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Maybe paid too much attention in that "elective" class Environmental Science in college but this book should have been taken seriously since its publication: ht
by desktopninja 5y ago
Maybe paid too much attention in that "elective" class Environmental Science in college but this book should have been taken seriously since its publication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring
- colechristensen 5y agoSilent Spring is emotionally manipulative hyperbole which does harm to reasonable progress because it was among to introduce the catastrophizing of environmental issues which creates zealots and anti-zealots instead of a narrative dominated by pragmatic improvement and optimization.
- carapace 5y agoIn context (and hindsight) it was the necessary "emotionally manipulative hyperbole" to kick off the whole shebang, eh?
- colechristensen 5y agoI don’t know about “necessarily”, going back and imagining history happening differently isn’t always a fruitful activity. There were certainly people interested in preserving high quality environments and concerned with degradation before the more extreme and hyperbole laden “environmental movement” One can only guess how things would have evolved differently, but people did have successes before the exaggeration became common, and overreaction and political splits to extreme views is currently a significant obstacle to progress. When you exaggerate, you create opposition who do too.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y agoAhem. Create opposition? By whom? Big multinationals which have budgets for PR greenwashing everything? And lawyers to mute dissent? Which has been proven again and again after the fact? When things were already broken? See it as an asymmetric answer in the war of attrition by the commercial killers of the environment.
- hazza_n_dazza 5y agoso much media is emotionally manipulative, it seems to be how humans respond to things. oh well. so lets not discount this book, but rather look at how is could be valid / invalid on other merits.
- colechristensen 5y agoBut that’s all it was, it told a story that needed to be told but did so using fear and exaggeration. I’ve read it.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y agoHave you read it? I did about two decades ago, and while it wasn't entirely my thing, I've read it with systems thinking in mind. Skimming its Wikipedia article to maybe get what you are talking about, because I could have forgotten something in the meantime, I found nothing. In hindsight she's been absolutely right.
- desktopninja 5y agoYes I have and also as long ago. But the overall message did burn into me. That is the environment is scared and we really should take better care of it. Eg. Florida Everglades. In short 'in the name of progress' thought it was a great idea to redirect the water flow even when presented with much scientific data that this would be a bad thing to do. And it proved disastrous. Now the state is still trying to restore it.
- desktopninja 5y agoIn all fairness if one is not emotionally attached to a thing, then it will not be cared for. No amount of scientific data will convince an unemotionally attached person to care. If we operated on rational, a lot of world problems including wildlife and environment would not be an issue. Heck, nations use emotions to start and justify wars. So this may sound negative "emotionally manipulative" but is essential. Why do this? Because damage to the environment takes time. Typically in the decades before the magnitude of the damage is realized. e.g The Butterfly effect.