Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson
Scientist, author, and activist
In 1962, Rachel Louise Carson’s (1907–64) revolutionary volume Silent Spring sounded an alarm. The shells of birds’ eggs were being perilously weakened by exposure to dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), Carson warned; if environmental protections weren’t enacted around synthetic pesticides developed during World War II, nature’s delicate balance would be disrupted and humans would awaken to a silent spring. The book has sold millions of copies since publication, galvanizing environmental movements in the United States and beyond.
