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Insecticides Quotes

Browse 21 quotes about Insecticides.

Insecticides Quotes

“The question of chemical residues on the food we eat is a hotly debated issue. The existence of such residues is either played down by the industry as unimportant or is flatly denied. Simultaneously, there is a strong tendency to brand as fanatics or cultists all who are so perverse as to demand that their food be free of insect poisons. In all this cloud of controversy, what are the actual facts?”

EnvironmentalismFood SafetyInsecticides
Book:Silent Spring
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“Who has made the decision that sets in motion these chains of poisonings, this ever-widening wave of death that spreads out, like ripples when a pebble is dropped into a still pond? Who has placed in one pan of the scales the leaves that might have been eaten by the beetles and in the other the pitiful heaps of many-hued feathers, the lifeless remains of the birds that fell before the unselective bludgeon of insecticidal poisons? Who has decided - who has the right to decide - for the countless legions of people who were not consulted that the supreme value is a world without insects, even though it be also a sterile world ungraced by the curving wing of a bird in flight? The decision is that of the authoritarian temporarily entrusted with power; he has made it during a moment of inattention by millions to whom beauty and the ordered world of nature still have a meaning that is deep and imperative.”

EnvironmentalismInsecticides
Book:Silent Spring
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“Is it reasonable to suppose that we can apply a broad-spectrum insecticide to kill the burrowing larval stages of a crop-destroying insect ... without also killing the 'good' insects whose function may be the essential one of breaking down organic matter and maintaining healthy soil?”

MayMatterEnvironmentStageHealthyEssentialsFunctionKillingSoilReasonableBroadsDestroyingBreaking DownInsectsMaintainingSpectrumCropsInsecticidesBurrowing
Book:Silent Spring
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“These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes-nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the 'good' and the 'bad,' to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to linger on in soil-all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects. Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called 'insecticides,' but 'biocides.'”

ShouldBelieveMayStillsHomeEarthFilmSongBirdGardenLaysFishesSurfaceForestsDustStreamsPoisonSoilTargetWeedFarmsChemicalsCoatsInsectsSpraySilent SpringInsecticides
Book:The house of life: Rachel Carson at work
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“Examining the actual contents of my crying, I found a quailing sludge emotion, with a foul insecticide taste. If it was a peanut, you would spit it out. Yet I was indulging this toxic goo, giving it its head and letting it dictate my actions. People had every good reason to despise me.”

PeopleIfsGivingReasonActionFoundEmotionCryTasteVery GoodToxicDespiseFoulSpitPeanutsExaminingInsecticides
Book:The only good thing anyone has ever done: a novel
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“Brothers and Sisters: Our ancient homeland is spotted today with an array of chemical dumps. Along the Niagara River, dioxin, a particularly deadly substance, threatens the remaining life there and in the waters which flow from there. Forestry departments spray the surviving forests with powerful insecticides to encourage tourism by people seeking a few days or weeks away from the cities where the air hangs heavy with sulphur and carbon oxides.”

PeopleTodayWaterPowerfulCitiesAirWeekBrotherFlowRiversEnvironmentalAncientSeekingHeavyForestsSubstanceDepartmentChemicalsPollutionCarbonBrothers And SistersSurvivingHomelandTourismDumpSprayNiagaraInsecticides
Author:Winona LaDuke
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“The insecticides kill the black flies, but also destroy much of the food chain for the bird, fish, and animal life which also inhabit those regions. The fish of the Great Lakes are laced with mercury from industrial plants, and fluoride from aluminum plants poisons the land and the people. Sewage from the population centers is mixed with PCBs and PBS in the watershed of the great lakes and the Finger Lakes, and the water is virtually nowhere safe for any living creatures.”

PeopleBlackWaterAnimalLandSafeCreaturesBirdPlantFingersEnvironmentalPopulationFishesChainsPoisonLakesRegionsPollutionLiving CreaturesMercuryAnimal LifeFood ChainAluminumSewageWatershedsPbsGreat LakesInsecticidesFluoride
Book:All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life
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“Take care with manufactured chemicals, certainly. Your safety and long term health are more important than anything. Yet don't forget that if you grow even a dozen different plants, you are surrounded by chemistry. Inside their cells even the most ordinary plants creates potent fungicides, insecticides, irritants, balms, hallucinogens, sedatives, nerve toxins, cell repair stimulants, lures, repellents... you name it. Treat all plants with respect!”

IfsLongImportantDifferentCareNamesGrowsTermForgetOrdinaryTreatsSafetyPlantTake CareCellsLong TermNervesChemistryChemicalsDozenLureStimulantsToxinsHallucinogensIrritantsInsecticides
Author:Janet Macunovich
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“I think that DDT holds a lot of promise. It hasn't been banned everywhere - obviously it has in the U.S. In fact, about 10 years ago, the WHO came out with a statement promoting it for public health interventions in many countries. It's cheap. It's very, very effective. We've never had an insecticide that has worked so well since. It's also safe. A lot of people don't realize that its toxicity profile for humans is low.”

PeopleThinkingYearsHumansWellsCountryFactsRealizingPromiseSafeLowsYears AgoStatementsInterventionPromotingProfilePublic HealthBannedToxicityInsecticidesDdt
Author:Laura Harrington
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“I pounded through the houses, staggering down the hallways, falling down the steps. It was a hot streaky dawn full of insecticides, exhaust, flowers that could make you sick or fall in love. My battered Impala was still parked there on the side of the road and I wanted to lie down on the shredded seats and sleep and sleep. But I thought of the bones; I could hear them singing. They needed me to write their song.”

WritingStillsWantedLyingSongFallHouseSidesSleepStepsFlowerNeededSingingSickHotFalling In LoveBonesDawnSeatsFalling DownStaggeringHallwaysBatteredInsecticides
Author:Francesca Lia Block
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“The positive evidence for Darwinism is confined to small-scale evolutionary changes like insects developing insecticide resistance....Evidence like that for insecticide resistance confirms the Darwinian selection mechanism for small-scale changes, but hardly warrants the grand extrapolation that Darwinists want. It is a huge leap going from insects developing insecticide resistance via the Darwinian mechanism of natural selection and random variation to the very emergence of insects in the first place by that same mechanism.”

WantFirstsNaturalHugeEvolutionEvidenceScalesResistanceDevelopingLeapMechanismSelectionInsectsVariationConfinedNatural SelectionEmergenceWarrantsDarwinismInsecticides
Author:William A. Dembski
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“When the planes still swoop down and aerial spray a field in order to kill a predator insect with pesticides, we are in the Dark Ages of commerce. Maybe one thousandth of this aerial insecticide actually prevents the infestation. The balance goes to the leaves, into the soil, into the water, into all forms of wildlife, into ourselves. What is good for the balance sheet is wasteful of resources and harmful to life.”

StillsAgeFormOrderWaterDarkFieldsBalanceResourcesDown AndPlanesSoilCommerceSheetsInsectsWildlifeDark AgesPredatorSprayPesticidesBalance SheetsInsecticides
Author:Paul Hawken
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