In her book Silent Spring Rachel Carson talks about how the use of pesticides was a method farmer used to deal with insects who damaged their crops however its usage had far reaching and damaging consequences for nature. In the beginning of the book Carson describes a scenic rural town a farming community rich in flora and fauna which then started using pesticides as an alternative means of increasing crop yields in an efficient way what follows is an elaboration which tells of how this idyllic area slowly starts dying, with animals disappearing and with people growing sick (Carson 1994). Through the example cited in the book we can see a link between pesticide use and a subsequent backlash effect from the environment which slowly starts to die and in the end becomes unable to support its inhabitants and actually harms them in the end. This example is a before and after microcosm of the agricultural situation in the world today which continues to use pesticides as a means of insect reduction. Due to its unmitigated use in the past and its current use in the present artificial pesticides have caused unimaginable changes to the environment which may not be apparent now but will soon be in the future if their continued usage isnt circumvented. The purpose of this paper is to show the destructive path that pesticide usage has caused, the specific pesticide which has caused the most harm and the lasting effects pesticide usage would have on humanity and the environment.
The use of pesticides has caused near irreversible damage to the balance of nature due to its sheer potency and that it is easily absorbed into the local environment going beyond what it was originally meant to do(Duke 2010). Initially pesticides were meant to target only the pests that ate and damaged crops however its continued use gradually seeped into the very land itself(. Normal insects as a result of the nondiscriminatory nature of the pesticide used die along with the pests that were targeted(Pesticide New 1998). When affected insects die they are subsequently eaten by birds resulting in cases wherein they started convulsing and dying by the hundreds since their biological systems couldnt cope with the chemicals that were meant to kill insects however were just as good at killing birds as well (Cox 1991). In areas where this occurred the avian population plummeted. The resulting effect on the environment in these cases was that with no birds to eat them and with insects growing more resistant to the pesticides used farmers found themselves besieged with even more pests which caused them to use even more pesticides which made the problem even worse.
A problem with the overuse of pesticides is that it can build up in the soil and slowly start seeping into the ground water which would then result in it being carried through rivers and streams and then finally reaching lakes where it can contaminate the surrounding waters, poisoning fish and other organisms indiscriminately(Banerje 1996). Another verified problem would is the very source of the pesticides, the farms themselves. Since pesticides have a tendency of being easily absorbed into the ground water they can also be absorbed into the very crops they were meant to protect the result was that the crops absorbed the pesticides that the farmers kept on spraying while not exactly killing the plants did imbue them with chemicals not inherent in their original design (Kazerouni 2000). The crops when fully grown are processed, packed and then sent off to be repacked and sold in groceries after which they are consumed by the masses. The end result of this process is a society eating poisoned grain and not even being aware of it (Department of Health and Human Services 1994). Chemicals not meant for human consumption do have an effect on the human body and from young to old eating this sort of poisoned food would have adverse effects since chemicals meant for killing insects was never meant to be consumed at all yet this sort of happenstance is happening around the world (Pesticide New 2010). Previous and current studies have been made attempting to show the connection between pesticides and the growing cases of strange allergies that happen, on how ailments seem to be appearing one after the other, how people seem to be getting sicker even though nothing seems to be wrong and worst of all how the consumption of food processed with minute quantities of pesticides might be the cause for certain types of cancer to occur in the human body.
One pesticide in particular can be singled out as a leading cause of environmental destruction,, Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is a organochlorine contact insecticide that kills by acting as a nerve poison(Pesticide News 1998). Due to its effectiveness and relatively cheap and ease of production DDT was extensively used from the onset of its creation and became very popular as a means of insect control not only that but it rarely seemed to kill mammals however by the 1950s, resistance problems from insects had developed, and during the 1960s serious environmental problems were identified leading to wide-ranging restrictions on its usage (Pesticide News 1998). Unfortunately though it was too little too late recently numerous studies on DDT have shown its ability to persist in the environment even after its usage was stopped and its ability to bioaccumulate, especially in higher animals. One particular concern that is troubling is its potential to mimic hormones and thereby disrupt endocrine systems in wildlife and possibly humans (Pesticide New 1998). Though DDT usage has stopped in some countries it is still widely used in others and sometimes used illegally in countries that have supposedly stopped its usage. DDT is just the tip of the iceberg though, different varieties of pesticides are developed on a daily basis and those have not yet passed the scrutiny needed to ensure that they are safe for the environment resulting in a particularly troubling situation wherein the food that is imported from other countries may be laced with chemicals which may harm us should it be allowed to accumulate in our systems(Williams 2009).
For anyone that has ever read about the ancient Roman civilization you may have heard of the term salting the Earth or poisoning the well in cases such as these the area is rendered uninhabitable or unusable by deliberately introducing elements which would make the land unusable. While it may not be the farmers intention to deliberately poison the land prolonged use of pesticides has been known to affect the soil in the long term resulting in it being unable to bear crops any longer. The end result being the very farmers who used the pesticides to save their crops in the short term wind up losing their livelihoods in the long term since they themselves poisoned the land that they are dependent on.
There have been different method advocated to stop the reliance on pesticides one of which was the location of farms. As explained by the first paragraph of this paper the growing need of humanity for more agricultural products to sustain itself is undeniable as a result farms have expanded into areas where farms wouldnt normally be placed resulting in an interaction with an environment that is not used to this intrusion. The result being relatively unheard of pests all of a sudden besieging crops. To stop the pests the farmers used pesticides which resulted in the situation that we find ourselves in now. If the over expansion of farms were limited then farmers wouldnt have to interact with more insects than they have to. Unfortunately with a rising demand for their product the solution to this particular problem lies more with the degree of demand from the consumer. Another method is said to be the use of crop rotation, by shifting the types of crops used in field farmers say it actually works since it breaks an insects habit on relying on a particular food source which would then disrupt its ability to breed properly.
In conclusion the use of artificial pesticides is definitely harmful to the environment and if we advocate its current use we will wind up with poisoned fields and a society that is eating poisoned food. If there is to be true change better methods of food production must be created to ensure that when we grow our food we wont be digging our graves in the process.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment