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Narrator :
It was 1962, the height of the Cold War,
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a moment when unrelenting
anxiety about the future
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was leavened by an abiding faith
in the power of science
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to secure our safety and prosperity.
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Then came an incendiary book
that sowed seeds of doubt.
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MAN (on film) :
This is one of the nation's best sellers,
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first printed on September 27, 1962.
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Up to now,
500,000 copies have been sold,
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and Silent Spring has been called
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the most controversial book of the year.
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Narrator :
At the eye of the storm was Rachel Carson,
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one of the most celebrated
American writers of her time.
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With her first three books,
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a lyrical trilogy about the sea,
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Carson had opened people's eyes
to the natural world.
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Now, in Silent Spring,
she delivered the dark warning
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that they might soon destroy it.
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CARSON :
If we are ever to solve the basic problem
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of environmental contamination,
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we must begin to count the many hidden costs
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of what we are doing.
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MAN (on film) :
Miss Carson maintains that the balance of nature
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is a major force
in the survival of man.
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Whereas the modern chemist,
the modern biologist,
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the modern scientist believes
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that man is steadily
controlling nature.
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MAN :
It was sort of the gospel at the time
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that human ingenuity
would triumph over nature.
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What Carson was arguing
was for caution.
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She really confronted
the orthodoxies of her time.
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WOMAN :
She was accused of being a Communist,
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of being a hysterical, female Luddite.
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The reaction was to attack the messenger.
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Narrator :
Carson was an unlikely heretic.
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Dutiful, demure,
and so jealous of her solitude
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that her most intimate relationship
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was conducted mainly through letters.
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She'd thrust herself into the public eye,
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all the while harboring a secret
that was literally killing her.
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To some, Silent Spring was an act of heroism;
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to others, an irresponsible breach
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of scientific objectivity.
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But there could be no dispute
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that with her rebuke
to modern technological science,
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Carson had shattered a paradigm.
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MAN :
Rachel Carson not only changed
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the kind of questions we ask
about the environment,
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I think she caused us to start
to ask those questions.
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She's the instigator.
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(guns booming)
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Narrator :
In mid-July 1945,
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as the Second World War
ground on in the Pacific
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and weary Americans scanned
the morning's headlines
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for the word "victory,"
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Rachel Carson was trying
to call attention
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to what she believed
was a war against the Earth.
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Carson was 38 that summer, and restless.
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A writer by inclination
and a biologist by training,
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she'd spent much of the previous decade
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in the employ of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
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overseeing publications
about its conservation work.
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The job paid the bills, but Carson craved a wider audience.
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Now, the agency had undertaken a study
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she felt warranted public attention.
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As she put it in a letter to
the popular monthly Reader's Digest :
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"Practically at my back door in Maryland,
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an experiment of more than
ordinary interest and importance
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is going on."
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On a vast, forested tract
at the Patuxent Research Refuge,
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not far from Carson's home
in Silver Spring,
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Fish and Wildlife scientists
had begun to examine
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the environmental impacts
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of a relatively new
chemistry lab creation:
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a so-called synthetic pesticide
known as DDT.
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WILLIAM SOUDER :
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, DDT.
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It was first synthesized back in the 19th century
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and it sat on lab shelves for decades.
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Nobody knew if it did anything,
if it had any useful purpose,
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until 1939, when a Swiss chemist
named Paul Muüller
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discovered that it was
a very potent insecticide
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and killed all kinds of bugs
very readily.
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Film Narrator :
Absorbed through the feet or other parts of the body,
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DDT affects the nervous system
and motor coordination
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of the insect.
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Several hours elapse
before symptoms develop.
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Then in sequence follow
restlessness, tremors,
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convulsions, paralysis,
and death.
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DEBORAH BLUM :
Farmers have been doing war with insects and other pests
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for a long time,
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and they had been using what we think of now
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as almost obviously homicidal poisons
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to do that.
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But for the first time,
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we have a sort of new-generation pesticide.
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It's a whole new fascinating
kind of chemical formula
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that's not obviously toxic to people,
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and insects are dying all over the place.
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Narrator :
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor,
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the U.S. military had rushed DDT
to the battle zones
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in an effort to protect
American troops
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from insect-borne diseases
such as typhus,
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which was spread by lice
and, left untreated, could kill.
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Film Narrator :
This was Naples, Italy, shortly after the Allied occupation.
