Rachel Carson: Cleaning the Earth for eagles to fly

     There have been many environmental writers who have commented on the natural world. Some have written about it' beauty, and some writers have warned readers of the possible damage that face the environment if caution and care are not practiced immediately. A majority of these writers have been men. Although there have been just as many female writers of environmental literature. One of the most memorable women to write about nature is Rachel Carson.

     Nature writer Rachel Carson was a committed advocate against pesticide use. More specifically, DDT. Through her investigation and writing, Carson confirmed a connection between the use of pesticides for stimulating plant growth, and the deaths of natural life around it. Some of the living creatures poisoned by the practice of pesticide spraying were the bird population. In the environmental text American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau, there is a mentioning of Rachel Carson's battle against pesticides when the text reads, " She had been following reports of problems with the wonder-pesticide DDT almost since it's introduction in the wake of World War II" ( McKibben, 365).
     So I can imagine that Carson has made a life long ambition to write about the harmful effects of DDT pesticides. The environmental text that was written by Rachel Carson titled Silent Spring, expressed the writer's concerns about animal life and human life being sickened by the use of DDT. The animals that she feared would be lost forever by DDT usage were birds. Specifically the American bald eagle. For Carlson's writings, she managed to save the bald eagles from disappearing forever. As the American Earth text says, "Not only did the U.S. move to restrict the chemical, thus saving our national symbol, the bald eagle, but more importantly, the idea had been firmly planted that perhaps modernity was not as problem free as we might have imagined"( McKibben, 365).
     During Rachel Carson's time of the early and mid 20th century, the world was becoming technologically advanced in science and agriculture. Some breakthroughs were extraordinary, but some were also harmful to nature's creatures. Especially human beings.  Without Rachel Carson, the American bald eagle wouldn't be saved from extinction, and mankind would not be aware of the cancerous effects that DDT can have on the immune system. Carson's Silent Spring has become an influential piece of environmental literature that has changed our opinion of agricultural practices, and animal preservation.