客观评价需要自我认知

【摘要】許多评论家对《寂静的春天》一书及其作者蕾切尔·卡森发表过评论，应当指出，他们的评论受到他们自身利益、地位和职业的影响，过于主观。只有人们意识到并承认他们在破坏环境方面的错误时，才能对这本书作出客观的评价。

【关键词】寂静的春天;蕾切尔·卡森;评论

【作者简介】李如意，清华大学生命科学学院。

In 1962， Rachel Carson published her book Silent Spring after four years of investigating and researching. It depicts the environmental pollution and ecological destruction caused by overusing pesticides and fertilizers， eventually bringing catastrophes to the world， which sounds the alarm for human beings. However， the book has not been understood by everyone and even received some critiques. The root reason of why this book is so controversial is that it has intruded on the interests of chemical engineering industry， as the publish of that book blocked their way of increasing profits. Therefore， subjective comments were made to criticize the book. Only when people admit what they are doing—that is destroying the environment and themselves—will they authentically appreciate and value Silent Springand will they make objective evaluation about it， in spite of their own interests and identities.

Undeniably， Silent Spring is regarded by millions of people as a milestone of arousing peoples awareness of environmental protection. It is beautifully written with vivid descriptions and abundant statistics and analysis. In Chapter 1， Rachel Carson gives us a short story that describes the changes and development of a town， before and after using pesticides and being polluted. The town is depicted so delicately that readers can feel “oak and maple and birth set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered” just in front of their eyes. While in Chapter 3， Rachel Carson carefully introduces a chemical that has been talked about all through the book—DDT. She provides the component of atoms of that chemical and uses statistics and exact numbers to tell the readers its properties， such as how much it can be stored per kilogram of intake. According to Tim Radford， a freelance journalist from United Kingdom， Silent Spring “is brilliantly written： clear， controlled and authoritative， with confident poetical flourish that suddenly illuminate pages of cool exposition”.

But in fact， apart from a number of praises and supports， some negative feedbacks did exist after the book came out and most of them come from chemical engineering industry. Chemical engineering industry earns a lot from producing pesticides and selling them out to famers and other people or companies in the agricultural field. There is statistics showing that over 85 percent of profits derived from pesticides production and profits are likely to increase rapidly year by year. In the book， however， Rachel Carson spares no effort to cast light on the destructive effects of pesticides and calls on people to avoid purchasing them. The book would cause furious unsatisfaction and rage from the operators of chemical engineering industry without doubt.

It was inevitable that many chemical engineering companies protested the publication of the book and criticized the book as well as Rachel Carson herself. As one critique and questioning fell， another rose， which makes the book quite controversial and be always in heated debate.In chapter 12， Rachel Carson points out that humans would pay a heavy price “for the temporary destruction of a few insects” （1962）， and that the price would continue to rise if humans do not stop using pesticides. She stated her opinion in such a tough tone that aroused even more wide-spread indignation in the chemical engineering field at that time. Comments were made according to ones own will. These comments were not objective because they only consider the interests of their own and they aimed to prevent the publication of the book， ignoring its significance on the protection of the environment as well as human beings health. Struggling with great desperation， Rachel Carson died just two years after she finally made the book to the public.

There are quite a few comments and reviews aboutSilent Spring. One of them demonstrates that some people put little emphasis on the meaning of the book and even look upon Rachel Carson because she lacked convincing and scientific evidence for some opinions. DDT is the “elixirs of death” in her point of view and may be no use controlling insect problems. For example， she gives an example in Chapter 16 that in 1951， after six years of DDTs first use， agricultural insects appeared to resist it. As a consequence， the remains of DDT could be consumed by living beings and “passed on from one organism to another through all the links of the food chains”， which would harm the entire ecosystem. However， some scientists， Dr. Gordon Edwards， to name a few， said that the nature of pesticides were not discovered until World War Ⅱ， so Rachel Carson did not have evidence from formal scientific research and conclusions could not be drawn .

Although Silent Spring could have been more precise， the deficiency of the book is not comparable with its prominent writing goal. The main purpose of this book， as Rachel Carson has stressed out in every chapter， is to criticize the misuse and overuse of pesticides and to alarm people， especially scientists to understand that they are actually destroy the world and eventually themselves by using pesticides arbitrarily. In her perspective， poisonous and biologically potent chemicals should be used wisely which means scientists and politicians should grasp its damage to their environment， its spreading process and its final pathway， instead of neglecting their potentials of harm. People will definitely put themselves at fatal risk by consuming food made from polluted agricultural products and the poisonous pesticides in their organs will kill themselves in the very end.

This is a profoundly important book that reminds the readers to pay attention to the environment and to keep a balance between utilizing the sources from it and protecting it. If people can realize their mistakes in ruining the human world， not only will the doubt and controversy of Silent Spring be diminished，butalso people will keep themselves safely away from the lethal pesticides. Objective evaluation can be made about this book on the condition that people are conscious about their behaviors when dealing with pesticides and know the consequences of what they will bring to their living surroundings.

References：

[1]The Lies of Rachel Carson. 21st Century Science & Technology Magazine[J]. 1992， 2019，11，17.

[2]梅雪芹，陳祥，刘宏焘等著.直面危机社会发展与环境保护[M].中国科学技术出版社，2014，01.