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Its crowded population lacked
almost everything
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for the safeguarding
of public health:
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the perfect set-up for epidemic.
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DAVID KINKELA :
Naples is really a city under siege.
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And typhus spreads quickly
under those kinds of conditions.
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So they set up spray stations in the cities,
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spraying thousands of people
a day with hand sprayers,
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people who wanted to get sprayed,
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people who didn't want to get sprayed,
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children, elderly.
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Film Narrator :
Next, the 40,000 Italians
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dwelling in the jam-packed
air raid shelters
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were deloused.
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Narrator :
In all, more than a million people were dusted with DDT,
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and the epidemic was stopped in its tracks.
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Neapolitans,
The New York Times reported,
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are now throwing DDT at brides
instead of rice.
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Meanwhile, in the tropical Pacific theater,
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where more soldiers
had been sidelined by malaria
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than by gunshot wounds,
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entire islands were saturated with DDT.
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MARK LYTLE :
General Douglas MacArthur once said
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that in war, an army commander
had three divisions,
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one in the front fighting,
one in reserve,
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and one in the rear
being refitted.
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He said, "I have one
in the front, one in reserve,
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and one in the hospital,"
because of malaria.
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But with DDT, that problem
diminished substantially.
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It was considered to be
a miracle substance,
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in that it saved
hundreds of thousands of lives.
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Narrator :
By the middle of 1944,
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TIME magazine had pronounced DDT
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"one of the great scientific
discoveries of World War II."
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To Reader's Digest,
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Rachel Carson was offering a new angle:
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a piece exploring DDT's potential
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to cause collateral damage to wildlife.
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NAOMI ORESKES :
Biologists for the Fish and Wildlife Service
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begin to see pretty quickly
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that when DDT is used in certain areas,
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there's evidence of problems.
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There's evidence of fish kill or bird kill,
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and they see that,
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and like any expert, they publish it in a place
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where other experts will read it.
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But how that information
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then filters out to a larger public
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is a very big question.
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SOUDER :
Carson understood the implications of this.
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She wanted to write a story warning people
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that, "We need to be
a little bit careful with this.
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This looks like it's a great thing,
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but we maybe need to be
cautious in how we use it,
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how much of it we use."
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LINDA LEAR :
But Reader's Digest doesn't want this article.
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They essentially say,
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"Oh, housewives would be
just turned off by this.
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"They wouldn't want to know
about this terrible stuff,
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so no-- no, thank you."
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(crowd cheering)
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Film Narrator :
The victory-flash-electrified Times Square
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keyed to the bursting point,
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as the magic word of complete
surrender came through.
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Narrator :
Just weeks later, the war in the Pacific finally was won,
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and credit for the victory went
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to the twin weapons of modern science:
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the atomic bomb and the
so-called insect bomb, DDT.
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LYTLE :
America's actually healthier
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and the death rate went down
during World War II,
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even if you include soldiers
in the equation.
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And so people considered this
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a real triumph of human ingenuity
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over the old pestilences of nature
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that had made life nasty, brutish, and short.
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BLUM :
So people just went, "Wow.
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"We have this incredibly potent compound,
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"doesn't cause any harm to anything but bugs.
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We'll just use it everywhere."
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MAN (on film) :
I consider this amazing chemical
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MAN (on film) :
the most valuable contribution
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of our wartime medical research program
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to the future health and welfare
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not only of this nation,
but of the entire world.
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Narrator :
Carson's misgivings about DDT were not assuaged.
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But she was in no position to spend time
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on a story she couldn't sell.
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LEAR :
She really is pretty certain
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that synthetic pesticides are
not good for the environment,
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and that they have
a power to destroy,
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which is not being
made clear to anybody.
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But Reader's Digest doesn't think so.
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So she gives it up.
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She puts it away.
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But it really doesn't go away.
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CARSON (dramatized) :
I can remember no time, even in earliest childhood,
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when I didn't assume
I was going to be a writer.
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Also, I can remember no time
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when I wasn't interested
in the out-of-doors
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and the whole world of nature.
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Those interests, I know,
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I inherited from my mother
and have always shared with her.
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Narrator :
She was, from the very beginning, her mother's child.
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A former schoolteacher
of stern Presbyterian stock,
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Maria Carson had given up
her career
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for marriage and motherhood,
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only to find herself
alone among strangers.
