| The modern environmental movement was | | | | over America during the same period. Devastating |
| established with the release of Rachel Carson's | | | | events that no-one could easily ignore. Rachel |
| Silent Spring in 1962. It was an important work of | | | | Carson was unique in that she compiled the most |
| literature that opened the eyes of the World to | | | | graphic of these events and eloquently described |
| the dangers of toxic chemical pollutants in the | | | | them in her book. Silent Spring opened with a |
| environment. In her book, Rachel Carson cleverly | | | | 'fable for tomorrow' where she described a |
| integrated the concerns of urban and industrial | | | | fictional natural community left destroyed by a |
| reformers with the greater ecological issues of | | | | mysterious unknown killer of nature. It was a |
| the day. | | | | community where fruit trees were barren, birds |
| Silent Spring shocked the world by revealing the | | | | silenced and 'everywhere was a shadow of death'. |
| devastating impact of uncontrolled and | | | | This could have been any town, any locality and |
| unregulated pesticide use. But Rachel Carson also | | | | people took notice of the message behind the |
| delved into the historical background of pesticides | | | | tale. |
| giving us an insight into the reasons why | | | | Things have moved in since Rachel Carson wrote |
| pesticides like DDT became so popular, so quickly. | | | | her book. There are now new ecological |
| She realised that the synthetic chemical industry | | | | 'mega-hazards'. But the allegory still describes the |
| was a 'child of the Second World War'. Concerns | | | | world of today. Some of the old chemicals still |
| during the War about ways of sustaining | | | | persist in the environment even though they have |
| agricultural food production as well as the | | | | been banned and there are now some new |
| continuous threat of insect vectors pushed DDT | | | | chemicals that have been added to the list. The |
| to widespread use in 1945 even before it was | | | | nature of the effects of chemical pollutants has |
| properly tested for toxicity. At the time Rachel | | | | also changed. Now we are realizing that toxic |
| Carson wrote Silent Spring, more than 188 million | | | | synthetic chemicals in the form of endocrine |
| pounds of DDT had been produced. | | | | disruptors can have long term effects on living |
| But highly visible pollution events were occurring all | | | | systems. |