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| Cover of the first edition of Silent Spring |
On April
22nd, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Since 1970, Earth Day has
increased awareness of the incredible planet we live on and encouraged people
to learn more about pollution, habitat destruction, the plight of endangered
species, and many other environmental issues. What began as a demonstration
spearheaded primarily by college-aged anti-war protesters amid the Vietnam War,
has since grown into the largest secular observance in the world, marked by
more than a billion participants every year as a day of action to change human
behavior and provoke policy changes for the collective good of our planet.
Since its inception in 1970, Earth Day has given a voice to an emerging public
consciousness about the state of the natural world, epitomized today in a new
generation of environmental leaders, such as global climate activist Greta
Thunberg or Jasilyn Charger of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, whose One Mind
Youth Movement sparked national protests against the Dakota Access Oil
Pipeline. In honor of this milestone, and in anticipation of an upcoming
digital exhibit supported by Dartmouth’s Rauner Special Collections Library
titled
Vanishing: Making of an Extinction Crisis, today we are
highlighting an unassuming, but incredibly important book that not only helped ignite the modern Environmental Movement, but
holds timely lessons for how we should interact with the environment
today.
The book
in question - the first edition of Rachel Carson’s
Silent Spring, published
in 1962, was revolutionary in how it translated complex chemical and ecological
relationships into easily comprehensible arguments, its popularity, and its
appeal to the general public. Due to a combination of these factors, Carson’s
investigation of the potentially adverse impacts of widespread synthetic
pesticide use - in agriculture and by the U.S. government in pest eradication
programs - led to widespread concern about environmental and human health
impacts, environmental policy change, and the emergence of the modern
Environmental Movement. Today,
Silent Spring continues to provide a
valuable lesson about how we should interact with our fragile planet:
proceed cautiously and think long-term
Prior to
the publication of
Silent Spring in late 1957, Rachel Carson was a
distinguished marine biologist, author of the widely acclaimed novel
The Sea
Around Us, and the second woman hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
(later the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service). Through her friendships with
fellow biologists, Carson closely followed a rising number of federal proposals
for widespread pesticide spraying; including the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) plans to eradicate fire ants, gypsy moths, and other
insects using chlorinated hydrocarbons and organophosphates. After
nearly ten years of investigation and research, Carson published
Silent
Spring to raise environmental consciousness among the American public about
what she saw as potentially dangerous synthetic pesticides, including the
notorious substance known as DDT (Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane). In the
course of 250 pages, Carson translated ten years of ecological and chemical
research into a narrative detailing how America’s addiction to pesticides would
severely harm human health, the environment, and future generations’ ability to
control increasingly resistant insect pests.
Amid the
turmoil of the 1960s, USDA officials, farmers, and chemical-producing companies
applauded the efficacy and safety of synthetic pesticides at killing insect pests. At a time when air, water, and soil
pollution were mere afterthoughts in the minds of many industry leaders,
Carson’s
Silent Spring made two bold assertions; first, that synthetic
pesticides like DDT could be carcinogenic and thus harmful to humans, and
second, that chemicals like DDT can have huge negative environmental impacts,
accumulating in the food chain until they interfere with biological processes
and ecosystem functioning. In chapter 3 - famously titled “Elixirs of Death” -
Carson presented considerable evidence for the toxicity of a wide array of
synthetic pesticides, noting that “for the first time in the history of the
world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous
chemicals... they occur virtually everywhere.” Although the chapter reads more
like a gripping detective crime novel, Carson based her findings on research
completed by National Cancer Institute researcher and environmental cancer
section founding director Wilhelm Hueper, who had begun to classify many
pesticides as carcinogenic - or cancer causing - for both animals and humans.
With the help of her research assistant Jeanee David and NIH librarian Dorothy
Algire, Carson found evidence to support the pesticide-cancer connection, much
to the chagrin of chemical companies and many peers from the scientific
community who reviewed
Silent Spring. This finding was in sharp contrast to the general perception of chemicals like DDT at the time, which was sprayed readily across parks, beaches, and lawns to control mosquitoes, oftentimes while people were present. Later, in chapters titled “And No
Birds Sing” and “Needless Havoc,” Carson reported that many synthetic
pesticides readily accumulated in the environment, exponentially increasing in
potency as animals lower in the food chain (i.e. fish) were consumed by animals
higher in the food chain (i.e. eagles). Carson reported that this process -
known as
bioaccumulation - had significant negative impacts on many animals,
most famously on birds. Carson discovered that birds ingesting DDT tended to
lay thin-shelled eggs that would break prematurely, resulting in population
declines of more than 80 percent. With continued use of synthetic pesticides
like DDT, Carson predicted a grim future where birdsong would be largely absent
- hence the title of her book.
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| Illustration from the opening page of chapter seven, highlighting the harmful impacts of chemical accumulation in food webs. |
Given
Silent
Spring’s radical claims, the book caught the eye of agrochemical companies,
industry leaders, and government officials; many of whom stood in favor of
liberal synthetic pesticide use either due to their effectiveness at destroying
insect pests or because they hoped to safeguard their own economic interests.
