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bióloga marina y escritora estadounidense Rachel Carson, que nació un 27 de mayo, es una referencia obligada cuando se habla del movimiento ecologista moderno y de la concienciación popular sobre la defensa del medio ambiente.

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Rachel Carson nació el 27 de mayo de 1907 en Springdale, Pennsylvania.

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En 1928 cambio y comenzó a estudiar Biología en la Universidad Johns Hopkins, graduándose en magna cum laude un año después.  En ese mismo año continuó sus estudios en Zoología y Genética.

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Enseñó zoología en la Universidad de Maryland desde 1931 a 1936.

Entre 1936 y 1952 ejerció como bióloga en la administración estadounidense.

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recibió en 1952 el National Book Award para obras de no ficción.

Algunos de sus libros fueron elogiados por la belleza de su lenguaje así como por su precisión científica.

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Rachel Carson | La mujer que inició el ecologismo contemporáneo #HicieronHistoria | UMH Sapiens

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Su obra Primavera Silenciosa (1962), causó gran preocupación sobre el medio ambiente.

Inspiró un movimiento ambiental de base que derivó en la creación de la Agencia de Protección Ambiental de los Estados Unidos.

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Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of DDT, a pesticide used by soldiers during WW2. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation, and public officials of accepting the industry's marketing claims unquestioningly.

In the late 1950s, Carson began to work on environmental conservation, especially environmental problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result of her research was Silent Spring, which brought environmental concerns to the American public. The book was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, but it swayed public opinion and led to a reversal in U.S. pesticide policy, a nationwide ban on DDT for agricultural uses, and an environmental movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In 2006, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of magazine.

Rachel Carson, 1940
Fish and Wildlife Service employee photo

In the mid-1940s, Carson became concerned about the use of synthetic pesticides, many of which had been developed through the military funding of science after World War II. The United States Department of Agriculture's 1957 fire ant eradication program, which involved aerial spraying of DDT and other pesticides mixed with fuel oil and included the spraying of private land, prompted Carson to devote her research, and her next book, to pesticides and environmental poisons. Landowners in Long Island filed a suit to have the spraying stopped, and many in affected regions followed the case closely. Though the suit was lost, the Supreme Court granted petitioners the right to gain injunctions against potential environmental damage in the future, laying the basis for later environmental actions.

The impetus for Silent Spring was a letter written in January 1958 by Carson's friend, Olga Owens Huckins, to The Boston Herald, describing the death of birds around her property in Duxbury, Massachusetts, resulting from the aerial spraying of DDT to kill mosquitoes, a copy of which Huckins sent to Carson. Carson later wrote that this letter prompted her to study the environmental problems caused by the overuse of chemical pesticides.

The Audubon Naturalist Society actively opposed chemical spraying programs and recruited Carson to help publicize the U.S. government's spraying practices and related research. Carson began the four-year project of Silent Spring by gathering examples of environmental damage attributed to DDT. She tried to enlist essayist E. B. White and a number of journalists and scientists to her cause. By 1958, Carson had arranged a book deal, with plans to co-write with science journalist Edwin Diamond. However, when The New Yorker commissioned a long and well-paid article on the topic from Carson, she began considering writing more than the introduction and conclusion as planned; soon it became a solo project. Diamond would later write one of the harshest critiques of Silent Spring.

As her research progressed, Carson found a sizable community of scientists who were documenting the physiological and environmental effects of pesticides. She took advantage of her personal connections with many government scientists, who supplied her with confidential information on the subject. From reading the scientific literature and interviewing scientists, Carson found two scientific camps: those who dismissed the possible danger of pesticide spraying barring conclusive proof, and those who were open to the possibility of harm and willing to consider alternative methods, such as biological pest control.

Fire Ants on Trial - public service film produced by the USDA

By 1959, the USDA's Agricultural Research Service responded to the criticism by Carson and others with a public service film, Fire Ants on Trial; Carson called it "flagrant propaganda" that ignored the dangers that spraying pesticides posed to humans and wildlife. That spring, Carson wrote a letter, published in The Washington Post, that attributed the recent decline in bird populations-in her words, the "silencing of birds"-to pesticide overuse. The same year, the 1957, 1958, and 1959 crops of U.S. cranberries were found to contain high levels of the herbicide aminotriazole and the sale of all cranberry products was halted. Carson attended the ensuing FDA hearings on revising pesticide regulations; she was discouraged by the aggressive tactics of the chemical industry representatives, which included expert testimony that was firmly contradicted by the bulk of the scientific literature she had been studying. She also wondered about the possible "financial inducements behind certain pesticide programs".

Research at the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health brought Carson into contact with medical researchers investigating the gamut of cancer-causing chemicals. Of particular significance was the work of National Cancer Institute researcher and founding director of the environmental cancer section Wilhelm Hueper, who classified many pesticides as carcinogens. Carson and her research assistant Jeanne Davis, with the help of NIH librarian Dorothy Algire, found evidence to support the pesticide-cancer connection; to Carson the evidence for the toxicity of a wide array of synthetic pesticides was clear-cut, though such conclusions were very controversial beyond the small community of scientists studying pesticide carcinogenesis.

