The Silent Spring

In the midst of the of the 1950's and the 1960's the amount of pesticides used increased incredibly. The use of pesticides was popularized after World War Two because of of their ability to kill insects such as lice, that caused malaria, and typhus.  The pesticide that was popularized was called DDT, which saved the lives of thousands of soldiers during World War Two. Later the pesticide was used to treat  crops as well as yards and neighborhoods. The government endorsed the product, claiming that it was completely safe, and exaggerating the problems of insects, in order to increase the use of pesticides that were forty times more poisonous that DDT. Despite the dangers, people continued to use the pesticides because they believed that large corporations would not try to harm them. However, despite this, the use of pesticides caused severe environmental damage, killing off wildlife, causing fish to explode, and the death of children after playing with the pesticides. Rachel Carson, a marine biologist noticed these changes.  She had already written best selling books such as, Under the Sea Wind, The Sea Around Us, which wrote about the interconnections of all living creatures.  In her book The Silent Spring, she wrote about the consequences of the government deciding to live in "a world without insects". She stated that the amount of Parathion, a pesticide, on the planet could destroy the world 5 to 10 times over She believed that people had the right to live in non toxic environments and criticized men for forgetting the true meaning of the planet.  She received a lot of criticism, with many people stating that a marine biologist was not capable of speaking intelligently on pesticides, some even stated that Carson was a Communist or a "hysterical" women, another way of saying that because of her sex, she was not knowledgeable scientist.  
Below: Rachel Carson
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/story-silent-spring