How a Book started the world's first Modern Environmental Movement?

By anon -
Silent Spring, published in 1962, galvanized a whole nation, started the environmental revolution and brought upon the ban of one of the most valuable chemical ever, DDT. Once nicknamed as a "miracle weapon" against insect-borne diseases, in the 1950's DDT was extensively promoted by the US government and industry for use as an agricultural and household pesticide.


In 1957, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sprayed the northeastern forests with a mixture of DDT and oil to eradicate an insect pest – the gypsy moth. A month after spraying, residents on Long Island filed suit in federal court charging that the DDT was killing fish, birds, farm and garden crops. It was then that the Audubon Naturalist Society, a non-profit dedicated to conservation and education, actively opposed to such spraying programs, and recruited Carson to help make public the government's exact spraying practices and the related research. Carson began the four-year project of what would become Silent Spring by gathering examples of environmental damage attributed to DDT.

source: wiki Silent Spring

This groundbreaking book was published in 1962 and raised enough concern from her testimony before Congress to trigger the establishment of the US's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

As per a New York Times article, the deep-pocketed pesticide industry responded with an expensive negative P.R. campaign, which included circulating “The Desolate Year,” a parody of “A Fable for Tomorrow” that mocked its woeful tone.


The EPA banned the use DDT in the US in 1972.

Get your copy of this bestseller.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Development Myth

By test -
In his book "I, The Citizen", Dr.R.Balasubramaniam talks about his experience when he worked with Tribal communities in South India's rural hinterland. During one interaction with women in a Tribal colony, he learnt that they trekked 8 - 10 kms everyday to fetch water. He was aghast on hearing this and disturbed at the plight of these women. He spoke to the local Administration and within a week had a Tube well with a hand pump installed at the colony. About 6 months later he visited the colony again expecting to receive adulation from a grateful community for reducing their workload and making their lives better. However, he was shocked to receive the choicest expletives from the women who were angry to see him. On probing further he found out that he had taken away from the women what was most valuable for them. Fetching water was the only time they had for themselves when they could get away from their homes, their family and their husbands. This was a time when...
Read more

Eliminating Elevator waiting time complaints with Mirrors

By test -
At a large Multistoreyed office building, people complained about long waiting times for the Elevator during peak hours. Increasing the number of elevators was not feasible so an alternative solution was needed. The management called a meeting of the staff to brainstorm. A young employee who was a graduate in psychology observed that people complained about waiting only a few minutes for the elevator. The main issue was boredom rather than elevator performance.  He suggested installing Mirrors in the elevator boarding areas so that people could be busy looking at themselves or looking at others. This was promptly done at a very low cost. The complaints stopped immediately. Related reading Defining the problem of Elevator wait times
Read more

100 Years Ago Sears Sold Cheap Mail-Order DIY Homes!

By anon -
Image
In 1908, Sears issued its first specialty catalog for houses,  Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans , featuring 44 kit-house styles ranging in price from the US $360–$2,890. That's the equivalent of US $9,147-$73,431 today .  Cover of 1922 Sears Modern Homes catalog As Sears mail-order catalogs were in millions of homes, large numbers of potential homeowners were able to open a catalog, see different house designs, visualize their new home and then purchase it directly from Sears.  Sears reported that more than 70,000 of these homes were sold in North America between 1908 and 1940. In late 1918, Sears conducted a “race,” building two houses, a Sears Honor Built the pre-cut kit home and an identical house with no pre-cut lumber.  The pre-cut Honor Bilt Rodessa was the easy winner in this race, with 231 hours to spare (compared to the stick-built house).  Today, those two houses are still standing side by side as Sears struggles ...
Read more