Rachel Carson The Obligation To Endure Analysis

Summary of “The Obligation to Endure” by Rachel Carson

In “The Obligation to Endure”, Rachel Carson talks about the interaction between humans and their environment. In the past century, the environment is what influenced humans and its surroundings but recently, it is man that has that effect on the environment. Carson states that in recent times, “man acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world” (422). This means that man’s ability to make changes to nature and its environment is great but at the same time, if not carefully done has hazardous consequences towards it. In the past quarter century, Carson explains that man unknowingly seems to harm the environment with chemicals and experiments which damages seems to be irreversible once unleashed. The radioactive isotope Strontium 90 is released when there is a nuclear explosion and the residue falls to the soil and contaminates it which in turn contaminates the water we

It took that long for things to get to the point where they are currently. Carson explains that the sun and certain rocks emit dangerous radiation. Nature somehow finds a way to balance this over time which takes quite a while. In recent times, this process has been sped up by man and his willingness to advance technology by tampering with the atom which creates the co-existence of natural and synthetic chemicals. As a result of the increase in insects that have evolved to become immune to insecticides, 500 new chemicals are created each year. So each time one insecticide becomes outdated, a stronger and more poisonous one is made. Another issue that has brought about an expansion in the insect populace is the worldwide migration of plants and insects. Each year, the United States imports many plants from other countries, so far they have introduced over 200,000 and 90 major insect enemies of U.S plants have come from these introduced