As with most revolutionaries who have prompted society to question established
institutions, industries, or ways of thinking, Carson received considerable
criticism from the aforementioned groups following the release of her book.
American biochemist Robert White-Stevens and former chemist Thomas Jukes were
among
Silent Spring’s most aggressive critics, especially of Carson's
analysis of DDT. According to White-Stevens, "If man were to follow the
teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and
diseases and vermin would once again inherit the earth." Others went
further, even attacking Carson's scientific credentials, arguing that her
training in marine biology rather than biochemistry left her inept to discuss
synthetic pesticides. White-Stevens labeled her "a fanatic defender of
the cult of the balance of nature,” while former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Ezra Taft Benson, in a letter to former President Eisenhower,
reportedly concluded that because she was unmarried despite being physically
attractive, she was "probably a Communist.” Soon, even large agricultural
and chemical companies joined in protest, trying to discredit the validity of
Carson’s science while warning the public about the dangers of “questioning
pesticides.” For example, agro-chemical giant Monsanto published 5,000 copies
of a
Silent Spring parody called "The Desolate Year" (1962)
which projected a world of famine and disease caused by banning pesticides.
Although critics repeatedly asserted that Carson was calling for the
elimination of all pesticides,
Silent Spring does not call for a
complete ban of pesticides, but rather a cautious and careful approach to pest
management and agricultural production; an approach considering all the
environmental and human-health impacts of man’s actions prior to pursuing a
“one size fits all” strategy. As evidenced by the slew of protests,
Silent
Spring was revolutionary in its critical examination of America’s love of
pesticides.
Despite
all the criticism, a growing body of scientific evidence has since supported
Carson’s assertions. For example, in 2015, the International Agency for
Research on Cancer classified DDT as a “probable carcinogen to humans”, with
exposure leading to higher rates of both pancreatic and skin cancer. In
addition, according to the EPA, “a relationship between DDT exposure and
reproductive effects in humans is suspected.” Meanwhile, the detrimental impact
of DDT on wildlife has also become evident through rebounding populations of
previously endangered aquatic and avian species that Carson believed were
negatively impacted by DDT. According to recent estimates, a ban on DDT and
other pesticide reductions have allowed for the comeback of the bald eagle,
peregrine falcon, brown pelican, and many other species once facing extinction
in the contiguous United States. As a
New York Times science article published
on March 11th, 1982, described:
Since the ban (on DDT), the brown pelican, one
of the most threatened species, has increased to an estimated 5,000 pairs along
the Atlantic Coast, up from a low of about 1,100 to 1,200 breeding pairs in the
1960's. Ospreys, or fish hawks, had fallen to about 100 breeding pairs from
1,000 on the coastline between New York and Boston. Biologists are now hopeful
the species will return to higher levels by the end of the century.
As a growing body of
evidence has since proven Carson’s premonitions, her call to proceed with
caution in environmental matters, echoed throughout
Silent Spring,
becomes increasingly poignant. Carson encouraged Americans to question the
logic of broadcasting potentially dangerous chemicals into the environment with
little prior investigation of their environmental and health effects - but her
powerful message, to question the indirect consequences of our actions on other
organisms and future generations, extends well beyond pesticides. Were Carson
alive today, she’d likely encourage us to approach practices in our everyday
lives that we’ve accepted as “normal” - from industrial-scale cattle farming to
ordering copious amounts of Amazon products - with a similar dose of caution
and criticism.
Silent Spring reminds us that only by proceeding
cautiously and thinking about future generations, can we enact positive
environmental change.
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| Opening illustration to Chapter 10 of Silent Spring. |
Despite
its “radical-ness” as one reviewer called it, the first edition of Rachel
Carson’s
Silent Spring is a rather unassuming book. Beautiful pencil
illustrations resembling playful images in children’s books about woodland
animals or planes accompany the opening to
each chapter, whereas Carson’s prose reads more like a poetic nonfiction crime
novel than a scientific call-to-action. Looking at these features, it’s hard to
believe that
Silent Spring lit the match that ignited that fire that helped
fuel the modern Environmental Movement. Yet these features help explain why
Silent
Spring appealed to such a broad audience, and therefore elucidate how it
left such an enormous impact on public opinion. Thanks to Carson’s blend of
carefully crafted data and moral-based arguments, in addition to her
approachable writing style, the book became an enormous success.
Silent
Spring was named America’s “Book of the Month” following its release,
landed a spot on the New York Times bestseller list (not an easy feat for a
scientific work authored by a woman to achieve at the time), and sold more than
520,000 copies in 24 countries.
In
addition to Carson’s engaging and approachable writing style and the sheer
number of copies sold,
Silent Spring was especially impactful due to the
composition of the audience it reached.
Silent Spring was particularly
well-received by middle-class readers in addition to scientists and political
elites, many of whom weren’t from traditional scientific backgrounds. As Carson
said following the nomination of her work as the book-of-the-month, she
hoped to "carry (
Silent Spring) to
farms and hamlets all over that country that don't know what a bookstore looks
like—much less
The New Yorker." Indeed, the book achieved something
rare at the time; for a narrative based on ecological, chemical, and
oncological research, it was read ravenously by farmers, small business owners,
and Americans from various educational backgrounds across the U.S.
