NOISY SPRING I have always had trouble with Rachael Carson's book titled “Silent Spring” from the moment it was published and set up such a noise in the corridors of the publisher's canyons that entire families of ecological echoes were created to augment both what the book said, did not say or over-said.
Rachael Carson reported plainly that which she knew to be true. She refrained from saying some of those things she did not know, but that balance was not maintained when she elucidated on points which may or may not have been true - when she out ran out of factual knowledge.
She jumped to many false conclusions regarding frogs and kindred creatures. She blamed all changes from average frog figures and newt norms bending toward the negative side on DDT, or any other such substance which had qualities which were, a that moment, still unknown or, at least, “not in print” - which could include about every liquid and solid known to Mankind.
In 1990, for instance, in Minnesota, numerous deformed frogs were found in one particular pond. Silent Springers named chemical as the culprit yet studies by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency later showed it was caused by a natural frog parasite - possibly worse in that area due to a larger snail population than usual.
The mountain yellow-legged frog suddenly began to disappear from Sierra Nevada streams. Ecological activists brought suits against growers in California's Central Valley claiming their use of insecticides caused the pollution of the mountain streams. After great economic losses by Central Valley farmers, it was found that the reason the yellow-legged frogs had all but disappeared in the lake was that it had recently been stocked with trout. The trout ate the frogs, and when the fish were removed the yellow-legged frog population came back in abundance. This had no affect on the silent springers, who continued their suits regardless.
Million of dollars of research funds have been expended seeking any evidence that commonly used chemicals have harmed the frog population or that of any of their jumpy relatives. environmentalists have own their own breed of researchers, however, and some of them have now performed test and experiments which prove beyond any doubt- their own, anyway - that a commonly used agricultural chemical does cause sex and physical changes in frogs. One such California herpetologist claims to have found evidence one widely-used herbicide caused such malformations but they have been unable to duplicate his laboratory work- in any - or demonstrations which are being kept secret.
We have remained too silent too long concerning the continued harm being done by idea long departed. Let's make this year's Spring a vocative one! Speak up! We can no longer remain silent. Spring!
A.L.M. April 21, 2005 [c467wds]
