The use of agrochemicals in the USA has increased tremendously in the recent past. The action has led to the rise of various movements and campaigns that are aimed at sensitizing people on the pros and cons accrued to the use of agricultural chemicals. The silent spring is one of the Carson’s main publications that lengthily described the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment. The use of DDT was by far criticized in her works owing to the lethal environmental impacts that were associated with it use. The publication facilitated the launch and rise of environmental movement not only in the USA but also in the entire world. The Environmental Movement in the USA was created to push for environmental protection policies against various harmful aspects. The aspects include the depletion of the Ozone layer, acid rain, high residual effects of farm chemicals and global warming among other factors.

The burning of fossil fuels in the 21st century has profound effects on both the health of citizens and the environment. The government should come in and rescue the situation before it goes too far. To uphold better healthy living of her people, better policies ought to be adopted and implemented by the government to counteract the overwhelming impacts of the fossil fuels. The provision of alternative sources of power with minimal health and environmental impacts is the only ultimate remedy to the problem.

The paper will examine the impacts of the ‘Silent Spring’ on both humans and the environment. The current, as well as future impacts of the publication, will be explored at length. Further on, the paper will examine the hazardous impacts of the DDT chemical on both the health and the environment in which we live. The use of alternative sources of energy to counteract the hazardous impacts of fossil fuels will be examined in the essay too. The provision of appropriate and efficient measures to curb and reduce the impacts of fossil fuels on health and environment ought to be initiated. Upholding such provisions will help to sufficiently curb the associated antics.

Impacts of Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ in Future

In her book, Carson says, “No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of the new world” (Carson 3). This was meant to emphasize the fact that people were the sole causes of the problems that they faced. The publication has since laid the basis for the enactment of the various environmental legislations and principles. The publication has too initiated the regulation and the development of safer pesticides and other agrochemicals in the USA.

The ideas on the ‘Silent Spring’ are highly compatible with the features of the integrated pest management theory (Epstein 380). Integrated pest management entails the adoption of various pest control measures while reducing the amount of risk that may arise in the environment and human beings. Before any IPM program is implemented, a thorough analysis of the appropriate control method and the probable risks to human or environment is done. (“Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Principles| Fact Sheets | About Pesticides | Pesticides | US EPA”). The action facilitates the reduction of the environmental and human hazards as far as the appropriate legislation guidelines are honoured. Integrated pest management has various principles that are aimed at controlling the pest at the most advantageous or economic stages of their development while upholding minimal environmental, human and property damage. The use of these principles, guidelines and legislations will lead to low or minimal impacts of the agrochemicals on the environment and human health. Since these legislations have their roots from the Carson’s publication, continuous amendments will ensure reduced cases of health and environmental hazards through the use of agrochemicals.

Embarking on the previous political support and decisions, the future control of the health and environmental hazards will be upheld. The adherence to the Carson’s recommendations on the use of pesticides would create better societies in future that would have minimal health and environmental hazards. The various decisions and restrictions on the use of harmful agrochemicals will be upheld in coming days hence curbing the menace. Through the guidelines, the development and production of safer and efficient agrochemicals will be extended in the future. In her work, the ‘fable for tomorrow’ she describes how a certain town would have changed drastically as a result of using DDT hence affecting all the previous norms. She claims that the people had brought the change themselves and that no witchcraft or enemy action was responsible for the change (Carson 3).

In the USA, the ban on the use of DDT was initiated and facilitated by the works of Rachel Carson in her ‘Silent Spring’ publications and Environmental Movement (Jarman and Ballschmiter 135). DDT has overwhelming effects on the environment. The organic character of DDT enables it to be easily absorbed into the soil thereby exposing the terrestrial organisms to various hazardous effects. The higher rates of deaths in birds were evident after the rains. The trend was associated with the fact that these birds drank water from the cultivated fields that had been sprayed with DDT (Dunlap 66). The longer residual effect of the pesticide will increase its hazardous effects too. It is through runoff and otherforms of degradation that the DDT compounds are deposited in the aquatic ecosystems. Chemicals from the pesticide are absorbed by the marine life where it accumulates to higher volumes. The chemicalsenter the food chain and are highly concentrated in the bodies of the apex organisms such as predatory birds (Connell et al. 68). The result of these events is the further incorporation of the chemicalcompounds in the food web, and all the organisms involved.

