The debate over Silent Spring had long-lasting consequences, including creation of the EPA, a permanent DDT ban, and a broad environmental movement that encouraged environmental legislation. Carson emphasized that man and nature are related. Although we face difficult decisions regarding pesticide use, climate change, and energy sources today, Carson's legacy continues to inspire environmental activism, meaning there is hope for the environment.
LEGACY
"The balance of nature is built on a series of relationships between living things, and between living things and their environments. You can’t just step in with some brute force and change one thing without changing many others. This doesn’t mean we must never interfere, never tilt the balance of nature in our favor. But when we make the attempt we must know what we’re doing. We must know the consequences.”
~ Rachel Carson
"Millions Join Earth Day Observances Across the Nation," 1970, The New York Times
"Every once in a while in the history of mankind, a book has appeared which has substantially altered the course of history."
~ Ernest Gruening, Democratic Senator
“Silent Spring is the most important chronicle of this century for the human race.”
~ Justice William O. Douglas
Rachel Carson, 1962, The Guardian
"Silent Spring played in the history of environmentalism roughly the same role that Uncle Tom's Cabin played in the abolitionist movement. In fact, EPA today may be said without exaggeration to be the extended shadow of Rachel Carson."
~ Jack Lewis, "The Birth of EPA"
Fred Krupp, edf.org
The Environmental Defense Fund logo, edf.org
"Rachel Carson's understanding of the effects of human-made toxic chemicals on wildlife and the food web helped create the modern environmental movement that we know today. My own organization, Environmental Defense Fund, got its start more than 50 years ago fighting to save the osprey (also known as the sea hawk) from the devastating effects of DDT, the pesticide that Rachel Carson did so much to bring to public attention. Understanding that the same chemicals that harm birds and other wildlife are also dangerous to us changed the way that many people thought about these problems, and inspired a whole generation of environmental activists. Even as our work has grown to cover many other issues, that spirit is at the heart of everything we do at EDF today."
~ Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund