The quiet roar of Silent Spring
Jun 01, 2022
3 minutes
Photography Jean-Dominique Ferrucci
Rachel Carson’s magnum opus, Silent Spring, was published in 1962. In what was her last book, Carson, a marine biologist, took aim at the devastation caused by the pesticide and agricultural industry, particularly its use of the widely adopted but highly polluting insecticide DDT.
The book had a significant and multifaceted impact – it became a bestseller, but also incited a misogynistic smear campaign against Carson run by the chemical industry. Ultimately it radically influenced policy and pioneered the modern environmental movement in the United States, which spread around the world and kickstarted a new type of activism.
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