With the pesticide industry in its sights, Silent Spring made an instant impact on its first publication in 1962 and was inevitably controversial among the companies behind the products that the book exposed as lethal to the sustainability of the planet. Rachel Carson reaches out to the lay person with a compelling exposition of these products’ nefarious effects on both wildlife and people, while explaining relatively new concepts such as the interconnectedness of life on Earth and the dangers of human over-interference. Although all the pesticides she exposes have since been banned – a credit in part to this book – Silent Spring remains an important treatise against the folly of putting commercial needs ahead of the needs of people and the natural world.
further reading…
With the pesticide industry in its sights, Silent Spring made an instant impact on its first publication in 1962 and was inevitably controversial among the companies behind the products that the book exposed as lethal to the sustainability of the planet. Rachel Carson reaches out to the lay person with a compelling exposition of these products’ nefarious effects on both wildlife and people, while explaining relatively new concepts such as the interconnectedness of life on Earth and the dangers of human over-interference. Although all the pesticides she exposes have since been banned – a credit in part to this book – Silent Spring remains an important treatise against the folly of putting commercial needs ahead of the needs of people and the natural world.