Earth Days Page #3

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incredibly destructive thing.

And then, of course, there was

the light side of the shadow.

You know, there was this idea

that was out there

that the atom was going to be

the salvation of humanity.

This was the first generation

that had acquired

the power

of a geophysical force

that could cause brand-new

radioactive substances

to be disseminated

throughout the entire planet.

That could drive, not just a few

species as we'd always done,

but now literally thousands

of species into extinction.

That could change the climate.

We've been on this planet

for several hundred thousands

of years,

and during most of that time,

anybody who looked far

into the future

didn't have much survival value.

I mean, if you're

in the midst of a battle

with a mammoth or something,

you don't sit there and say,

"Well, let's think

about three years from now."

You-You run.

And so,

for a long period of time,

the advantage went to those

who focused

on the immediate situation.

And I think,

as a consequence of that,

now that we are faced

with issues

which will really unfold

over centuries,

we're genetically

and institutionally

ill-adapted for it.

The concept

that the planet is very fragile

really came out

of Rachel Carson's book.

Silent Spring sounded the alarm

that we were destroying

the life support system

of the planet.

The book was a sensation.

It was printed

in over 30 languages.

Rachel Carson

has to get the main credit

for the modern

environmental movement

because she was the first one

to point out one of the really

serious environmental problems

that was the overuse

of pesticides.

It was the right moment,

the right book

and the right personality.

Although the pesticide industry

tried to demonize her,

Rachel Carson

didn't demonize easily.

Unless we do bring these

chemicals under better control,

we are certainly headed

for disaster.

The balance of nature is built

of a series

of interrelationships

between living things,

and between living things

and their environment.

You can't just step in

with some brute force

and change one thing

without changing many others.

Now this doesn't mean,

of course,

that we must never interfere,

that we must not attempt

to tilt that balance of nature

in our favor,

but when we do make

this attempt,

we must know what we're doing.

We must know the consequences.

There was an ugly backlash

after the book came out.

The chemical industries were

calling her a hysterical woman

that didn't know

what she was talking about.

The major claims

in Ms. Rachel Carson's book

Silent Spring

are gross distortions

of the actual facts,

completely unsupported

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