By 1960, Carson had sufficient research material and the writing was progressing rapidly. She had investigated hundreds of individual incidents of pesticide exposure and the resulting human sickness and ecological damage. In January 1960, she suffered an illness which kept her bedridden for weeks, delaying the book. As she was nearing full recovery in March, she discovered cysts in her left breast, requiring a mastectomy. By December that year, Carson discovered that she had breast cancer, which had metastasized. Her research was also delayed by revision work for a new edition of The Sea Around Us, and by a collaborative photo essay with Erich Hartmann. Most of the research and writing was done by the fall of 1960, except for a discussion of recent research on biological controls and investigations of some new pesticides. However, further health troubles delayed the final revisions in 1961 and early 1962.

The work's title was inspired by a poem by John Keats, " La Belle Dame sans Merci", which contained the lines "The sedge is wither'd from the lake, And no birds sing." "Silent Spring" was initially suggested as a title for the chapter on birds. By August 1961, Carson agreed to the suggestion of her literary agent Marie Rodell: Silent Spring would be a metaphorical title for the entire book-suggesting a bleak future for the whole natural world-rather than a literal chapter title about the absence of birdsong. With Carson's approval, editor Paul Brooks at Houghton Mifflin arranged for illustrations by Louis and Lois Darling, who also designed the cover. The final writing was the first chapter, "A Fable for Tomorrow", which was intended to provide the fact that something like the story in the book could happen any time in the near future. By mid-1962, Brooks and Carson had largely finished the editing and were planning to promote the book by sending the manuscript to select individuals for final suggestions. In Silent Spring, Carson relied on evidence from two New York state organic farmers, Marjorie Spock and Mary Richards, and that of biodynamic farming advocate Ehrenfried Pfeiffer in developing her case against DDT.

The overarching 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 solely targeting 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 natural ecosystems, but four chapters detail cases of human pesticide poisoning, cancer, and other illnesses attributed to pesticides. About DDT and cancer, Carson says only:

In laboratory tests on animal subjects, DDT has produced suspicious liver tumors. Scientists of the Food and Drug Administration who reported the discovery of these tumors were uncertain how to classify them, but felt there was some "justification for considering them low grade hepatic cell carcinomas". Dr. Hueper [author of Occupational Tumors and Allied Diseases] now gives DDT the definite rating of a "chemical carcinogen".

Carson predicts increased consequences in the future, especially since targeted pests may develop resistance to pesticides and weakened ecosystems fall prey to unanticipated invasive species. The book closes with a call for a biotic approach to pest control as an alternative to chemical pesticides.

Carson never called for an outright ban on DDT. She said in Silent Spring that even if DDT and other insecticides had no environmental side effects, their indiscriminate overuse was counterproductive because it would create insect resistance to pesticides, making them useless in eliminating the target insect populations:

No responsible person contends that insect-borne disease should be ignored. The question that has now urgently presented itself is whether it is either wise or responsible to attack the problem by methods that are rapidly making it worse. The world has heard much of the triumphant war against disease through the control of insect vectors of infection, but it has heard little of the other side of the story-the defeats, the short-lived triumphs that now strongly support the alarming view that the insect enemy has been made actually stronger by our efforts. Even worse, we may have destroyed our very means of fighting.

Carson also said that "Malaria programmes are threatened by resistance among mosquitoes", and quoted the advice given by the director of Holland's Plant Protection Service: "Practical advice should be 'Spray as little as you possibly can' rather than 'Spray to the limit of your capacity'. Pressure on the pest population should always be as slight as possible."

At the time the book was written, environmental issues were excluded from mainstream political conversation in America. However, Carson believed that governments should consider what environmental impact a policy may have before implementing it; for example, in chapter 10 she describes a pesticide program from 1957 that was intended to control the spread of fire ants:

With the development of chemicals of broad lethal powers, there came a sudden change in the official attitude towards the fire ant. In 1957 the United States Department of Agriculture launched one of the most remarkable publicity campaigns in its history. The fire ant suddenly became the target of a barrage of government releases, motion pictures, and government-inspired stories portraying it as a despoiler of southern agriculture and a killer of birds, livestock, and man. A mighty campaign was announced, in which the federal government in cooperation with the afflicted states would ultimately treat some 20,000,000 acres in nine southern states.

Despite calls from experts to consider the damage using the pesticides could bring to the environment, the Agriculture Department dismissed the objections and continued on with the program:

Urgent protests were made by most of the state conservation departments, by national conservation agencies, and by ecologists and even by some entomologists, calling upon the then Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Benson, to delay the program at least until some research had been done to determine the effects of heptachlor and dieldrin on wild and domestic animals and to find the minimum amount that would control the ants. The protests were ignored and the program was launched in 1958. A million acres were treated the first year. It was clear that any research would be in the nature of a post mortem.

After the program, an increased number of birds, cattle, horses and other wildlife were found dead in the areas where the pesticides had been sprayed. To make matters worse, the heptachlor and dieldrin sprayed accomplished nothing, instead creating more infested areas. Had the government researched the impact the chemicals could have on wildlife they could have prevented the deaths and environmental damage and saved the taxpayer's money. Overall, Silent Spring not only uncovered the many negative effects pesticides have on the environment but also asked for environmental issues to be discussed and treated seriously within the political sphere.

