Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: A book about man made chemicals and the effects they have on the earth. A specifici example DDT. She discusses thge destruction of the earth and she wants to create awareness of the problem, and not an attack on people. This book was good but got boring at times. She gets very specific but i feel that it is a book that is necessary for people to read and understand the pesticide problem in the world
Rating: 
Summary: Lies our parents told us
Review: Okay, Rachel Carson saved us from DDT. In a recent lecture about science and ecology, author Michael Crichton, no conservative, says the following: "DDT is not a carcinogen and did not cause birds to die and should never have been banned. I can tell you that the people who banned it knew that it wasn't carcinogenic and banned it anyway. I can tell you that the DDT ban has caused the deaths of tens of millions of poor people, mostly children, whose deaths are directly attributable to a callous, technologically advanced western society that promoted the new cause of environmentalism by pushing a fantasy about a pesticide, and thus irrevocably harmed the third world. Banning DDT is one of the most disgraceful episodes in the twentieth century history of America. We knew better, and we did it anyway, and we let people around the world die and didn't give a damn." Carson was a wonderful writer and doesn't deserve all the blame -- that belongs to the politicians who exploited the issue -- but the book is wrong and led to the unnecessary death of 30 million to Malaria (a disease nearly eradicated before the ban). In the old days, the left was in denial about the thirty million Stalin dismissed from this life. Now this. Wake up, comrades, your compassion is killing us!
Rating: 
Summary: Moderation is the Key.
Review: When one thinks of the American Environmental & Conservation Movement such names as Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, and T. Roosevelt naturally come to mind. But for me personally the two works of naturalist literature that mean the most are Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac. For me Rachel and Aldo are the American Patron Saints of Environmentalism. I will address myself here to Silent Spring and Miss Carson. Silent Spring is not as much about pesticides as it is about standing up to greed and ignorance. That her detractors never seem to get this is more of a comment on their level of awareness than on Rachel's scientific opinion. Science changes, greed does not. No thinking person can honestly say that there have not been many excesses over the years by Corporate America where health versus profit is concerned. Witness the Tobacco Seven testifying to Congress that it has never been scientifically proven that nicotine is addictive. Sadly, there are always those willing to pretend that the Emperors New Clothes are quite the fashion statement. Scientific opinion is for sale to the highest bidder. When I see the pot shots against Miss Carson taken from the cheap seats of ignorance and irresponsibility it makes me want to stand at Rachel's side and look the Devil in the eye in a most ungentlemanly way. But correcting a mocker is rarely wise as the meaner the spirit the duller the mind. Instead, I will appeal to those of you that care about life on Mother Earth. I should point out that a person does not have to be a Pantheist to revere and honor our planetary home. And yet, in a very real sense the Earth is our mother for we come out of this world and not into it. Terrorists of every ilk simply do not get it. Rather than deal with their own personal demons they prefer to demonize others. It takes no real courage to believe God calls one to fight a Holy War against the other when in truth the only Holy War we are called to is the one inside ourselves. It only makes good sense to treat our Environment courteously. This includes ourselves and each other. Long live the memory and tradition of Rachel Carson. A great lady of the sea, and a personal hero of mine.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the book, for the people who say DDT is harmless
Review: Why don't all of you start sprinkling it on your corn flakes in the morning and see just how harmless it is? It will save the world from a bigger problem then that of malaria, the problem of idiots.
Rating: 
Summary: Important read!!
