Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and nature writer whose landmark book, Silent Spring, is often credited with having launched the global environmental movement. Silent Spring had an immense effect in the United States, where it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy.
Scientists such as American Cyanamid’s Robert White-Stevens (who wrote “If man were to follow the teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the earth.”), chemical companies, and other critics attacked the data and interpretation in the book. Some went further to attack Carson‘s scientific credentials because her speciality was marine biology and zoology, not the field of biochemistry.
Former Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson reportedly concluded she was “probably a Communist.”
Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the Earth are never alone or weary of life. — Rachel Carson