Carson and the others involved with publication of Silent Spring expected fierce criticism and were concerned about the possibility of being sued for libel. Carson was undergoing radiation therapy for her cancer and expected to have little energy to defend her work and respond to critics. In preparation for the anticipated attacks, Carson and her agent attempted to amass prominent supporters before the book's release.

Most of the book's scientific chapters were reviewed by scientists with relevant expertise, among whom Carson found strong support. Carson attended the White House Conference on Conservation in May 1962; Houghton Mifflin distributed proof copies of Silent Spring to many of the delegates and promoted the upcoming serialization in The New Yorker. Carson also sent a proof copy to Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas, a long-time environmental advocate who had argued against the court's rejection of the Long Island pesticide spraying case and had provided Carson with some of the material included in her chapter on herbicides.

Though Silent Spring had generated a fairly high level of interest based on pre-publication promotion, this became more intense with its serialization, which began in the June 16, 1962, issue. This brought the book to the attention of the chemical industry and its lobbyists, as well as the American public. Around that time, Carson learned that Silent Spring had been selected as the Book of the Month for October; she said this would "carry it to farms and hamlets all over that country that don't know what a bookstore looks like-much less The New Yorker". Other publicity included a positive editorial in The New York Times and excerpts of the serialized version were published in Audubon Magazine. There was another round of publicity in July and August as chemical companies responded. The story of the birth defect-causing drug thalidomide had broken just before the book's publication, inviting comparisons between Carson and Frances Oldham Kelsey, the Food and Drug Administration reviewer who had blocked the drug's sale in the United States.

In the weeks before the September 27, 1962, publication, there was strong opposition to Silent Spring from the chemical industry. DuPont, a major manufacturer of DDT and 2,4-D, and Velsicol Chemical Company, the only manufacturer of chlordane and heptachlor, were among the first to respond. DuPont compiled an extensive report on the book's press coverage and estimated impact on public opinion. Velsicol threatened legal action against Houghton Mifflin, and The New Yorker and Audubon Magazine unless their planned Silent Spring features were canceled. Chemical industry representatives and lobbyists lodged a range of non-specific complaints, some anonymously. Chemical companies and associated organizations produced brochures and articles promoting and defending pesticide use. However, Carson's and the publishers' lawyers were confident in the vetting process Silent Spring had undergone. The magazine and book publications proceeded as planned, as did the large Book-of-the-Month printing, which included a pamphlet by William O. Douglas endorsing the book.

American Cyanamid biochemist Robert White-Stevens and former Cyanamid chemist Thomas Jukes were among the most aggressive critics, especially of Carson's analysis of DDT. According to White-Stevens, "If man were to follow the teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the earth". Others attacked Carson's personal character and scientific credentials, her training being in marine biology rather than biochemistry. White-Stevens called her "a fanatic defender of the cult of the balance of nature". According to historian Linda Lear the former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, asked in a letter to former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Why a spinster with no children was so concerned about genetics?" Benson's conclusion was Carson was "probably a Communist".

Monsanto published 5,000 copies of a parody called "The Desolate Year" (1962) which projected a world of famine and disease caused by banning pesticides.

Many critics repeatedly said Carson was calling for the elimination of all pesticides, but she had made it clear she was not advocating this but was instead encouraging responsible and carefully managed use with an awareness of the chemicals' impact on ecosystems. She concludes her section on DDT in Silent Spring with advice for spraying as little as possible to limit the development of resistance. Mark Hamilton Lytle writes, Carson "quite self-consciously decided to write a book calling into question the paradigm of scientific progress that defined postwar American culture".

The academic community-including prominent defenders such as H. J. Muller, Loren Eiseley, Clarence Cottam and Frank Egler-mostly backed the book's scientific claims and public opinion backed Carson's text. The chemical industry campaign was counterproductive because the controversy increased public awareness of the potential dangers of pesticides, an early example of the Streisand Effect. Pesticide use became a major public issue after a CBS Reports television special, The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson, which was broadcast on April 3, 1963. The program included segments of Carson reading from Silent Spring and interviews with other experts, mostly critics including White-Stevens. According to biographer Linda Lear, "in juxtaposition to the wild-eyed, loud-voiced Dr. Robert White-Stevens in white lab coat, Carson appeared anything but the hysterical alarmist that her critics contended". Reactions from the estimated audience of ten to fifteen million were overwhelmingly positive and the program spurred a congressional review of pesticide hazards and the public release of a pesticide report by the President's Science Advisory Committee. Within a year of publication, attacks on the book and on Carson had lost momentum.

In one of her last public appearances, Carson testified before President John F. Kennedy's Science Advisory Committee, which issued its report on May 15, 1963, largely backing Carson's scientific claims. Following the report's release, Carson also testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee to make policy recommendations. Though Carson received hundreds of other speaking invitations, she was unable to accept most of them because her health was steadily declining, with only brief periods of remission. She spoke as much as she could, and appeared on The Today Show and gave speeches at several dinners held in her honor. In late 1963, she received a flurry of awards and honors: the Audubon Medal from the National Audubon Society, the Cullum Geographical Medal from the American Geographical Society, and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Of Carson, Maria Popova wrote, "Her lyrical writing rendered her not a mere translator of the natural world, but an alchemist transmuting the steel of science into the gold of wonder."

The book was translated into many languages including German, French, Dutch, Japanese, Russian and Italian.