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Her husband, Robert,
while well-meaning,
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had never managed to provide
more than a meager existence.
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The family's clapboard house,
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on the Allegheny River
just north of Pittsburgh,
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lacked both central heating
and running water
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throughout the 29 years
the Carsons occupied it.
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Maria's two older children
already were school-aged
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when their younger sister
was born,
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and already showed
a marked lack of interest
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in their mother's passions.
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Rachel would be different.
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SOUDER :
Maria Carson was an educated woman
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and a woman who enjoyed reading.
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She enjoyed music.
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She was a person
who, to some degree,
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lived a life of the mind.
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ROBERT MUSIL :
She focused and passed this all on to Rachel.
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She was ambitious for her daughter.
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This was her youngest, brightest,
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frankly, favorite child,
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and so she wanted her to get a good education.
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Narrator :
Inspired by a popular educational movement
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which held that children should
"study nature, not books,"
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Maria made the surrounding woods
and fields
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Rachel's first classroom.
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Learn to love the natural world,
the theory went,
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and one will wish to protect it.
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LYTLE :
Rachel and her mother
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would spend their afternoons
together exploring.
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She learned to identify
wild things
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and the songs of birds,
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and she could recognize the
nests, and the flora and fauna.
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Her mother taught her to be
rigorous in her observation,
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but it also, of course,
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deepened her relationship
with her mother.
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Narrator :
She was the solitary sort of girl
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who greeted the birds on the way
to school in the morning
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and was partial to the
companionship of books.
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At the age of eight,
she was writing stories of her own.
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At ten, at her mother's urging,
Rachel entered a contest
250
00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:03,000
sponsored by the popular
children's magazine St. Nicholas
251
00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:05,000
and became a published author.
252
00:14:06,300 --> 00:14:10,400
By 14, she was submitting
her work to magazines for sale.
253
00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:15,400
MUSIL :
If we picture a girl in a small farm
254
00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:17,800
in Nowhere, Pennsylvania,
255
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:20,530
who is transported
through literature
256
00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:23,900
and can imagine being elsewhere,
257
00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:29,400
I think she was led to see that
as something that she could do,
258
00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:31,500
and it was constantly reinforced.
259
00:14:34,100 --> 00:14:38,500
LEAR :
Maria Carson had always wanted to go to college and couldn't,
260
00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:41,700
so she was going to be
quite sure that this daughter,
261
00:14:41,700 --> 00:14:44,600
this smart daughter,
was going to go to college.
262
00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:50,200
Narrator :
When Rachel won a scholarship to Pennsylvania College for Women,
263
00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:53,200
Maria sold off
even the family china
264
00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:55,000
to help cover
her daughter's expenses,
265
00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:59,500
then made the 30-mile round trip
to Pittsburgh most weekends
266
00:14:59,500 --> 00:15:00,300
to visit her.
267
00:15:01,430 --> 00:15:03,360
SOUDER :
She was the star pupil.
268
00:15:03,430 --> 00:15:07,030
Everyone realized right away
what a talented writer she was
269
00:15:07,100 --> 00:15:09,500
and also saw that
this was her ambition in life,
270
00:15:09,500 --> 00:15:11,000
that she wanted to be a writer.
271
00:15:12,100 --> 00:15:15,860
So it came as a great shock when
she fell in love with biology.
272
00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:24,100
The science of life
just struck a chord in her
273
00:15:24,100 --> 00:15:26,690
that I think she didn't realize
was there.
274
00:15:30,800 --> 00:15:34,800
Narrator :
Thrilled by the prospect of understanding the natural world
275
00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:37,290
she'd been taught
to so closely observe,
276
00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:40,460
Carson changed her major
from English to biology
277
00:15:40,530 --> 00:15:43,890
and announced her intention
to go on to graduate school.
278
00:15:46,060 --> 00:15:47,860
She spent the next two years
279
00:15:47,930 --> 00:15:51,830
taking courses in zoology,
physiology, anatomy.
280
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:55,300
But her true interest
281
00:15:55,330 --> 00:15:57,790
only revealed itself
after graduation,
282
00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:00,200
when she landed
a coveted research spot
283
00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:04,190
at the Marine Biology Laboratory
in Woods Hole, Massachusetts,
284
00:16:04,260 --> 00:16:06,530
and for the first time in her life
285
00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:08,700
laid eyes on the ocean.
