I spent the first half of International Women's Day horrified that not only did my students know nothing of women ecologists, which I had expected, but they also knew nothing of Rachel Carson (or
Silent Spring, or DDT, or the EPA or Richard Nixon). I spent the second half of the day sheepishly confessing that I had never read
Silent Spring to several colleagues who sheepishly admitted the same.
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| March 7 |
We're going to change that. Let me know if you want to be part of the
Silent Spring read-along. I have two "in real life" colleagues allegedly joining me, and we'd love to have you as well. The format will be loose, but I'll be hosting discussions here, and welcoming anyone else who'd like to join. Comment on how you'd like to participate.
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| March 8 |
Meanwhile, with a few set-backs (Spring Break is
always cold.), spring is well on its way here. The two foot peach tree is finishing its glorious run (see photos). We've been harvesting asparagus, the lilacs are fragrant and wonderful, the fabulous scent of the golden/clove/buffalo currants is wafting in through the open window and the tulips popped up out of nowhere and bloomed yesterday (March 21). Mockingbirds are fighting over territory and some trees have leaves that didn't have them yesterday.
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| Match 9 |
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| March 10 |
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| March 12 |
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| March 15 |
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| March 16 |
Posts
3 comments:
I'd be interested!
Sheepishly I have never read it either! If anyone comes across the French version Printemps silencieux that can be ordered in the US or cheaply from overseas please let me know. I would like to give some to my Haitian ecology students. Or maybe the ocean ones would be better? I guess I should read them all and decide!
I'm glad you're doing this. Count me in! I'm rereading. I teach college literature and writing (among other things), including environmental literature. I use this quote from Silent Spring in my freshman comp. course re: paragraph development:
"Soon after the spraying had ended there were unmistakable signs that all was not well. Within two days dead and dying fish, including many young salmon, were found along the banks of the stream. Brook trout also appeared among the dead fish, and along the roads and in the woods birds were dying. All the life of the stream was stilled. Before the spraying there had been a rich assortment of the water life that forms the food of salmon and trout — caddis fly larvae, living in loosely fitting protective cases of leaves, stems or gravel cemented together with saliva, stonefly nymphs clinging to rocks in the swirling currents, and the wormlike larvae of blackflies edging the stones under riffles or where the stream spills over steeply slanting rocks. But now the stream insects were dead, killed by DDT, and there was nothing for a young salmon to eat."
Here's what it looked like here in NH on March 15 (and there's sloppy snow in the forecast for tomorrow): https://twitter.com/lapaupiere/status/842185239833280512
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