SILENT SPRING

Silent Spring

Silent Spring

“Silent Spring” is a book by Rachel Carson published in 1962 that warned of the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment and blamed the chemical industry of the increasing pollution. Many scientists called it a fantasy, but for many people, this is the first informative book about environmentalism and has become perfect of environmental awareness. Others supported the author, and got the Department of Agriculture revised its policy on pesticides and that the DDT prohibited by the laws of the United States. In 2006, Silent Spring considered one of the 25 books of popular science most influential of all time by the editors of Discover Magazine.

Silent Spring by Rachel Carlson (1962) is a particularly relevant book for environmentalists everywhere. Understood to have played a big role in starting the environmental movement, it helped to increase consciousness of the need for sustainable, healthy, and regulated farming practices. Rachel Carson created the book with the credentials of being a known author and having been a former marine biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Carson, 2002).

Carson concerned with the effect of pesticides on the environment, and especially on the people who consume the pesticide-coated fruits and vegetables or pesticide-affected meats. She describes at length how DDT can accumulate in the fat of humans and animals, and explains data that show a large rise in cancer rates (Carson, 2002). Carson links these together, explaining how pesticides can be toxic to the environment in both long and short timescales.

This book written in an era when pesticides used with relative abandon: sprayed over entire fields of crops, and anything nearby. Something had to be done, she believed especially since pesticides that used decades before could still be found in the human body and the environment. She described a phenomenon where ...