286
00:16:17,100 --> 00:16:22,200
LEAR :
She's moved beyond just the ordinary person would be moved
287
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:24,600
who would have seen the ocean
for the first time.
288
00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:28,600
The sea taught her everything
289
00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:32,500
that she later came
to want to understand
290
00:16:32,500 --> 00:16:34,200
and want the world
to understand,
291
00:16:35,030 --> 00:16:38,860
that everything was connected
to everything else.
292
00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:47,700
SOUDER :
If you study biology
293
00:16:47,700 --> 00:16:51,400
and if you look at how all life
on Earth has evolved,
294
00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:54,600
eventually you begin
to see everything in totality.
295
00:16:55,130 --> 00:16:59,660
You can't divorce yourself
or any other living thing
296
00:16:59,730 --> 00:17:02,000
from the environment
that we all share.
297
00:17:02,660 --> 00:17:05,300
And Carson was fascinated by that.
298
00:17:15,900 --> 00:17:18,890
LYTLE :
It was one of the most liberating,
299
00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:21,800
expansive experiences
she ever had in her life.
300
00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:27,100
One of her overriding lessons
was that the sea,
301
00:17:27,100 --> 00:17:32,560
with all of its massive expanse
and its varieties of creatures,
302
00:17:32,630 --> 00:17:35,830
was beyond the controlling hand
of man.
303
00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:50,430
Narrator :
Had it not been for the Depression
304
00:17:50,500 --> 00:17:53,260
and her family's dire
financial straits,
305
00:17:53,330 --> 00:17:56,760
Carson might have become
a marine biologist.
306
00:17:56,830 --> 00:17:58,130
As it was,
307
00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:01,430
she'd barely started her
graduate work at Johns Hopkins
308
00:18:01,500 --> 00:18:05,330
before her parents, her
older sister, and her two nieces
309
00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:07,500
came to live with her
in Baltimore.
310
00:18:08,300 --> 00:18:11,060
Full-time study gave way
to part-time study
311
00:18:11,130 --> 00:18:12,560
and part-time work.
312
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:18,430
Then, when Carson was 28,
her father died suddenly.
313
00:18:18,500 --> 00:18:21,430
Not long after, her sister died,
as well,
314
00:18:21,500 --> 00:18:24,660
leaving two daughters
in Rachel and her mother's care.
315
00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:28,000
Now the family's
sole breadwinner,
316
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,930
Carson left Johns Hopkins
with her master's degree
317
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,790
and took a job with
the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries,
318
00:18:33,860 --> 00:18:35,760
writing an assortment
of publications
319
00:18:35,830 --> 00:18:39,000
about the bureau's
marine conservation work.
320
00:18:41,300 --> 00:18:44,000
SOUDER :
As she's looking over the press releases she's writing,
321
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:45,900
she realizes
that some of these subjects
322
00:18:45,900 --> 00:18:47,200
are kind of interesting
323
00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:48,800
and could be turned
into feature stories
324
00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:50,800
for a local newspaper.
325
00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:55,330
So she starts selling stories
to The Baltimore Sun
326
00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:58,300
that are based
on some of the work
327
00:18:58,300 --> 00:19:00,800
that she's seeing being done
at the Bureau of Fisheries.
328
00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:03,730
Narrator :
From time to time,
329
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,860
Carson omitted her first name
from her signature,
330
00:19:06,930 --> 00:19:09,530
believing certain pieces
would have more credibility
331
00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:12,500
if they were presumed to have
been written by a man.
332
00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:17,390
Still, as she later said,
"It was a turning point.
333
00:19:17,460 --> 00:19:20,030
"I had given up writing forever,
I thought.
334
00:19:20,100 --> 00:19:21,560
It never occurred to me
335
00:19:21,630 --> 00:19:24,500
that I was merely getting
something to write about."
336
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,600
SOUDER :
She has at last found this way
337
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:30,900
to combine her two passions in life.
338
00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:34,030
Biology and writing merge,
339
00:19:34,100 --> 00:19:37,160
and I think really
from that time forward,
340
00:19:37,230 --> 00:19:40,430
she never thinks of them
as being separate things.
341
00:19:40,500 --> 00:19:43,500
What she is is someone
who writes about science.
342
00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:49,760
Narrator :
In 1937, a piece Carson published in The Atlantic
343
00:19:49,830 --> 00:19:52,530
came to the attention of Simon & Schuster,
344
00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:54,690
which offered her
a small advance
345
00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:56,300
for a book about the sea.
