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On September 27, 1962, Rachel Carson published 'Silent Spring' about the impact of pesticide use on the environment. From the article:
"The Story of Silent Spring
How a courageous woman took on the chemical industry and raised important questions about humankind's impact on nature.
Although they will probably always be less celebrated than wars, marches, riots, or stormy political campaigns, books have at times been the most powerful influencer of social change in American life. Thomas Paine's Common Sense galvanized radical sentiment in the early days of the Revolution; Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe roused the North's antipathy to slavery in the decade leading up to the Civil War; and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which in 1962 exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT, eloquently questioned humanity's faith in technological progress and helped set the stage for the environmental movement.
Carson, a renowned nature author and a former marine biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or FWS, was uniquely equipped to create so startling and inflammatory a book. A native of rural Pennsylvania, she had grown up with an enthusiasm for nature matched only by her love of writing and poetry. The educational brochures she wrote for FWS, as well as her published books and magazine articles, were characterized by meticulous research and a poetic evocation of her subject.
"Things go out of kilter"
Carson was happiest writing about the strength and resilience of natural systems. Her books Under the Sea Wind, The Sea Around Us (which stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for 86 weeks), and The Edge of the Sea were hymns to the interconnectedness of nature and all living things. Although she rarely used the term, Carson held an ecological view of nature, describing in precise yet poetic language the complex web of life that linked mollusks to seabirds to the fish swimming in the ocean's deepest and most inaccessible reaches.
DDT, the most powerful pesticide the world had ever known, exposed nature's vulnerability. Unlike most pesticides, whose effectiveness is limited to destroying one or two types of insects, DDT was capable of killing hundreds of different kinds at once. Developed in 1939, it first distinguished itself during World War II, clearing South Pacific islands of malaria-causing insects for U.S. troops while being used as an effective delousing powder in Europe. Its inventor was awarded the Nobel Prize.
When DDT became available for civilian use in 1945, there were only a few people who expressed second thoughts about this new miracle compound. One was nature writer Edwin Way Teale, who warned, "A spray as indiscriminate as DDT can upset the economy of nature as much as a revolution upsets social economy. Ninety percent of all insects are good, and if they are killed, things go out of kilter right away." Another was Carson, who wrote to Reader's Digest to propose an article about a series of tests on DDT being conducted not far from where she lived in Maryland. The magazine rejected the idea.
Silent Spring
Thirteen years later, in 1958, Carson's interest in writing about the dangers of DDT was rekindled when she received a letter from a friend in Massachusetts bemoaning the large bird kills that had occurred on Cape Cod as the result of DDT sprayings. The use of the pesticide had proliferated greatly since 1945, and Carson again tried, unsuccessfully, to interest a magazine in assigning her the story of its less desirable effects. By 1958, Carson was a best-selling author, and the fact that she could not obtain an assignment to write about DDT is indicative of how heretical and controversial her views on the subject must have seemed. Having already amassed a large quantity of research on the subject, however, Carson decided to go ahead and tackle the issue in a book.
Silent Spring took Carson four years to complete. It meticulously described how DDT entered the food chain and accumulated in the fatty tissues of animals, including human beings, and caused cancer and genetic damage. A single application on a crop, she wrote, killed insects for weeks and months—not only the targeted insects but countless more—and remained toxic in the environment even after it was diluted by rainwater. Carson concluded that DDT and other pesticides had irrevocably harmed animals and had contaminated the world's food supply. The book's most haunting and famous chapter, "A Fable for Tomorrow," depicted a nameless American town where all life—from fish to birds to apple blossoms to human children—had been "silenced" by the insidious effects of DDT.
First serialized in The New Yorker in June 1962, the book alarmed readers across America and, not surprisingly, brought a howl of indignation from the chemical industry. "If man were to faithfully follow the teachings of Miss Carson," complained an executive of the American Cyanamid Company, "we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the earth." Monsanto published and distributed 5,000 copies of a brochure parodying Silent Spring entitled "The Desolate Year," relating the devastation and inconvenience of a world where famine, disease, and insects ran amok because chemical pesticides had been banned. Some of the attacks were more personal, questioning Carson's integrity and even her sanity.
Vindication
Her careful preparation, however, had paid off. Anticipating the reaction of the chemical industry, she had compiled Silent Spring as one would a lawyer's brief, with no fewer than 55 pages of notes and a list of experts who had read and approved the manuscript. Many eminent scientists rose to her defense, and when President John F. Kennedy ordered the President's Science Advisory Committee to examine the issues the book raised, its report thoroughly vindicated both Silent Spring and its author. As a result, DDT came under much closer government supervision and was eventually banned. The public debate moved quickly from whether pesticides were dangerous to which ones were dangerous, and the burden of proof shifted from the opponents of unrestrained pesticide use to the manufacturers.
The most important legacy of Silent Spring, though, was a new public awareness that nature was vulnerable to human intervention. Carson had made a radical proposal: that, at times, technological progress is so fundamentally at odds with natural processes that it must be curtailed. Conservation had never raised much broad public interest, for few people really worried about the disappearance of wilderness. But the threats Carson had outlined—the contamination of the food chain, cancer, genetic damage, the deaths of entire species—were too frightening to ignore. For the first time, the need to regulate industry in order to protect the environment became widely accepted, and environmentalism was born.
