Chapter 1
Rachel describes a town in the United States where all livings things lived in harmony. However, something started happening in the town that began killing the living things. People noticed a fine, white dust that came from the people themselves (pollution).
Chapter 2
People have caused the change of having vegetation and animals influence the environment through contaminating the environment with chemicals. She talked a lot about using dangerous pesticides to kill a small number of pests. She also talked about how people who have control over these chemicals don’t know much about them.
Chapter 3
She basically stated that every person on earth is contaminated with dangerous chemicals to one degree or another. She talked about specific chemicals including chlorinated hydrocarbons, organic phosphates, and herbicides. She listed the chemicals under each group’s history and damage that they cause.
Chapter 4
The main topic of this chapter is bodies of water and how they are contaminated. She talked a lot about how pesticides contaminate water. She also gives the example of Clear Lake and how that taught many important lessons about pollution and water.
Chapter 5
Rachel talks about how soil is created from life (bacteria, fungi, mites, insects) and nonlife (granite, volcanic activity), and she talks about how it is important for plants and many animals to survive. She talks about the many organisms that live in the soil and how insecticides upset the delicate balance of organisms in the soil.
Chapter 6
This chapter focuses on how without plants humans would not be able to live. She talks about how individuals are trying to destroy sagebrush but states they probably wouldn’t do so if they knew the history of the plant. Herbicides and many other chemicals destroy plants that are not meant to be killed, and she lists the alternatives to using these chemicals.
Chapter 7
Insecticides are killing all forms of life on a massive scale. The use of Aldrin was discussed and how it was used because it was cheap and to kill the Japanese beetle. She gave other examples to support needless havoc.
Chapter 8
This chapter focuses on birds and how they are disappearing around the United States. A lot of the deaths are due to insecticides that are used to kill insects that the birds eat. She gives examples of documentation to support this claim.
Chapter 9
She begins with talking about how the Canadian government sprayed DDT to kill the budworm and how that caused many salmon to die. Northwest Miramichi salmon survived only because the massive spraying was done only once. She states no one knows the long-term effects of insecticide poisoning of estuaries, salt marshes, bays and other coastal waters and gives other example of how rivers and being polluted.
Chapter 10
She talks about two massive aerial campaigns that are largely responsible for changing the attitude of most people to now feel comfortable handling poisons. These campaigns include the gypsy moth in the northeastern states and the campaign against the fire ant in the southern states.
Chapter 11
Most pollution is not from massive spraying of chemicals but from spraying of small doses by individuals. Rachel talks about how the US government encourages the use of insecticides at home and does not inform about the dangers of these chemicals. She also talks about how gardening has become highly toxic.
Chapter 12
A drastic change has occurred in public health, from worrying about infectious diseases to worrying about the hazards of chemical poisoning. The problem is not large exposure but continuous small exposures. She gives the example of Dieldrin being used on lawns and how people aren’t aware of its effects on humans.
Chapter 13
It is stated that one must look at the cells of the body in order to determine the effects of chemicals on humans and animals. She gives an overview of how mitochondria work in living animals. She also talks about things that can go wrong like uncoupling and enzymes being destroyed.
Chapter 14
A discussion on how cancer has always been a problem with living things and a brief history of how people began to realize that cancer was caused by many types of pollution and exposure to chemicals. She talks about the dramatic increase in cases of cancer over the years.
Chapter 15
When people interfere with nature’s process of control, they upset the balance of nature. When people try to exterminate a specific animal, other pests may rise in population. She also stated that the balance of nature is always changing and most people don’t realize this.
Chapter 16
Over the years, insects have shown Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory to be true through becoming resistant to certain chemicals. Public health should be alarmed because certain diseases and insects are interlinked.
Chapter 17
Two answers to the problems of insect control are given. That chemical poisonings are expensive, ineffective, and dangerous and that biological controls have been proven to be cheap, effective and safe for everything. She talks about biological controls such as sterilization of insects are effective.
