This morning I was reading the Washington Post and came across an
article on the book "Silent Spring." This is Rachel Carson's book on the dangers of pesticides and man made chemicals leeching into nature. What struck me was the sentence in the article, "Carson's 1962 book, "Silent Spring," changed the world." It got me thinking first, was that really a true statement, and second, when did the world realize she changed it.
While in late middle school or early high school (early 80's) I wrote a report on Rachel Carson for some class. I don't really remember too much about what I wrote or even the assignment, but I do remember writing a lot about DDT and chlordane (I was a chemistry geek). If you remember that time, the fallout from Love Canal had hit the mainstream with the EPA's superfund established to clean up the worst polluted sites. More locally, in my hometown our dump was being considered for a massive expansion. Protests and politician visits became the norm in trying to prevent it, with these protests ultimately prevailing. Back then the stories about burning rivers, the filth of the Hudson in NY and Charles river in Boston (a superfund site), were daily. Since then a lot has changed. For the most part these stories are no longer daily occurrences. Sturgeons are back in the Hudson and swimming is safe in the Charles. In 1989, I came down with 103 fever after capsizing a canoe in the Charles.
Twenty years prior to my report, Rachel Carson published "Silent Spring", 1962. What I didn't know when I wrote the report was what am immediate impact the book had throughout the world. Only 8 years (record time for government bureaucracy) after its publication, the EPA was created; similar agencies around the world were also created. Right now the EPA is celebrating Rachel Carson's 100th birthday on their homepage. I'm very curious to hear what people remember from 1962 upon the books publication and what today would compare. Do you recognize a world changing event while its happening? Surprising;y, I think with "Silent Spring" it must have been pretty clear. Rachel Carson died in 1964, two years after the book. In her NY Times
obituary, the impact her book had on the times of the day was clear:
"Silent Spring," four-and-a-half years in preparation and published in September of 1962, hit the affluent chemical industry and the general public with the devastating effect of a Biblical plague of locusts. The title came from an apocalyptic opening chapter, which pictured how an entire area could be destroyed by indiscriminate spraying.
Legislative bodies ranging from New England town meetings to the Congress joined in the discussion. President Kennedy, asked about the pesticide problem during a press conference, announced that Federal agencies were taking a closer look at the problem because of the public's concern.
The essence of the debate was: Are pesticides publicly dangerous or aren't they?...
As the pesticide controversy grew into a national quarrel, support was quick in going to the side of Miss Carson.
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, an ardent naturalist, declared, "We need a Bill of Rights against the 20th century poisoners of the human race."
Earlier, an editorial in The New York Times had said:
"If her series [then running in part in The New Yorker publication of the book] helps arouse public concern to immunize Government agencies against the blandishments of the hucksters and enforces adequate controls, the author will be as deserving of the Nobel Prize as was the inventor of DDT."
So I think this puts little old Rachel Carson in some pretty good company of people that changed the world for the better with immediate impact. I would guess other contemporary figures like Martin Luther King, Jonas Salk, Ghandi, and probably only a handful of others are on this list. Pretty good company, for a woman probably few have ever heard of.
