Module 4: "Rachel Carson: Environmentalist and Writer"

When you hear the word “revolutionary,” what image comes to mind? An angry, wild-eyed man toting a machine gun, perhaps? Or do you look back in history to see someone like George Washington or Paul Revere?

How about the environmentalist and writer Rachel Carson?

“Can anyone believe,” she wrote, “it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called “insecticides” [insect killers] but biocides [life killers].”

It caused such an uproar that a New York Times headline declared: SILENT SPRING IS NOW NOISY SUMMER.

They questioned Carson’s abilities as a scientist, calling her a hysterical fanatic.

But the storm of debate surrounding her book and its critics pulled her into the limelight.

But back in 1962, few people were familiar with such terms as pollution and ecology and environmental awareness.

President Kennedy’s commission supported Carson’s warnings. So did other government studies.

Armed with such new data and the public outcry, Congress began passing laws to ban or control the use of potentially dangerous pesticides.

A 1993 New York Times article says that “68 pesticide ingredients [not in use] have been determined to cause cancer. One out of every 10 community drinking-water wells contains pesticides….Farmers exposed to “herbicides” [weed killers] have a six times greater risk than others of contracting certain cancers.

A 1993 New York Times article says that “68 pesticide ingredients [not in use] have been determined to cause cancer. One out of every 10 community drinking-water wells contains pesticides….Farmers exposed to “herbicides” [weed killers] have a six times greater risk than others of contracting certain cancers.

Children in homes using pesticides are seven times as likely to develop childhood leukemia [a form of cancer].”