Silent Spring’s critics framed environmental protection as a threat to civilization

Evidence

Robert White-Stevens, a former spokesman for the chemical industry, depicted Carson as a crusader who would lead the world backward: “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” (McLaughlin, n.d.). The National Pest Control Association waxed poetic in their disparagement (Cafaro, 2011): “Hunger, hunger, are you listening, To the words from Rachel’s pen? Words which taken at face value, Place lives of birds ’bove those of men.” — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2614

Categorization

• SHARE: The pest-control association’s poem mocking Carson is exactly the kind of eerie historical artifact worth sending to someone who writes about environmental history or rhetoric.