Carson was well aware of the larger implications of her work. Appearing on a CBS documentary about Silent Spring shortly before her death from breast cancer in 1964, she remarked, "Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself? [We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves."
One of the landmark books of the 20th century, Silent Spring's message resonates loudly today, even several decades after its publication. And equally inspiring is the example of Rachel Carson herself. Against overwhelming difficulties and adversity, but motivated by her unabashed love of nature, she rose like a gladiator in its defense."
"The Story of Silent Spring
How a courageous woman took on the chemical industry and raised important questions about humankind's impact on nature.
Although they will probably always be less celebrated than wars, marches, riots, or stormy political campaigns, books have at times been the most powerful influencer of social change in American life. Thomas Paine's Common Sense galvanized radical sentiment in the early days of the Revolution; Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe roused the North's antipathy to slavery in the decade leading up to the Civil War; and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which in 1962 exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT, eloquently questioned humanity's faith in technological progress and helped set the stage for the environmental movement.
Carson, a renowned nature author and a former marine biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or FWS, was uniquely equipped to create so startling and inflammatory a book. A native of rural Pennsylvania, she had grown up with an enthusiasm for nature matched only by her love of writing and poetry. The educational brochures she wrote for FWS, as well as her published books and magazine articles, were characterized by meticulous research and a poetic evocation of her subject.
"Things go out of kilter"
Carson was happiest writing about the strength and resilience of natural systems. Her books Under the Sea Wind, The Sea Around Us (which stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for 86 weeks), and The Edge of the Sea were hymns to the interconnectedness of nature and all living things. Although she rarely used the term, Carson held an ecological view of nature, describing in precise yet poetic language the complex web of life that linked mollusks to seabirds to the fish swimming in the ocean's deepest and most inaccessible reaches.
DDT, the most powerful pesticide the world had ever known, exposed nature's vulnerability. Unlike most pesticides, whose effectiveness is limited to destroying one or two types of insects, DDT was capable of killing hundreds of different kinds at once. Developed in 1939, it first distinguished itself during World War II, clearing South Pacific islands of malaria-causing insects for U.S. troops while being used as an effective delousing powder in Europe. Its inventor was awarded the Nobel Prize.
When DDT became available for civilian use in 1945, there were only a few people who expressed second thoughts about this new miracle compound. One was nature writer Edwin Way Teale, who warned, "A spray as indiscriminate as DDT can upset the economy of nature as much as a revolution upsets social economy. Ninety percent of all insects are good, and if they are killed, things go out of kilter right away." Another was Carson, who wrote to Reader's Digest to propose an article about a series of tests on DDT being conducted not far from where she lived in Maryland. The magazine rejected the idea.
Silent Spring
Thirteen years later, in 1958, Carson's interest in writing about the dangers of DDT was rekindled when she received a letter from a friend in Massachusetts bemoaning the large bird kills that had occurred on Cape Cod as the result of DDT sprayings. The use of the pesticide had proliferated greatly since 1945, and Carson again tried, unsuccessfully, to interest a magazine in assigning her the story of its less desirable effects. By 1958, Carson was a best-selling author, and the fact that she could not obtain an assignment to write about DDT is indicative of how heretical and controversial her views on the subject must have seemed. Having already amassed a large quantity of research on the subject, however, Carson decided to go ahead and tackle the issue in a book.
Silent Spring took Carson four years to complete. It meticulously described how DDT entered the food chain and accumulated in the fatty tissues of animals, including human beings, and caused cancer and genetic damage. A single application on a crop, she wrote, killed insects for weeks and months—not only the targeted insects but countless more—and remained toxic in the environment even after it was diluted by rainwater. Carson concluded that DDT and other pesticides had irrevocably harmed animals and had contaminated the world's food supply. The book's most haunting and famous chapter, "A Fable for Tomorrow," depicted a nameless American town where all life—from fish to birds to apple blossoms to human children—had been "silenced" by the insidious effects of DDT.
First serialized in The New Yorker in June 1962, the book alarmed readers across America and, not surprisingly, brought a howl of indignation from the chemical industry. "If man were to faithfully follow the teachings of Miss Carson," complained an executive of the American Cyanamid Company, "we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the earth." Monsanto published and distributed 5,000 copies of a brochure parodying Silent Spring entitled "The Desolate Year," relating the devastation and inconvenience of a world where famine, disease, and insects ran amok because chemical pesticides had been banned. Some of the attacks were more personal, questioning Carson's integrity and even her sanity.
Vindication
Her careful preparation, however, had paid off. Anticipating the reaction of the chemical industry, she had compiled Silent Spring as one would a lawyer's brief, with no fewer than 55 pages of notes and a list of experts who had read and approved the manuscript. Many eminent scientists rose to her defense, and when President John F. Kennedy ordered the President's Science Advisory Committee to examine the issues the book raised, its report thoroughly vindicated both Silent Spring and its author. As a result, DDT came under much closer government supervision and was eventually banned. The public debate moved quickly from whether pesticides were dangerous to which ones were dangerous, and the burden of proof shifted from the opponents of unrestrained pesticide use to the manufacturers.
The most important legacy of Silent Spring, though, was a new public awareness that nature was vulnerable to human intervention. Carson had made a radical proposal: that, at times, technological progress is so fundamentally at odds with natural processes that it must be curtailed. Conservation had never raised much broad public interest, for few people really worried about the disappearance of wilderness. But the threats Carson had outlined—the contamination of the food chain, cancer, genetic damage, the deaths of entire species—were too frightening to ignore. For the first time, the need to regulate industry in order to protect the environment became widely accepted, and environmentalism was born.
