Guest Author - Alegra M. Bartzat

In 1962 Rachel Carson published her book Silent Spring. This book outlined the affects of DDT, a common insecticide used to kill mosquitoes and other insects in the 1950s and 1960s.

DDT, which is short for dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, was a pesticide commonly used to control infestations of mosquitoes across the United States. In the short term, DDT seemed to be a miracle killer – it wiped out populations of insects detrimental human health. Mosquitoes are responsible for the spread of many disease that affect likes, such as malaria. However, there was a price to pay for this seeming miraculous public health campaign. The price was steep; this pesticide didn’t just kill mosquitoes. It was also a silent and unsuspected killer of numerous species of birds.

The DDT was thinning the shells of birds across the country. Their shells became so thin that the chicks growing inside the eggs would break the shell before they were ready to peck their way into the world. Or the mother bird would crush her babies’ shell when she sat on them to keep them warm. The breaking shells so drastically reduced bird populations that the typical chirping of birds of spring could no longer be heard, hence the name Silent Spring.

When Carson’s book was released it become a best seller. Hundreds of thousands of people were reading the book across the country, and the widespread objection to the use of DDT led to President Kennedy ordering an investigation into the effects of the pesticide, and ultimately a ban on it’s use.

So where does that lead modern day environmentalists? It is disappointing to note that in some ways it shows us to be back at square one. Luckily that is just on the surface, because for every ignorant strike against the environment there is a precedence to regain footing. And in this case, the hope lies further back in time than Rachel Carson. American leaders from history like Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, and others have led us down the path of conservation, and have not strayed off the trail. As we learn to work with nature, instead of against it, we will be released from sad tales of silent destruction.

There are now entire departments of economics devoted to fighting environmental ignorance with the same powers that defeat it: In addition to the power of the people, we now have the power of the dollar.