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Silent Spring

The Book-of-the-Month Club edition, with included endorsement by William O. Douglas
Author Rachel Carson
Country United States
Language English
Subject(s) Environmentalism
Publisher Houghton Mifflin
Publication date September 1962

Silent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin in September 1962. The Book of the Month Club (founded 1926) is a United States Mail-order business customers of which are offered a new Book each month William Orville Douglas ( October 16, 1898 – January 19, 1980) was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. Rachel Louise Carson (May 27 1907 – April 14 1964 was an American marine biologist and Nature writer whose writings are credited with advancing the global The United States of America —commonly referred to as the English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Environmentalism is a broad philosophy and Social movement centered on a concern for the conservation and improvement of the environment. Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of Literature or Information &ndash the activity of making information available for public view Houghton Mifflin Company is a leading educational Publisher in the United States. Rachel Louise Carson (May 27 1907 – April 14 1964 was an American marine biologist and Nature writer whose writings are credited with advancing the global Houghton Mifflin Company is a leading educational Publisher in the United States. The book is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement. The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green movements is a diverse scientific social and Political movement for [1]

When Silent Spring was published, Rachel Carson was already a well-known writer on natural history, but had not previously been a social critic. The book was widely read (especially after its selection by the Book-of-the-Month Club and an endorsement by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas), spending several weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, and inspired widespread public concerns with pesticides and pollution of the environment. The Book of the Month Club (founded 1926) is a United States Mail-order business customers of which are offered a new Book each month William Orville Douglas ( October 16, 1898 – January 19, 1980) was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used to kill a pest. Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability disorder harm or discomfort to the physical systems or living organisms they are in See also Nature The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a terminology that is comprised of all living and Silent Spring facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT[2] in 1972 in the United States. DDT (from its trivial name D ichloro- D iphenyl- T richloroethane is one of the best known synthetic Pesticides It is a chemical with a long

The book documented detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds. Birds ( class Aves) are bipedal endothermic ( Warm-blooded) Vertebrate animals that lay eggs. Carson said that DDT had been found to cause thinner egg shells and result in reproductive problems and death. She also accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation, and public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically. The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals Disinformation is the deliberate dissemination of false Information.

Silent Spring has made many lists of the best nonfiction books of the twentieth century. In the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Nonfiction it was at #5, and it was at #78 in the conservative National Review. In 1998 the Modern Library created a list of what are in their opinion the 100 best Nonfiction Books published since 1900 National Review ( NR) is a biweekly Magazine and Web site, founded by the late author William F [3] Most recently, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of Discover Magazine. Discover is a Science magazine that publishes articles about Science for a general audience [4]

A follow-up book, Beyond Silent Spring,[5] co-authored by H. F. van Emden and David Peakall, was published in 1986. David Beaumont Peakall ( 17 March 1931 - 18 August 2001) was an internationally recognised Toxicologist.

Contents

Thesis

The book stated that uncontrolled pesticide use led to the deaths of animals and especially birds, but also humans. For related pages see Aerial application, Sprayer, Spraying and Spray nozzle. Birds ( class Aves) are bipedal endothermic ( Warm-blooded) Vertebrate animals that lay eggs. Its title was meant to evoke a spring season in which no bird songs could be heard, because they had all died from pesticides. Its title was inspired by a poem by John Keats, "La Belle Dame sans Merci", which contained the lines "The sedge is wither'd from the lake, And no birds sing. "La Belle Dame sans Merci" ( French: "The Beautiful Lady without Pity" is a Ballad written by the English poet John Keats "[6]

Support

History professor Gary Kroll commented, "Rachel Carson's Silent Spring played a large role in articulating ecology as a 'subversive subject'— as a perspective that cut against the grain of materialism, scientism, and the technologically engineered control of nature. This article addresses materialism in the economic sense of the word The term scientism can be used as a neutral term to describe the view that Natural science has authority over all other interpretations of life such as philosophical Nature, in the broadest sense is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe. "[7]

According to Time magazine in 1999, within a year or so of its publication, "all but the most self-serving of Carson's attackers were backing rapidly toward safer ground. Time (trademarked in capitals as TIME) is a weekly American Newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and In their ugly campaign to reduce a brave scientist's protest to a matter of public relations, the chemical interests had only increased public awareness. "

Carson had made it clear she was not advocating the banning or complete withdrawal of helpful pesticides, but was instead encouraging responsible and carefully managed use, with an awareness of the chemicals' impact on the entire ecosystem. However, some critics asserted that she was calling for the elimination of all pesticides. [8]

In response to the publication of Silent Spring and the uproar that ensued, U. S. President John F. Kennedy directed his Science Advisory Committee to investigate the Carson's claims. John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of Their investigation "vindicated" Carson's work, and lead to an immediate strengthening of the regulation of chemical pesticides. [9][10]

Criticism

Even before Silent Spring was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1962, there was strong opposition to it. According to Time in 1999:

Carson was violently assailed by threats of lawsuits and derision, including suggestions that this meticulous scientist was a "hysterical woman" unqualified to write such a book. A huge counterattack was organized and led by Monsanto, Velsicol, American Cyanamid — indeed, the whole chemical industry — duly supported by the Agriculture Department as well as the more cautious in the media. The Monsanto Company ( is a multinational Agricultural biotechnology Corporation. American Cyanamid is a large diversified American chemical manufacturer founded by Frank Washburn in 1907 For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious"

In the 1960s, biochemist and former chemical industry spokesman Robert White-Stevens stated, "If man were to follow the teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the earth. This article is about the phrase "Dark Age(s" as a characterization of the Early Middle Ages in Western Europe Insects ( Class Insecta) are a major group of Arthropods and the most diverse group of Animals on the Earth with over a million described A disease is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions and can be deadly Vermin is a term applied to various animal species regarded as pests or nuisances and especially to those associated with the carrying of Disease. "[11]

Industry and agribusiness advocates continue to criticize Silent Spring. For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious" In Agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term that refers to the various Businesses involved in Food production including Farming, Seed In a 2005 essay, "The Harm That Pressure Groups Can Do", British politician Dick Taverne was damning in his criticism of Carson:

Carson didn't seem to take into account the vital role (DDT) played in controlling the transmission of malaria by killing the mosquitoes that carry the parasite (. Dick Taverne Baron Taverne (born 18 October 1928) is an English politician who is one of the small number of members of the British House of Commons Malaria is a vector -borne Infectious disease caused by Protozoan Parasites It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions including Mosquitoes are insects in the family Culicidae. They have a pair of scaled wings a pair of Halteres, a slender body and long legs . . ) It is the single most effective agent ever developed for saving human life (. . . ) Rachel Carson is a warning to us all of the dangers of neglecting the evidence-based approach and the need to weight potential risk against benefit: it can be argued that the anti-DDT campaign she inspired was responsible for almost as many deaths as some of the worst dictators of the last century. [12]

However, DDT has never been banned for anti-malaria use,[13] and Carson argued in Silent Spring that:

No responsible person contends that insect-borne disease should be ignored. DDT (from its trivial name D ichloro- D iphenyl- T richloroethane is one of the best known synthetic Pesticides It is a chemical with a long The question that has now urgently presented itself is whether it is either wise or responsible to attack the problem by methods that are rapidly making it worse. The world has heard much of the triumphant war against disease through the control of insect vectors of infection, but it has heard little of the other side of the story—the defeats, the short-lived triumphs that now strongly support the alarming view that the insect enemy has been made actually stronger by our efforts. Even worse, we may have destroyed our very means of fighting. . . . What is the measure of this setback? The list of resistant species now includes practically all of the insect groups of medical importance. . . . Malaria programmes are threatened by resistance among mosquitoes. . . . Practical advice should be 'Spray as little as you possibly can' rather than 'Spray to the limit of your capacity' . . . , Pressure on the pest population should always be as slight as possible.

In the 2000s, Carson and Silent Spring have come under increasing attack from authors who argue that restrictions placed on DDT have caused needless death, and more generally that environmental regulation unnecessarily restricts economic freedom. Economic freedom is freedom to produce trade and consume any goods and services acquired without the use of force fraud or theft [14][15] For example, the conservative magazine Human Events gave Silent Spring an "honorable mention" in its list of the "Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries,"[16] and in 2002, to mark its 40 anniversary, Reason Magazine published an essay by economist Ronald Bailey, a former fellow with the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute. Human Events is a weekly conservative Magazine founded in 1944. Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine from the Reason Foundation. Ronald Bailey (born November 23, 1953) is the science editor for ''Reason'' magazine. Libertarianism is a term used by a broad spectrum of political philosophies which prioritize individual Liberty and seek to minimize or even abolish the The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI is a Non-profit public policy organization founded in 1984 by Fred L [17] Bailey argued that the book had a mixed legacy:

The book did point to problems that had not been adequately addressed, such as the effects of DDT on some wildlife. And given the state of the science at the time she wrote, one might even make the case that Carson's concerns about the effects of synthetic chemicals on human health were not completely unwarranted. Along with other researchers, she was simply ignorant of the facts. But after four decades in which tens of billions of dollars have been wasted chasing imaginary risks without measurably improving American health, her intellectual descendants don't have the same excuse. [18]

Some environmentalists consider this latter day criticism of Silent Spring and Rachel Carson and concomitant push for DDT to be an industry sponsored strategy to discredit the environmental movement. [19][20][21][22] For example, Monica Moore of Pesticide Action Network has argued that "Renewed promotion of DDT and attacks on those who would limit its use isn’t about malaria, or even DDT. It is a cynical 'better living through chemistry' campaign intended to discredit the environmental health movement, with support from the Bush administration and others who seek nothing less than the dismantling of health and environmental protections. "[23].

See also

References

  1. ^ Josie Glausiusz. Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a toxic substance at a rate greater than that at ftudruinsubstance is lost Biomagnification, also known as bioamplification, or biological magnification is the increase in concentration of a substance such as the Pesticide A toxin ( Greek:, toxikon, lit (poison for use on arrows is a Poisonous substance produced by living cells or organisms that is active at very low (2007), Better Planet: Can A Maligned Pesticide Save Lives? Discover Magazine. Page 34.
  2. ^ EPA reference: DDT. Retrieved 2007-11-04. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1333 - Flood of the Arno River, causing massive damage in Florence as recorded by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani
  3. ^ The 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the Century. National Review. Retrieved on 2007-11-04. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1333 - Flood of the Arno River, causing massive damage in Florence as recorded by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani
  4. ^ "25 Greatest Science Books of All Time". Discover Magazine, Retrieved on 2007-11-04. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1333 - Flood of the Arno River, causing massive damage in Florence as recorded by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani
  5. ^ "Beyond Silent Spring: Integrated Pest Management and Chemical Safety. Edited by H.F. van Emden and D.B. Peakall". SpringerLink. Retrieved on 2007-11-04. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1333 - Flood of the Arno River, causing massive damage in Florence as recorded by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani
  6. ^ Peter A. Coates. (October 2005), "The Strange Stillness of the Past: Toward an Environmental History of Sound and Noise". Environmental History, Volume 10, Issue 4. Retrieved on 2007-11-04. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1333 - Flood of the Arno River, causing massive damage in Florence as recorded by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani
  7. ^ Gary Kroll, "Rachel Carson-Silent Spring: A Brief History of Ecology as a Subversive Subject". Onlineethics. org: National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 2007-11-04. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1333 - Flood of the Arno River, causing massive damage in Florence as recorded by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani
  8. ^ Murphy, Priscilla Coit. What a Book Can Do: The Publication and Reception of Silent Spring. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005. ISBN 978-1-55849-582-1
  9. ^ Audubon Magazine
  10. ^ NRDC: The Story of Silent Spring
  11. ^ Dorothy McLaughlin. "Fooling with Nature: Silent Spring Revisited". PBS Frontline. Retrieved 2007-11-04. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1333 - Flood of the Arno River, causing massive damage in Florence as recorded by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani
  12. ^ Taverne, Dick "The Harm That Pressure Groups Can Do", collected in Panic Nation, 2005, edited by Stanley Feldman and Vincent Marks, ISBN 1-84454-122-3. Dick Taverne Baron Taverne (born 18 October 1928) is an English politician who is one of the small number of members of the British House of Commons
  13. ^ Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants(POPs)
  14. ^ Lytle, Mark Hamilton. The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007 ISBN 0-19-517246-9
  15. ^ Examples of recent criticism include:
    (a) Rich Karlgaard, "But Her Heart Was Good", Forbes. com, May 18, 2007. Accessed September 23, 2007.
    (b) Keith Lockitch, "Rachel Carson's Genocide", Capitalism Magazine, May 23, 2007. Accessed May 24, 2007
    (c) Paul Driessen, "Forty Years of Perverse 'Responsibility,'", The Washington Times, April 29, 2007. Accessed May 30, 2007.
    (d) Iain Murray, "Silent Alarmism: A Centennial We Could Do Without", National Review, May 31, 2007. Accessed May 31, 2007.
  16. ^ Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries, accessed August 24, 2007
  17. ^ "Ron Bailey bio"
  18. ^ "Silent Spring at 40", Ronald Bailey, Reason, June 12, 2002
  19. ^ Rachel Carson, Mass Murderer?: The creation of an anti-environmental myth. Aaron Swartz, Extra!, September/October, 2007
  20. ^ Rachel Carson's Birthday Bashing, Kirsten Weir, Salon.com, June 29, 2007. Ronald Bailey (born November 23, 1953) is the science editor for ''Reason'' magazine. Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine from the Reason Foundation.
  21. ^ David Roberts, "My one and only post on the Rachel Carson nonsense" Grist. David Roberts is a primary staff writer for Grist Magazine, an online environmental publication based in Seattle Washington. com, May 24, 2007. Accessed September 23, 2007.
  22. ^ In this context, some draw attention to the fact that both the Reason Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, both criticial of Silent Spring, have received substantial funding from corporations in regulated industries. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI is a Non-profit public policy organization founded in 1984 by Fred L (W. Bush's Anti-Environmental Advisors, Tempest).
  23. ^ Monica Moore, "First Words", PAN Magazine, Fall 2006. Accessed September 23, 2007

Sources

External links

The Natural Resource Defense Council ( NRDC) is a New York City -based Non-profit, Non-partisan international environmental Advocacy
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