Carson was well aware of the larger implications of her work. Appearing on a CBS documentary about Silent Spring shortly before her death from breast cancer in 1964, she remarked, "Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself? [We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves."
One of the landmark books of the 20th century, Silent Spring's message resonates loudly today, even several decades after its publication. And equally inspiring is the example of Rachel Carson herself. Against overwhelming difficulties and adversity, but motivated by her unabashed love of nature, she rose like a gladiator in its defense."
The Story of Silent Spring
Posted from nrdc.org
Environment
Earth
World History
American History
Posted >1 y ago
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SGT (Join to see) good share/read this morning, wow did not of this.
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SPC Margaret Higgins COL Mikel J. Burroughs CPL Dave Hoover Lt Col Charlie Brown Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen SCPO Morris Ramsey PVT Mark Zehner Sgt (Join to see) SSG Michael Noll SSG Robert Mark Odom CPL Douglas Chrysler PO1 Tony Holland SGT Steve McFarland SPC Mark Huddleston CW5 Jack Cardwell PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO1 Lyndon Thomas PO3 Phyllis Maynard Wayne Soares
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Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on September 27, 1962 American marine biologist, author, and conservationist Rachel Carson published 'Silent Spring'
about the impact of pesticide use on the environment.
She led the charge against DDT which led to it being banned. That resulted in the deaths of tens of millions due to mosquito-caused diseases. Thankfully, the truth came out for regions still afflicted by malaria.
Background from {[https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/ddt-brief-history-and-status]}
"In September 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared its support for the indoor use of DDT in African countries where malaria remains a major health problem, citing that benefits of the pesticide outweigh the health and environmental risks. The WHO position is consistent with the Stockholm Convention on POPs, which bans DDT for all uses except for malaria control."
DDT is one of 12 pesticides recommended by the WHO for indoor residual spray programs. It is up to individual countries to decide whether or not to use DDT. EPA works with other agencies and countries to advise them on how DDT programs are developed and monitored, with the goal that DDT be used only within the context of programs referred to as Integrated Vector Management.
Rachel Carson [[Silent Spring]] Documentary
The Environmental Protection Agency's humble beginnings during a time when there was No Protection from the illegal dumping of waste, pollution of the air and water, and chemical plants producing pesticides that harm Earth's ecosystem - including all human beings.
The overriding theme of Silent Spring is the powerful—and often negative—effect humans have on the natural world. Carson's main argument is that pesticides have detrimental effects on the environment; she says these are more properly termed "biocides" because their effects are rarely limited to the target pests.
DDT is a prime example, but other synthetic pesticides—many of which are subject to bioaccumulation—are scrutinized. Carson accuses the chemical industry of intentionally spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically.
Most of the book is devoted to pesticides' effects on the natural world ecosystems, but four chapters detail cases of human pesticide poisoning, cancers, and other illnesses attributed to pesticides. About DDT and cancer development in cells.
The book documented the detrimental effects on the environment—particularly on birds—of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims unquestioningly.
In the late 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, especially environmental problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to the American public.
Silent Spring was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, but it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, led to a nationwide ban on DDT for agricultural uses, and inspired the Environmental Movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbLACDNJyN4
Images:
1. Rachel Carson, author of the groundbreaking book 'Silent Spring,' is seen at her summer home in Boothbay Harbor, Maine in 1962
2. Rachel Carson became the second woman ever hired by U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (later the Department of Fish and Wildlife). Here she's seen with Robert Hines, who illustrated the third book in her trilogy on the ocean, "The Edge of the Sea."
3. Rachel Carson 'The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history or fiction. It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science.'
4. After the success of her book, 'The Sea Around Us,' Rachel Carson was able to move to Maine and devote full-time to writing.
Biographies:
1. fws.gov/refuge/rachel_carson/about/rachelcarson.html]
2.
1. Background from {[https://www.fws.gov/refuge/rachel_carson/about/rachelcarson.html]}
(1907 - 1964)
Rachel Carson was born in a small rural Pennsylvania community near the Allegheny River, where she spent a great deal of time exploring the forests and streams around her 65-acre farm. As a young child, Carson's consuming passions were the nature surrounding her hillside home and her writing. She was first "published" at the age of 10 in a children's magazine dedicated to the work of young writers. Other youngsters who first saw their words in print in St. Nicholas included William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
In 1925 Carson entered Pennsylvania College for Women as an English major determined to become a writer. Midway into her studies, however, she switched to biology. Her first experience with the ocean came during a summer fellowship at the U.S. Marine Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Upon graduation from Pennsylvania College, Carson was awarded a scholarship to complete her graduate work in biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, an enormous accomplishment for a woman in 1929.
Carson's distinction in both writing and biology won her a part-time position with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries in 1935 where she was asked to create a series of seven-minute radio programs on marine life called "Romance Under the Waters." Meantime, she continued to submit writings on conservation and nature to newspapers and magazines, urging from the very beginning the need to regulate the "forces of destruction" and consider always the welfare of the "fish as well as that of the fisherman." Her articles were published regularly by the Baltimore Sun and other of its syndicated papers.
