Silent Spring by Rachel Carson:

 

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was the very first book I read in the English Language.

Cover to cover.  Page by page.  Using my English Japanese dictionary.   I was  a teenager attending high school at that time.   I wrote a book report on Silent Spring for my English class and did a presentation before the class. 

The book was first published by Houghton Mifflin in September 1962.  For me coming from Japan, it was a shocking discovery how harmful DDT was.  This probably  was a shocking discovery for many people  in America.  After all DDT had been heralded as a miracle pesticide.

History of DDT:

 

Carson’s Silent Spring exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT.  DDT had been widely accepted and welcomed  as pesticides.  It was used everywhere.  A Swiss chemist Paul H. Muller developed a brand new compound called DDT. (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) is a colorless, crystalline, tasteless and almost odorless organic compound. He showed that DDT killed the Colorado potato beetles that were destroying potato crops in America and throughout Europe. 

Also this was during World War II.

DDT also helped to fight the deadly human diseases such as typhus, malaria and yellow fever.  This was odorless and colorless.  That really made it easy to use in mass quantity.  This seemed to have temporarily helped millions of lives in Africa.   DDT gave a simple quick solution to massive problems facing war torn areas.  Spraying with DDT helped millions of civilians, slave laborers, prisoners of war, and concentration camp inmates dying from insect-borne diseases. The US and Allied nations brought their squads of troops in the Pacific Islands jungles and African nations, spraying DDT.  In this way, saving the lives of millions.  DDT’s status was elevated to one of the greatest medical discoveries in history.

 

Paul H. Muller received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1948. 

The Nobel Committee said:

DDT has been used in large quantities in the evacuation of concentration camps, of prisons and deportees. Without any doubt, the material has already preserved the life and health of hundreds of thousands.

He received an honorary doctorate from a Greek University because DDT has such a major impact in the Mediterranean region. 

People readily accepted DDT.  It was sprayed in every public place imaginable in America.  On the roadside.  At public pools.  At schools. To control body lice.

 

To kill mosquitoes and body stinging insects.

Growing up in Japan, my family like all other Japanese families did major annual cleaning.  We took out Tatami mats and got them in the Sun and dry and air out.  It’s a bit like taking out rugs or carpet off the wooden floor in a Western style house.  We sprinkled DDT powder on the wooden floor  before we put back the Tatami mat. My brother crawled under the foundation of the house and sprinkled DDT powder.   

Years later DDT traces were found in cow’s mild.  Human breast milk.  For a period of time, tens of thousands of new born babies got ill and running a high fever.  Of course, this took a long period of time to discover it was not a few isolated incidents.    Can you imagine what it would be like if you are the new parent and your baby is sick with a high fever.   One doctor investigated and found one common thread for the afflicted babies.  They were using a particular brand of Baby powder milk formula and it had high levels of DDT. 

Rachel Carson’s Passion is Nature and Writing:

 

She is from Pennsylvania.  She was born in 1907 and passed away in 1964.    She aspired to be a writer.  In college she majored in biology after switching from English.  At Johns Hopkins University she completed  masters in zoology.  She lacked funds to complete her doctorate studies and began to work for the US Bureau of Fisheries (US Fish and Wildlife Service.)

 

Rachel Carson wrote three books before “Silent Spring.”   “The Sea Around Us”, “Under the Sea-Wind” and “the Edge of the Sea.”   They were all successful and hit the Best Sellers Lists.   Rachel Carson loved nature.  She was a prolific writer.   

In the 1950’s ornithologists and beekeepers  brought many lawsuits about the implications of DDT on wildlife.  Rachel Carson’s friend asked her to help.   As a full time writer, she turned attention to dangerous new chemicals used in agriculture and pest and disease control, DDT.  Rachel Carson’s 1962 work was not the first time someone sounded the alarm about DDT and other pesticides. “Silent Spring” brought these concerns into the public.
 
In 1958 Rachel Carson was asked to write an article about DDT for the New Yorker magazine.  She has compiled many of her data and shown that DDT accumulated in the water, soil and atmosphere.  DDT did not breakdown and was passed up the food chain, from the insects and crops to animals, birds and the humans.

