In the book "Silent Spring," is Carson opposed to all pesticides?

I would say that Carson is opposed to all pesticides at
the time.  Carson sees the use of pesticides at the time as problematic on a couple of
levels.  The first challenge is that the use of pesticides denies the fundamental
ecological connection that underscores all life.  Artificially eliminating one organism
for the convenience of another disrupts the balance of ecological cycles that have been
present for oceans of time.  The use of pesticides does this and inevitably harms this
balance.  Carson does not really draw a distinction between “good” and “bad” pesticides
because she sees the presence of pesticides at the time as something that harms the
entire framework of life. She also argues from an extremely scientific paradigm that the
basic building block of carbon life forms are altered through the inorganic nature of
the pesticide.  This analysis is rooted in scientific inquiry that resides in biology
and chemistry.  The second problem she has with the use of pesticides is that it goes
against the idea of seeking natural alternatives to overpopulation and harming of
assets.  I don’t think that Carson is against limiting the growth and expansion of
population because this ends up becoming an ecological challenge, as well.  Rather, she
is arguing for a more holistic approach to the problem in that seeking out natural
solutions to the situation would be more ecologically friendly than introducing an
artificial approach.  For example, if an organism is in abundance and threatens crops,
instead of a pesticide to be used to eliminate it, introduce a natural predator of the
organism into the environment to limit the organisms’ growth.  A very oversimplified
example of this would be that if one has a rodent problem, introducing a cat in to the
environment could be more environmentally friendly than bringing in pesticides to get
rid of the rodent problem.  The idea that Carson is going for is seeking natural
solutions to natural challenges, as opposed to immediately embracing the pesticide as
the automatic solution.