Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

[Corncrake]

Today is the 50 year anniversary of the US publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. She was a conservationist and author and died from breast cancer and its treatment in 1964

The attached article includes a 1963 Observer review of her book and discusses her legacy with contributions from other writers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/blo...acy?intcmp=122

[CdnSirian]

Here's a very good comment from that article:

"10.09am: Georgina Downs from the UK Pesticides Campaign, who has been engaged in a long-running legal case with the UK government over pesticides which is now before the European Court of Human Rights, has sent me her thoughts:

If Rachel Carson were still alive today I am in no doubt that she would be quite horrified at the continued dependence and heavy use of pesticides in the countryside, and the continued lack of action by those in power to protect our health and environment from such poisons.
It is now beyond dispute that pesticides can cause a wide range of both acute, and chronic, adverse effects on human health. The European Commission has previously acknowledged that "long-term exposure to pesticides can lead to serious disturbances to the immune system, sexual disorders, cancers, sterility, birth defects, damage to the nervous system and genetic damage". New European pesticides legislation (article 3, paragraph 14) now recognises that residents living in the locality of sprayed fields are "subject to high pesticide exposure over the long term". So, 50 years on from Silent Spring, why has there been such a lack of action on pesticides?
Pesticides are very big business indeed. Sales of pesticides in the UK alone for 2011/12 was £627m. The value of the world pesticides industry has been put at a staggering $52bn. In the UK, the key officials advising ministers on pesticides safety, the Chemicals Regulation Directorate, receives approximately 60% of its funding (around £7m per year) from the agrochemical industry. This has always been an inappropriate structure.
DEFRA ministers also receive advice from the Pesticides Forum. Yet year after year the Pesticides Forum has asserted in its annual reports that, "the use of pesticides is not adversely impacting on the health of UK citizens or the environment". The worst part of this is discovering that all Pesticides Forum members had signed up to such inaccurate statements before the annual reports were published and this included a number of environmental NGOs. This is a bitter irony considering Silent Spring is often said to have resulted in the birth of environmental NGOs!
There is no doubt that the widespread use of pesticides in farming is causing serious damage to the environment, wildlife and, above all, human health. Considering the health and environmental costs associated with pesticides it makes clear economic sense to switch to non-chemical farming methods. It is a complete paradigm shift that is needed, as no toxic chemicals that have related risks and adverse impacts for any species (whether humans, bees, or other) should be used to grow food. We certainly cannot wait another 50 years for action!

10.29am: Carson's critics have also been out in force this week. It is interesting to note that much of this criticism appears to be built on the same ideological foundation shared by many of today's prominent climate sceptics. So we have Matt Ridley writing in the Spectator, Ronald Bailey writing on Reason.com, and other similar pieces in Forbes and the New American (which itself links to a 2009 blog by James Delingpole on the Telegraph website)."