Posted on 04/26/2007 1:24:30 PM PDT by SmithL
Now, a two-act play celebrating the life and work of Carson is the highlight of this week's 174-program Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage in Gatlinburg and throughout Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
"A Sense of Wonder," written and performed by Kaiulani Lee, has been touring for more than 10 years - proof Carson still has influence 45 years after "Silent Spring."
When the book came out in 1962, it not only became a best seller, it also put President Kennedy's attention on pesticides. DDT, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, was banned in 1972.
"Silent Spring" forecasted a day when no birds would be alive to sing.
Indiscriminate spraying of DDT was causing bird eggshells to become thin and break before hatching.
"Great blue herons, bald eagles, osprey, falcons, they've all bounced back. That's directly attributable to the work that Rachel Carson did," said John Nolt, professor in the department of philosophy at the University of Tennessee. "The most profound lasting effect, as I see it, is the fact that, through her influence, a great many species of birds that would have gone extinct had we not banned DDT are still here today."
Mark Campen, president of the Knoxville chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society and a professional conservationist, said Carson changed American thought.
"I think if I were to have to put it in one word, it would have to be 'awareness' - making people more aware of our potential impact on the environment," Campen said.
Nolt said there wasn't general interest prior to "Silent Spring."
"In the '60s, when Carson was writing, people just didn't think about the environment at all," Nolt said. "She profoundly changed the attitudes of Americans. It's simply no longer acceptable for an industry to pollute the air and water in ways that it was."
After Carson, there was an explosion of environmental legislation and formation of environmental groups.
"She's been given the title of patron saint of the environmental movement," Campen said.
What helped the philosophical change was the book's popular appeal.
Carson, a credentialed academic and marine biologist, was already famous for her lyrical writings. In "The Sea Around Us," she demonstrated her ability to fascinate people with the beauty of nature - it went 39 weeks as a No. 1 best seller.
"She was a science writer who made the mainstream," said Mark Littmann, who holds the Julia G. and Alfred G. Hill Chair of Excellence in Science, Technology and Medical Writing at UT.
"Whenever I do a course in environmental writing or science writing as literature, we always need to look back and appreciate what she contributed to not only public understanding of science but also to how a good science writer can affect the whole world."
Littmann made a list of ways "Silent Spring" makes points, from analogies to point-blank calls to action, and realized, "She used every kind of rhetorical device that I had ever come across."
It's clear, Littmann said, that Carson set out "to write a convincing argument that would move people to action."
Chemical companies fought back by badly maligning her, something some people still do today.
Nolt said Carson kept on.
"The remarkable thing about the woman was how she persevered under the intense opposition that she had from the chemical industry in particular, but also from politicians and other public figures who belittled her mercilessly in the press," he said. "That's heroic behavior."
Littmann said the book had some inaccuracies and overstated points, but a far greater amount of truth.
"After the fury of some naysayers was vented, ultimately she prevails," Littmann said.
He added that Carson never argued to ban all pesticides.
"She just was pointing out that these things had to be used more wisely," Littmann said. "She was looking for a better way, not an abolition of technology."
Tragically, Carson was diagnosed with cancer just before "Silent Spring" was published and died only two years later. She lived just long enough to see some of her initial victories.
Millions of children are dead because of Rachel Carson.
I wonder how they address that little malaria problem after the DDT ban.
One of the patron saints of the environmental crazies ....
they ignore it. birds are more important than children.
This play should be like lotsa laughs. Bring a Pez dispenser.
Sure. Just ban the ones that work, so that millions will die from insect-borne diseases. Good work, Rachael, and nice revisionist history attempt, Littmann.
Another case of Death By Hippy.
LOL...as a tribute to Rachel, they ought to release a cloud of disease-riddled mosquitos into the theater between acts.
Millions are dead because of her. She has more blood on her hands than the Nazi Party and Stalin...........
There are very few people in this world that should be exhumed, tried, hung and re-buried but she is one. I also nominate Frank Church and Otis Pike - I'll save that for another missive.
Ack - the Face of a Killer!
Oh she certainly still has influence - just look at the records of children dead from malaria because DDT was not used to kill mosquito larvae.
What we men will do for a piece of tail.
Frank Church I know, but Otis Pike?
Another irony is that the places where the little kids are dying of malaria for lack of DDT don’t have bald eagles. You can still get your hands on DDT in Mexico, but you have to disguise it as cocaine if you want to get it back across the border safely.
DDT killed a scientist that was so confident it didn’t cause cancer that he drank it. Fool.
I said the same thing to my wife as we were watching the malaria segment on american idol...
I told her "Rachel Carson has blood on her hands... this situation you're seeing here on television could have been avoided, but the lives of birds took precedent over human beings. DDT could have prevented the spread of malaria..."
Are there ANY insecticides that you would drink?
Or would you ban ALL insecticides?
Name and citation, please.
