Understanding Rachel Carson

"...Carson and her most famous book, SILENT SPRING, are credited with no less than inspiring the modern global environmental movement. In its collection of the 100 most important people of the 20th Century, TIME magazine said: 'Before there was an environmental movement, there was one brave woman and her very brave book.' In 2007, the centenary of Carson's birth is being celebrated around the world - and her work is still making waves - just as it did in 1962."'

"Specifically citing SILENT SPRING, the Kennedy administration ordered a study on the possible long-term effects of DDT and other pesticides. Carson herself testified in front of the Commission and Congress - and seven years later her request for a department to study man's effect on the ecology was fulfilled with the Environmental Protection Agency."

"This quiet biologist and nature writer delivered a bracing and alarming story of how pesticides and other toxic chemicals were poisoning the Earth...In a booming economy built around chemistry, with farmers using pesticides to control ravenous pests and Americans in love with their bug spray, SILENT SPRING fell like a ton of bricks on a wedding party. The chemical industry struck back hard..."

"Rachel Carson awakened us to the fact that our wondrous new technologies came with some destructive side effects. SILENT SPRING was followed by a string of new public policies aimed at protecting human health and the environment. Today, one hundred years after her birth, Carson's critics are back with a vengeance, blaming her for half a century of government regulations they don't like, and accusing her of scaring the world away from useful chemicals that could be saving lives."

(Includes video & transcript)