By
prompting readers to confront their reliance on chemicals and by presenting
them with the reality that their everyday habits might have unexpected
consequences for future generations, organisms aside from pests, and their own
health, Carson in turn provided a launchpad for Americans to be more critical
of how they interacted with the environment on a daily basis.
Silent Spring bolstered
growing frustrations that young Americans felt toward governments and
industries amid the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and environmental
catastrophes such as the massive 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California,
and channeled those feelings toward a mechanism for change (i.e. environmental
policy). In doing so, Carson inadvertently fanned the flames for environmental
action to spread like wildfire in areas beyond synthetic pesticides. Today, the
founders of Earth Day recognize the large role that
Silent Spring played
in the establishment of their own environmental movement. As EarthDay.org
notes, “the stage was set for change with the publication of Rachel Carson’s
New York Times bestseller
Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a
watershed moment as it raised public awareness and concern for living
organisms, the environment and the inextricable links between pollution and
public health.”
The
paradigm shift in environmental thought started by the publication of
Silent
Spring had an enormous and measurable impact upon the environment and human
health beginning in the 1960s. As readers began to concern themselves with the
accumulation of potentially hazardous chemicals in the environment and in turn
their own bodies, increasing pressure was placed on legislators, agrochemical
companies, and landowners to enact change. The positive impacts of
Silent
Spring are perhaps best observed in the significant decline in the use of
DDT-based pesticides in the United States following the book’s publication. As
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) describes in their
Brief
History and Status of DTT publication:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture,
the federal agency with responsibility for regulating pesticides before the
formation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, began regulatory
actions in the 1960s to prohibit many of DDT's uses because of mounting
evidence of the pesticide's declining benefits and environmental and
toxicological effects. The publication in 1962 of Rachel Carson's Silent
Spring stimulated widespread public concern over the dangers of improper
pesticide use and the need for better pesticide controls.
Indeed, Carson’s
challenge - to not only consider the efficacy of pesticides in ridding of
pests, but to critically examine the long-term and indirect impacts of
chemicals before building agricultural systems reliant upon these substances -
led
to the establishment of the EPA and a subsequent ban on DDT’s agricultural use
across the United States in 1972. After President John F. Kennedy read her
book, Carson was called to testify before his Science Advisory Committee, which
was in turn summoned to critically investigate DDT and other synthetic
pesticides’ potential negative impacts.
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| Carson testifying before the Senate subcommittee. |
The committee issued its final report
largely backing Carson's scientific claims on May 15, 1963, leading to a
landslide of pro-environmental legislation echoing Carson’s call for caution in
matters of the environment. In the 30 years prior to being banned in
1972, a total of 1,350,000,000 pounds of DDT had been sprayed across
agricultural lands in the United States. In the 30 years since 1972, this
number was cut to essentially zero. And the most amazing part? Agricultural
production did not collapse with stricter regulation of synthetic pesticides as
companies that had heavily opposed
Silent Spring’s publication
originally predicted.
In
conclusion, despite fierce opposition from chemical companies,
Silent Spring
inspired a generation to stand up for the health of the environment and
helped ignite the modern Environmental Movement which continues today in the
process. Following
Silent Spring, those inspired by the text reversed
federal pesticide policy, enacted a nationwide ban on DDT in agriculture,
established the Environmental Protection Agency, and founded Earth Day.
Silent Spring was
revolutionary for condeming short-sighted tampering with the environment
that was pervasive during the Cold War, challenging farmers, companies,
consumers, and the U.S. government to consider the long-term side effects of
their actions. Aside from Carson’s radical message,
Silent Spring is a
remarkable testament to the power of translating science in an engaging manner
to diverse audiences, particularly those from non-scientific backgrounds.
Without
Silent Spring, and hence the ban on DDT and ensuing protections
on many species, bald eagles and dozens of other bird species would have likely
disappeared from the continental U.S., and humans would be facing higher rates
of cancer and other adverse health effects.
Were Carson alive today (she passed in 1964), she’d be happy to learn
about efforts that have been made to safeguard our waterways and species
diversity, but she would also challenge us to go further. Today, Carson would
reiterate
Silent Spring’s timely lesson about how humans should interact
with our fragile planet: we must proceed cautiously and think about
long-term
resilience. In an age where we’ve become increasingly aware of the myriad
of ways in which chemical, biological, and sociocultural systems are
interconnected, we must devote an adequate amount of time to science before
committing ourselves to a single course of action, in order to understand the
ramifications before it’s too late. In addition to proceeding with caution, we
must be continually critical of established practices, in order to identify
unintended consequences whose impacts couldn’t previously be measured. Just as
Carson used animal trials and long-term observation to examine the true cost of
our insatiable appetite for pesticides, we need to think of potential indirect
effects and future impacts before committing ourselves to a singular
course.
To read the first edition of
Silent Spring for yourself, request "
Depository SB959 .C3" the next time we're open!