The wildlife and other organisms are not spared by the pesticide too. Exposure of the egg-laying wildlife animals to the compounds of DDT has led to increased cases of eggshell thinning thereby reducing thechances of hatchability and subsequently low reproduction levels (Vos et al. 80) Low reproduction levels by these organisms will have a wide range of negative spill-over effects. For instance, there will be the extinction of some organisms thereby affecting their role and contributions in the food chain and the ecosystem as a whole. Additionally, wildlife related activities such as tourism will be affected greatly.

The Use and Impacts of Fossil Fuels                                                    

The use of fossil fuels has been on the rise in the recent past. The use of these fuels has led to higher levels of emissions in the atmosphere hence adverse effects to the living organisms and the environment in general.Environmentalists and other health activists have made significant steps in pushing for alternative sustainable energy sources to reduce the impacts and other vices that are associated with the use of fossil fuels. In the United States of America, about 90% of the greenhouse gases come from the combustion and the use of fossil fuels (EPA 54). The burning of fossil fuels causes a high concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Industrial production processes are known to increase the levels of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. For instance, the agricultural production processes of pesticides and fertilizers require fossil fuel hence the release of greenhouse emissions (Malcolm 410).These greenhouse gases include; carbon dioxide, methane, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and ozone.These gases have overwhelming impacts on the environment and its various components.

The high concentration of greenhouse gases leads to global warming and climate change (Wang 498). The release of stored energy from fossil fuels in the atmosphere is the sole cause of climate change. Both climate change and global warming have adverse effects on various environmental and climatic aspects. For instance, the reduction of polar ice caps, the rise in temperatures and flooding in low altitude areas are all attributes of global warming(“Disadvantages Of Fossil Fuels”). Additionally, it leads to the rise in sea levels. Of the effects that emanate from coal burning is contamination of mercury, acidification of rain, causes erosion, destruction of wild animals, pollution of the Ozone layer and production of carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change (Casper124). Another global warming effect is the extraction of crude oil that has also been a big threat to the climate. Products like gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and plastics causes irreversible consequences of global warming. Other major negative impacts of oil exploration are oil spills, ecological damage, atmospheric pollution and also hazardous to human health. Oil spills may also come from tankers that transport it on the land. Animals and other organisms in the marine ecosystem are adversely affected by these spills. their exposure to oil leads to their death. of sunlight in the sea hence a great challenge to the aquatic plants and animals. Additionally, oil enters the plumage ofbirds thereby reducing their flying capabilities or causing death through poisoning (Day 503). The use of coal as a fossil fuel has posed a great threat to both the environment and human health. The mining of coal leads to the destruction of landscapes and habitats by the use of heavy machinery for mining. Additionally, loss of vegetation cover and increased levels of erosion may be experienced. The two impacts have negative impacts on the organisms that are present in the ecosystem. The underground mining of coal releases huge volumes of methane gas into the atmosphere. Additionally, coal fires release the greenhouse gases too. The dust from coal mines causes increased cases of lung and cardiovascular ailments such as kidney diseases, black lung disease and hypertension among others. The huge amount of rock and earth are exposed on the surface of the earth thereby releasing harmful metal components such as mercury and arsenic. The mining of coal further causes the contamination of ground water by acidification of rain and underground seepage.

About a quarter of the energy used in the USA comes from natural gas. The gas is combined with small quantities of hydrocarbons which are released in the atmosphere. The use of natural gas has led to increasing cases of franking which causes higher levels of water contamination and hence increased rates of human diseases(Tiwary 193). The use of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal should be restricted and instead the use of alternative renewable energy initiated.

