Reflections on the modern pioneers of the environmental movement. Today - Rachel Carson.

Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring was probably the most important environmental book of the 20th Century. It catalogued, in grim detail, the effect that pesticides were having on the countryside and the wildlife within it. The book was fiercely attacked by the chemicals companies, whose businesses had grown rapidly in the years after the Second World War as a result of the widespread adoption of pesticides like DDT (dubbed the “insect bomb”).

After the publication of the book, there was a change in policy regulating the use of such substances in North America and in Britain too, where the effects of DDT on birds of prey numbers had long been suspected by organisations like the RSPB.

The nature writer Conor Jameson reflects on the work of this humble marine biologist turned conservationist, and analyses what challenges remain for the regulation of chemicals in wider environmental systems.

“Carson has taken on the status of a prophet,” he says, “with Silent Spring she created a new testament for our ecological times."

Producer: Emily Williams
Series Editor: David Prest
A Whistledown Production in association with The Open University Show less