Rachel Carson’s Environmental Movement
Rachel Carson was born on May 27th, 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania, and was famous for being an American biologist, an environmentalist, and one of the best woman scientist/author. Just at age 11, Carson won a prize for a story published in the St. Nicholas Magazine. (“Rachel Carson, Timeline.”) She even graduated as magna cum laude at the Pennsylvania College for Women in Biology, gets her M.A in Zoology at John Hopkins University, and wanted to pursue a Ph.D. at Hopkins in Marine Biology but unfortunately drops out of school due to lack of funding. (“Rachel Carson, Timeline.”) For the next following years leading up to Silent Spring, Carson continues to write articles and publications such as Undersea, Under the Sea-Wind, The Sea Around Us (which also had a film adaptation), The Birth of an Island, The Edge of the Sea (which was the first and only academic paper Carson wrote), and Help Your Children to Wonder, all while working as an Associate Aquatic Biologist in places such as Chicago and Washington before resigning to become a full-time writer. (“Rachel Carson, Timeline.”) Carson jumpstarted the environmental movement in the 1960s due to her then-controversial book, Silent Spring which was published on September 27th, 1962. Silent Spring argues the dangerous misuse of pesticides, the lasting effect of a nuclear explosion, and the use of chemicals that are planted back into our earth and soil.
Carson starts us off by mentioning the power of mankind. How humans can create and alter certain things or species to exist in the environment. Lethal materials that humans interact with such as nuclear explosions is something that could potentially lead to our inevitable death or destruction. For the years leading up to Silent Spring, the world was going through an experimental change in terms of nuclear testing. One of the reasons why Carson was inspired to write about the effect of nuclear destruction was the event of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in 1945. (“Rachel Carson and Nuclear War?”, 2019.) In 1961, a year before Silent Spring was published, the U.S and U.S.S.R continued to due to nuclear testing and the U.S.S.R set off the world’s largest nuclear bomb. (“Timeline of the Nuclear Age.”) In 1962, a month after Silent Spring was published, not only was there continued nuclear testing but the Cuban Missile Crisis occurs which almost causes the world to enter into a nuclear war. (“Timeline of the Nuclear Age.”) In 1963, a year after Silent Spring is published, the U.S and U.S.S.R limit the Test Ban Treaty which prohibits nuclear testing. (Coincidence? I think not!) (“Timeline of the Nuclear Age.”)
Carson continues to go in-depth about the human use of chemicals and radiation by mentioning the invention of pesticides. Carson states that we have been using over 200 chemicals that are found in pesticides, while the human and animal bodies take generations to adapt to the simplest chemicals. These pesticides that all these brands are trying to sell to the public kill not only the bad pests but also the good pests! The chemicals in these pesticides don’t just stay on the pests, but they eventually end up in our waters, soils, food, etc. When Carson published Silent Spring she knew she was going to get criticism and backlash for her work. (“The Consequences of Silent Spring.”) She was labeled as a “hysterical woman” and a “poor scientist” despite her credibility and very legitimate claims. (“The Consequences of Silent Spring.”) A chemical company, Monsanto, then released a parody book in response to Carson titled The Desolate Year stating how terrible the world would be without pesticides. (“The Consequences of Silent Spring.”) But Carson never said that pesticides should be completely banned — just regulated and controlled. (“The Consequences of Silent Spring.”) After President Kennedy read Silent Spring, he understood and agreed with Carson on the effects of chemical use. (“The Consequences of Silent Spring.”) President Kennedy then pushed federal laws in 1964, the year Carson, unfortunately, passes away from cancer, for companies to prove that their pesticide was safe for use. (“The Consequences of Silent Spring.”)
Although we have come a long way since Carson’s discoveries, we are still taking advantage of the access to chemicals and experiments that are a potential harm to our environment. Man/animal kinds cannot adapt to the ways of chemicals and radiation as fast as they are being released into the earth. And yet, each time we create these chemicals to kill off these “pests”, we are needed to create stronger and stronger pesticides after they’re adapted to becoming immune. Carson quotes Albert Schweiter’s infamous saying, “Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.” (“The Obligation to Endure.”, 2002.)
