2021年10月 / 马哥(Marlin)整理
10. Indiscriminately from the Skies / 毫无区别地从天空降下
(部分节选 - 可能不完整)
The public has long since forgotten the days when chemicals were poisons; they have come to be regarded as the means of salvation from the problems of pest control. It is a curious fact that even in the face of the most serious warnings against the indiscriminate use of pesticides, the public seems to have developed an almost complete tolerance for these chemicals, which are now being showered down from the skies like rain.
The gypsy moth, which was accidentally released in 1869, spread throughout New England via wind and shipping. By 1957, despite the fact that thirteen imported parasites and predators had successfully halted its spread further, the Agriculture Department still called for widespread spraying with the goal of 'eradication.' As a result, 3 million acres of forests, farmland, and suburban lawns were being sprayed, despite an abundance of public complaints.
Aerial spraying of pesticides has very rapidly become common practice, and is largely unquestioned and indiscriminate. However, recent, disastrous campaigns - against the gypsy moth in the northeast and the fire ant in the south – have caused some understandable public misgivings about such programs.
Released accidentally in 1869, the gypsy moth spread throughout New England via wind and shipping. The Adirondacks and thirteen imported parasites and predators had successfully halted its spread further, but the Agriculture Department still called for widespread spraying with the goal of ‘eradication.’ By 1957, 3 million acres of forests, farmland, and suburban lawns were being sprayed despite an abundance of public complaints.
Yet again, Carson offers us a case of pest control in which natural methods had showed substantial success even before the decision to use pesticides. She mocks the attempt at ‘eradication,’ which is an unattainable and undesirable goal, from her point of view. There is no reason that a pest must be completely exterminated; it can be controlled by natural means.
Robert Cushman Murphy, a notable ornithologist, led a campaign against the spraying, seeking a court injunction. The movement was unsuccessful, but Justice Douglas wrote a dissenting opinion in support of their claims. After the spraying, on the Waller farm in Westchester, New York, although officials had assured the property owner that her holdings would not be sprayed, milk samples taken from cows on her farm showed DDT contamination. There is a lack of consumer protection from such polluted milk.
Carson uses polluted milk as a symbol of the dangers of contamination to man, and particularly to children. She documents the work of Cushman and Justice Douglas’ response in order to give readers the sense that there is a movement, which they might join, that already opposes the seemingly unchangeable world of the pesticide industry.
Paid by the gallon sprayed rather than by the acre covered, pilots hired to perform the spraying did so indiscriminately, with no regard for what was beneath them. As a result, unintended casualties on the ground were hard to avoid. Hundreds of bee colonies died and crops suffered without these vital pollinators. Overall, the program was disastrous, and was curtailed in following years. In a pattern that mirrors what we have seen before, the targeted gypsy moth reappeared in the area despite renewed spraying.
Similarly, the campaign against the fire ant in the South also resulted in disaster. Despite protests against the use of chemicals to spray the fire ants, the program went forward, resulting in the loss of wildlife, poultry, livestock, and pets.
Carson argues that consumers are not properly informed or protected by government regulating agencies, and alternative means of pest control are not pursued. Worse yet, in some cases government agencies have failed to recognize risks already known and published in scientific literature. Furthermore, she argues that large-scale chemical spraying fails to eradicate the targeted pests.