Review: As an entomologist I would like to clarify what I have seen in some of the prior reviews. I would also like future readers of this book to understand that it was written in 1962. It's important to understand what Rachel Carson's book was trying to do. She had to make an impact to millions of readers, and do so in layman's terms. That was a near insurmountable task, especially the way in which women in science were treated during that era.I do agree with others in that some of her statements are based on shaky evidence. However, I don't agree that see is responsible for thousands of deaths due to malaria. Diseases have existed for THOUSANDS OF YEARS, and all animals have had to deal with it, including humans. For example, humans with sickle cell anemia are immune to malaria. It is easy for someone in America to say that DDT should not be used in Africa to fight disease, because we don't have to deal with the thousands of people dying every day. Perhaps DDT can be used in more precise applications to cut down on mosquitos (which are the vectors or carriers of the disease). However, malaria and other autochthonous diseases in Africa can be dealt with by means other than DDT, and thanks to Rachel Carson, funding for research into areas such as creating transgenic mosquitos is a reality. Someday we may have the ability to eraticate malaria, and credit would undoubted have to partly go to her. The issue of the safety of DDT has been mentioned in many of these reviews, and the truth is NO ONE IS RIGHT! There has been almost no testing into the safety of DDT, so it's impossible for anyone to say that it's safe or dangerous (to humans). A famous toxicologist once said, "The poison is the dose". The big problem with DDT is that it biomagnifies and is fat soluble; in other words gets easily passed through the food chain and increases consequently in concentration while been stored in fats. So basically, that "dose" increases and increases and can more easily damage organisms. But again, not a lot of scientific research has been done in this subject, so I wouldn't say anything about DDT other than a my own hypothesis. In summary, read this book, its a little dry, overstates its point, but it changed the world's perspective on pesticides. If you want to see a good reference on insecticides look for: Pedigo, L. P. 2002. Entomology & Pest Management, 4th edition. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. xxii + 742 pp.
ISBN#0-13-019567-7
Rating:
Summary: I agree with both, but ultimately, it has literary value.
Review: Yes, the book brought environmentalism into the light, and people started to care more about nature. But I also believe that DDT is not a harmful chemical, and that the ban on it should be lifted to save lives. The book isn't militant in its environmentalist themes- it does not aim for us to go back to nature, or to even have animals' needs fulfilled first. She implies that human life is, indeed, more important, and that humans come first. The aims of her book often concern the misuse of DDT, and the usage of actually deadly poisons. The book should not be heralded entirely for its scientific value (which is minimal). Instead, one should point out that this book is poetic, and well-written. It also stand as a testament to the power of literature, and the influence that words have on people.
Rating:
Summary: Carson is Responsible for the Death of Millions
Review: This book is absolute garbage. It is full of junk science, misleading statements and half-truths. There has been absolutely no scientific data to support the assertions made by Ms. Carson and her ilk. Before this tragic book, the world had virtually defeated all of the diseases transmitted by fleas and mosquitos, including Malaria and West Nile virus. Since this book millions have died thanks to the 'efforts' of Ms. Carson and other environmentalist organizations. Most of the people who die are poor and live in Africa, Asia and South America. Unfortunately, because these disesase haven't struck North America and Europe, the WHO and other elistist left wing organizations have done everything they can to eliminate the use of DDT around the world. This has lead to nearly 500 million cases of Malaria being reported a year and millions of needless deaths. Now the United States is beginning to suffer as well, as West Nile deaths have started to hit home. Before this book millions of people were spared horrible, needless and tragic deaths because of DDT. Now thanks to Ms. Carson, a child will die every 15 seconds as well as millions of adults worldwide. This book will try to scare you by presenting unsubstantiated theories and conjecture. Don't be fooled and do your own independent research to come to your conclusion. Your decision could affect the lives of millions.
Rating:
Summary: Misunderstood
Review: Too many reviewers see only one thread of Carson's argument: that DDT and pesticides like it endanger the environment. The other thread is that DDT resistance in mosquitoes develops very quickly, and the more quickly the more it is used. Which leaves us right back where we started. Her argument is not that pesticides should not be used, but that they should be used intelligently. In this age, when antibiotic resistant bacteria are becoming a very serious problem precisely because of antibiotic overuse (and not only in hospitals, but, most egregiously, as growth enhancers for livestock), this argument should be indisputable.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a tragedy
Review: This book is responsible for the deaths of several million people. Largely due to the fallout from this book, DDT was banned worldwide. Even though the ban was based on shoddy and now discredited science, this book sparked the popular imagination and chemoparanoia of scientific illiterates everywhere. As a consequence, a cheap, effective, and SAFE pesticide was denied to the poorest countries who needed it most. Malarial mosquitoes that were just beginning to come under contol instead rebounded, and rates of malaria -- often fatal in poor countries -- skyrocketed. Millions have died as result. Of course, none of this mattered to Ms. Carson, or to her legions of acolytes. To them, feeling good about supposedly "pwotecting the enviwoment" was more important about getting their facts right, and infinitely more important than the lives of the people their carelessness has cost.
Rating:
Summary: bad environmentalism costs lives
Review: What followed was a malaria epidemic the likes of which South Africa had never seen. The death rate increased tenfold, but in 2000 South Africa re-introduced DDT spraying and malaria was reduced by 80 percent.
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