Carson’s earliest suspicions of the serious risks involved with chemicals
dates
to the end of World War Two, recent evidence suggests based on her letters.1945, “Earliest Rumblings of an Avalanche”
Rachel Carson's books
Under the Sea Wind
The Sea Around Us
Carson’s earliest suspicions of the serious risks involved with chemicals dates
to the end of World War Two, recent evidence suggests based on her letters.
1945, “Earliest Rumblings of an Avalanche”
The following is a paraphrase of an excerpt from the letter Rachel Carson sent
to Reader's Digest in 1945 offering to write an article about the dangers of
DDT:
The experiments at Patuxent have been planned to show what effects DDT may have if applied to wide areas: how it will affect insects, waterfowl, or birds that depend on insect food, and whether the use of DDT may upset the whole delicate balance of nature. *
(Stwertka, p. 37).
The above quotation was found at:
http://www.cwru.edu/affil/wwwethics/carson/letterRD.html
1958 letter Stopping Reader's Digest
In 1958 Carson found out about an article that the Reader's Digest was about to publish. It was dealing with the benefits of aerial spraying. She wrote to DeWitt Wallace, the magazine's editor-in-chief, telling him of the danger, both to wildlife and to public health, in the projects for insect control by poisons, especially when distributed by airplanes.
* (Graham, p. 17). By documenting her case, Carson was able to convince Wallace
not to publish the article.
The above quotation was found at:
http://www.cwru.edu/affil/wwwethics/carson/stopRD.html , but the link is inoperative as of 2/1//08.
