Rachel Carson is a woman I admire enormously. Thanks to her efforts and awareness we can enjoy the peregrine falcon in the world of the 21st century. Thanks to her and the efforts of so many volunteers, today we can enjoy the little eyases that are born. For only a few decades ago the peregrine falcon was almost extinct due to poisoning by DDT.
DDT was originally created in 1873. Only when its use as an insecticide was discovered in 1939, however, did it come into widespread use. The scientist who made this discovery was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1948.
After World War II, it became especially popular due to its effectiveness against mosquitoes that spread malaria and lice that carried typhus. The World Health Organization estimated that 25 million lives were saved because of its use. Problems soon surfaced, however, as many insects began to develop resistance to the insecticide. It was also discovered to be highly toxic to fish.
Because it does not break down easily, DDT builds up in the fatty tissues. Animals that ingest it, carry it for some time. It takes an animal eight years to metabolize one half of the DDT it consumes. Birds, like the bald eagle, ingested DDT after eating contaminated fish. The DDT caused the bird's egg shells to be brittle and thin and to break easily. Eggs often were broken in the nest when the parents sat on them during incubation. This was one of the reasons populations declined to dangerous levels.
DDT was banned in the United States in 1973, although it is still used in other parts of the world. Birds that migrate to other continents are still at risk.
After World War II, it became especially popular due to its effectiveness against mosquitoes that spread malaria and lice that carried typhus. The World Health Organization estimated that 25 million lives were saved because of its use. Problems soon surfaced, however, as many insects began to develop resistance to the insecticide. It was also discovered to be highly toxic to fish.
Because it does not break down easily, DDT builds up in the fatty tissues. Animals that ingest it, carry it for some time. It takes an animal eight years to metabolize one half of the DDT it consumes. Birds, like the bald eagle, ingested DDT after eating contaminated fish. The DDT caused the bird's egg shells to be brittle and thin and to break easily. Eggs often were broken in the nest when the parents sat on them during incubation. This was one of the reasons populations declined to dangerous levels.
DDT was banned in the United States in 1973, although it is still used in other parts of the world. Birds that migrate to other continents are still at risk.
She was belittled as an antihumanitarian crank, a priestess of nature, and a hysterical woman. The director of the New Jersey Department of Agriculture believed she inspired a "vociferous, misinformed group of nature-balancing, organic gardening, bird-loving, unreasonable citizenry." An official of the Federal Pest Control Review Board, ridiculing her concern about genetic mutations caused by the use of pesticides, remarked, "I thought she was a spinster. What’s she so worried about genetics for?"
Undaunted, Rachel Carson endured such attacks with a dignity, strength of conviction, and moral courage alien to her opponents. Just what had this native Pennsylvanian done to provoke these venomous and vengeful reactions? She wrote Silent Spring, a book destined to irrevocably change the course of world history.
Undaunted, Rachel Carson endured such attacks with a dignity, strength of conviction, and moral courage alien to her opponents. Just what had this native Pennsylvanian done to provoke these venomous and vengeful reactions? She wrote Silent Spring, a book destined to irrevocably change the course of world history.
Rachel Carson never claimed to be anything more than a scientist and an author. A trained marine biologist, she devoted her life to exploring, understanding, and sharing — in exquisitely lyrical prose — the wonders of ocean life. Her decision to write Silent Spring, a book warning of the hazards of pesticide misuse and abuse, was not easy. Her earlier books had revealed the beauty, the diversity, and the incredible vitality of nature. With Silent Spring, however, Carson confronted the senseless destruction of nature by a society blinded by technological progress. But she did not intend it to be a book about death.
"In each of my books," she later explained, "I have tried to say that all the life of the planet is inter-related, that each species has its own ties to others, and that all are related to earth. This is the theme of The Sea Around Us and the other sea books, and it is also the message of Silent Spring." Long before the word ecology found its way into the public lexicon, Rachel Carson spoke a philosophy of environmentalism.
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