As one would expect, chemical companies responded swiftly and severely. One industry spokesperson dismissed Carson’s claims as “absurd.” Others accused her of being a hysterical woman, a communist and a radical. The president of the company that made DDT said Carson wrote “not as a scientist, but as a fanatic defender of the cult of the balance of nature.”
The New York Times covered the industry’s reaction in a front-page article: “The $300,000,000 pesticides industry has been highly irritated by a quiet woman author whose previous works on science have been praised for the beauty and precision of the writing.”
Carson had resisted writing this book for years due to these anticipated attacks from chemical companies and public officials who accepted their false claims. “It was a David versus Goliath sort of saga,” says Lear. “ She was uncovering industrial misdeeds and, in the course of that, bringing down powerful men who had been entrusted by the public and shown to be unworthy of that trust.”
Carson decided that the personal risks were worth them. However, it was a huge personal loss as she was fighting breast Cancer for most of the four years she wrote. Silent Spring . “In the end, she gave in to a sense of obligation,” says Souder. “She felt that she had no other choice but to tackle the subject herself.”
JFK Spotlights Carson’s Book
Rachel Carson as she is interviewed by Eric Sevareid during an episode of CBS Reports. Interview took place in Rachel Carson’s Maryland home on November 29, 1962.
CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
Shortly after her book was published, President Kennedy was asked at a press conference if the government would look into the long-term effects of synthetic pesticides. He responded, “Yes, and I know they already are. I think, particularly, of course, since Miss Carson’s book.”
The following April, 15 million viewers tuned in to watch a CBS TV special, called “The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson.” Carson’s thoughtful responses and calm demeanor despite her failing health bolstered her arguments. She said, “It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks that the insect controllers calculate. The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so only when in full possession of the facts.”
In May 1963, President Kennedy’s Science Advisory Committee issued its long-awaited pesticide report, which validated Carson’s work. The committee’s scientists called for more research into potential health hazards related to pesticides and urged more restraint in their widespread use in homes and fields.
Pesticides were made a major public problem by the CBS program and the findings of the presidential commission. Silent Spring This awakening of an environmental consciousness set the stage for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. It regulated pesticide use and banned DDT in 1972.
Carson died from breast cancer in April 1964, less than two decades after her seminal book was published. However, she did not die before changing the way Americans saw their world. Says Souder, “Carson changed the conversation about the environment, recasting humankind as part of nature, not above it.”
