Rachel Carson wrote of the dangers of DDT in her 1962 book Silent Spring. DDT is an organochlorine insecticide that was first synthesized in 1874 and commonly used as a pesticide thereafter. DDT was widely used in large scale farming, as well as to control of malaria, typhus and the bubonic plague. It soared in popularity due to its relative low price, high effectiveness and long half life. Carson’s Silent Spring explained how DDT entered the food chain and accumulated in the fatty tissues of humans and animals. Carson’s novel also warned against the use of DDT for its irrevocable harm to watersheds, insects, and other organisms. Silent Spring raised concern in the United States. Carson eventually testified before Congress and prompted the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Carson received harsh criticism for Silent Spring. Before her death of breast cancer in 1964, Carson remarked, “Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself? [We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.”

Citations:
“The Story of Silent Spring”. Natural Resources Defense Council, Health Issue Area. 5 December 2013. Web. 9 May 2015.
“The DDT Story.” Pesticide Action Network. Oakland, CA. Web. 10 May 2015.
DDT General Fact Sheet. National Pesticide Information Center. Oregon State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Corvallis, Oregon. Web. 10 May 2015.