346
00:19:57,800 --> 00:19:59,500
Hopeful the opportunity
would help her
347
00:19:59,500 --> 00:20:01,300
make the leap
to full-time writer,
348
00:20:01,300 --> 00:20:04,500
she poured three years' worth
of nights and weekends
349
00:20:04,500 --> 00:20:05,400
into the book,
350
00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:07,160
a kind of literary triptych
351
00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:09,600
about the lives
of three sea creatures.
352
00:20:11,830 --> 00:20:15,430
Under the Sea-Wind earned early critical praise,
353
00:20:15,500 --> 00:20:18,860
but the rush to the bookstore
Carson had dreamed of
354
00:20:18,930 --> 00:20:20,300
never happened.
355
00:20:22,230 --> 00:20:26,990
(bombs streaking and exploding)
356
00:20:27,060 --> 00:20:29,660
SOUDER :
A few weeks after the book is released,
357
00:20:29,730 --> 00:20:32,300
the Japanese attack
Pearl Harbor,
358
00:20:32,300 --> 00:20:35,600
and everybody's attention
shifts from books,
359
00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:37,630
certainly from slight books,
360
00:20:37,700 --> 00:20:40,730
like a book about creatures
that live in the ocean.
361
00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:45,100
And Under The Sea-Wind went
just kind of vanishes without a trace,
362
00:20:45,100 --> 00:20:47,590
never sells even 2,000 copies.
363
00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:53,290
Narrator :
For Carson, there would be no escape from her day job.
364
00:20:53,360 --> 00:20:56,930
The Bureau of Fisheries by then
had merged with another agency
365
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:00,230
to become the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
366
00:21:00,300 --> 00:21:03,730
but Carson's position
was essentially unchanged.
367
00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:07,800
And though she excelled in it,
it was not work that she loved.
368
00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:14,360
By the time the war came
to an end, in 1945,
369
00:21:14,430 --> 00:21:16,660
she was back
to pitching feature stories
370
00:21:16,730 --> 00:21:19,330
and frustrated beyond measure.
371
00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:21,590
What she was,
as a friend put it,
372
00:21:21,660 --> 00:21:23,430
was a "would-be writer
373
00:21:23,430 --> 00:21:23,490
was a "would-be writer
374
00:21:23,500 --> 00:21:26,200
who could not afford the time
for creative work."
375
00:21:28,260 --> 00:21:32,390
LEAR :
I don't think Rachel sees that there's much alternative.
376
00:21:32,460 --> 00:21:36,500
She's got a good job,
she's got family to support.
377
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:38,200
So she's really stuck.
378
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:40,900
She felt she'd come
to an obstacle
379
00:21:40,900 --> 00:21:44,200
that didn't have
any easy way around.
380
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:47,700
Really for the first time
in her life,
381
00:21:47,700 --> 00:21:50,300
I think she really didn't see
the way forward.
382
00:21:51,100 --> 00:21:54,300
And, I think, she was in the "now what?" phase for several years.
383
00:21:58,100 --> 00:22:00,200
ANNOUNCER :
Headlines in Chemistry.
384
00:22:04,630 --> 00:22:06,630
ANNOUNCER 2 :
And here is our first headline.
385
00:22:06,700 --> 00:22:09,730
Science can now rid the country of mosquitoes.
386
00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:11,230
ANNOUNCER 3 :
The mosquito is doomed!
387
00:22:11,300 --> 00:22:14,000
And so is the tiny bloodthirsty black fly.
388
00:22:14,300 --> 00:22:17,200
These biting insects can now
be completely wiped out
389
00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:19,600
by man-made fogs
loaded with DDT.
390
00:22:21,100 --> 00:22:25,260
Narrator :
Not long after Reader's Digest declined Carson's DDT piece,
391
00:22:25,330 --> 00:22:29,130
the "miracle pesticide"
was released for civilian use.
392
00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:34,400
For the first time,
the insect-borne scourges
393
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:36,460
that spread disease
and ravaged crops
394
00:22:36,530 --> 00:22:38,830
seemed subject to man's control.
