In The Organic Machine, published in 1995, Richard White provides a history of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwestern United States. He focuses his book on the relationship between the natural history of the Columbia River and the human history of the Pacific Northwest, emphasizing that one is not the result of the other, but rather the two together tell the story. They work in tandem, insisting that, “...we cannot understand human history without natural history and we cannot understand natural history without human history (White, 1995, p. ix).
In Silent Spring, published in 1962, Rachel Carson examines the use of highly toxic pesticides and the threat they pose to humans and the environment. Carson, who was a biologist and a writer, was passionate about nature. Like White, she uses this book as a way to examine the relationship between man and nature.
Plum Island together with the Animal Disease Center provides a similar study into the relationship between nature and man. It is an undeniable fact that the work done at PIADC is critical, and it's impossible to downplay the accomplishments that scientists have achieved there. However, it is also an undeniable fact that the codependent relationship between man and nature will not come without consequences as it relates to Plum Island.
In all three, words like technology, science, medicine and environment are repeated over and over.
Both White and Carson refer to advances in technology as one factor that has put humans at odds with natural processes. In Silent Spring, Carson says that scientific advances that came out of WWII gave the US the ability to manufacture pesticides that were more powerful and dangerous than before. She warns that this could ultimately lead to “...the destruction of [man] and his world.”(Carson, 1962, p. xiv) The new powerful pesticide, DDT, is highly toxic and has the ability to work its way through the whole food chain. White, in The Organic Machine, points to the harm that advances in technology have “bestowed” on the Columbia River. For example, technology has fed into man’s desire to enhance salmon population leading to the emergence of hatcheries which combined a natural biological process with technology to bolster salmon population more “efficiently”. The hatcheries ``dramatically rearrange [and reduce] the physical spaces of the river”(White, 1995, p. 110) which destroys the ability of the salmon to naturally reproduce. Though man thinks he is in the “driver’s seat” the outcome suggests something else. White notes “...the river we have partially created changes before our eyes, mocking our supposed control.”(1995, p. 113) In the case of the PIADC, the dangers that pathogens pose to humans forced scientists to seek a solution, one that technology has allowed us to solve. In all three, one can see that advances in technology have provided humans with the ability to exert control over nature. On the other hand, it is nature that is forcing man to seek out technology.
Carson insinuates that perhaps humans should be more tolerant of the pests, and ridding the world of ALL of them, shouldn’t be our end goal. She doesn’t want to get rid of pesticides altogether, just the highly toxic chemicals, because continued use has the potential to “...destroy us all with the insects.”(Carson, 1962, p. 9) White suggests that humans have a need to achieve maximum efficiency, rather than be satisfied with what, for example, the Columbia River provides naturally. In the case of Plum Island it appears, at least for now, that the government is looking beyond the money that it can get if it's sold and focusing on the opportunity to preserve the “ecological gem” that some call Treasure Island before a claim can be made that once again humans have “overreached”.
White uses the number of salmon in the Columbia River as a barometer to measure the “balance of power” in the relationship between humans and nature. There were times when the consumption of salmon was so great that the population of them in the Columbia River decreased. On the other hand, there were times when epidemics killed so many humans living on the river, which led to significant increases in salmon population. The salmon population, in other words nature, very much affected human behavior. For example, it dictated where they lived, since they needed access to the salmon to survive. Carson concedes that it is nature that has “given” humans the pests that forced them to turn to pesticides. In both, it is clear that there is a relationship between humans and nature that runs both ways. In other words, it isn’t just humans affecting nature. It’s a constant back and forth.
If environmentalists succeed in saving Plum Island from development, much has to happen first. The process of decontaminating the island will be extensive. Since the PIADC was working with such dangerous pathogens, there was a policy in place that prohibited the removal of waste from Plum Island. This minimized the release of dangerous pathogens. Combustible waste was incinerated, but the non-combustible waste was disposed of in areas called Waste Management Areas. The waste was put stored in containers and in some instances buried, leading some to believe that a significant amount of soil would need to be removed. The government has committed to all means necessary to decontaminate Plum Island.
Though an environmental report from the DHS concluded that they anticipated no significant environmental impact from the closure of the facilities on Plum Island, that remains to be seen. White points to misuse of the Columbia River as a failure of man and nature and Carson points to the use of DDT as the same failure. Perhaps when we learn the eventual fate of Plum Island, it will serve as an example of good that can come out of man and nature working together for the better. Though research and discovery are continuous processes, science does give us the ability to understand aspects of our past that put us in a position to thrive in the future.