In 1936, Carson was appointed a junior aquatic biologist with the Bureau of Fisheries and became one of only two women then employed with the Bureau at a professional level. Her work allowed her to visit often the Chesapeake Bay region, where she spoke with watermen and toured commercial plants and conservation facilities in an effort to understand the economics and culture of the area. During World War II, Carson participated in a program to investigate undersea sounds, life and terrain designed to assist the Navy in developing techniques and equipment for submarine detection.
Carson's first book, Under the Sea-Wind, published in 1941, highlighted her unique ability to present deeply intricate scientific material in clear poetic language that could captivate her readers and pique their interest in the natural world. In 1943, Carson was promoted to the position of aquatic biologist in the newly created U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where she authored many bulletins directed at the American public. One series, known as "Conservation in Action," was devoted to exploring wildlife and ecology on national wildlife refuges in laymen's terms. Another series was entitled "Food from the Sea" and offered information on the proper preparation as well as the advantages of a diet including fish and shellfish to a public unused to eating freshwater fish.
Carson was moved to the position of assistant editor and then editor-in-chief of all Fish and Wildlife Service publications, where her work included reviewing manuscripts as well as overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service library and its staff, preparing congressional testimony and writing speeches for Fish and Wildlife Service personnel.
In 1951 Carson's second book, The Sea Around Us, was published and eventually translated into 32 languages. It was on The New York Times' best-seller list for 81 weeks. The success of her second book prompted Carson to resign her position at the Service in 1952 to devote her time to writing. The Sea Around Us, along with The Edge of the Sea, a third book published in 1956, opened a new perspective to concerned environmentalists on the term "ecology," the study of "our living place." But it was her last book, Silent Spring, published in 1962, that awakened society to a responsibility to other forms of life. In it, Carson documents in minute biological detail the true menace to the ecosystem caused by harmful pesticides.
Carson had become interested in the danger of pesticides while still associated with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Her concern was accelerated with the introduction of DDT in 1945. Although she had left the Service to work on Silent Spring, her marine studies while there had provided her with early documentation on the effects of DDT on marine life. Since abnormalities always show up first in fish and wildlife, biologists were the first to see the effects of impending danger to the overall environment.
Carson had long been aware of the dangers of chemical pesticides but was also aware of the controversy within the agricultural community, which needed such pesticides to increase crop production. She had long hoped someone else would publish an expose' on DDT but realized finally that only she had the background as well as the economic freedom to do it. She made the decision to produce Silent Spring after years of research across the United States and Europe with the help of Shirley Briggs, a former Fish and Wildlife Service artist who had become editor of an Audubon Naturalist Society magazine called Atlantic Naturalist. Clarence Cottam, another former Fish and Wildlife Service employee, also provided Carson with support and documentation on DDT research conducted but not generally known.
As expected, her book provoked a firestorm of controversy as well as personal attacks on her professional integrity. The pesticide industry mounted a massive campaign to discredit Carson even though she did not urge the complete banning of pesticides but rather that research be conducted to ensure pesticides were used safely and alternatives to dangerous chemicals such as DDT be found. The federal government, however, ordered a complete review of its pesticide policy and Carson was asked to testify before a Congressional committee along with other witnesses. As a direct result of the study, DDT was banned. With the publication of Silent Spring, Carson is credited with launching the contemporary environmental movement and awakening concern by thinking Americans about the environment.
In a television interview, Carson once stated that "man's endeavors to control nature by his powers to alter and to destroy would inevitably evolve into a war against himself, a war he would lose unless he came to terms with nature." She died from cancer in 1964 at the age of 57. The Fish and Wildlife Service named one of its refuges near Carson's summer home on the coast of Maine as the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in 1969 to honor the memory of this extraordinary woman."
2. Background from {[https://www.livescience.com/62185-rachel-carson-biography.html]}
Rachel Carson: Life, Discoveries and Legacy
By Alina Bradford March 31, 2018
Marine biologist and writer Rachel Carson is hailed as one of the most important conservationists in history and is recognized as the mother of modern environmentalism. She challenged the use of man-made chemicals, and her research led to the nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides. Her environmental movement also eventually led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to the National Women's Museum.
"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction," Carson said. She also famously stated, "But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself."
Early Life
Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania, and grew up on a 65-acre farm. As a child, she spent her days exploring nature and writing. Her first work was published in a children's magazine when she was 10 years old. This upbringing instilled in her first-hand knowledge of nature and wildlife that spurred her into her life pursuits. "In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth," said Carson.
Originally determined to be a writer, Carson changed her major from English to biology in college. In 1929, she graduated from the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College). She then went on to do graduate work at Johns Hopkins University (which was almost unheard of for women at the time) and had her fellowship at the U.S. Marine Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. During her postgraduate studies she taught at the Johns Hopkins summer school. Carson then began teaching at the University of Maryland for five years.LAY SOUND
Contributions to science
After the five-year stint, Carson joined the Bureau of Fisheries in 1935. One of her first duties was to create a series of seven-minute radio programs about marine life. They were named "Romance Under the Waters."
In 1936, she became one of only two women employed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Bureau at a professional level, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, eventually becoming the editor-in-chief of the service's publications. She worked there until 1952. Carson also helped the government during World War II by investigating undersea sounds to assist the Navy in developing submarine detection.