395
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:43,060
LYTLE :
Most people were inclined to think of humans
396
00:22:43,130 --> 00:22:46,000
as the superior, apex species,
397
00:22:46,100 --> 00:22:49,800
and that the rest of the animal,
plant kingdom
398
00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:51,400
existed for our convenience,
399
00:22:51,500 --> 00:22:54,800
and that man's function was to dominate
400
00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:59,100
and, in a sense, bend nature to his purposes.
401
00:22:59,100 --> 00:23:02,200
And so the ethos of science and technology
402
00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:04,500
is that humans could improve on nature.
403
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:12,500
SOUDER :
DDT was going to end diseases like malaria and typhus.
404
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:16,000
It was going to greatly increase
agricultural output.
405
00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:19,990
DDT was thought to be
so important
406
00:23:20,060 --> 00:23:22,990
that Paul Muüller won the
Nobel Prize for discovering DDT.
407
00:23:25,430 --> 00:23:30,630
Narrator :
Cheap and long-lasting, DDT was rushed into widespread use
408
00:23:30,700 --> 00:23:32,200
practically overnight.
409
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:36,500
In the southeastern United States,
410
00:23:36,500 --> 00:23:38,000
where malaria was rife,
411
00:23:38,060 --> 00:23:40,760
a coalition of state and
local health agencies
412
00:23:40,830 --> 00:23:44,360
treated some 4 1/2 million homes with DDT.
413
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:49,100
By 1951, malaria had been eliminated
414
00:23:49,100 --> 00:23:50,300
from the entire country.
415
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,000
(engine buzzing)
416
00:23:58,500 --> 00:24:00,400
The U.S. Department
of Agriculture,
417
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:03,000
meanwhile, promoted DDT to farmers
418
00:24:03,230 --> 00:24:05,190
and, in conjunction
with the military,
419
00:24:05,260 --> 00:24:08,390
sold thousands of decommissioned
planes as crop dusters,
420
00:24:08,460 --> 00:24:11,890
boosting agricultural yields
across the country.
421
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:17,000
SOUDER :
It's hard to understand now
422
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:18,660
because it seems instinctive to us.
423
00:24:18,730 --> 00:24:22,100
But the idea that a chemical
424
00:24:22,100 --> 00:24:25,030
might present a hazard
to your health
425
00:24:25,100 --> 00:24:27,800
or to the well-being
of the natural environment,
426
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:30,600
this was not front-of-mind
for anybody at the time.
427
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:35,000
There was really no rigorous
testing of these chemicals
428
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:36,300
to ensure their safety.
429
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:38,700
There was much greater attention paid
430
00:24:38,700 --> 00:24:39,800
to whether they were effective.
431
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:46,500
BLUM :
Nature was big, and dark, and scary, and dangerous
432
00:24:46,500 --> 00:24:49,430
in profound ways
through much of human history.
433
00:24:49,500 --> 00:24:52,490
So when people looked at nature,
434
00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:55,200
they saw that the world would be safer
435
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:56,300
if they could master it.
436
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:01,400
And when you get something
that looks like a tool,
437
00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:02,700
a "magic bullet,"
438
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:04,800
you want the magic bullet.
439
00:25:10,030 --> 00:25:12,830
Narrator :
Spurred by the success of DDT,
440
00:25:12,900 --> 00:25:17,000
chemists soon created a host
of new pesticidal compounds:
441
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,200
endrin, dieldrin, toxaphene.
442
00:25:20,860 --> 00:25:24,030
Over the decade to come,
all would be weapons
443
00:25:24,100 --> 00:25:26,430
in the struggle
to master nature.
444
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:32,100
KINKELA :
So you see an explosion of American science
445
00:25:32,100 --> 00:25:35,500
that has the potential to solve
deep-seated problems
446
00:25:35,500 --> 00:25:37,700
of famine and disease
around the world.
447
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,300
And so there's this sense
of a quest.
448
00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:44,100
We have the tools,
we have the technology,
449
00:25:44,100 --> 00:25:47,000
we have the know-how,
and this is our moment.
450
00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:01,000
Narrator :
On an overcast morning in July 1949,
451
00:26:01,300 --> 00:26:03,000
Rachel Carson found herself
452
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:05,300
in a boat
off the coast of Miami,
453
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:08,400
staring down
into the storm-churned waters
454
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:10,000
of Biscayne Bay.
455
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:13,600
After five years spent
making the best of her job
456
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:15,260
at the Fish and Wildlife Service,
457
00:26:15,330 --> 00:26:17,600
she'd begun to toy with the idea
458
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:19,860
of writing another book
about the sea,
459
00:26:19,930 --> 00:26:22,200
and this time,
she was determined
460
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,800
to experience her subject firsthand.