Yep, when I want to get the best information on avian topics, I go to the dept. of philosophy at the nearest university...
When I first glanced at the headline I saw “Rachel Corrie”. I wondered if they were going to bring a bulldozer up on stage for the final act.
DDT has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives, even if it was limited to *indoor* use that wouldn't harm a feather on any bird or beast. That these morons continue to insist in the UN that it remain virtually banned worldwide is evidence to me of attempted genocide.
If you’re speaking of Dr. J. Gordon Edwards, then I suggest you’re speaking a little out of turn. Dr. Edwards, who recently died (at the age of 85) made it a point since the ‘Seventies of ingesting a small amount of DDT once every year in order to be living proof it is perfectly harmless. He not only lived for decades, but enjoyed a full life that included mountain climbing into his seventies.
He was teaching at San Jose State when I attended-a real character and a man of integrity. A kind you just don’t find in academia these days.
My guess as to why most of us never heard of Pike was that all the destruction of US intel agencies at that time are lumped under the umbrella of the Church Commission.
Don't get me started on this (b) witch
Killed more people than Hitler, Stakin, Pol Pot, and Mao combined!!
GRRRRRRRR
To be entirely fair, didn’t she die shortly after the book was published?
I don’t know how the timeline works out, but it’s possible she was under the ground before the politicians went on their little insecticide banning spree.
Still, the important thing isn't saving all those kids' lives, it's making sure that they continue to live in filth, poverty and disease so Hollywood liberals can feel good about knowing they aren't contributing to global warming or ozone depletion or all the other horrible things that allegedly come with having a decent life.
Don't be in such a rush to use the term 'Fool', my friend!
The scientist of whom you speak, J. Gordon Edwards, died on July 19, 2004 from injuries he substained from a fall while mountaining climbing!!!
At the AGE OF 84!!!!!
Those who pushed the DDT ban saw the "little malaria problem" as a side benefit of the ban. They are for population control and believe that there are too many poor, dark people in the world...
Forgot to mention: if anyone cares more about birds than people, it’s me. I live with 16 rescued parrots of various species, every one of whom is more intelligent than any Democrat in Congress, and certainly more pleasant to talk to. But the “egg shell thinning” excuse for banning DDT is a myth. A link above contains it, but this goes directly to the citations: http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.html#ref6
She reported that John Muir and Gifford Pinchot had it out, in a dramatic fashion, and polarized the aesthete environmentalist versus utilitarian conservationalist sides of the “movement” in an argument over sheep in Oregon at the Olympia Hotel.
As Prof. Char Miller pointed out, this simply did not happen. They did get on opposite sides of the approach, but later, elsewhere and over a different issue. They weren’t even there. Revisionist history allows one to just make stuff up.
Funny how that is still going around.
By the way, here is my source:
“Char Miller
Char contributes both wit and wisdom as one of the nation’s foremost scholars on the Progressive-era Conservation Movement and its key leaders, among them Gifford Pinchot. Having received his PhD in History from Johns Hopkins University in 1981, Miller serves as Professor of History, and Chair of the history department at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Author of more than 200 publications on history and conservation, his work includes: Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2001), The Greatest Good: 100 Years of Forestry in America, editor of Fluid Arguments: Five Centuries of Western Water Conflict and On the Border: An Environmental History of San Antonio, American Forests: Nature, Culture, and Politics (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1977), Out of the Woods: Essays in Environmental History (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), and Gifford Pinchot: The Evolution of an American Conservationist (Milford, PA: Grey Towers Press, 1993).”
Racheal after meeting some major STFU...
Even liberals tell her to STFU.....
http://judicial-inc.biz/rachel_corrie.htm
An ode to junk science.
“After Carson, there was an explosion of environmental legislation and formation of environmental groups.”
After Carson, there was an explosion of illegal legislation and formation of neo-fascist nature worship cults.
I was wrong on that one. Live and learn.
Hey, that’s how I do most of my learning!
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp35.html#bookmark07
I found some studies done on DDT by The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
You stole my line. ;-)
She is in the lowest pit of hell IMHO.
Thanks! Definitely worth study.
10-4
"In the '60s, when Carson was writing, people just didn't think about the environment at all," Nolt said. "She profoundly changed the attitudes of Americans. It's simply no longer acceptable for an industry to pollute the air and water in ways that it was."That's b.s. Nolt should shut up. Carson's book was popular precisely because people were already concerned with pollution. Automobile and factory exhaust and waterways integrity were a huge issues in NY, LA, Chicago, and other urban areas in the 1950s, and the impact of pesticides was an ongoing, heated debate. Carson merely latched on to those discussions and moved them to her paranoia.
As BuglerTex points out, environmentalism was hardly created by Carson. Indeed, that earlier socialist, Gifford Pinchot, ran an early 20th century environmental movement that was no less motivated by hatred of private property, prosperity, and the human well-being.
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