Swedish: Tyst vår, first edition 1963.

Finnish: Äänetön kevät, first edition 1962, after parts of the book were published in an 8-part article series by the largest subscription newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat (Helsinki times/news), earlier that year.

Carson's work had a powerful impact on the environmental movement. Silent Spring became a rallying point for the new social movement in the 1960s. According to environmental engineer and Carson scholar H. Patricia Hynes, " Silent Spring altered the balance of power in the world. No one since would be able to sell pollution as the necessary underside of progress so easily or uncritically." Carson's work and the activism it inspired are partly responsible for the deep ecology movement and the strength of the grassroots environmental movement since the 1960s. It was also influential to the rise of ecofeminism and to many feminist scientists. Carson's most direct legacy in the environmental movement was the campaign to ban the use of DDT in the United States, and related efforts to ban or limit its use throughout the world. The 1967 formation of the Environmental Defense Fund was the first major milestone in the campaign against DDT. The organization brought lawsuits against the government to "establish a citizen's right to a clean environment", and the arguments against DDT largely mirrored Carson's. By 1972, the Environmental Defense Fund and other activist groups had succeeded in securing a phase-out of DDT use in the United States, except in emergency cases.

The creation of the Environmental Protection Agency by the Nixon Administration in 1970 addressed another concern that Carson had written about. Until then, the USDA was responsible both for regulating pesticides and promoting the concerns of the agriculture industry; Carson saw this as a conflict of interest (COI), since the agency was not responsible for effects on wildlife or other environmental concerns beyond farm policy. Fifteen years after its creation, one journalist described the EPA as "the extended shadow of Silent Spring". Much of the agency's early work, such as enforcement of the 1972 Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, was directly related to Carson's work. Contrary to the position of the pesticide industry, the DDT phase-out action taken by the EPA (led by William Ruckelshaus) implied that there was no way to adequately regulate DDT use. Ruckelshaus' conclusion was that DDT could not be used safely. History professor Gary Kroll wrote, "Rachel Carson's Silent Spring played a large role in articulating ecology as a 'subversive subject'-as a perspective that cuts against the grain of materialism, scientism, and the technologically engineered control of nature."

In a 2013 interview, Ruckelshaus briefly recounted his decision to ban DDT except for emergency uses, noting that Carson's book featured DDT and for that reason the issue drew considerable public attention.

Former Vice President of the United States and environmentalist Al Gore wrote an introduction to the 1992 edition of Silent Spring. He wrote: " Silent Spring had a profound impact ... Indeed, Rachel Carson was one of the reasons that I became so conscious of the environment and so involved with environmental issues ... [she] has had as much or more effect on me than any, and perhaps than all of them together."

Carson has been targeted by some organizations opposed to the environmental movement, including Roger Bate of the pro-DDT advocacy group Africa Fighting Malaria and the libertarian think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI); these sources oppose restrictions on DDT, attribute large numbers of deaths to such restrictions, and argue that Carson was responsible for them. These arguments have been dismissed as "outrageous" by former World Health Organization scientist Socrates Litsios. May Berenbaum, University of Illinois entomologist, says, "to blame environmentalists who oppose DDT for more deaths than Hitler is worse than irresponsible". Investigative journalist Adam Sarvana and others characterize this notion as a "myth" promoted principally by Bate.

In the 1990s and 2000s, campaigns against the book intensified, in part due to efforts by the tobacco industry to cast larger doubt on science-driven policy as a way of contesting bans on smoking. In 2009, the heavily corporate-funded CEI set up a website falsely blaming Carson for deaths to malaria. This triggered a point-by-point rebuttal by biographer William Souder, who reviewed the distortions used by campaigners against Silent Spring.

A 2012 review article in by Rob Dunn commemorating the 50th anniversary of Silent Spring and summarizing the progressive environmental-policy changes made since then, prompted a response in a letter written by Anthony Trewavas and co-signed by 10 others, including Christopher Leaver, Bruce Ames and Peter Lachmann, who quote estimates of 60 to 80 million deaths "as a result of misguided fears based on poorly understood evidence".

Biographer Hamilton Lytle believes these estimates are unrealistic, even if Carson can be "blamed" for worldwide DDT policies. John Quiggin and Tim Lambert wrote, "the most striking feature of the claim against Carson is the ease with which it can be refuted". DDT was never banned for anti-malarial use, and its ban for agricultural use in the United States in 1972 did not apply outside the U.S. nor to anti-malaria spraying. The international treaty that banned most uses of DDT and other organochlorine pesticides-the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (which became effective in 2004)-included an exemption for the use of DDT for malaria control until affordable substitutes could be found. Mass outdoor spraying of DDT was abandoned in poor countries subject to malaria, such as Sri Lanka, in the 1970s and 1980s; this was not because of government prohibitions but because the DDT had lost its ability to kill the mosquitoes. Because of insects' very short breeding cycle and large number of offspring, the most resistant insects survive and pass on their genetic traits to their offspring, which replace the pesticide-slain insects relatively rapidly. Agricultural spraying of pesticides produces pesticide resistance in seven to ten years.

