HER MISSION
Stopping the "death" of the environment
Carson’s prophetic Silent Spring (1962) was first serialized in The New Yorker and then became a best seller, creating worldwide awareness of the dangers of environmental pollution. The outlook of the environmental movement of the 1960s and early ’70s was generally pessimistic, reflecting a pervasive sense of "civilization malaise" and a conviction that Earth’s long-term prospects were bleak. Silent Spring suggested that the planetary ecosystem was reaching the limits of what it could sustain. Carson stood behind her warnings of the consequences of indiscriminate pesticide use despite the threat of lawsuits from the chemical industry and accusations that she engaged in “emotionalism” and “gross distortion.” Some critics even claimed that she was a communist. Carson died before she could see any substantive results from her work on this issue, but she left behind some of the most influential environmental writing ever published.
- ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
SILENT SPRING
Rachel Carson
The main theme of Silent Spring is the destruction of the delicate balance of nature by the wholesale use of insecticides. Rachel Carson carefully explains what the balance of nature is. She describes the balance of nature of the soil, of the earth's waters, and of the organisms of the earth.