The Obligation To Endure

"Along with the possibility of the extinction of mankind by nuclear war, the central problem of our age has therefore become the contamination of man’s total environment with such substances of incredible potential for harm—substances that accumulate in the tissues of plants and animals and even penetrate the germ cells to shatter or alter the very material of heredity upon which the shape of the future depends." 

Ever since the Industrial Revolution we have be poised with a problem of harming nature regardless of how we do it. We use chemicals that seep into plants which then are consumed by the animals that we consume. It's always been a problem due to us as humans not caring what the following effects of our actions are. As stated in a prior blog we as humans are a dominant force, we pretty much control the way everything shifts whether it be good or bad. We as humans need to start thinking about the effects of our actions, this will lead to better judgement and hopefully we can make better decisions that will preserve the environment rather than diminish it.

"The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamina-tion of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world—the very nature of its life." 

Crazy to think that we are the cause of pollution and that the harm that we've done is really irrecoverable. Pollution has contaminated most of our resources to the point where our resources need to be checked for chemicals. Keep that in mind, our, "Natural Resources", needs to be checked for chemicals before it is given to us. There's a clear sign that something that we are doing is wrong but in the era that we are currently in, it's already too late to even try and change things. We are progressing towards a technological era faster more than ever and before you know it, natural resources will become scarce and obsolete to some. If we don't make a change soon, it may be too late to recover from the devastating after effects of what man has done to nature.


"Among them are many that are used in man’s war against nature. Since the mid-1940’s over 200 basic
chemicals have been created for use in killing insects, weeds, rodents, and other organisms described in the modern vernacular as “pests”; and they are sold under several thousand different brand names. These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes—nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the “good” and the “bad,” to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to linger on in soil—all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects. Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called “insecticides,” but “biocides.” " 

Not to say that this is a good or bad thing, because there are some organisms that are very harmful for the food that we consume. The production of these chemicals are good for keeping harmful organisms away from our food but yet again what about the lasting effect of the chemicals. Yes, the harmful organisms are gone but now we deal with various chemicals in the environment that are harmful to the other organisms that are living in the same environments. Agreeing with the author, there's no way that it is possible to lay a barrage of poisons in the environment without thinking it wouldn't effect the rest of the environment. Also agreeing with the author that these chemicals should not be called insecticides but biocides due to their destruction of not only the insects but life itself as a whole.