Francis Scully- Silent Spring's Impact

Francis Scully

Professor Di Fiori

Physical Science 2 #0543

4 December 2012

                                                           Silent Spring’s Impact

    The book Silent Spring, published in 1962, by Rachel Carson dramatically altered the way many Americans viewed their role in the environment. Carson was a marine biologist who grew up in Springdale, Pennsylvania and graduated from Johns Hopkins University. Although she produced works on many subjects, the later years of her career were dedicated to environmental issues which were the primary subject of her book Silent Spring. The release of this book prompted many debates regarding the use and potential hazards associated with chemical pesticides and it is credited by many as beginning the modern environmental movement. However, Regardless of how accurate Carson’s arguments were, the publication of Silent Spring prompted an important change in the way many individual’s view modern technologies and their potential impact on the environment.
    Silent Spring cited the usage of the insecticide DDT as an example of the large scale use of a chemical without fully understanding their effects on the environment, and believed that these practices led to significant harm to animals and humans. Even prior to the publication of this book Carson had become known as a critic of pesticide usage and deemed many government publications about the benefits of such substances as “propaganda.” However, the release of Silent Spring thrust her to national attention and provoked significant responses from the government, chemical firms, as well as the general public. Not long after the book was published congress held senate hearings in which Carson testified. The federal government toughened pesticide regulations, and eventually the Nixon administration to developed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Despite the fairly positive responses by the federal government, many chemical and agricultural corporations and interests including the Montrose Chemical Company, the primary manufacturer of DDT, naturally responded very aggressively. Upon news of Silent Spring’s publication the chemical industry launched massive public relations campaigns that reinforced how many agricultural chemicals and pesticides were extremely vital to farming and claimed that without them the agricultural industry would completely collapse. The release of the book framed many chemical manufactures as heartless profit driven corporations which subsequently led to their spending of thousands of dollars to refute Silent Spring’s arguments. Nevertheless, in light of these claims by both the agricultural and chemical industries, much of the public displayed increasing interest in Carson’s arguments which eventually led to a federal ban of DDT in 1972 and forever changed views towards the environment.
    Although Carson’s book can be credited with many of these rather immediate successes, it also had a more profound deeper effect on much of society. Silent Spring made many aware that Earth has limitations, and that the actions of humans and technological advancement has the power directly impact and dramatically alter many of things humans take for granted. Regardless of whether her claims, which are still debated today, were accurate thrusting these important facts into the main stream forever changed the way many view the actions of humans relative to the plant.
Sources:
http://www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/silent-spring/us-federal-government-responds
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012/09/27/carsons-silent-spring-spurred-environmental-movement/57845706/1
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/nature/disrupt/sspring.html