I just wanted to give a quick shout out to Miss Carson during the demi-Centennial year of her book “Silent Spring”. For those unfamiliar with it, the book described a very near future in which one could walk through any suburban neighborhood without hearing a cicada, sparrow, or any other natural sound. All due to the rampant and uninformed use of DDT.

It was a brilliant and terrifying book and it led to an eventual ban on the residential use of DDT and limited its use in many other areas as well. Before you write her off as some sort of “green” nutjob, look a little closer. Rachel never advocated a ban on DDT, only a requirement to place responsible limits on its use. She was fully aware of the benefits of chemical pesticides particularly in the fight against insect born diseases such as malaria.

The chemical industry however paints Miss Carson in a different light. They portray her clinging to the lunatic fringe, hysterically demanding a ban on DDT. They also tend to hold her personally responsible for every malaria death in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the pro-chemical crowd, DDT spraying in Africa was stopped because she got DDT banned. That’s not quite the truth. Spraying programs in Africa stopped for the same reasons as any other aid program, a lack of funding and political will. It’s perfectly legal to export DDT to Africa and countries there don’t have the same environmental restrictions we do here.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, DDT is a neurotoxin. It is also a cumulative toxin, which means it is stored in fat tissues and builds up in the system over time. Beyond simple deaths, sub-lethal levels present a more insious hazard. It causes reproductive issues and subsequent developmental problems in the offspring.

But wait, it gets better. It also accumulates in the food chain. One bird eats a thousand bugs. One cat eats ten birds. One fox eats four cats. The fox now has roughly forty thousand doses of DDT in its system. That can’t possibly be a good thing.

But wait, it’s about to get better again. It’s also environmentally persistent. So after you spray, it’s in the water, it’s in the soil, it’s in the air. Oh goody. Now that can’t possibly be a good thing. Eventually, all those little droplets make their way through the environment into the food chain. Once they get into there, it’s only a matter of time until they make their way into you and I.

So yes, I think “Silent Spring” was an important book and Miss Carson did us all a huge service by writing it and putting up with a lifetime of vilification. I don’t know what the world would look like without her work, and but I firmly believe it would have been one hell of a lot quieter……. and not in a good way.

That’s why we should all say, “Thank you Rachel Carson”.

Cheers Winston