BirdNote; 50th Anniversary of Silent Spring, 2012

This is Bird Note. Today marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring. Rachel Carson's book awakened the public to the dangers of DDT and other pesticides. Rachel Carson herself called the chemicals Biosides because she recognized that they killed not only the pests they were meant for, but other creatures up the food chain as well. Although she was a marine biologist, she paid close attention to other aspects of the world around her. She understood the interconnectedness of nature. Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and to destroy nature. But man is part of nature and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.

But many weren't ready to listen. Her opponents called her an hysterical woman. Even people who could see the effects of the products on songbirds couldn't believe that something so harmful would actually be on the market. But Rachel Carson persevered. And in 1972 DDT was banned for agricultural use in the United States. Over the next few decades, bird populations and in particular raptors recovered, ospreys, bald eagles and peregrine falcons came off the endangered species list. Spring and Rachel Carson improved the world for birds and people.