The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so only when in full possession of the facts. […] We still talk in terms of conquest. We still haven’t become mature enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of a vast and incredible universe. Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.
DDT, so safe you can eat it (1947): This is clipped from the record of the 1946 campaign to check an epidemic of malaria in the Kipsigis tribal reserve in the Kisumu district of north-west Kenya by spraying village huts with DDT. A team of public health workers are sent into the rural areas to convince villagers that spraying their huts with DDT will help stop the disease. When the skeptical tribal headman, Arap Kipkoi, resists DDT as poisonous, the British officer has DDT sprayed on a bowl of porridge and then eats a mouthful to prove DDT is not dangerous to humans. DDT is not very acutely toxic, so this misleading demonstration was possible. But the hazards from DDT are long term and it is certainly not “safe”. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is a potent insecticide that was used worldwide for agricultural and public health purposes from the 1940s until the 1970s, when concern about its toxic effects on wildlife and humans, its environmental persistence, and its concentration in the food supply led to restrictions and prohibitions on its use. DDT was identified as a potent insecticide in 1939 and was heavily used during World War II. After the war, DDT became the global insecticide of choice in households, for agriculture, and for public health vector-control projects. In 1962, Rachel Carson, in Silent Spring, noted that DDT bioaccumulates and biomagnifies up the food chain and raised concerns that the pesticide may have long-lasting effects on wildlife and on humans.
The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so only when in full possession of the facts. […] We still talk in terms of conquest. We still haven’t become mature enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of a vast and incredible universe. Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.
Currently Reading: Silent Spring
Rarely does a single book alter the course of history, but Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring did exactly that. The outcry that followed its publication in 1962 forced the government to ban DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement. It is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century. “Silent Spring became a runaway bestseller, with international reverberations… [It is] well crafted, fearless and succinct… Even if she had not inspired a generation of activists, Carson would prevail as one of the greatest nature writers in American letters” (Peter Matthiessen, for Time’s 100 Most Influential People of the Century).
Hello. I'm Kevin. I'm French and I currently live in Montreal where I study Business and Environmental Science at Concordia University. You'll find here some of the things that I read and find interesting. 