Some experts have said that restrictions placed on the agricultural use of DDT have increased its effectiveness for malaria control. According to pro-DDT advocate Amir Attaran, the result of the (activated in 2004) Stockholm Convention banning DDT's use in agriculture "is arguably better than the status quo ... For the first time, there is now an insecticide which is restricted to vector control only, meaning that the selection of resistant mosquitoes will be slower than before."

Silent Spring has been featured in many lists of the best nonfiction books of the twentieth century. It was fifth in the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Nonfiction and number 78 in the National Review's 100 best non-fiction books of the 20th century. In 2006, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of Discover Magazine. In 2012, the American Chemical Society designated the legacy of Silent Spring a National Historic Chemical Landmark at Chatham University in Pittsburgh.

In 1996, a follow-up book, Beyond Silent Spring, co-written by H. F. van Emden and David Peakall, was published.

In 1967 George Newson composed the tape composition Silent Spring using birdsong recorded at London Zoo as source material. It was premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in January 1968.

Silent Spring is mentioned in the 2008 science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, as well as its Tencent 2023 and Netflix 2024 television series adaptations.

In 2011, the American composer Steven Stucky wrote the eponymously titled symphonic poem Silent Spring to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the book's publication. The piece was given its world premiere in Pittsburgh on February 17, 2012, with the conductor Manfred Honeck leading the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

In 2019 Bobby, It's Cold Outside, an episode of animated comedy The Simpsons, features a copy of Silent Spring as one of the items burning on the Fox News yule log.

Naturalist David Attenborough has stated that Silent Spring was probably the book that had changed the scientific world the most, after the On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.

Sonic Flower Groove, is the debut studio album by Scottish rock band Primal Scream, it was released on 5 October 1987, features a song titled ' Silent Spring'. The lead singer Bobby Gillespie in his book Tenement kid published late 2021, mentions how he dedicated the songs title after the Book.

1. ^ McLaughlin, Dorothy. "Fooling with Nature: Silent Spring Revisited". Frontline. PBS. Archived from the original on March 10, 2010.

2. ^ "DDT". United States Environmental Protection Agency. Archived from the original on October 22, 2007.

3. ^ Paull, John (2013) "The Rachel Carson Letters and the Making of Silent Spring" Archived 2013-11-03 at the Wayback Machine, Sage Open, 3 (July):1-12.

4. Glausiusz, Josie (2007), "Better Planet: Can A Maligned Pesticide Save Lives?" ^ Discover Magazine. p. 34.

5. ^ Greene, Jennifer (February 2008). "Obituary for Marjorie Spock" (PDF). Newsletter of the Portland Branch of Anthroposophical Society in Portland, Oregon. 4 (2): 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2015.

6. ^ Matthiessen, Peter (2007). Courage for the Earth: Writers, Scientists, and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson. Mariner Books. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-618-87276-3.

7. ^ Himaras, Eleni (May 26, 2007). "Rachel's Legacy - Rachel Carson's groundbreaking 'Silent Spring'". The Patriot Ledger. Quincy, Massachusetts.

8. ^ Wishart, Adam (2007). One in Three: A Son's Journey Into the History and Science of Cancer. New York, New York: Grove Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-8021-1840-0.

9. ^ Hynes, H. Patricia (September 10, 1992). "Perspective on the Environment - Unfinished Business: 'Silent Spring' On the 30th anniversary of Rachel Carson's indictment of DDT, pesticides still threaten human life". Los Angeles Times. p. 7 (Metro Section).

10. ^ Coates, Peter A. (October 2005). "The Strange Stillness of the Past: Toward an Environmental History of Sound and Noise". Environmental History. 10 (4): 636-665. doi:10.1093/envhis/10.4.636.

11. ^ Lear 1997, pp. 375, 377, 400-407. Douglas's dissenting opinion on the rejection of the case, Robert Cushman Murphy et al., v. Butler et al., from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, is from March 28, 1960.

12. ^ The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson (CBS Reports, with Erik Sevareid, aired on Apr 3, 1963, published to YouTube on Jan 28, 2017)

13. ^ Paull, John (July 1, 2013). "The Rachel Carson Letters and the Making of Silent Spring". . 3 (3). Sage Publishing: 215824401349486. doi:10.1177/2158244013494861. ISSN 2158-2440.

14. ^ Lear 1997, pp. 429, 573 The purported letter from Benson to Eisenhower was also reported by historian Blanche Wiesen Cook in 1992, but could not be located in Eisenhower's archives; author Frank Graham Jr. in 1970 credited a "disgruntled member of the Federal Pest Control Review Board" as the source.

15. ^ Krupke, C.H.; Prasad, R.P.; Anelli, C.M. (2007). "Professional entomology and the 44 noisy years since Silent Spring. Part 2: Response to Silent Spring" (PDF). American Entomologist. 53 (1): 16-25. doi:10.1093/ae/53.1.16. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 13, 2018.

16. ^ The Time 100: Scientists and Thinkers Archived 2009-06-13 at the Wayback Machine, accessed September 23, 2007

17. ^ Michals, Debra, ed. (2015). "Rachel Carson (1907-1964)". Alexandria, Virginia: National Women's History Museum.

18. ^ 1963: Bertelsmann Verlagsgruppe, with an afterword written by Theo Löbsack. 2nd ed. in 1964: Biederstein Verlag; 3rd ed. 1965: Büchergilde Gutenberg. 1968: first paperback edition (dtv).

