonize another planet in hopes that we have a way out in case we cannot get this right.

Image: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (The Manifesto Series) 

In a sense, we are fighting survival and survival. If we change too much of our infrastructure, therefore affecting our food supply and overall human progress then we could diminish our society. 

 But if we don't change fast enough we could diminish our earth, in turn ruining society/population. All in may come down to Darwin's philosophy on evolution. "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change, that lives within the means available and works co-operatively against common threats." Charles Darwin. Information that may be missing from Carson's book may be up-to-date reflections on current events that have made catastrophic changes to our environment. 

Carson includes current environmental disasters in chapter 17 of Silent Spring which showcase her time period, 50 years ago. what would this book be like if this were updated? 

Works Cited: 

Darwin, Charles. https://laidlawscholars.network. Rachel Carson. Silent Spring. Mariner Books, 1962. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.cabrillo.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx? direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,cpid&custid=cabcol&db=nlebk&AN=1870398&site=ehost-live&scope=site.