The Ecology Book

244

A

rguably the most revered

and influential book ever

published on the subject

of environmentalism, Silent Spring

garnered a huge amount of

publicity when it was released in

1962. It galvanized the fledgling
      conservation movement, forced
      legislative change, and, perhaps
      most significantly, championed the
      right of the public to question those
      in power and hold them to account.
      However, the author of this
      ground-breaking work was far from
      the typical “eco-warrior”—a term
      that was unheard of when the book
      was first published. On the
      contrary, Rachel Carson was a
      quiet, scholarly woman, with
      a masters degree in zoology and
      20 years’ service as an aquatic
      biologist in the United States. Most
      of all, she was an exceptional
      writer, able to fuse scientific fact
      with compelling narrative.

Dying wildlife

Like many great and influential

works, Silent Spring began in a very

personal way. In January 1958,

Carson’s friend Olga Huckins sent

her a letter that she had originally

tried to have published in the

Boston Herald. It spoke about aerial

spraying of a mixture of fuel oil and

a chemical compound named DDT

(dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane),

in the vicinity of her small bird

sanctuary in Michigan. The

morning after the spraying,

Huckins found several birds dead

on her property and hoped that

Carson might know someone in

Washington who could stop further

spraying. Carson was outraged and

resolved to help. For more than a

decade she had been aware of

troubling incidents in which

Rachel Carson Born in 1907, Rachel Carson grew

up on a farm in Pennsylvania,

where she developed a love of

nature. She won a scholarship to

Pennsylvania College for Women

and later gained a masters in

zoology. Growing up in a land-

locked state, Carson dreamed of

the ocean; it became an enduring

passion, and she went to work as

an aquatic biologist with the US

Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

Carson wrote and published

many educational brochures and

eventually became the US Fish

and Wildlife Service’s editor-in-

chief. From 1941 onward, she

wrote books about marine

biology, most notably The Sea

Around Us, which won the

National Book Award, and was a

national best seller. This success

enabled Carson to write full

time and she began work on

Silent Spring in 1958. In 1960,

Carson was diagnosed with

breast cancer; she died in 1964.

THE LEGACY OF PESTICIDES

Spraying insecticide such as

DDT whether indoors or outside, has

been—and in some places still is—a

common method of controlling the

mosquitoes that transmit malaria.

IN CONTEXT

KEY FIGURE

Rachel Carson (1907– 64)

BEFORE

1854 Henry David Thoreau’s

book Walden describes a social

experiment to live the simple

life in tune with nature. It is

seen as an inspiration for the

environmentalist movement.

1949 A Sand County Almanac

by Aldo Leopold proposes a

deep ecology of people living

in harmony with the land.

AFTER

1970 The US establishes

the Environmental Protection

Agenc y ( E PA).

1989 Bill McKibben’s book

The End of Nature highlights

the dangers of global warming.

2006 The documentary An

Inconvenient Truth records

former US vice president Al

Gore’s efforts to educate the

public about climate change.

Key works

1941 Under the Sea Wind

1951 The Sea Around Us

1955 The Edge of the Sea

1962 Silent Spring

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