When wilted roses bloom
I was into my final year at college when I stumbled upon this interesting book with an even more interesting cover picture of a wilted and dried rose. My romantic soul assumed it to be a tragic novel on couples parting their ways, but it was a stunning revelation on how pesticides & herbicides which were seen as a marvel back in the 1960s had later turned out to be a disaster to humans and the environment around.
Rachel Carson, the author of that wonderful book “The Silent Spring” was suffering from breast cancer while writing it. She is famous for kindling the environmental movement through her pioneering work. She received many threats from chemical industry managers who tried to prevent Silent Spring from getting published. Silent Spring is mainly about the harmful effects of pesticides and herbicides(‘biocides’ as she calls them), like DDT, Dieldrin, Aldrin. She explains to us how the chemicals fail at their intended purpose: humans are helplessly caught in this never-ending cycle where the quantity of insecticides sprayed would never be enough as the insects that escape the effect of insecticide develop immunity to that particular chemical through natural selection and survival of the fittest (Charles Darwin’s theory) their offsprings too would in all probability be immune to it. She also questions the accepted notion of regarding the human race as ‘civilised’ when all they want is to kill other living beings and disturb nature. Rachel Carson educates us as to how much effect the chemicals have on the health of humans (this was in the 1960s, mind you!) and goes on to explain that these chemicals have even permeated into human breast milk. We, through our immature and unscientific behaviour, have put our future generations too in danger. Though the killing of insects and the destruction of weeds are necessary for forestry and agriculture, the methodology adopted by us for doing it has proved to be more disastrous. Carson stresses the necessity of going in for natural ways of destroying these in her classic book through this famous quote.
‘Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation’
The effect that this book had on readers was profound and extended. It created an awareness among the consumers too and an appreciable fallout was the demand to know the ingredients of the product they purchased.
I, after reading it, started looking into the ingredients of and everything I bought. I was shocked to find out that a lot of companies add chemicals that are so commonly added in pesticides too. Our shampoos, conditioners, oils and moisturizers all contain such hazardous ingredients. The bottle would claim that it is “100% coconut oil” but when you flip the side and look at the label you could be surprised to read that it contained “99% mineral oil and 1% coconut oil”. These cosmetics pollute our rivers and environment too when they flow out with the water from our bathrooms. Thus it is imperative that we need to be a “woke” consumer and realize what is being sold to us in the name of “safe chemicals”. We have to be aware that we ourselves are digging the grave of this beautiful planet of ours through such misinformed and irresponsible behaviour.
A great and concerted effort by the human race alone would see the wilted roses in this beautiful garden start to bloom again.