19. ^ Карсон, Рахиль (1965). Безмолвная весна : пер. с англ [Silent Spring] (in Russian). Москва: Прогресс.

20. Gary Kroll, ^ "Rachel Carson-Silent Spring Archived 2007-07-15 at the Wayback Machine: A Brief History of Ecology as a Subversive Subject". Onlineethics.org: National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved November 4, 2007.

21. EPA Alumni Association: EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus and some of his closest aides recall the DDT ban decision, ^ Video Archived 2016-10-11 at the Wayback Machine, Transcript Archived 2016-10-11 at the Wayback Machine (see pages 13, 14).

22. ^ Sarvana, Adam (May 28, 2009). "Bate and Switch: How a free-market magician manipulated two decades of environmental science". Natural Resources New Service. Archived from the original on May 24, 2010.

23. ^ Gutstein, Donald (2009). Not a Conspiracy Theory: How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy. Key Porter Books. ISBN 978-1-55470-191-9.. Relevant excerpt at

24. ^ "Malaria Prevention and Control". East African Community Health. Archived from the original on January 8, 2015.

25. ^ Peakall, David B.; Van Emden, Helmut Fritz, eds. (1996). Beyond silent spring: integrated pest management and chemical safety. London: Chapman & Hall. ISBN 978-0-412-72810-5.

26. ^ Richards, H. (September 1999). "Beyond Silent Spring: Integrated Pest Management and Chemical Safety. Edited by H.F. van Emden and D.B. Peakall". Integrated Pest Management Reviews. 4 (3): 269-270. doi:10.1023/A:1009686508200. S2CID 83433090.

27. ^ Gareth Stevens. 'Meeting the Old Master', Hastings Independent, 25 March, 2022

28. ^ Druckenbrod, Andrew (February 18, 2012). "PSO takes hard look at turmoil, both environmental and human". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015.

29. ^ Kanny, Mark (February 18, 2012). "Offerings of 'Silent Spring', venerated material excel". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015.

30. ^ Kozinn, Allan (February 27, 2012). "Capping Off Prokofiev With 'New York, New York'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 19, 2015.

Berry-Cabán, Cristóbal S. "DDT and silent spring: fifty years after". Journal of Military and Veterans' Health 19 (2011): 19-24. online

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Report on Carcinogens, 12th Edition; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Toxicology Program (June 10, 2011)

American Chemical Society (1986). Silent Spring Revisited. ISBN 0-317-59798-1.

The New York Times July 22, 1962 report of chemical industry's campaign against the 16 Archived July 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, 23 Archived May 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, 30 Archived May 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine June 1962 serial in The New Yorker

New York Times book review September 23, 1962

Graham, Frank Jr.; Since Silent Spring: rebuttal to the attack by chemical-agribusiness companies Archived April 17, 2014, at the Wayback Machine; Audubon Magazine

Doyle, Jack "Power in the Pen": Silent Spring: 1962 (Publishing, Politics, Ecology) pophistorydig.com

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): The Story of Silent Spring - NRDC

Photos of the first edition of Silent Spring

Silent Spring, A Visual History curated by the Michigan State University Museum

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring Turns 50 - Elizabeth Grossman - The Atlantic

Griswold, Eliza; How Silent Spring Ignited the Environmental Movement The New York Times September 21, 2012

The Rachel Carson Council

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Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of DDT, a pesticide used by soldiers during WW2. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation, and public officials of accepting the industry's marketing claims unquestioningly.

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Fue galardonada a título póstumo con la Medalla Presidencial de la Libertad.

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Rachel Carson falleció por un cáncer de mama, en Silver Spring el 14 de abril de 1964.

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La obra de Rachel Carson cambió el mundo, cristalizando en la prohibición del DDT, la fundación de la Agencia Medioambiental Estadounidense, la declaración del Día de la Tierra y unificando el movimiento ecologista en la década de los 70.

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Asistiendo a los derroteros que están tomando algunos de los movimientos ecologistas hoy en día en todo el mundo, en demasiadas ocasiones con un cariz más político que científico, no estamos completamente seguros de si Rachel Carson estaría de acuerdo con la licencia que nos tomamos al denominarla como la madre del ecologismo moderno. Sin embargo, lo cierto es que la figura y los aportes de esta bióloga y escritora han resultado fundamentales para el desarrollo del movimiento filosófico y político que hoy conocemos como ecologismo.

Rachel Louise Carson nació el 27 de mayo de 1907 en Springdale, Pennsylvania, donde pasó los primeros años de su vida en la granja de su familia a las orillas del río Allegheny. Ávida lectora y heredera de su madre de un amor incondicional por la naturaleza, pasó su infancia entre libros y explorando las inmediaciones de su granja de 26 hectáreas, lo que la llevó a ser una precoz escritora que a la edad de 11 años ya había publicado su primera historia en la revista local St. Nicholas Magazine.

Asistió a la escuela en su ciudad natal, y completó su educación secundaria en el cercano Instituto Parnassus de Pensilvania, donde en el año 1925 se graduó como la primera de su promoción. Continuaría su formación en el Pennsylvania College for Women, la actual Universidad de Chatam, donde obligada a elegir entre sus dos pasiones, la escritura y la naturaleza, pronto cambiaría la literatura inglesa, especialidad por la que se decantó en un principio, por los estudios de biología, en los cuales se graduó con honores en 1929 a la vez que colaboraba con el suplemento del periódico estudiantil.