461
00:26:25,900 --> 00:26:29,200
SOUDER :
She probably didn't let on that she was a very poor swimmer.
462
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:31,190
She didn't like boats.
463
00:26:31,260 --> 00:26:34,900
You know, she was happy being in up to about her knees,
464
00:26:35,100 --> 00:26:37,930
and beyond that she really
wasn't very comfortable.
465
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:42,000
But she felt that if she could
somehow muster the courage
466
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:43,100
to go under the surface,
467
00:26:43,100 --> 00:26:45,300
that it would be illuminating
and helpful to her
468
00:26:45,300 --> 00:26:46,300
in her writing.
469
00:26:47,100 --> 00:26:48,560
Narrator :
From her desk in Maryland,
470
00:26:48,630 --> 00:26:51,000
it had seemed critical
to her research
471
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:52,400
that she make this dive.
472
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:54,890
But now, on the boat,
473
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:57,730
the prospect of simply
getting into the water
474
00:26:57,800 --> 00:26:59,900
seemed impossibly daunting.
475
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:03,630
The diving helmet alone
weighed 84 pounds.
476
00:27:03,700 --> 00:27:08,790
Carson, at 5 feet, 4 inches tall, weighed all of 120.
477
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:14,460
Trembling, she managed
to descend about eight feet,
478
00:27:14,530 --> 00:27:16,330
to the bottom
of the boat's ladder,
479
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:19,790
staying just long enough to note
the presence of seaweed
480
00:27:19,860 --> 00:27:22,660
and a few vibrantly colored fish.
481
00:27:22,700 --> 00:27:25,800
She never once let go
of the ladder's rung.
482
00:27:26,830 --> 00:27:29,300
SOUDER :
Her face mask kind of clouded up.
483
00:27:29,300 --> 00:27:31,600
She was breathing heavily,
she was terrified.
484
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:33,200
But she spent a few minutes there
485
00:27:33,300 --> 00:27:34,800
and then climbed back up the ladder
486
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:35,600
and
487
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:36,700
and went home.
488
00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:41,460
Narrator :
Carson judged the dive a success,
489
00:27:41,530 --> 00:27:42,990
because she'd at least been able
490
00:27:43,060 --> 00:27:45,500
to glimpse the ocean's surface from below.
491
00:27:46,030 --> 00:27:48,960
But as research,
it was largely irrelevant:
492
00:27:49,030 --> 00:27:52,860
the new book was to be based
not on firsthand observation,
493
00:27:52,930 --> 00:27:56,200
but rather on the surfeit
of oceanographic studies
494
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:58,800
that lately had been piling up
on her desk.
495
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,760
ORESKES :
Up until World War II, nobody really worried much
496
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:09,300
about what happened
below the waves.
497
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:11,000
But in World War II,
498
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,500
submarine warfare becomes
important for the first time,
499
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:17,300
and the only way you can operate
in the submarine environment
500
00:28:17,300 --> 00:28:20,460
is with a very, very detailed
understanding of the ocean.
501
00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:25,600
And so we start learning
a tremendous amount
502
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,600
about the ocean and
about the life in the deep ocean
503
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:30,900
that had been quite mysterious
before that.
504
00:28:31,830 --> 00:28:32,800
And the idea that there was
505
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:34,800
all this amazing diverse life in the ocean
506
00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:36,100
that we didn't really know about
507
00:28:36,100 --> 00:28:39,460
and that is existing as a kind of parallel universe,
508
00:28:39,530 --> 00:28:42,000
I think that that really captured her.
509
00:28:46,500 --> 00:28:51,130
LEAR :
Carson wanted to be the biographer of the ocean.
510
00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:53,860
She wanted certainly to tell
about its beauty
511
00:28:53,930 --> 00:28:57,230
and about how intricate
nature was.
512
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:01,330
It's the same question
that she approached
513
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:03,530
in Under the Sea-Wind,
514
00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:05,900
only now there was
all this information
515
00:29:05,900 --> 00:29:07,400
that she could tap.
516
00:29:09,430 --> 00:29:12,490
She had access
to confidential information.
517
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:14,600
She had access to war records.
518
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,400
She had access
to submarine research.
519
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:20,030
She was a master synthesizer.
