Written by Rachel Carson (1907-1964) Silent Spring (1962) was the catalyst for the environmental movement that grew into prominence  during the 60s and 70s. The principal focus of the book was how the indiscriminate and overuse of pesticides, especially DDT, was having a detrimental effect on wildlife and was contaminating humans (from 1950 to 1962 the levels of DDT stored in the human tissue tripled).

The public reaction to the book prompt the then US President John F Kennedy to have its claims investigated by the President’s Scientific Advisory Committee, they concluded that Ms Carson, a scientist herself, was correct and her concerns well placed. The chemical industry did there best to discredit and vilify her, but their aggressive approach only brought the matter greater public attention and Silent Spring was on the NY Times best seller list for 86 weeks.

Ms Carson’s book was instrumental in the establishing of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, while the fierce debates it prompted continue to this day.

It seems reasonable to believe — and I do believe — that the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race. Wonder and humility are wholesome emotions, and they do not exist side by side with a lust for destruction. – Rachel Carson (1952)

If we are going to live so intimately with these chemicals eating and drinking them, taking them into the very marrow of our bones – we had better know something about their nature and their power. ― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (1962)