![]() ![]() Monsanto, one of the largest producers of DDT, immediately denounced Carson, saying she wrote not “as a scientist but rather a fanatic defender of the cult of the balance of nature.” She was called hysterical. To discredit Carson and her work, the pesticide industry spent more than $250,000, equivalent to well over a million dollars today. Led by chemical manufacturers Monsanto, American Cyanamid, and Veliscol, corporate scientists tried to discredit the validity of her research, the “emotionalism” of her interpretations, and the book’s suggested remedies, which the industry viewed as threatening to its business. Chemical trade associations and individual companies attacked her with a barrage of criticisms, laden with sexist imagery and language. Her book alerted the world to the dangers of the toxic chemicals that may have caused her disease.Īs Carson battled both cancer and the radiation treatments that were poisoning her body, she steeled herself for the onslaught that would follow publication of her book. When Carson published Silent Spring at 55, she was dying from breast cancer. This gave credibility to the book, against denunciations from within government agencies, paving the way for wide regulatory reforms. Kennedy to form a commission to study chemical applications. This growing constituency for environmental-health issues led Interior Secretary Morris Udall and President John F. A new environmentally minded public opened the door for wider mobilization. After the book’s publication, women all over the country wrote letters to editors, voicing concern about environmental issues as caried as fluorides and nuclear fallout. It also engaged women as a new constituency for the environment. It precipitated congressional investigations, presidential directives, 1972 legislation banning DDT, new regulations for clean air and water, and the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970.Ĭarson’s work was so catalytic because it linked conservation of nature to human health and tapped into the public’s distrust of political and corporate power, calling for greater accountability. Silent Spring led to significant environmental regulations in the United States. If we are living so intimately with chemicals, we had better know something about their power. Her attack on the dominant scientific standards of the day and on the chemical industry captured the attention of the world. Carson had converted years of painstaking research on the biological effects of widespread spraying of insecticides, pesticides and herbicides into a clarion call for control. When the New Yorker first published excerpts from it in the summer of 1962, just before the book’s release, no one was prepared for the response. Silent Spring begins with the parable of a mythical town that awakens one spring to silence, its birds, insects and other wildlife felled by the damage of chemical pollution. Business had a lot to celebrate and more to champion, as wartime technologies were converted to domestic applications, requiring significant government financial and political support. Industry images showed picnicking children being sprayed with DDT. We celebrated the many applications of plastics and synthetic compounds and wondered how agriculture could have thrived without pesticides. It also caught the attention of leading political figures who were not afraid to confront corporate America.įollowing World War II, the United Stated embarked on a love affair with chemicals. Its message resonated with a public increasingly concerned with the environment and its effect on human health. Seldom does a book generate such controversy, produce such profound and numerous public policy results, or bring about so much new activity in a social movement.īut Silent Spring was no ordinary book. ![]() 27, 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring and founded the modern environmental movement. has published.įrom the December 2002/January 2003 issue of Ms. Knopf)-a stunning collection of the most audacious, norm-breaking coverage Ms. For more iconic, ground-breaking stories like this, pre-order 50 YEARS OF Ms.: THE BEST OF THE PATHFINDING MAGAZINE THAT IGNITED A REVOLUTION (Alfred A. To pay tribute to five decades of reporting, rebelling and truth-telling, From the Vault includes some of our favorite feminist classics from the last 50 years of Ms. Rachel Carson stirred up national controversy in 1962 with her book, Silent Spring. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s attack on the dominant scientific standards of the day and on the chemical industry captured the attention of the world. ![]()
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