Just Finished Reading: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (FP: 1962)

They say that sense is never common but maybe in this case it really should have been. Even in the abstract, without bringing in expert opinion, it should be obvious that poison kills things. Powerful poison kills things quicker and probably has other equally nasty effects too. What poison doesn’t do, again obvious when you give it a moment’s thought, is discriminate. Poison will kill anything, will kill everything, which comes into contact with it long enough or in enough concentration. If you spray an area with insecticide it will generally kill a great number of insects in the affected zone – and not just the pests you wanted to kill especially when we’re essentially talking about 1950’s technology here. At the time of writing the knowledge of genetics we take for granted today would seem like magic. The idea of tailoring chemical or biological agents to attack a certain aspect of a certain insect would seem fantastical. So we can’t really blame either the developers or users of chemicals such as DDT for not using them in a more subtle manner. Such a thing was barely thought of and, at the time, far beyond anyone’s capability. The only way these chemicals COULD be used was indiscriminately. Which in itself is no excuse. To use these deadly chemicals, and more deadly chemical cocktails, in the way they did was at the very least irresponsible and, with the benefit of hindsight borderline criminal.

Of course when these miracles of science were used for the first time the results appeared stunning. One spraying and the insect pests melted away as if in a dream. It was really a miracle for all to see. The companies selling the chemicals and the agencies approving their use – often with only minimal testing if that sometimes – pointed at the results and proudly proclaimed the end of famine, the end of the plague that had assailed mankind since his earliest days, the end of insect pests. It was a shining future that few could criticise despite worrying rumours coming from the farms and woodland so recently cleared of pestilential insect life. Days, or sometimes hours, after an area had been sprayed reports of dead birds came in along with equally worrying reports of other wildlife dead or clearly in distress. Lakes and rivers delivered up hundreds of dead fish sometimes miles away from the original spraying. Livestock from cattle to chickens took sick, sometimes died or spontaneously aborted their young. Residents of nearby towns reported strange symptoms to their doctors – shortness of breath, skin rashes, headaches, nausea and muscle spasms. Something was clearly wrong but what? The chemical companies denied that it could possibly be their products as they had been declared safe by government agencies. The killed insects, indeed they killed pests, and were completely harmless to other life. The sudden mass dying must have another explanation. Experiments by universities, reports by doctors and post-mortem examinations yielded much valuable information but no change in policy or spraying regime. The growing number of people raising concerns were cranks, ill-informed, anti-progress, wreckers and, just possibly, communists attempting to undermine the US Food Industry. But the author of this book – billed (rightly) as one of the most influential books of the 20th century – was none of these things which is why so much effort was expended trying to suppress its very publication. Thankfully it failed.

Written as an early example of popular science aimed at the general reading population this is a harrowing look at greed, short sightedness, obstruction and a callow refusal to accept any criticism of a programme that was not only costing millions of dollars to implement – for a very limited return – but causing countless millions of damage to the larger environment. It was not long before DDT had been found in the body fat of penguins who had never been directly exposed to it. Traceable quantities of the same chemical was even being detected in unborn children whose mothers had been eating contaminated food. Worse the new-born infant had its DDT levels increased through the medium of its mother’s milk. It was everywhere and potentially doing harm wherever it was found. It is no surprise that this book was in the vanguard of works directly responsible for the founding of the Environment Movement for the 1960’s onwards. Reading it even today with our knowledge of environment issues heightened by years of campaigns it is still a shocking piece of reporting. I can imagine how much more shocking it was more than 50 years ago. Be warned though, even after all this time this is not a light read and it will give you some sleepless nights as you inevitably wonder about the amount of DDT or other man-made chemicals sequestered in your fat deposits as well as that handy bottle of insecticide under the kitchen sink containing what exactly? Even today this book still has the power to change habits and change lifestyles. A very important book and a must read for anyone interested in the environment we must all co-exist with. (S)