Carson says the products used to kill bugs should be called biocides instead of

Why does Rachel Carson begin with There was once a town . . . , as though she were writing a fairy tale? Is this a fairy tale of sorts? How does Carson present the town in paragraphs 1 and 2?

Carson claims in paragraph 12 that [t]he most alarming of . . . assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. Is contamination still the most alarming assault on the environment, or has another problem taken its place? Explain your response.

In paragraph 16, Carson claims that humankind is engaged in a war against nature and describes the targets of that war. Do you agree that targeting certain things for destruction (or at least control) means we are at war with nature? Can we be at war with something that is not our intended target? Explain.

Carson says the products used to kill bugs should be called biocides instead of insecticides (para. 17). Why? What is the difference?

What has changed since Carson wrote Silent Spring? Has the natural environment improved? Has it declined? Since Carsons time, have we become more concerned with the effect we have on nature or less concerned? Explain your response

What does Jean Rostand mean by our obligation to endure (para. 36)? How is our right to know related to this obligation?

Carson says that the public is fed little tranquilizing pills of half truth when it contests the use of pesticides (para. 36). Why is this metaphor effective?

What do you think Carsons purpose was in ending the final paragraph (and the chapter) with someone elses words?

Expressing a view widely held in 1949, Leopold writes of the discontent that labels itself organic farming (para. 40). Do we still see organic farming as a discontent today? Explain.

At the beginning of The Outlook, Leopold characterizes the modern (para. 44). Does that characterization hold true today? Explain your response.

How does Leopolds use of the key- log metaphor (para. 48) move his essay toward its conclusion?

Leopold wrote The Land Ethic over sixty years ago. To what extent do his ideas apply to our current environmental situation?

In the following paragraph from The End of Nature by Bill McKibben, the cumulative sentences are in blue. Rewrite them as periodic sentences. How does the sentence structure affect the focus, tone, and meaning of each of the three sentences? Discuss the rhetorical effectiveness of the way that McKibben decided to write them.

The following paragraph from The Future of Life by E. O. Wilson consists of three sentences: a simple declarative sentence, then a periodic sentence, and finally a cumulative sentence. Keep the first one as it is; then rewrite the periodic sentence as cumulative and the cumulative as periodic. Compare the two paragraphs. Discuss the relationship among the sentences in each paragraph and the rhetorical effect of syntax on meaning and tone.

When I started trying to follow the industrial food chain the one that now feeds most of us most of the time and typically culminates either in a supermarket or fast- food meal I expected that my investigations would lead me to a wide variety of places. Michael Pollan, para. 8

Hidden from immediate view in the butterfly- bright meadow, in the dusky thicket, in the oak and holly wood, are the surveyors stakes, for someone wants to build a mall exactly there some gas stations and supermarkets, some pizza and video shops, a health club, maybe a bulimia treatment center. Joy Williams, para. 1

The following selection is from paragraph 11 of A Naturalist in the Supermarket by Michael Pollan. Read the paragraph carefully, and identify whether the underlined sentences are cumulative or periodic. Discuss the effect of the syntax in each case. Then, imitating the structure of each, write a sentence of your own on an environmental issue.

ExxonMobil, self- described as the worlds largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, providing energy that helps underpin growing economies and improve living standards around the world, makes the following statements on its Web site: Managing long- term climate risks Rising greenhouse- gas emissions pose significant risks to society and ecosystems. Since most of these emissions are energy- related, any integrated approach to meeting the worlds growing energy needs over the coming decades must incorporate strategies to address the risk of climate change. Managing climate change risks Our strategy to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions is focused on increasing energy efficiency in the short term, implementing proven emission- reducing technologies in the near and medium term, and developing breakthrough, game- changing technologies for the long term. Technological innovation will play a central role in our ability to increase supply, improve efficiency, and reduce emissions. Approximately 90 percent of the greenhouse-gas emissions generated by petroleum products are released when customers use our products, and the remaining 10 percent are generated by industry operations. Therefore, technology is also needed to reduce energy- related emissions by end users. In a time when we still hear many people even some public officials questioning the reality of climate change and global warming, it might seem surprising to discover the perspective above coming from a large energy company. What do these statements suggest about climate change? About global warming? About the relationship between economic concerns and environmental protection? Finally, what do they suggest about the essential question posed at the beginning of this chapter: What is our responsibility to the natural environment? Refer to several texts from this chapter as you answer these questions.