Charlotte Fowler- 'Silent Spring'

 I recently read Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring,’ a book that is said to have initiated the environmental movement in the 1960s. It was written to awaken the general public to the danger of pesticides on the environment after she studied a noticeably large loss of birds that were exposed to DDT. She argues that poisoning the natural world—and humanity in the process—is not a civilized or ethical action. To live on earth, humanity must recognize its place within nature rather than seeing itself as above it. Her goal was to educate the public on this subject that they may not have considered before because they were not experiencing immediate effects of the action of spraying pesticides. At first, Carson took a lot of backlash for publishing this book, as a woman and for being a controversial topic as it threatened large chemical industries. This pesticide had been considered one of the greatest discoveries since WWII so a lot of people didn’t want to believe it was harmful. However, Carson’s background in biology and the many resources that backed her up proved her book to be credible and should be taken seriously. The president at the time, John F. Kennedy, had her back on the publication of the book and made sure the government took her concern seriously. Once elected, Kennedy organized a conservation conference with the help of Rachel Carson and team to promote a greener America. 


This book is an example of the literary art we talked about in week 4 that inspired the environmental movement. Rachel Carson was impressionable to many other well known environmentalists as well, like Al Gore and Jane Goodall. In her book, she used a lot of dramatic language to emphasize the seriousness of the matter and the effects that could take place if they continue the dispersal of the DDT. The public now viewed nature and their surroundings differently and with more value because of Rachel Carson’s initiative. 

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