Silent_Spring

Silent Spring In a 1962 letter to a friend, Rachel Carson wrote: The beauty of the living world I was trying to save has always been uppermost in my mind—that, and anger at the senseless, brutish things that were being done. I have felt bound by a solemn obligation to do what I could—if I didn’t at least try I could never be happy again in nature. But now I can believe that I have at least helped a little. It would be unrealistic to believe one book could bring a complete change (Matthiessen 188). Carson did indeed help “a little.” Her “one book” helped to reform the pesticide industry by removing DDT from products. While it did not “bring a complete change” in the use of pesticides, it did bring about an abundance of criticisms, both positive and negative. In this paper, I will analyze some of the different criticisms of Carson’s work. I will look at the mostly negative criticisms and show who disagreed with Carson and why. As Rachel Carson opened consumers’ eyes to the dangers of pesticides, she posed a serious threat to chemical companies everywhere. The industries began to threaten her carson, smith, even, spring, silent, chemical, people, critics, claimed, wrote, scientists, matthiessen, criticisms, book, work, time, scientific, rachel, pesticides, one, negative, 1962, while, reviews, readers, published, public, media, little, industry, first, end, darby