Because they end up in the water table and the soil, they have more far-reaching effects than one might suppose. These chemicals, because they have such stability, do not break down into inert components, but rather can shift into even more deadly forms of poison. It is here where many of these chemicals end up. With terrifying meticulousness, she outlines the research that explains how effective the chemicals can be even when their ratio in a solution is parts per billion.Ĭarson then takes us deep into the realm of the underworld: the water table and the soil beneath our feet. Many began as experiments for the purpose of chemical warfare, or they are chemical offshoots, distant cousins, of such chemicals. The people had done it to themselves.”Ĭarson then takes us through the history and chemical nature of many of the commonly used chemical pesticides. In a Hitchcockian tone, she shares, “No Witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. Slowly, the wildflowers wilt, and the songbirds are silenced. Yet, this Edenic landscape soon turns as undiagnosed blight infests the land. Silent Spring begins with an idyllic American community, one filled with wildflowers and songbirds, along with fruitful trees and bountiful harvests. Published in 1962, it helped give birth to the modern environmental movement by alerting the American public to the dangers of broadly used chemicals like the insecticide DDT. Silent Spring, written by Rachel Carson, is a conservationist’s bible, and for good reason.

Silent spring published