March 15, 1963: Before climate change became a hot topic, there was Rachel Carson. Native of Springdale, Pa., she inspired grassroots environment movement and raised environmental awareness among the American public through her work. Her manifesto “Silent Spring,” which was published exactly 50 years ago, on Sept. 27, 1962, warned that use of pesticides presented a danger to life on the planet as we know it.
The Pittsburgh Press wrote the following about Carson’s book: ”Miss Carson tells how man for the first time in history has acquired a significant power to alter the nature of his world. This awesome, and perhaps fatal, power has come to him during the past quarter century. Now he assaults and insults his environment by contaminating the air, earth, river and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. In this universal contamination of the environment she sees that chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world and the very nature of its life.”
Following the publication of “Silent Spring” CBS invited Rachel Carson to do an hour-long “CBS Reports” episode about her book. The 1963 news show helped popularize the book among people who hadn’t read it yet.
The caption on this photo published in The Pittsburgh Press read: “Pesticide battler Rachel Carson, scientist-author of “Silent Spring,” an attack on widespread pesticide use, is featured in an examination of the many-faceted pesticide problem ‘CBS Reports:’ ‘The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson,’ which will air Wednesday, Apr. 3.”
When CBS filmed the show, Rachel Carson was undergoing radiation therapy. She died of cancer in 1964.
(Photo by CBS Television Network)