With the publication of Silent Spring in June 1962, the environmental movement got ignited in America.  The book immediately climbed on the Best Sellers List and remained there for two and a half years.  The conservation minded people were transformed into a more ecologically informed and scientifically studied comprehensive movement.

“We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road — the one less traveled by — offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.” 

Rachel Carson’s Commitment to her work:

What many people do not know is that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She was in the midst of her research and writing of Silent Spring.  She completed her studies and writing and published her book. 

The book was attacked.  She was ridiculed  and character assassinated.  Mostly by the Chemical Industry and the related interest groups.   The general public supported her.  As well as many scientists, environmental activists and policy-makers.  Carson bravely hid her pain and cancer and appeared on television and news.  She gave many speeches before large audience.  She testified at congressional hearings. 

The Blogger’s Thoughts:

Winning over the people’s heart and trust:

Silent Spring’s popularity just didn’t happen overnight.  Rachel Cason was already established as a writer.  She has for years written and published about her love of nature and conveyed the beauty and miracle of nature.

In her earlier bestselling book, “the Edge of the Sea she wrote:

Her readers and the public have already appreciated and joined forces with her in their love of nature.  They may not have been ready for a major battle against the giant chemical industry.

Characteristics of Successful people:

She had a very important mission ( definite purpose):
There is really no way to measure a major important role Rachel Carson played in the human history.   Her book is responsible in the worldwide banning of one of the most dangerous chemical.  It was a chemical that at first welcomed and seemingly solved all the problems conveniently and easily.  Even to this day, there are those who still defend DDT and express their opinion that it should be used to fight malaria in Africa. 

Rachel Carson dared to question and lead the people:
She dared to demand for a thorough investigation of consequences of massive use of chemicals.
Because she loved nature, Planet Earth and sustainability of the Earth.
The people also were capable of using their scientific mind.
Not just the scientists who worked for profit motivated chemical companies.

She had desire and passion:
She always loved to write.  Even though she switched her major from English to Biology, she always wrote.  She did get a job as a writer at the US Fishery and Wild Life.  She combined what she loved… studies of nature and writing. 

Rachel made a decision and stuck to it:

She undertook an enormous task of writing Silent Spring.  After she was diagnosed with cancer, she continued her endeavors to complete her studies and writing to publish the book.  In spite of aching body and failing health, she appeared in public to give speeches and testified at the congressional hearings.

She was very courageous; did not cave into attacks and criticisms against her:
She showed how birds and wildlife were killed in areas where DDT was massively sprayed to kill insects.  She exposed the government agencies not regulating the chemical industries and hiding the truth. 

She wrote;

• Her commitment and conviction and mastery of her writing and speaking moved the mind and hearts of the people.
• She never intended to call for the complete ban of DDT and other pesticides in SILENT SPRING.
  
  
• She probably never thought that her book had a power to ban DDT worldwide or sparked such strong environmental awareness and movement.

• Rachel Carson was an example of an extraordinary woman in the history of human kind who served as a catalyst for the idea whose time has come.

 

Can you be a person to make a big difference in the world?  Would you like to get started? 

Today people do not have to be well established  or be published authors to influence the masses.  Do you believe in something very strongly?  Do you have something you would like to share extensively?
Do you believe you are not only expressing yourself but really have something important to teach?

Napoleon Hill said;

Today we have Internet and digital communication tools such as blogging.  Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people are changing their lives and helping others.  They all began with this simple system that allowed them to write about their passion.

Find Out How You too can Make a Difference >>

To Your Health and success,

 

 

References:
Books-

 

1. Silent Spring

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. The Sea Around Us, Special Edition

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. the Edge of the Sea

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Under the Sea-Wind

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Lost Wood

 

 

 

 

 

Blog Articles:

1. The Truth About DDT and Silent Spring

2. RACHEL CARSON’S SILENT SPRING, A BOOK THAT CHANGED THE WORLD