What more twisted image could there be than graves sprayed to death with herbicides? In the name of ‘tidying up', we are poisoning the next generation of humans as well as committing ecocide against a multitude of microorganisms that sustain all life.
Today is the birthday of Rachel Carson (27 May 1907 - 14 April 1964), marine biologist and author of Silent Spring (1962), the groundbreaking book that blew the lid on the toxicity of pesticides in post-war America. Silent Spring didn’t only document the bio-chemical mechanisms of pesticide-related human and non-human poisoning and environmental devastation. It presented a terrifying warning for the future. But after nearly 60 years of inaction, it’s a warning we have failed to heed.
We must act now to phase out herbicides and insecticides. Join us. Sign our petition. Make our city, our streets, our schools pesticide-free.
Photo is of a graveyard in Worcester, sent to us by fellow campaigners there whose permission to share here we gratefully acknowledge. The added quote is from Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. If you haven't read it yet, please do so:
Carson, R. 1962. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (PDF version downloadable from Internet Archive here).
Ecological public health theorists have only recently engaged with Rachel Carson’s pioneering arguments regarding the devastating human and environmental health impacts of synthetic #insecticides, as industry’s quest for profit widens further the dislocation between the human and 'natural' worlds. We need to give serious thought as to why it has taken over 60 years for Carson’s views to be taken on board by mainstream science, so that the remaining obstacles towards effecting remedial action might finally be tackled.
For more on Rachel Carson and her crucial importance for environmental activism today, and for further reading on the topic, see here on our main website.
To comment on this post, please do so on our Facebook page.
[JS & BG @ PFC]