Question

Rachel Carson. Carson’s most famous book, Silent Spring, is often named as one of the most important books of the 20th century, and she is frequently called the mother of the modern environmental movement. Yet some question her relevance to today’s environmental debates, and others view her as a divisive or discredited figure. This week, we’ll discuss who Rachel Carson was and how her ideas and viewpoints still resonate in the 21st century. As a freelance writer, I’ve told Carson’s story to children and adults from several different angles. For one piece, I collected remembrances about her and her books from conservationists, scholars, and people who knew her personally (though she died in 1964, there are still some people who knew her well). One contributor was, in the 1950s, a middle-school-aged neighbor when he spent a few evenings with Miss Carson and a backyard telescope. His memories of her unquenchable curiosity reinforce my conviction that she was fundamentally a scientist seeking to understand nature and our place in the natural world as well as a writer determined to share her understanding with others. You may have a long history of thinking about Rachel Carson and her ideas too. Or you may have heard little about her but have a vague impression (positive or negative) from media coverage. Or this may be the first time you’ve heard of her. My main hope for this topic is that you’ll share your thoughts about Carson, her writing, and her ideas, even if you don’t know much about her yet. Issues to consider in your comments (you may answer 1 or more of these questions or consider other issues you consider significant): Have Silent Spring and Rachel Carson shaped your interests in nature or your environmental career plans? Have you noticed recent efforts to discredit Carson’s work and legacy? One example is false claims that she is to blame for malaria deaths in Africa. Why do you think she remains a target nearly 50 years after her death? Do you think she’s still a vital figure in the environmental movement—or a kind of eco-has-been?

Answer 1

More than half a century after scientists Rachel Carson warned of the dangers of overusing the pesticide DDT, conservative groups continue to vilify or disparage her and blame her for resurgence of malaria. But DDT is still used in many countries where malaria now rages.

Any time a writer mentions Rachel Carson's 1962 book silent spring or the subsequent U.S. ban on DDT, loonies come out of woodwork. They blame Carson's book for ending the use of DDT mosquito killing pesticide. And because mosquitoes transmit malaria, that supposedly makes her culpable for just about every malaria death of the past half century.

The competitive enterprise institute, a libertarian think tank, devotes an entire website to the notion that " Rachel was wrong," asserting that "millions of people around the world suffer the painful and often deadly effects of malaria because one person sounded a false alarm." Likewise former U.S. senator Tom Coburn has declared that " millions of people, particularly children under five, died because government bought into Carson's useless science claims DDT." The novelist Michael Crichton even had one of his fictional characters assert that "banning DDT killed more people than Hitler." He put death toll at 50 million.

its worth considering the many errors in this argument both because malaria remains an epidemic problem in much of the developing world and also because groups like the competitive enterprise institute, backed by corporate interests, have latched into DDT as a case study for undermining all environmental regulation.

The first thing worth remembering is that it wasn't Rachel Carson who banned DDT. It was the very republican Nixon Administration, in 1972. Moreover, the ban applied only in the United States, and even there it made an exception for public health uses. The ban was intended to prevent the imminent extinction of ospreys, peregrine falcons, and bald eagles. Among other species. They were vulnerable because DDT caused a fatal thinning of eggshells, which collapsed under the weight of the parent incubating them, but the ban did nothing to stop the manufacture or export of DDT. William Ruckelshaus, administrator of the environmental protection agency, explicitly declared that his agency would "presume to regulate the felt necessities of other countries".