Rachel Carson Raised the Alarm About Pesticides in Silent Spring, Changing Environmental History
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In 1962, the biologist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, which captured the public's imagination and led to a shift in the understanding of our relationship with the natural world. Her book criticized the widespread use of artificial pesticides, especially one known as 'DDT.' Notably, Carson's work also helped launch the modern environmental movement and highlighted the environmental consequences of our actions in a way that had never been done before.
At the time, pesticides like DDT were seen as offering a glimpse of a better future, one where humans could control nature. DDT in particular promised to combat insects that carried diseases or destroyed farmers' crops. In fact, the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the Swiss chemist who first realized that DDT could be used as an insecticide. After it was successfully used to fight disease during World War II, DDT's production soared. It was used in everything from sprays to bug-killing wallpaper.
Applying her skills as a biologist, though, Carson observed that not all was right with this optimistic picture.
Carson was raised in Springdale, Pennsylvania, not far from the polluted, industrial city of Pittsburgh. Her love of nature had been instilled in her by her mother. Carson became a marine biologist and, in 1936, was hired as a scientist, writer, and editor for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. In the 1940s and 1950s, she published a series of popular books about the sea, which conveyed her love of the ocean to a general audience. Carson's ability to understand complex scientific reports and her status as a noted author placed her in an excellent position to write a book exposing the harms of DDT.
Silent Spring argued that the overuse of these artificial pesticides was poisoning not just insects, but many other animals – including people. For example, DDT can cause bird eggshells to thin to a dangerous extent, resulting in reproductive failure. Indeed, the 'silent spring' in Carson's title was a reference to a hypothetical future in which there would be few or no birds left to sing in the springtime. The plight of birds was, however, just one of many examples of environmental destruction Carson ominously highlighted in chapters like 'Needless Havoc' and 'Rivers of Death.'
Although not the first to raise concerns about DDT, Carson's book presented these issues for the public in a way nothing else had done before. She had a knack for making hard-to-understand concepts easier to grasp. Writing Silent Spring during an era of widespread anxiety about nuclear weapons, she highlighted the similarities between unseen pesticides and invisible nuclear radiation. This made the seriousness of her claims about DDT clear, helping readers to understand that just because something was hard to detect did not mean that it was not dangerous or destructive.
Her revelations about DDT must have been surprising to those who believed it represented a progressive step forward for humanity, especially when the consequences for the environment were unintentional.
Carson's willingness to speak up against the chemical industry that produced compounds such as DDT was courageous. At a time when the environmental movement was only beginning, detractors argued she cared more about birds, fish, and insects than the health of human beings. After all, human food security and protection against diseases like malaria or typhus were positive goals – who could deny that? The chemical industry, no doubt genuinely trying to provide useful substances for humanity, was threatened by her work. Upset by her book, some critics also chose to attack Carson personally rather than address her scientific concerns, attempting to portray her as a hysterical spinster and perhaps even a communist.
However, Carson showed that DDT wasn't even helping humans as intended. She claimed that due to the overuse of pesticides, insects were developing something known as 'resistance.' Resistance works like this: if a poison such as DDT wipes out weaker insects, any survivors would be likely able to survive a future spraying — and so might their offspring. What was at first an effective bug killer could shortly become useless as insects evolved to resist the pesticide. Those survivors would then go on to repopulate and, before long, the unwanted bugs would be back, only stronger.
Resistance itself is not new or unusual. Insects have been developing the ability to endure natural plant toxins for hundreds of millions of years. But man-made toxins can increase the speed and scope in which insects can evolve. The counterintuitive lesson of pesticide resistance is that to maintain some ability to control insects, only a small amount of pesticide should be used. Otherwise, any victories achieved could be short lived as harder-to-kill bugs take the place of their more susceptible cousins.
Seen from this angle, Carson was far from being at war on human welfare. She encouraged us to use less spray, not only because it would be better for the environment, but because it would likely be better for us in the long run. In Silent Spring, she gave evocative examples of places where the insect problem was worse after pesticides had been sprayed. For example, in apple orchards in Virginia and Nova Scotia, apple-eating moths became more problematic after DDT had been used.
Despite her concerns about DDT, Carson never called for its outright ban and was not inherently opposed to pesticides. Her real concern was of a coming 'Age of Resistance,' in which increasingly toxic chemicals were used less effectively against insects, resulting in environmental havoc, harder-to-kill bugs, and the need for more potent chemicals.
Carson's detractors may have thought she was overly sentimental about nature — she did write movingly about the plight of natural creatures — but she was also an excellent scientist who supported her claims with carefully compiled evidence. Like any good scientist, she provided a list of references at the end of her book, citing the work of many other biologists and researchers. If the mild-mannered Carson was 'emotional,' then so were a whole body of scientists who were reaching the same conclusions. Carson denied being an emotional crusader but maintained that she was merely collecting the facts so that the public could make up their own minds about pesticides in an informed manner.
In time, the public and many policymakers listened to Carson and her fellow scientists who raised concerns about DDT. In 1972, the newly formed Environmental Protection Agency banned the general use of DDT in the United States. Elsewhere, the compound is largely out of use, with only limited controlled spraying in places where malaria is still a problem.
The world has changed, and many more people today recognize the impact we have upon nature, including the fact that our actions often have unintended consequences. However, understanding these relationships is not easy, and many of the questions that Carson raised remain with us. The lessons that we can learn from her courage and scientific mindedness will continue to be relevant as we study not only the environment, but also our relationship with it.
This article was produced with Made By Us, a coalition of more than 400 history museums working to connect with today's youth.
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
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