While working for the government, she penned many articles that were published by the Baltimore Sun. She also wrote her first book, "Under the Sea-Wind," published in 1941. It was a scientific book on marine life, but it was written so that the average person could understand.
In 1951 she published her second book, "The Sea Around Us," according to Encyclopedia Britannica. This book became an immediate best-seller and made her a wealthy woman. The book won a National Book Award, stayed on The New York Times' best-seller list for 81 weeks and ended up being translated into 32 languages. In 1955, Carson's third book, "Under the Sea," was published.
Carson spent the 1950s researching the effects of pesticides on the food chain across the United States and Europe with the help of Shirley Briggs, editor of an Audubon Naturalist Society magazine called Atlantic Naturalist, and Clarence Cottam, another former Fish and Wildlife Service employee.
This work culminated in her book "Silent Spring," which The New Yorker was published as a serial in 1962. It took her four years to write, according to Natural Resources Defense Council.
In the book, she explained why the use of pesticides was detrimental, paying particular attention to the effects of DDT. Carson asked the important question: do humans have the right to control nature? She also introduced the concept that planet Earth can only sustain pollution levels for a certain amount of time.
An expert from "Silent Spring":
One of the most significant features of DDT and related chemicals is the way they are passed on from one organism to another through all the links of the food chains. Fields of alfalfa, say, are dusted with DDT; meal is later prepared from the alfalfa and fed to hens; the hens lay eggs that contain DDT. Or the hay, containing residues of from seven to eight parts per million, may be fed to cows. The DDT will turn up in the milk in the amount of about three parts per million, but in butter made from this milk the concentration may run to sixty-five parts per million. During the process of transfer, what started out as a very small amount of DDT may end as a heavy concentration. The poison may be passed on from mother to offspring. The presence of insecticide residues in human milk has been established by Food and Drug Administration scientists.
The book earned her a presidential commission, giving her thoughts great credibility in the scientific world. Chemical companies tried to discredit Carson as a communist or hysterical woman. Despite their efforts, around 15 million viewers tuned in to the CBS Reports TV special on April 3, 1963, entitled "The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson."
Later, Carson was asked to testify before a congressional committee about the effects of pesticides. This led to the banning of DDT. She received medals from the National Audubon Society and the American Geographical Society. Carson also was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, according to the National Women's Museum.
Impact
Carson died of breast cancer on April 14, 1964, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Sadly, she wasn't able to see the environmental revolution created by "Silent Spring," such as the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 or the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine in 1966.
Carson once stated in a television interview, "man's endeavors to control nature by his powers to alter and to destroy would inevitably evolve into a war against himself, a war he would lose unless he came to terms with nature."
FYI LTC (Join to see) LTC (Join to see) LTC John Shaw LTC Greg Henning Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price SMSgt Lawrence McCarter TSgt David L. GySgt Thomas Vick SSG Stephen Rogerson SSG (Join to see) SGT Steve McFarland SP5 Dennis Loberger CPL Dave Hoover Cpl (Join to see) PO2 (Join to see) SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D SPC Matthew Lamb SPC Woody Bullard
about the impact of pesticide use on the environment.
She led the charge against DDT which led to it being banned. That resulted in the deaths of tens of millions due to mosquito-caused diseases. Thankfully, the truth came out for regions still afflicted by malaria.
Background from {[https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/ddt-brief-history-and-status]}
"In September 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared its support for the indoor use of DDT in African countries where malaria remains a major health problem, citing that benefits of the pesticide outweigh the health and environmental risks. The WHO position is consistent with the Stockholm Convention on POPs, which bans DDT for all uses except for malaria control."
DDT is one of 12 pesticides recommended by the WHO for indoor residual spray programs. It is up to individual countries to decide whether or not to use DDT. EPA works with other agencies and countries to advise them on how DDT programs are developed and monitored, with the goal that DDT be used only within the context of programs referred to as Integrated Vector Management.
Rachel Carson [[Silent Spring]] Documentary
The Environmental Protection Agency's humble beginnings during a time when there was No Protection from the illegal dumping of waste, pollution of the air and water, and chemical plants producing pesticides that harm Earth's ecosystem - including all human beings.
The overriding theme of Silent Spring is the powerful—and often negative—effect humans have on the natural world. Carson's main argument is that pesticides have detrimental effects on the environment; she says these are more properly termed "biocides" because their effects are rarely limited to the target pests.
DDT is a prime example, but other synthetic pesticides—many of which are subject to bioaccumulation—are scrutinized. Carson accuses the chemical industry of intentionally spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically.
Most of the book is devoted to pesticides' effects on the natural world ecosystems, but four chapters detail cases of human pesticide poisoning, cancers, and other illnesses attributed to pesticides. About DDT and cancer development in cells.
The book documented the detrimental effects on the environment—particularly on birds—of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims unquestioningly.
In the late 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, especially environmental problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to the American public.
Silent Spring was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, but it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, led to a nationwide ban on DDT for agricultural uses, and inspired the Environmental Movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbLACDNJyN4
Images:
1. Rachel Carson, author of the groundbreaking book 'Silent Spring,' is seen at her summer home in Boothbay Harbor, Maine in 1962
2. Rachel Carson became the second woman ever hired by U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (later the Department of Fish and Wildlife). Here she's seen with Robert Hines, who illustrated the third book in her trilogy on the ocean, "The Edge of the Sea."
3. Rachel Carson 'The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history or fiction. It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science.'
