Carson, Rachel (1907–1964)

RACHEL CARSON was thoroughly educated as a biologist. She obtained her education at the Pennsylvania College for Women, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and earned her master's degree in zoology from Johns Hopkins University. She worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (now Fish and Wildlife) for 17 years.

Through her work as a governmental biologist, she studied fish and wildlife and became very knowledgeable of the environmental impacts of pesticides on animal populations. She was particularly interested in the effects of DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) on the environment. It was through her biological and zoological background and negative reports about DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons that she began research and writing her now famous book, Silent Spring.

DDT was first used as a insecticide in 1939. It was highly effective in eradicating colonies of mosquitoes and their eggs. DDT was also used during World War II by B-25 bombers that sprayed areas of Pacific islands prior to invasions. It was seen as effective in eliminating malaria in the developed world and drastically reduced its existence elsewhere. The problem with DDT was not its effectiveness, but its indiscriminate effectiveness; it killed everything it came in contact with. This was especially disturbing to Carson, because DDT was killing wildlife and was being used all across the United States, even in residential suburbs to eradicate caterpillars, moths, and beetles that carried diseases.

Silent Spring was published in 1962 and created an open debate between the public and the pesticide industry. The book helped to educate the public about the potential dangers and effects of pesticideson humans and wildlife. The public started to question the use of pesticides, their effect on the environment, and became more critical of the industry and the government. Not everyone was convinced of the veracity of Carson's claims, especially those in the pesticide industry. Many in the industry criticized her accusations and, in a very public manner, discredited her knowledge of science. She did not have a Ph.D. and she was a woman. These two factors alone were used against her. But, soon after the book was published, President John F. Kennedy formed a government group to investigate the dangers of pesticides.

In 1963, the President's Science Advisory Committee announced that the claims made in Carson's Silent Spring were indeed correct. Her work helped to promote an environmental movement and was influential in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. In 1972, DDT was banned from sale in the United States. Carson died of breast cancer in 1964.

Although her life was cut short, she is credited with helping to start the modern environmental movement. Silent Spring has been called one of the most influential books of our time. Former Vice President Al Gore, in the introduction to a 1994 reprint, wrote, “Without this book the environmental movement might have long been delayed or never have developed at all.”