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| Silent Spring | 
| Author: Rachel And Albert Gore Jr. Carson
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
Buy Used: $1.82
New (2) Collectible (1) from $9.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  134 reviews
Sales Rank: 148357
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 0395683297
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.7384
UPC: 046442683296
EAN: 9780395683293
ASIN: 0395683297
Publication Date: 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is now 35 years old. Written over the years 1958 to 1962, it took a hard look at the effects of insecticides and pesticides on songbird populations throughout the United States, whose declining numbers yielded the silence to which her title attests. "What happens in nature is not allowed to happen in the modern, chemical-drenched world," she writes, "where spraying destroys not only the insects but also their principal enemy, the birds. When later there is a resurgence of the insect population, as almost always happens, the birds are not there to keep their numbers in check." The publication of her impeccably reported text helped change that trend by setting off a wave of environmental legislation and galvanizing the nascent ecological movement. It is justly considered a classic, and it is well worth rereading today.
Book Description
A new edition of one of the most influential books of the last fifty years. After its publication in 1962, Carson's concern for the future of the planet spread throughout the world. Her book helped to launch the environmental movement.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 129 more reviews...
 What about malaria in Africa? January 28, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
While Rachel's theories were ahead of her time 40 years ago, many now believe DDT is not the toxin/poison that her book helped label the chemical as. One thing is for SURE: malaria kills millions, including children, in Africa each and every year. DDT could prevent those deaths at a very affordable cost. Malaria in Africa -- one of those unseen ripples in the pond....
 the beginning of environmental science January 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
An amazing woman and book: the beginning of the us taking responsibility for pollution thanks to this book.
 The Facts!! August 6, 2007
4 out of 20 found this review helpful
Perhaps her cause was just in writing this book, but her short-sighted ignorance of the repercussions was inexcusable. Because of the ban on DDT which largely resulted from Silent Spring, the WHO has estimated that around 20 MILLION children have died of malaria.
DDT was, & still is, one of the very best insecticides to control mosquitoes, the sole transporter of this deadly disease. Best of all, DDT is very NON-toxic to humans.
The need for DDT is so urgent that even the Sierra Club is justifying it's use inside houses in malaria stricken locations of Africa, South America, & Asia.
Way to go Rachel. Save the Birds, Kill the Children...Wake Up People!!
 Important but boring June 12, 2007
5 out of 12 found this review helpful
I thought that "Silent Spring" would be an interesting book to read. After all, is supposedly launched the modern environmental movement. However, after reading about 80 pages into the book I started to feel like I was reading the same thing over and over again: pesticides and herbicides are bad and should not be applied to the side of the road. OK, I get the point. I then flipped to page 250 or so, and do you know what I saw? More discussion of how pesticides and herbicides are bad!
Maybe back at that time it was not a self-evident truth that it is a bad thing to go around spraying shit all over the side of the road. But even then, you would think that a disucssion of this matter could be confined to 100 pages or less. A final issue is that the book does not seem to possess a modern understanding of certain subjects (since when do hydrologists refer to groundwater as "underground rivers"?). Although this is not the fault of the book, I do not know why anyone other than a science historian would want to spend much time on it.
Oh Yeah, this book also killed millions of people. The banning of DDT probably led to millions of deaths from malaria. Even today, about 2 million people die from it every year.
A Classic Read May 11, 2007
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Joni Mitchell perhaps most aptly summarizes the driving idea of Silent Spring in her song "Big Yellow Taxi": "Hey farmer farmer / Put away that DDT now / Give me spots on my apples / But leave me the birds and the bees. Please!" While both the book and the song are a bit outdated in the United States as DDT was banned in 1972, it's still an interesting analysis of insecticides/herbicides, societies relationship with science, and the effects a capitalistic driven culture has on the environment. Likewise, the interaction of the natural web and human's impact on it is greatly emphasized. Something I've always found interesting about Carson and her book was the publics (often misogynistic) reaction to her as being "hysterical" and my favorite quote from a board member of the Federal Pest Control Review Board: "I thought she was a spinster. What's she so worried about genetics for?"
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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