Dan Sealy, NEC Board
Before 1962, scenes of children enjoying lunch at picnic tables in parks while being sprayed with clouds of pesticides were common. Images of suburban children chasing after slow-moving trucks emptying tanks of the pesticide DDT into a misty fog for them to play in and low-flying crop-dusters laying a cloud of DDT on acres of crops across America were not uncommon. This September is the 60th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, which would turn those scenes of innocence into stunning images of dangerous ignorance.
Rachel Carson was the perfect person to combine scientific knowledge with riveting and eloquent writing to change Americans. Carson became an aquatic biologist with the Bureau of Fisheries, later part of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Carson’s work included reviewing results of research conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture that raised concerns about environmental and public health issues arising from the indiscriminate application of DDT. The research showed links between some pesticides and impacts to birds that ingested them. Perhaps most shocking was the implosion of some bird species such as Bald Eagles as a result of the eggshell fragility caused by DDT. She was maddened that the reports from those studies did not make it into the public conscience because of poor publicity, disinterest, or pushback from well-funded and well-connected chemical companies. Her concern for the loss of birds and their songs was echoed in the title of her award-winning book: Silent Spring.
The shared love of the New England coast by Carson, a budding marine biologist, and a new President, John Kennedy, would have unforeseen global impacts for environmental protections. Carson had been awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She looked forward to spending her summers in the small cottage she built on the shore of Southport Island, Maine, where she was inspired by the rocky spruce-studded coast. Just down the East Coast, Kennedy sailed and swam in Cape Cod Bay. Kennedy would sign legislation protecting Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Point Reyes in Marin County, National Seashores. About the same time, the public embraced Carson’s books about the ocean: Under the Sea Wind,The Sea Around Us and The Edge of the Sea in which Carson shared her knowledge and love of marine life. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy held women’s discussion groups in the White House to hear about a range of topics. She asked Carson to speak to them about marine ecosystems. This led to an introduction between President Kennedy and Carson. That connection would challenge Kennedy when, as a result of Silent Spring, she was invited to provide testimony to Congress about pesticide poisons. The chemical industry felt threatened by her book and her testimony, declaring her to be nothing more than an unprofessional alarmist. More darkly, she would be derided as a “spinster” alluding to some dislike of children or homosexual behavior when, in fact, as a result of family losses she provided the primary financial and emotional support for her mother, sisters and orphaned nephew. She overcame a whisper campaign led by former Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra T. Benson, suggesting she was “probably a communist”, a term which held particular fear for a post-McCarthy, Cold War era America. When she testified to Congress and sat for a CBS television interview in the home she built in Silver Spring, Maryland, she wore a dark wig to cover her decades-long battle with cancer.
In response to Carson’s spotlight on the impacts of some pesticides, she was targeted by American chemical companies. Kennedy responded to the criticism strategically by appointing a committee of scientists to review her conclusions as well as the vicious challenges to her work. The committee absolved her of the false claims and reiterated the need to regulate pesticides. Less than two years after Silent Spring was published, Rachel Carson lost her battle with cancer.
Spending her early childhood on a farm in Pennsylvania, Carson learned firsthand the beauty of nature and found a love for writing. This ability to write clear, compelling narratives coupled with excitement for science was a rare gift that enabled her to inspire the general public’s understanding of the dangers of some pesticides and the importance of environmental conservation.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter posthumously presented the Presidential Medal of Honor to Rachel Carson along with nature photographer, Ansel Adams and ornithologist, Roger Troy Peterson, among others. In his proclamation Carter wrote:
“Never silent herself in the face of destructive trends, Rachel Carson fed a spring of awareness across America and beyond. A biologist with a gentle, clear voice, she welcomed her audiences to her love of the sea, while with an equally clear determined voice she warned Americans of the dangers human beings themselves pose for their own environment. Always concerned, always eloquent, she created a tide of environmental consciousness that has not ebbed.”
On the Maine shore where her ashes were scattered a plaque reads: “Rachel Carson (1907-1964), Writer, Ecologist, Champion of the Natural World, Here at last returned to the sea.”
Learn more about Carson’s legacy here:
- Rachel Carson childhood farm: rachelcarsonhomestead.org
- The home she built in Silver Spring, Maryland: Rachel Carson House: home.nps.gov/places/rachel-carson-house.htm
- The Rachel Carson Council environmental organization: rachelcarsoncouncil.org
- Rachel Carson National Wildlife refuge in Maine: www.fws.gov/refuge/rachel-carson