Posteriormente, Carson continuaría con sus estudios en la Universidad Johns Hopkins, los cuales culminó con una maestría en zoología y genética en junio de 1932, y donde dos años más tarde, en 1934, por dificultades económicas se vería obligada a abandonar su doctorado para impartir clases como profesora en la Universidad de Maryland.

En 1936, a raíz del fallecimiento de su padre, entró a trabajar como limnóloga al servicio de la Administración de Pesca y Vida Salvaje de los Estados Unidos -FWS- donde publicaría diversos artículos divulgativos, guiones radiofónicos y algunos libros, principalmente sobre el medio marino, que le granjearon un gran éxito entre el público y la comunidad científica, y que le llevaron a convertirse en la editora jefe del FWS.

Foto: Shutterstock

Fue en este periodo que Carson publicó su primer libro, titulado Bajo el Viento Oceánico, sin embargo, en 1952 renunció a su trabajo en la administración estadounidense para dedicarse por completo a escribir. Ese mismo año publicaría su premiado estudio sobre el océano, El Mar que nos Rodea, al que siguieron Los Límites del Mar, en 1955, y otros tantos en los años venideros, todos ellos marcados por la profunda convicción de que los seres humanos no eran si no una parte más de la naturaleza que se caracterizaba por su gran poder para alterarla, a veces de manera completamente irreversible.

Fue así que, en 1962, Carson dio a luz la que se considera su obra más importante, La Primavera Silenciosa, que en un primer momento se publicó por entregas en la revista New Yorker, y más tarde en un libro que se convirtió en un éxito de ventas mundial. En él, Carson desafió las prácticas agrícolas contemporáneas, advirtiendo sobre todo de los efectos del uso indiscriminado de los pesticidas -entre ellos el DDT- en la agricultura y sus efectos en el medio ambiente. Esto le valió para granjearse la enemistad de la industria química, así como la fuerte crítica desde algunas instancias oficiales del gobierno de los Estados Unidos, siendo calificada en diversas ocasiones de alarmista, e incluso de comunista, uno de los peores calificativos que alguien podía recibir en los Estados Unidos durante las décadas posteriores a la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Pese a todo ello, o quizá impulsado por las críticas, su libro pronto adquiriría una gran influencia en la opinión pública, ayudando a que lo que entonces se establecía como un sentir disperso y una serie de ideas aún en periodo de incubación, cristalizaran en las décadas de los 70 y 80 en el movimiento ecologista.

Sin embargo, aunque Carson plantó la semilla de algunos de los avances en materia ambiental más importantes del siglo XX, no vivió lo suficiente para vez florecer sus frutos, ya que fallecería dos años después, en 1964, a causa de un cáncer de mama.

El éxito de la Primavera Silenciosa conduciría a la prohibición del pesticida DDT, primero en Estados Unidos, en 1972, ante la negativa de algunos científicos de la Agencia de Protección Ambiental de los Estados Unidos (EPA). Posteriormente la prohibición se materializaría en otras parte del mundo, suscitando años después la polémica respecto a su prohibición ante la demostrada efectividad del compuesto, por ejemplo, en la erradicación de enfermedades como la malaria.

Irónicamente, se atribuye al testimonio escrito de Rachel Carson la creación en 1970 de la propia EPA, ya que fue a raíz de La Primavera Silenciosa que en 1969 el senador de los Estados Unidos, Gaylord Nelson, comenzó a promover diversos actos políticos en favor de la concienciación y la protección ambiental. Esto culminó el 22 de abril de 1970 en una manifestación en la que 20 millones de estadounidenses salieron a las calles para exigir una mayor protección del medio ambiente, dando lugar, además de a la EPA, a la celebración del Día Mundial de la Tierra.

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Rachel Carson, la madre del ecologismo moderno

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La obra de Rachel Carson cambió el mundo, cristalizando en la prohibición del DDT, la fundación de la Agencia Medioambiental Estadounidense, la declaración del Día de la Tierra y unificando el movimiento ecologista en la década de los 70.

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1941, Under the Sea Wind. ...

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1951, The Sea Around Us (El mar que nos rodea, México: Atlante, 1952)​

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1955, The Edge of the Sea.

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1962, Silent Spring​ (Primavera silenciosa, Barcelona: Luis de Caralt, 1964).

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1965, The Sense of Wonder (El sentido del asombro, Madrid: Encuentro, 2012)

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Rachel Carson (1907-1964), bióloga marina por la Universidad Johns Hopkins, enseñó Zoología en la Universidad de Maryland y trabajó para el U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

En Crítica ha publicado Primavera silenciosa (2001), donde nos alertaba del peligro de los pesticidas y sus terribles consecuencias en la Tierra, y El mar que nos rodea (2019), que se ha convertido en un clásico indiscutible de la ecología que nos recuerda la imperiosa necesidad de preservar la naturaleza y la vida en todas sus formas.

Sus libros han jugado un importante papel en la puesta en marcha de la conciencia ambiental moderna y en el paso de la ecología de ser solo una materia científica a ser también una materia de interés social.

