1907-1964
Authir, Environmentalist

Invisible Danger.

Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring brought to the attention of the American public the dangers that pesticides pose to the plant, animal, and human life of the country. In the first chapter she tells a parable about a town that seems to be cursed: its grass is withering; its fish and wildlife are dying, as are the animals that the town's farmers raised; even the townspeople are taking ill mysteriously and suddenly, and some of them are not recovering. The balance of nature in the community had been changed forever, as if through witchcraft or enemy sabotage. But, wrote Carson, "the people had done it themselves." While no American town had suffered all these ills, she explained, many real towns had suffered one or in some cases several of them. They were caused by contamination, nuclear and chemical, the products and...