NASA: Silent Spring Turns 50 - Birds and DDT - Rachel Carson
Posted by Ricardo Marcenaro | Posted in NASA: Silent Spring Turns 50 - Birds and DDT - Rachel Carson | Posted on 19:09
Silent Spring Turns 50
June 19th, 2012 by Michon Scott
On June 16, 1962, The New Yorker began publishing a serialized version of Silent Spring by Rachel
Carson. Spring would eventually turn silent, Carson warned, because
widespread pesticide use was killing so many birds that there might be
none left to sing. The book provoked a strong reaction from the
pesticide industry, but also led to tighter restrictions on pesticide
use in the United States and other nations.
Born in 1907, Rachel Carson studied at The Johns Hopkins University and the Marine Biological Laboratory.
She was the second woman hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries for a
non-secretarial position. In her spare time, she wrote newspaper and
magazine articles. Between 1941 and 1955, she published three books
about the ocean, leaving the fisheries bureau in 1952 to become a
full-time writer. A decade later, she completed the book that made her
beloved by some and despised by others.
Rachel Carson in 1944. Image courtesy of the National Conservation Training Archives.
When Carson wrote Silent Spring,
dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (better known as DDT) was frequently
used as an insecticide in domestic and agricultural applications. At the
same time, multiple bird species were showing signs of decline.
Carson connected the dots between pesticide use, wildlife decline, and
human health.
One common misconception about Rachel Carson’s work is that she
opposed all use of DDT, even when it could prevent the spread of
malaria. Although she described dire scenarios of how pesticides might
affect nature and people, she didn’t argue for an end to all DDT use.
Instead, she argued for more cautious, targeted uses. A Nature article
commemorating the anniversary of her book reported that the pesticide
restrictions eventually implemented probably left DDT more effective in
fighting malaria because pests had fewer opportunities to adapt and
evolve.
Carson faced a firestorm of criticism for her book, but helped spur
environmentalism in the United States and abroad. She did not live to
see many of the consequences of her work as she had breast cancer when Silent Spring
was published and died from it in 1964. As she wrote her book, iconic
birds such as the American bald eagle were in decline; but by 2007, the
bald eagle was removed from the U.S. Endangered Species list.
To learn more about Rachel Carson, please see the Earth Observatory feature article by guest author Brian Payton.
Reference: Dunn, R. (2012) In retrospect: Silent Spring. Nature, 485, 578–579
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