Fierra Nabella Wijanarko
(16/396768/HK/20882)
How Silent Spring Changed The World
Silent Spring is a book published on 27 September 1962 by Rachel Carson. This book tells a
story about how the spring is not the same anymore because of the indiscriminate use of pesticides.1 She
argues that the use of DDT (Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) as a pesticide used for insect control
has many negative effects including considered as a human carcinogen, which is a hazardous substances
that can cause cancers in humans. 2 Carson believed that only educated professionals should use
pesticides appropriately.
At first, nobody believed her that pesticide is deadly. Many people spent hundreds of thousands
of dollars attacking Carson personally and trying to discredit her claims, she even was accused of being
a communist sympathizer.3 Against all odds, this book is still a best seller and it inspired people to take
an action in order to save the environment. Many people ask the government to do something about the
pesticides and so it led several senators asked Carson to made appearance before the Senate
subcommittee and speak about the pesticides. Carson’s testimony highlighted the problems in Silent
Spring and she also presented the policy recommendations for the government to reduce and regulate
pesticide use.4
In June 1963, President John F. Kennedy established a presidential committee to investigate
pesticides and claims that Carson made in Silent Spring. This investigation led to an immediate
strengthening of the regulation of pesticides and ban on domestic use of DDT by Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in 1972, Aldirin, DDD, Lindane, and other toxic pesticide.5
At this moment, EPA’s action to placed a ban on DDT is responsible for all kinds of legislation
that impact us positively now. If EPA never placed a ban on DDT, us living things would be paying
deadly cost. Food chain would have got disrupts, extinction in various animals species, and even
increased rates of breast cancer in women. 6
However, the issues raised in Silent Spring continue to haunt the current modern world but with
different chemicals as the ones Carson indicated in her book. One of the example was in 2007,
bisphenol A (BPA) was found to be responsible for many new problems: genital deformities in
increasing numbers of newborn boys, earlier puberty in girls, declining sperm count in adult males,
obesity, abnormal brain development, disrupt fish and wildlife, and many others. BPA is a compound
released by certain plastics into food and by many treated cans into canned food. There are many other
chemicals that the long-term effects on human and ecosystem health are still vague. 7
On the positive side, Carson’s mission in reducing pesticide use is still ongoing. This situation is
reflected through many farmers now make an alternative use to pesticide. Organic food sales have
increased too nowadays for example is in U.S. where the revenue from organic shopping has grown.8
Despite issues regarding toxic chemicals still continue to this day, the publication of Silent
Spring book has indirectly raised public awareness to be wiser towards environmental preservation for
the sake of the health of the ecosystem upon which we, and all life, depend.
1
Dorothy McLaughlin, ‘Silent Spring Revisited’ (PBS, 24 August 2010)
<[Link] accessed 1 September 2018.
2
Takanori Harada, ‘Toxicity and Carcinogenicity of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT)’ (2016)
<[Link] accessed 1 September 2018.
3
Eliza Griswold, ‘How ‘Silent Spring’ Ignited the Environment’ The New York Times Magazine (New York, 21 September
2012) <[Link]
accessed 1 September 2018.
4
Ibid
5
H. Patricia Hynes, The Recurring Silent Spring (Athene series, Pergamon Press 1989). pp. 46–47.
6
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Houghton Miffin 1962)
7
Mark Stoll, ‘Legacy of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring’ (Environment and Society, 2012)
<[Link]
accessed 1 September 2018
8
Laura Stampler, ‘Organic Food Sales on the Rise’ TIME (13 May 2014) <[Link]
rise/> accessed 1 September 2018.