Alternative Energy and Government Intervention

The use of biofuels will lead to low carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere thereby mitigating climate change (Powlson 196). The use of biofuels is seen as one of the significant approaches that can be adopted to avert the effects of fossil fuels on the ecosystem.The human and environmentaleffects of the fossil fuels ought to be evaluated before a decision is reached on which alternative energy to adopt. Therefore, the adoption of a soundlow levels of environmental pollution.

The presence of harmful chemical compounds in the food substances will have adverse effects on the reproductive and developmental aspects of human beings (Sutton 893). The use of alternative sources of energy such as water, wind and tidal power should be upheld since they have minimal impacts on the environment (Smith et al. 2). The use of nuclear power and energy can be initiated as an alternative source of energy too. The use of these energy sources will drastically reduce the harmful effects of fossil fuels on human and environment.

The federal government of USA has embarked on a series of legislations and to reduce the amount of emissions from fossil fuels. The need to reduce the impacts of fossil fuels in the USA led to the creation of Government Policy Impacts on Fossil Fuels Consumption.In the year 2013, several factors led to a rigorous impact on the consumption of fossil fuels in the USA. The factors include a great change from the use of coal to natural gas and the reduction of use of the latter due to increased consumption of wind and solar powers. There exist various policies that have facilitated the use of renewable sources of power in order to reduce the impacts of fossil fuels in the US. For instance, the efforts by Federal Renewable Energy ‘Production Tax Credit ‘(PTC) and the Renewable Portfolio Standards(RPS)has led to the increased levels of wind and solar power consumption by 20% and 37% respectively (“Fossil Fuels and Consumption Growth | The Energy Collective”). The policies have led to a 5% increase in the use of geothermal power consumption in 2013. Other efforts by the federal government to reduce overdependence on fossil fuels are signified by the continued production of light-duty vehicle fuels and increased solar power installations at homes. The blending of biofuels in petroleum has been initiated through the policies of the Federal Renewable Fuel Standard. Efforts to reduce thelevels of mercury and other toxic substances that come about as a result of coal mining should be initiated. For instance, the implementation of the newly formed Mercury and Air Toxic Standards by the U.S EPA helps to reduce stack emissions from coal power plants. (“Fossil Fuels and Consumption Growth | The Energy Collective”). Regulationsshould also be initiated by the EPA to reduce cases of water discharges and carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Conclusion

The Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ was a vital publication to the traditional, current and future societies. All societies that face environmental setbacks ought to refer to the works of Carson in order to avert the associated harmful effects. Through Carson’s work, the Environmental Movement was born in the USA. The two played a great role in pushing for legislations that would further reduce the impacts of DDT and other agrochemicals in the States. The ability of the future societies to embark and push for amendments on these legislations will prompta sound society devoid of any health and environmental challenges. The ability of the future societies to adhere to the various recommendations that Carson gave to the then authorities will help them to uphold environmental sustainability. The use of fossil fuels has been on the increase in the USA. Fossil fuels such as petroleum, natural gas and coal have adverseimpacts on the environment and human health. The extraction and use of these fuels triggers their pollution potential.The extraction of natural gas releases huge volumes of methane gas and other hydrocarbons in the atmosphere. The extraction of coal causes a lot of damage to the landscape thereby acting as a challenge to the transport and communication networks of the place. The extraction also releases harmful gases and metal fragments on the earth surface thereby posing a huge health hazard to the inhabitants of the place.Through oil and petroleum exploration activities, hydrocarbons are released into the atmosphere hence increased cases of global warming. Global warming has negative spill-over effects such as desertification, flooding of coastal towns and melting of polar ice caps. Oil spills adversely affect the marine creatures by limiting the penetration of oxygen and sunlight. The burning and use of fossil fuels ailments. The use of biofuels and other alternative sources of energy will be paramount in counteracting the negative effects of fossil fuels.The use of hydro, tidal, wind and nuclear energies will help to overcome all the negative antics associated with the use of fossil fuels. The adoption of better policies by relevant authorities will be a vital step in counteracting the effects of fossil fuels, pesticides and other harmful agrochemicals on human health and the environment. Reduced levels of such effects will increase the sustainability and productivity of the environment and humans respectively.

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