4. After the success of her book, 'The Sea Around Us,' Rachel Carson was able to move to Maine and devote full-time to writing.
Biographies:
1. fws.gov/refuge/rachel_carson/about/rachelcarson.html]
2.
1. Background from {[https://www.fws.gov/refuge/rachel_carson/about/rachelcarson.html]}
(1907 - 1964)
Rachel Carson was born in a small rural Pennsylvania community near the Allegheny River, where she spent a great deal of time exploring the forests and streams around her 65-acre farm. As a young child, Carson's consuming passions were the nature surrounding her hillside home and her writing. She was first "published" at the age of 10 in a children's magazine dedicated to the work of young writers. Other youngsters who first saw their words in print in St. Nicholas included William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
In 1925 Carson entered Pennsylvania College for Women as an English major determined to become a writer. Midway into her studies, however, she switched to biology. Her first experience with the ocean came during a summer fellowship at the U.S. Marine Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Upon graduation from Pennsylvania College, Carson was awarded a scholarship to complete her graduate work in biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, an enormous accomplishment for a woman in 1929.
Carson's distinction in both writing and biology won her a part-time position with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries in 1935 where she was asked to create a series of seven-minute radio programs on marine life called "Romance Under the Waters." Meantime, she continued to submit writings on conservation and nature to newspapers and magazines, urging from the very beginning the need to regulate the "forces of destruction" and consider always the welfare of the "fish as well as that of the fisherman." Her articles were published regularly by the Baltimore Sun and other of its syndicated papers.
In 1936, Carson was appointed a junior aquatic biologist with the Bureau of Fisheries and became one of only two women then employed with the Bureau at a professional level. Her work allowed her to visit often the Chesapeake Bay region, where she spoke with watermen and toured commercial plants and conservation facilities in an effort to understand the economics and culture of the area. During World War II, Carson participated in a program to investigate undersea sounds, life and terrain designed to assist the Navy in developing techniques and equipment for submarine detection.
Carson's first book, Under the Sea-Wind, published in 1941, highlighted her unique ability to present deeply intricate scientific material in clear poetic language that could captivate her readers and pique their interest in the natural world. In 1943, Carson was promoted to the position of aquatic biologist in the newly created U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where she authored many bulletins directed at the American public. One series, known as "Conservation in Action," was devoted to exploring wildlife and ecology on national wildlife refuges in laymen's terms. Another series was entitled "Food from the Sea" and offered information on the proper preparation as well as the advantages of a diet including fish and shellfish to a public unused to eating freshwater fish.
Carson was moved to the position of assistant editor and then editor-in-chief of all Fish and Wildlife Service publications, where her work included reviewing manuscripts as well as overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service library and its staff, preparing congressional testimony and writing speeches for Fish and Wildlife Service personnel.
In 1951 Carson's second book, The Sea Around Us, was published and eventually translated into 32 languages. It was on The New York Times' best-seller list for 81 weeks. The success of her second book prompted Carson to resign her position at the Service in 1952 to devote her time to writing. The Sea Around Us, along with The Edge of the Sea, a third book published in 1956, opened a new perspective to concerned environmentalists on the term "ecology," the study of "our living place." But it was her last book, Silent Spring, published in 1962, that awakened society to a responsibility to other forms of life. In it, Carson documents in minute biological detail the true menace to the ecosystem caused by harmful pesticides.
Carson had become interested in the danger of pesticides while still associated with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Her concern was accelerated with the introduction of DDT in 1945. Although she had left the Service to work on Silent Spring, her marine studies while there had provided her with early documentation on the effects of DDT on marine life. Since abnormalities always show up first in fish and wildlife, biologists were the first to see the effects of impending danger to the overall environment.
Carson had long been aware of the dangers of chemical pesticides but was also aware of the controversy within the agricultural community, which needed such pesticides to increase crop production. She had long hoped someone else would publish an expose' on DDT but realized finally that only she had the background as well as the economic freedom to do it. She made the decision to produce Silent Spring after years of research across the United States and Europe with the help of Shirley Briggs, a former Fish and Wildlife Service artist who had become editor of an Audubon Naturalist Society magazine called Atlantic Naturalist. Clarence Cottam, another former Fish and Wildlife Service employee, also provided Carson with support and documentation on DDT research conducted but not generally known.
As expected, her book provoked a firestorm of controversy as well as personal attacks on her professional integrity. The pesticide industry mounted a massive campaign to discredit Carson even though she did not urge the complete banning of pesticides but rather that research be conducted to ensure pesticides were used safely and alternatives to dangerous chemicals such as DDT be found. The federal government, however, ordered a complete review of its pesticide policy and Carson was asked to testify before a Congressional committee along with other witnesses. As a direct result of the study, DDT was banned. With the publication of Silent Spring, Carson is credited with launching the contemporary environmental movement and awakening concern by thinking Americans about the environment.
In a television interview, Carson once stated that "man's endeavors to control nature by his powers to alter and to destroy would inevitably evolve into a war against himself, a war he would lose unless he came to terms with nature." She died from cancer in 1964 at the age of 57. The Fish and Wildlife Service named one of its refuges near Carson's summer home on the coast of Maine as the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in 1969 to honor the memory of this extraordinary woman."
