Rachel Carson's "Silent spring" still reverberates 50 years on



Silence, except for the wind

Rachel Carson started off studying literature, but fortunately for us, changed to biology because she went on to write the famous book “silent spring”, which caused reverberations across the scientific and agricultural worlds alike. The book highlighted the effects of direct poisoning of wildlife by pesticides, the bioaccumulation of residues within food chains, and the sub-lethal effects of pesticides on wildlife during the 1950s and 1960s”.

Gillian Gooderham has written a fascinating piece for National Geographic on the writing of this book and the input that the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust had at the time, (including copies of old letters written) carrying on to look at how the Trust’s continual research has since managed to over-come some of the problems and issues that Carson raised.

I highly recommend that you take a look at this excellent article, which can be read by clicking here