Silent Spring at 50 (2012)

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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.

Silent Spring at 50 (2012)

Birdnote aired this audio episode on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s 1962 book about the dangers of DDT and other pesticides. The book documented how DDT spraying contaminated the food chain, caused cancer and genetic damage, and decimated entire species of birds. Despite disavowals from the chemical industry, the book prompted congressional hearings after President Kennedy asked his Scientific Advisory Commission to investigate Carson’s findings. While Carson’s argument was dismissed by many in 1962, the segment makes clear that her warnings were prescient. Bird populations rebounded once the United States banned DDT, and the interconnectedness of human activity and the state of the natural world was firmly established.

50th Anniversary of Silent Spring | BirdNote | September 9, 2012 This audio clip and associated transcript appear from 00:10 - 01:53 in the full record.

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