Almanac of Story Tellers: Rachel Carson

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Sept. 27th

 ___________________________________________________________________________

    It is the 270th day of the year, leaving 95 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1962, the environmental book, Silent Spring, was published in the United States.

    In telling its story about the environmental calamity the chemical industry was causing, Rachel Carson showed the power of the written word. Her book led to a ban on the pesticide DDT, helped jumpstart the environmental movement, and served as the impetus for the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

    Carson hammered home the negative impact that human activity, particularly in its industries, has on other species and the planet earth. She showed how pesticides did not just kill the weeds and insects they were aimed at, but various plant life, birds, fish, and species up the food chain.

    Indeed, part of the book said the pesticides eventually could cause harm to people, and it was only getting worse. She wrote how the chemicals caused potential cancers in animals. She also noted how certain pests targeted by the pesticides were developing immunity, causing the industry to find more powerful and dangerous alternatives.

    To tell that whole story, Carson also gave a primer on the natural world and life is interconnected. The stories first appeared as a serialization in The New Yorker over three successive weekly issues, starting on June 16, 1962. A follow-up piece in The New York Times in late July.

    It gave the industry a heads-up, and it used that to cry foul and attack Carson and her fellow travelers. But Carson had done her research -- she was a marine biologist by training who had written numerous articles and three books about the environment of the seas and the oceans -- and had put her own work under massive scrutiny before publication.

    The book still packs a wallop after 60 years. Its science has held up. It has been called the second most important book of science since Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

    Carson died in 1964, shortly after publication, but her impact and reputation has lived on.