1. Interpretation of nature's value to humankind
2. Visualization of the ecological relations among living things, or web of life
3. Reconcile the picture of reality (biocides) with the words (pest control) or allegedly "safe" forms of insecticides.
4. What Carson was saying:
"To have risked so much in our efforts to mold nature to our satisfaction and yet have failed in achieving our goal would indeed be the final irony....The truth is,... that nature is not so easily molded and that the insects are finding ways to circumvent our chemical attacks on them." (245)
"We stand now where two roads diverge.... Our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of our earth." (276)
"The 'control of nature' is a phrase conceived in arrogance,... when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man.... It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the earth." (297)
5. How Silent Spring is significant for us:
A. historically -- ecological revolt 1949-1969B. scientifically -- Darwin's natural selection
C. personally -- we are nature hiding from ourselves
6. Reconciliation of competing values:
A. the middle landscape is unravelling
B. the organic revolt (1850-1900) as a parallel
C. Conservation needs to be ecologically redefined
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