2. Background from {[https://www.livescience.com/62185-rachel-carson-biography.html]}
Rachel Carson: Life, Discoveries and Legacy
By Alina Bradford March 31, 2018
Marine biologist and writer Rachel Carson is hailed as one of the most important conservationists in history and is recognized as the mother of modern environmentalism. She challenged the use of man-made chemicals, and her research led to the nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides. Her environmental movement also eventually led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to the National Women's Museum.
"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction," Carson said. She also famously stated, "But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself."
Early Life
Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania, and grew up on a 65-acre farm. As a child, she spent her days exploring nature and writing. Her first work was published in a children's magazine when she was 10 years old. This upbringing instilled in her first-hand knowledge of nature and wildlife that spurred her into her life pursuits. "In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth," said Carson.
Originally determined to be a writer, Carson changed her major from English to biology in college. In 1929, she graduated from the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College). She then went on to do graduate work at Johns Hopkins University (which was almost unheard of for women at the time) and had her fellowship at the U.S. Marine Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. During her postgraduate studies she taught at the Johns Hopkins summer school. Carson then began teaching at the University of Maryland for five years.LAY SOUND
Contributions to science
After the five-year stint, Carson joined the Bureau of Fisheries in 1935. One of her first duties was to create a series of seven-minute radio programs about marine life. They were named "Romance Under the Waters."
In 1936, she became one of only two women employed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Bureau at a professional level, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, eventually becoming the editor-in-chief of the service's publications. She worked there until 1952. Carson also helped the government during World War II by investigating undersea sounds to assist the Navy in developing submarine detection.
While working for the government, she penned many articles that were published by the Baltimore Sun. She also wrote her first book, "Under the Sea-Wind," published in 1941. It was a scientific book on marine life, but it was written so that the average person could understand.
In 1951 she published her second book, "The Sea Around Us," according to Encyclopedia Britannica. This book became an immediate best-seller and made her a wealthy woman. The book won a National Book Award, stayed on The New York Times' best-seller list for 81 weeks and ended up being translated into 32 languages. In 1955, Carson's third book, "Under the Sea," was published.
Carson spent the 1950s researching the effects of pesticides on the food chain across the United States and Europe with the help of Shirley Briggs, editor of an Audubon Naturalist Society magazine called Atlantic Naturalist, and Clarence Cottam, another former Fish and Wildlife Service employee.
This work culminated in her book "Silent Spring," which The New Yorker was published as a serial in 1962. It took her four years to write, according to Natural Resources Defense Council.
In the book, she explained why the use of pesticides was detrimental, paying particular attention to the effects of DDT. Carson asked the important question: do humans have the right to control nature? She also introduced the concept that planet Earth can only sustain pollution levels for a certain amount of time.
An expert from "Silent Spring":
One of the most significant features of DDT and related chemicals is the way they are passed on from one organism to another through all the links of the food chains. Fields of alfalfa, say, are dusted with DDT; meal is later prepared from the alfalfa and fed to hens; the hens lay eggs that contain DDT. Or the hay, containing residues of from seven to eight parts per million, may be fed to cows. The DDT will turn up in the milk in the amount of about three parts per million, but in butter made from this milk the concentration may run to sixty-five parts per million. During the process of transfer, what started out as a very small amount of DDT may end as a heavy concentration. The poison may be passed on from mother to offspring. The presence of insecticide residues in human milk has been established by Food and Drug Administration scientists.
The book earned her a presidential commission, giving her thoughts great credibility in the scientific world. Chemical companies tried to discredit Carson as a communist or hysterical woman. Despite their efforts, around 15 million viewers tuned in to the CBS Reports TV special on April 3, 1963, entitled "The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson."
Later, Carson was asked to testify before a congressional committee about the effects of pesticides. This led to the banning of DDT. She received medals from the National Audubon Society and the American Geographical Society. Carson also was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, according to the National Women's Museum.
Impact
Carson died of breast cancer on April 14, 1964, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Sadly, she wasn't able to see the environmental revolution created by "Silent Spring," such as the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 or the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine in 1966.
Carson once stated in a television interview, "man's endeavors to control nature by his powers to alter and to destroy would inevitably evolve into a war against himself, a war he would lose unless he came to terms with nature."
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The End Game looks at a range of solutions being pioneered in Tanzania in the battle against malaria. The bid to control and ultimately eliminate malaria wor...
Lifelines - The End Game
"The End Game looks at a range of solutions being pioneered in Tanzania in the battle against malaria. The bid to control and ultimately eliminate malaria worldwide is perhaps one of the most ambitious global health projects is."
https://youtu.be/kmrvDrGaU_o
Images:
1. Rachel Carson's writings about the dangers of pesticides helped start the modern environmental movement.
2. Child suffering from malaria
3. Mosquitoes seem to fancy human blood when they’re carrying malaria, in an apparent case of parasites directing their hosts’ behaviour
4. Insecticide-treated sleeping nets last for three years and then need to be replaced.
Background from {[hhttps://http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S [login to see] 044044]}
Effect of large-scale social marketing of insecticide-treated nets on child survival in rural Tanzania
The Lancet
Volume 357, Issue 9264, 21 April 2001, Pages 1241-1247
Journal home page for The Lancet
Fast track — Articles
Effect of large-scale social marketing of insecticide-treated nets on child survival in rural Tanzania
Bednets and malaria in Africa
The Lancet, Volume 357, Issue 9264, 21 April 2001, Pages 1219-1220
Referred to by D Mathanga, ME Molyneux
Bednets and malaria in Africa
The Lancet, Volume 357, Issue 9264, 21 April 2001, Pages 1219-1220
Purchase PDF
Summary
Background
Insecticide-treated nets have proven efficacy as a malaria-control tool in Africa. However, the transition from efficacy to effectiveness cannot be taken for granted. We assessed coverage and the effect on child survival of a large-scale social marketing programme for insecticide-treated nets in two rural districts of southern Tanzania with high perennial malaria transmission.
