Silent Spring

Discusses the reckless annihilation of fish and birds by the use of pesticides and warns of the possible genetic effects on humans.

Auteur
Rachel Carson (1907–1964) spent most of her professional life as a marine biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. By the late 1950s, she had written three lyrical, popular books about the sea, including the best-selling The Sea Around Us, and had become the most respected science writer in America. She completed Silent Spring against formidable personal odds, and with it shaped a powerful social movement that has altered the course of history.

Texte du rabat

Rarely does a single book alter the course of history, but Rachel Carson's Silent Spring did exactly that. The outrcry that followed its publication in 1962 forced the banning of DDT and spurred the revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson's passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement. I tis without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century.

Contenu
Contents Acknowledgments viii Introduction by Linda Lear x 1 a fable for tomorrow 1 2 the obligation to endure 5 3 elixirs of death 15 4 surface waters and underground seas 39 5 realms of the soil 53 6 earth’s green mantle 63 7 needless havoc 85 8 and no birds sing 103 9 rivers of death 129 10 indiscriminately from the skies 154 11 beyond the dreams of the borgias 173 12 the human price 187 13 through a narrow window 199 14 one in every four 219 15 nature fights back 245 16 the rumblings of an avalanche 262 17 the other road 277 List of Principal Sources 301 Afterword by Edward O. Wilson 357 Index 365