Carson correctly feared the results of an unimpeded technology that initiates an action before fully knowing the consequences, and a culture that demands a quick fix for every problem. Such attitudes, she recognized, were formidable opponents to the cultivation of a sense of wonder and a reverence for the complex of intricate ecological relationships of the living world. In Silent Spring Carson gave these cultural qualities a historical context, protested their effects, warned against complacency, and offered a new ethic and a practical sort of hope. Hers is a message that we in the twenty-first century must find the courage to heed. Linda Lear
意訳 カーソンは、結果的影響を熟知する前に活動を始めてしまう規制なき技術の帰結と、全ての問題に素早い解決を求める文化を正しくおそれた。彼女は、そのような態度が、センスオブワンダーの涵養と生命世界の複雑な生態関係の複合体への敬愛にとって恐るべき敵であることを認識していた。「沈黙の春」の中でカーソンはこれらの文化的性質に歴史的文脈を与え、これらの影響に抗い、ひとりよがりな考えに警告を発し、新しい倫理と実践的希望を提唱した。本書は、21世紀の我々は心に留めておくべき勇気を見つけなければならないという、メッセージである。 リンダリアによるSilent Springのあとがき ISBN 9780141184944
Forewarned by the long history of insecticide resistance, the deployment of transgenic crops for insect control has incorporated resistance management plans from the beginning. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for transgenic crops engineered for herbicide tolerance. Greatly increased spraying to control weeds in these new crops has led to a rapid rise of herbicide resistance in several weed species (24), and agronomists must now follow entomologists in learning the hard lessons of the past 50 years.
世界を汚染してしまったのは、人間の明白な失敗です。放射能を含む低濃度汚染物質の健康や環境への長期的影響について何か断言できる人間がいるとすれば、その人は各個人の遺伝的バックグラウンドや栄養状態と汚染物質の影響（Guillette and Iguchiが解説したような諸条件）を直ちにすべて解析出来る能力を持った人か、プーシキンが存在しないと言った失敗の達人でしょう。
Sheila Jasanoff, a professor of science and technology studies at Harvard University, has clearly refuted the fallacy that "the facts" present us with some inevitable and perfect technical solution to policy problems. Rather, as Jasanoff explains: "In regulatory science, more even than in research science, there can be no perfect, objectively verifiable truth. The most one can hope for is a serviceable truth: a state of knowledge that satisfies the test of scientific acceptability and supports reasoned decision making, but also assures those exposed to risk that their interests have not been sacrificed on the altar of impossible scientific certainty."
Shulman, Undermining science: Suppression and distortion in the Bush administration University of California Press (2008)
ちなみに引用符の中の言葉はJasanoffの著書 "The Fifth Branch: Science advisors as policy makers" からの引用だそうです。
