A plane dispersing DDT to kill spruce budworms in Baker County, Oregon, 1955.

It would not take long, however, before some began to sound the alarm on chemical over-use. This endeared pesticides to the American public who saw them as tools that could save lives and feed hungry mouths. During the war, DDT-first used for pest control in 1939-was seen as a miraculous chemical that killed mosquitos and lice, saving American GIs from malaria and typhus. The chemicals that Carson questioned-DDT, 2,4-D, Heptachlor, among others-gained widespread acceptance during and immediately after World War II. Carson asked readers, “whether any civilization can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself,” because humans were inherently reliant on other organisms for their own survival. This move challenged long-held notions that science allowed humans to control-and thereby live apart from- nature. She did so by placing humans within the web of ecology, rather than outside it. Silent Spring adeptly critiqued the American chemical industry and federal regulation of toxic chemicals at a time when many people’s faith in them was nearly unshakeable.

The theme of interconnectedness influenced her later work on pesticides. These works illustrated the connections between organisms and their environment. Fish and Wildlife Service publications in 1939 and wrote popular books on ocean life. She studied marine biology and graduated with an MA in Zoology from John Hopkins University in 1932.Ī trailblazing female scientist, Carson became editor-in-chief for all U.S. Rachel Carson devoted her life to the study of the natural world after falling in love with the landscapes surrounding her childhood home of Springdale, Pennsylvania. Cover of the 1962, 1st edition of Silent Spring (right).

Rachel Carson as an employee for the U.S. Carson revealed to readers how pesticides, including suspected carcinogens, indiscriminately killed insects and plants, while also accumulating in water, soil, and the bodies of fish, birds, and people.

Instead, Carson’s “Fable for Tomorrow”-extrapolated from four years of research-warned how excessive pesticide use ravaged birds, annihilated bees, and sickened the town’s inhabitants. Carson hooked readers by describing a fictional town where spring no longer marked the singing of birds, the buzzing of bees, or the laughter of children. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring shocked the American public when it was published in the summer of 1962.

Silent spring by rachel carson