Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
On September 27, 1962, Rachel Carson published the book Silent Spring, which inspired a massive environmental movement in the United States.
Rachel Carson, the “mother of the modern environmental movement” was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania. After graduating from the Pennsylvania College for Women she worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, writing for radio and various publications.
As a marine biologist in the 1940s, Carson became aware of pesticides developed through government funds. After years of research, she became concerned with their effects on the environment. She left her job in 1952 to devote herself to writing.
On September 27, 1962, Carson published her most famous book, Silent Spring, about the harmful effects of pesticides. Silent Spring called attention to the overuse and misuse of pesticides, which were poisoning the food chain, and threatening life itself. Her work received strong opposition from the companies who manufactured the pesticides, but in time her thorough research resulted in winning over public opinion.
The following year, Carson appeared before President Kennedy’s Science Advisory Committee, which agreed with her findings on the dangers of pesticides. The same year, she received the Audubon Medal, the Cullum Medal (from the American Geographical Society), and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Silent Spring and Carson’s other writings helped begin the environmental movement in America. This led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the eventual ban of the pesticide DDT. Decades later, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time.
Click here to read some of Silent Spring.
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Maybe Trump should read this book.
The EPA published over 3,900 rules under the Obama administration. The compliance costs associated with EPA regulations under Obama grew by more than $50 billion each year he was in office. These costs killed thousands of U.S. jobs, increased the costs of consumer goods, and decreased our GDP.
Totally incorrect according to the Congressional Budget Office, sir. Could you cite your sources so we can follow up ourselves?
The EPA… and these are just the fine increases for the past year.
Effective August 1, 2016, EPA fines increased:
• Clean Air Act: from $37,500 to $93,750 per day, per violation
• Clean Water Act: from $37,500 to $51,570 per day, per violation
• Safe Drinking Water Act: from $37,500 to $53,907 per day, per violation
January 2017, five months after the previous increase;
• Clean Air Act: From $93,750 to $95,284 per day, per violation
• Clean Water Act: From $51,570 to $52,414 per day, per violation
• Safe Drinking Water Act: From $53,907 to $54,789 per day, per violation
You may think that the EPA spends all of its time going after chemical companies and coal-fired power plants, but it’s small farmers like me where they spend most of their time. And a single day’s fine can put us out of business. Our farms are our homes. We lose our farm, we lose our home. And we may only employ a few farmhands, but that adds up in a rural community.
Think I’m exaggerating? Andy Johnson, who runs an 8-acre farm in Wyoming, dammed a small creek running through his front yard to create a pond. Mr. Johnson got approval from Wyoming officials to create the pond for his 10 head of cattle and 4 horses, but the EPA claimed that the Clean Water Act gave them jurisdiction over the creek. The creek is nowhere near navigable river, which are the waterways the courts have ruled to be Clean Water Act protected. Even so, in 2014 he received a notice from the EPA for violating the Clean Water Act, levying fines of $37,500 dollars a day from the day the creek was dammed. Over a years worth of fines totaled close to $16 million.
How much did Andy end up paying in fines?
Andy paid nothing in fines and received free legal services.
Yeah Dom! Why should we take care of the planet?
Yeah, right. Trump doesn’t read books. He probably hasn’t even read “The Art of the Deal,” by Donald Trump.
Yeah Jeffrey, that would set him right. The we can ruin a modern economy because of climate change and all become Amish farmers. You’d like that, right?
What a great lady. We all owe her a debt of gratitude.
Once in a while persons look at things in a different angle and finds truth. Most ordinary people go with the flow. They all have defective vision which they don’t know. We used DDT a lot when I was high school to kill mosquitoes. Mosquitoes cause malaria, filarial and any thing to kill mosquitoes are welcome. Who couldn’t think of bad effects of DDT until some one like this points out and proves. I didn’t know about Rachel Carson, even though I have seen her stamp. Thanks Mystic stamp company and writers who contribute to this. So many great people. Learn one at a time about them.