#OnThisDay in 1962, 'Silent Spring', one of the most influential books of all time, was published. It takes its title from the ruinous imagery of John Keats' 1819 ballad 'La Belle Dame sans Merci'.
A Thread:
By the early 1960s, Rachel Carson was not an unknown author. Having trained as a biologist, she joined the US Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1951, she published 'The Sea Around Us' which was a bestseller.
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She would spend much of the next ten years focussing on harmful effects of pesticides and this is how she came across a newfound antagonist.
DDT had been around for quite some time. During the days of World War II, it was used to treat malaria.
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USA of the 1950s saw an unprecedented boom and many wartime products were funnelled into civilian use. Agricultural fields were being rained with DDT to get rid of pest and maximize crop yield. Instantaneous results meant a blind faith slowly built up around the substance.
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This is why, when Rachel Carson's work appeared in 1962, the book created such an outcry. She was meticulous in exploring the science of pesticides, showing that they were far more toxic than most people realized.
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She procured confidential information from government agencies, listing when and where specific individuals had died. She accused these companies of greed and malpractice and condemned their profit-centric model at the risk of causing irreparable damage to humans and wildlife.
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She had already been operated on for breast cancer. While researching for the book, she was suffering from a duodenal ulcer and rheumatoid arthritis. Her cancer had metastasized requiring another operation and radiotherapy. Large chunks of the of the book were written in bed.
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Shortly after publishing, the book had caught the attention of President Kennedy and she testified before the Science Advisory Committee in one of her last public appearances. She passed away in 1964.
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In 1969, the year Neil Armstrong walked on moon, the U.S. Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act. In the same year the use of DDT as a pesticide was effectively banned. The next year, the Environmental Protection Agency was established.
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One person without a Y-chromosome did the unthinkable job of standing up to corporates and the government against a massively popular substance with proven wartime success, battled personal agonies and the wrath of officials simultaneously and eventually got it banned.
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If the country can still hear bird songs in 2020, it is courtesy a single individual who grew up loving the nature around her village in an impoverished village in Pennsylvania. Rachel Carson changed the world and made it a better place to breathe in.
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