The earliest origins of green consciousness can be debated at length, but many point to the publication of naturalist Rachel Carson's Silent Spring as the key event which triggered public awareness and the beginning of environmental activism in its present form.
Silent Spring was first serialised in The New Yorker in June 1962, and arrived in the bookstores later the same year. Selected by the Book of the Month Club and endorsed by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, it rapidly became a bestseller.
In the book, Carson drew attention to the damage to the environment being caused by pesticides, particularly the toxic effects of dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane (DDT) on the bird population. Carson's conclusions also suggested potential harm to humans.
The chemical industry's reaction to Silent Spring was, predictably, explosive. The sector was enraged both by the book's claims about its products and also by Carson's attack on the lack of effective scrutiny of chemical companies' activities.
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Forty-Seven Years Since Silent Spring: Can We Protect Ourselves from Toxic Chemicals
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By David Ord
The Ecologist, August 11, 2009
Straight to the Source