1. Primavera silenciosa

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Primavera silenciosa (1962), de la bióloga marina y zoóloga estadounidense Rachel Louise Carson (1907-1964), es un libro que es preciso conocer ya que aborda uno de los problemas más graves que produjo el siglo XX: la contaminación que sufre la Tierra.

Utilizando un lenguaje transparente, el rigor propio del mejor análisis científico y ejemplos estremecedores, Carson denunció los efectos nocivos que para la naturaleza tenía el empleo masivo de productos químicos como los pesticidas, el DDT en particular.

Se trata, por consiguiente, de un libro de ciencia que va más allá del universo científico para adentrarse en el turbulento mundo de "lo social". Su trascendencia fue tal que hoy está considerado uno de los principales responsables de la aparición de los movimientos ecologistas a favor de la conservación de la naturaleza.

De hecho, Primavera silenciosa consiguió lo que pocos textos científicos logran: iluminar nuestros conocimientos de procesos que tienen lugar en la naturaleza y despertar el interés de la sociedad tanto por la ciencia que es necesaria para comprender lo que sucede en nuestro planeta, como por la situación presente y futura de la vida que existe en él.

2. El mar que nos rodea

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Clásico indiscutido de la Ecología, que nos recuerda la imperiosa necesidad de preservar la naturaleza y la vida en todas sus formas. Carson no solo se remonta al origen de la vida, ligada al agua, sino que propone un recorrido fascinante por todos los aspectos de la ciencia marina en un cautivador estudio acerca del proceso de formación de los océanos, a la vez que un alegato en favor de su conservación.

3. El sentido del asombro

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"Para mantener vivo en un niño su innato sentido del asombro, se necesita la compañía de al menos un adulto con quien poder compartirlo, redescubriendo con él la alegría, la expectación y el misterio del mundo en que vivimos".

Rachel Carson (1907-1964) es universalmente considerada la inspiradora del ecologismo moderno, gracias a su libro Primavera silenciosa, en el que denunció el uso indiscriminado del DDT señalando sus dañinas consecuencias para la salud pública y la Naturaleza.

El sentido del asombro es probablemente su obra más trascendente y desconocida. Pues más allá de revelar en su vida las agresiones a la naturaleza, su principal legado fue enseñarnos que no hay mejor manera de preservarla que experimentar su grandeza.

Este pequeño clásico, traducido por primera vez al español, es un antídoto refrescante contra la indiferencia y una guía para captar la fuerza de los descubrimientos sencillos que Carson consideraba esencial para vivir.

4. Bajo el viento oceánico

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Rachel Carson es una de las mejores escritoras de nature writing del siglo XX y una científica cuya capacidad para ver e imaginar la vida finalmente cambió nuestra relación con el mundo natural. Gracias a ella comenzaron a consolidarse los movimientos ecologistas, se instauró el Día de la Tierra, se fundó la Agencia Estadounidense para la Protección Ambiental y se realizó una nueva legislación para regular el uso del DDT.

Pocas obras han influido tanto en el devenir del activismo medioambiental y el compromiso con el planeta como el conjunto de libros firmado por esta autora. De todos ellos, Bajo el viento oceánico, inédito hasta ahora en castellano, fue siempre su preferido y el de muchos de sus lectores, tal vez porque en él fue capaz de mostrar como en ningún otro su amor por el misterio y la maravilla de la naturaleza: un volumen en el que se describe, de un modo tan poético como preciso, tan impropio de la ciencia al uso y tan profundamente enriquecedor, la vida de los peces, las aves y los mamíferos que comparten un mismo hábitat donde se unen el mar, la tierra y el aire.

Una mirada íntima y una magistral narración que consigue, tal como propuso la propia Carson, "hacer del mar y de los seres que lo habitan una realidad vívida para sus lectores, igual que lo ha sido para mí durante la última década".

5. Los bosques perdidos

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En el momento de su muerte en 1964, Rachel Carson se había granjeado una fama internacional como bióloga y como defensora del medioambiente con sus hermosos libros sobre el mar, así como con Primavera silenciosa, obra pionera del ecologismo.

El objetivo de Los bosques perdidos, recopilación de escritos inéditos y poco conocidos de Carson, es ofrecer al lector un sentido de su evolución como naturalista y como escritora, mostrándonos a una Rachel Carson totalmente nueva. Su calma aparente y su sosegada vida pública disimulaban la pasión que mostraba en privado, así como la complejidad de su amor y compromiso por el mundo natural.

Los bosques perdidos permite dar a Rachel Carson una voz nueva, más completa, en su defensa de la naturaleza.

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Los 5 mejores libros de Rachel Carson - 5libros

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Rachel Carson (1907-1964), bióloga marina por la Universidad Johns Hopkins, enseñó Zoología en la Universidad de Maryland y trabajó para el U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. En Crítica ha publicado Primavera silenciosa (2001), donde nos alertaba del peligro de los pesticidas y sus terribles consecuencias en la Tierra, y El mar que nos rodea (2019), [...]

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Rachel Carson, referente mundial en la lucha climática

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Rachel Carson fue la primera científica en denunciar los efectos nocivos de los pesticidas. Es considerada una de las madres oficiales del movimiento ecologista y de la lucha medioambiental

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sucesos catastróficos durante su vida

primera y segunda Guerra Mundial