What is it about?
This article examines the devastating effects of pesticide use in large scale farming in California through close analysis of selected literary works published in the mid 1990s. It also traces a 50 year history of ecological protest in the area including speeches, marches, demonstrations, fasting and warnings issued to consumers. The article provides an in depth analysis of the damaging physical effects of pesticide poisoning on children, indigenous communities, workers and the landscape.
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This page is a summary of: The Ecologies of Protest in the Theatre of Aztlán, Comparative American Studies An International Journal, March 2012, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1179/1477570011z.0000000006.
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Resources
Insecticides put world food supplies at risk, say scientists
Guardian article by Damian Carrington 24/6/14: Regulations on pesticides have failed to prevent poisoning of almost all habitats, international team of scientists concludes....... The world’s most widely used insecticides have contaminated the environment across the planet so pervasively that global food production is at risk, according to a comprehensive scientific assessment of the chemicals’ impacts.
Syngenta withdraws application to use banned pesticide linked to bee harm
Pesticide maker Syngenta has withdrawn an “emergency” application to use a banned insecticide on up to a third of all oilseed rape in the UK. The U-turn follows a major outcry from green campaigners but the company blamed the government for failing to make a decision in time for crop sowing. Syngenta’s neonicotinoid pesticide was given a two-year ban by the European Union in 2013 due to research linking it to serious harm in bees.
Ban neonicotinoids now – to avert another silent spring
Guardian article by George Monbiot 15/7/14: This pesticide is destroying life across the natural world: the evidence cannot be denied. Only a global moratorium will stop it. Here’s our choice. We wait and see if a class of powerful pesticides, made by Bayer and Syngenta, is indeed pushing entire ecosystems to oblivion, or suspend their use while proper trials are conducted.
Margaret Atwood: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, 50 years on
Widely considered the most important environmental book of the 20th century, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring has been reissued after 50 years. Margaret Atwood considers its impact and legacy.
The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson
A resource for those interested in the life and environmental legacy of Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, and the modern environmental movement.
ADDRESS BY CESAR CHAVEZ, PRESIDENT UNITED FARM WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO
ADDRESS BY CESAR CHAVEZ, PRESIDENT UNITED FARM WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO Pacific Lutheran University March 1989-Tacoma, Washington On the dangers of pesticides in farming.
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