Discussion Post on Carson’s “Fable for Tomorrow” and Williams’s “The Clan of the One-Breasted Women” and the Love Canal

“Fable for Tomorrow” by Rachel Carson and “Clan of the One-Breasted Women” by Terry Tempest Williams and the Love Canal.

Assignment Details: In at least 400 words, write ONE academic paragraph with clear topic sentences on your main idea about what stood out to you in these two essays and Love Canal about human caused environmental disasters. You may also bring in what you learned about the information about Love Canal and Franklin Brogan’s piece on the Love Canal: citation (Brogan).

Citation:

Use both essays and something about the Love Canal in your paragraph, using direct quotes or paraphrasing in MLA citation (Carson) or (Williams page number) – Williams’s text has the page number at the bottom of each page. Cite Franklin Brogan’s piece on the Love Canal: (Brogan).

Choose a main theme that you clearly see in these two essays and the Love Canal about humanity’s hubris in environmental pollution of the past for your discussion paragraph. You are welcome to bring in anything you wish from the information you learned about the Love Canal (quote or paraphrase and no need to cite videos; cite Brogan if you use any information from “They Called Us Love’s Kids” essay).

Short introduction reminder to “A Fable for Tomorrow”:

“Fable for Tomorrow” is a chapter in the book Silent Spring, a book written by Rachel Carson documenting the detrimental effects of pesticides (specifically DDT) on the environment and how it moves its way up the food chain (bioaccumulation). While she writes of problems encountered in different places, all had happened. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation (see videos in the module), and public officials of accepting industry claims without looking into them. Silent Spring facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT in 1972 in the United States.

Introduction note for Williams’s essay on nuclear testing (bombs) in Utah:

To help you understand Williams’s “Clan of the One-Breasted Women” (1991): Read the short introduction before the essay. Read the three questions at the end of the article before you read it — the questions help guide your reading/understanding of her ideas on the consequences of the fallout from the nuclear testing near her home. This essay starts out with specific, real details from the experiences from actual nuclear bomb testing near her home. Note that near the end of the essay the tone changes; while she did march in protests, she writes about this one as if it was a dream.

 Rachel Carson’s “Fable for Tomorrow”: 

https://smitsenglish.weebly.com/uploads/3/9/7/7/39778323/afablefortomorrow.pdf

Terry Tempest Williams’s “The Clan of the One-Breasted Women”:  https://slcc2010f11e.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/tempest-williams.pdf

Bring in a quote from one of the sources on the Love Canal to support and develop your paragraph. For example:

According to Maga, “Much of the waste that caused this historic health and environmental crisis [at the Love Canal] still live at the site to this day. More destructive times are growing, just like the fire that will ignite and chock a poor community of Niagara Falls. It is threatening to the neighboring cities and towns whose lives depends on it. Strange diseases might emerge, cities might face the reality of a contaminated drinking water, the places might be uninhabitable, and populations displaced.” 

Writing Tips:

• Always begin with strong topic sentences on your main idea (should be more than one sentence).
• Be sure to work on writing with transitions between the authors (see examples in this module).
• Do not write with first person “I” or second person “you” but use formal, third person language.
• Remember to refer to your homework module for how to write an Academic Paragraph using the “sandwich pattern” for these Reading Responses, but in case you’re having trouble finding it, see here below.

Example Citations – Notice that Williams has page numbers, so you cite with them:

Carson warns that the harm of pesticides on the environment is disastrous: “No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.”

“The fear and inability to question authority that ultimately killed rural communities in Utah during atmospheric testing of atomic weapons is the same fear I saw in my mother’s body. Sheep. Dead sheep” (Williams 609).

or

Williams warns and mourns that the “fear and inability to question authority that ultimately killed rural communities in Utah during atmospheric testing of atomic weapons is the same fear I saw in my mother’s body. Sheep. Dead sheep” (609).

Sandwich Pattern for Writing Strong Paragraphs: 

1. Topic sentence that clearly states your main idea in the paragraph

2. Another sentence that develops your idea in the topic sentence

3. Bring in your quote correctly cited (author) or (author page). You must have evidence to support your ideas.

4. Discussion/commentary on your quote in one or two sentences. Tell us how your quote supports your main idea in the topic sentence.

5. Bring in your second quote correctly cited (author) or (author page)

6. Discussion/commentary on your quote in one or two sentences.

7. Don’t forget to wrap up your main idea in the last sentence or two. Don’t forget to drive your main point home with a wrap up or echo of the main idea in the topic sentence.

Be sure you check your work for flow and use correct punctuation and grammar.

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Example Essay:

There is something decidedly human about the ease with which modern humans justify the destruction of a planet without which survival is not possible—in the name of progress. The irony hangs in the air like a choking cloud—inhaled, exhaled, and forgotten. In her effort to ban the insecticide DDT, Rachel Carson delves into the absurdity of this when she says that the “most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible.” Instead of residing in our environment, humans have sought to control it, to make it “better.” Such “improvements” are present` in virtually every aspect of modern society, from the food that is consumed, to the way we power our lives. The so-called improvement of the planet has been anything but. Humans have not made anything better; they’ve merely made it more convenient for them and them alone. Terry Tempest-Williams points this out effectively, writing, “Much has been written about this ‘American nuclear tragedy’ Public health was secondary to national security.” Was this a shortsightedness born of nationalistic pride or just blatant disregard for consequences? It doesn’t matter. It is clear that human “progress” is paramount; everything else is secondary. A sentiment echoed in Tempest-Williams description of the home of her youth: “When the Atomic Energy Commission described the country north of the Nevada Test Site as “virtually uninhabited desert terrain,” my family and the birds at the Great Salt Lake were some of the “virtual uninhabitants” (609). Such attitudes and actions are a step beyond blatant disregard for the land; it is disregard for its people as well. By polluting the earth, we are poisoning ourselves. Humanity has made great strides in our attempt to separate ourselves from our environment, to be above it, but this is the ultimate in hubris. Instead of rising above and improving the world, we have developed horrific ways in which to destroy it. From nuclear weapons to chemicals that damage our bodies from the inside out, as was the case with Hooker Chemical Company that Franklin Brogan wrote about as one of “Love’s Kids,” we have taken balance and replaced it with imbalance. Humanity gets but one environment in which to participate, and what that ultimately looks like is up to us, and us alone. Thus far, it has not been pretty, but the justification of the environmental destruction has been blindly quite human.