Methods
Socially marketed insecticide-treated nets were introduced step-wise over a 2-year period from May, 1997, in a population of 480 000 people. Cross-sectional coverage surveys were done at baseline and after 1, 2, and 3 years. A demographic surveillance system (DSS) was set up in an area of 60 000 people to record population, births, and deaths. Within the DSS area, the effect of insecticide-treated nets on child survival was assessed by a case-control approach. Cases were deaths in children aged between 1 month and 4 years. Four controls for each case were chosen from the DSS database. Use of insecticide-treated nets and potential confounding factors were assessed by questionnaire. Individual effectiveness estimates from the case-control study were combined with coverage to estimate community effectiveness.
Findings
Insecticide-treated net coverage of infants in the DSS area rose from less than 10% at baseline to more than 50% 3 years later. Insecticide-treated nets were associated with a 27% increase in survival in children aged 1 month to 4 years (95% CI 3–45). Coverage in such children was higher in areas with longer access to the programme. The modest average coverage achieved by 1999 in the two districts (18% in children younger than 5 years) suggests that insecticide-treated nets prevented 1 in 20 child deaths at that time.
Interpretation
Social marketing of insecticide-treated nets has great potential for effective malaria control in rural African settings.'
FYI Maj Robert Thornton Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM SSG Robert RicciLTC David Brown PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO3 Phyllis Maynard SSG Franklin Briant SFC David Reid, M.S, PHR, SHRM-CP, DTM MSG Felipe De Leon Brown TSgt David L. SGT (Join to see) Alan K. SPC Margaret Higgins SPC Nancy Greene Maj Kim Patterson
"The End Game looks at a range of solutions being pioneered in Tanzania in the battle against malaria. The bid to control and ultimately eliminate malaria worldwide is perhaps one of the most ambitious global health projects is."
https://youtu.be/kmrvDrGaU_o
Images:
1. Rachel Carson's writings about the dangers of pesticides helped start the modern environmental movement.
2. Child suffering from malaria
3. Mosquitoes seem to fancy human blood when they’re carrying malaria, in an apparent case of parasites directing their hosts’ behaviour
4. Insecticide-treated sleeping nets last for three years and then need to be replaced.
Background from {[hhttps://http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S [login to see] 044044]}
Effect of large-scale social marketing of insecticide-treated nets on child survival in rural Tanzania
The Lancet
Volume 357, Issue 9264, 21 April 2001, Pages 1241-1247
Journal home page for The Lancet
Fast track — Articles
Effect of large-scale social marketing of insecticide-treated nets on child survival in rural Tanzania
Bednets and malaria in Africa
The Lancet, Volume 357, Issue 9264, 21 April 2001, Pages 1219-1220
Referred to by D Mathanga, ME Molyneux
Bednets and malaria in Africa
The Lancet, Volume 357, Issue 9264, 21 April 2001, Pages 1219-1220
Purchase PDF
Summary
Background
Insecticide-treated nets have proven efficacy as a malaria-control tool in Africa. However, the transition from efficacy to effectiveness cannot be taken for granted. We assessed coverage and the effect on child survival of a large-scale social marketing programme for insecticide-treated nets in two rural districts of southern Tanzania with high perennial malaria transmission.
Methods
Socially marketed insecticide-treated nets were introduced step-wise over a 2-year period from May, 1997, in a population of 480 000 people. Cross-sectional coverage surveys were done at baseline and after 1, 2, and 3 years. A demographic surveillance system (DSS) was set up in an area of 60 000 people to record population, births, and deaths. Within the DSS area, the effect of insecticide-treated nets on child survival was assessed by a case-control approach. Cases were deaths in children aged between 1 month and 4 years. Four controls for each case were chosen from the DSS database. Use of insecticide-treated nets and potential confounding factors were assessed by questionnaire. Individual effectiveness estimates from the case-control study were combined with coverage to estimate community effectiveness.
Findings
Insecticide-treated net coverage of infants in the DSS area rose from less than 10% at baseline to more than 50% 3 years later. Insecticide-treated nets were associated with a 27% increase in survival in children aged 1 month to 4 years (95% CI 3–45). Coverage in such children was higher in areas with longer access to the programme. The modest average coverage achieved by 1999 in the two districts (18% in children younger than 5 years) suggests that insecticide-treated nets prevented 1 in 20 child deaths at that time.
Interpretation
Social marketing of insecticide-treated nets has great potential for effective malaria control in rural African settings.'
FYI Maj Robert Thornton Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM SSG Robert RicciLTC David Brown PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO3 Phyllis Maynard SSG Franklin Briant SFC David Reid, M.S, PHR, SHRM-CP, DTM MSG Felipe De Leon Brown TSgt David L. SGT (Join to see) Alan K. SPC Margaret Higgins SPC Nancy Greene Maj Kim Patterson
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