I would wonder why I had not been told this before. Carson also describes how DDT could contaminate the entire world food supply. She talks about how when animals or even humans ate something contaminated by DDT, it got into their fatty tissue and had the potential to cause cancer and genetic damage. Reading this book, I would be outraged that those that I trusted to make the right decisions, hadn't bothered to truly explore DDT's harmful effect or to let me know that every time I ate something I could be exposing myself or my family to cancer or birth defects. Most importantly, I would have learned that blind faith is never a good thing. Leaders and scientists are human and can make mistakes. This book would have reminded me that not only does our government give us the ability to question the decisions made by our leaders, but it also gives us the responsibility to do that. .
In Silent Springs, Carson also outlines how DDT's harmful effects could lead to the destruction of entire species, and this could in turn imbalance the environment as a whole. This would have also greatly disturbed me. In the 1960's, people probably took our environment for granted. They probably imagined that the resources of the earth were countless and that we were entitled to take as much as we could without any regards to the future. This book would have made me realize how wrong that way of thinking is. The death of one species could seriously affect the survival of other species. This book emphasizes how we are all connected. It's not everyone out for themselves. We depend on each other for our survival. I would have realized that if we don't protect the environment, no one will. And that without the environment, we can't survive. Even if we could, I would have realized that it is our responsibility to protect the environment for our children and future generations. This book shows how we were doing the opposite.