520
00:29:20,100 --> 00:29:23,000
She could take information
from this place and that place
521
00:29:23,100 --> 00:29:25,100
and then see how it went together
522
00:29:25,100 --> 00:29:28,700
in ways that I don't think very many people can do.
523
00:29:31,100 --> 00:29:34,100
SOUDER :
Carson's technique was to identify
524
00:29:34,100 --> 00:29:36,000
the leading experts
in the field,
525
00:29:36,300 --> 00:29:39,460
ask a few harmless questions
about their work,
526
00:29:39,530 --> 00:29:41,790
and then once she got
her foot in the door with them,
527
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:43,600
to expand the questioning
528
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:45,200
so that she could really pick
their brains.
529
00:29:47,260 --> 00:29:50,400
Narrator :
In the evenings, after a full day at the office
530
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:51,760
and dinner with her mother,
531
00:29:51,830 --> 00:29:54,060
Carson cloistered herself in her study
532
00:29:54,100 --> 00:29:57,900
and worked on her book,
sometimes until dawn.
533
00:29:59,960 --> 00:30:03,830
DEBORAH CRAMER :
Once you have all these hundreds and hundreds of papers,
534
00:30:03,900 --> 00:30:07,890
you need to shape them
in some kind of narrative,
535
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:11,060
and that requires
a very different prose style
536
00:30:11,100 --> 00:30:13,100
than what she was reading.
537
00:30:14,300 --> 00:30:18,100
And so when you go about
taking that material
538
00:30:18,100 --> 00:30:21,690
and transforming it,
but still being true to it,
539
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:24,790
it's just an extraordinarily difficult thing,
540
00:30:24,860 --> 00:30:28,790
because when you choose different words to describe it,
541
00:30:28,860 --> 00:30:30,660
you run the risk
542
00:30:30,730 --> 00:30:34,200
of mistranslating what you're reading.
543
00:30:36,030 --> 00:30:40,990
LEAR :
It was a painstaking process because she was a perfectionist.
544
00:30:41,060 --> 00:30:43,160
She had to get
the first sentence right
545
00:30:43,230 --> 00:30:45,260
before she could go
to the second sentence.
546
00:30:45,330 --> 00:30:47,200
And then she'd revise.
547
00:30:47,660 --> 00:30:51,300
It takes a long time for her
to get something that she likes,
548
00:30:51,300 --> 00:30:54,890
and then in the morning,
she's likely to revise it again,
549
00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:57,000
so things go very slowly.
550
00:30:58,500 --> 00:31:01,130
Narrator :
Determined that this book would not languish
551
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:03,260
as Under the Sea-Wind had,
552
00:31:03,330 --> 00:31:06,960
Carson signed on with a literary
agent named Marie Rodell,
553
00:31:07,030 --> 00:31:09,090
who sold the volume
to Oxford Press
554
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:10,730
even before it had a title.
555
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:12,930
"Current suggestions
556
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,090
from irreverent friends
and relatives," Carson joked,
557
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:20,000
"include Out of My Depth and Carson at Sea."
558
00:31:21,930 --> 00:31:24,860
By the spring of 1950,
the manuscript,
559
00:31:24,930 --> 00:31:27,560
now bearing the title The Sea Around Us,
560
00:31:27,630 --> 00:31:29,100
was nearly finished.
561
00:31:29,860 --> 00:31:33,160
Hoping to foster advance
interest in its publication,
562
00:31:33,230 --> 00:31:36,700
Rodell began shopping excerpts
to magazines.
563
00:31:37,260 --> 00:31:39,730
15 turned the material down
564
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:42,830
before it finally made its way
to William Shawn,
565
00:31:42,900 --> 00:31:44,690
editor of The New Yorker,
566
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:48,400
who offered to publish ten
of the book's chapters.
567
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:52,690
SOUDER :
This is the turning point in Carson's career.
568
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:55,600
The New Yorker is a very prestigious,
569
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:58,300
widely read, widely respected magazine,
570
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,100
and so to be serialized in The New Yorker,
571
00:32:01,100 --> 00:32:03,090
to have your work preview there
572
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:05,200
ahead of its publication as a book
573
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,000
is almost a guarantee of success.
574
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:12,600
Narrator :
Carson would clear more from The New Yorker serialization
575
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:14,500
than she did from an entire year
576
00:32:14,500 --> 00:32:16,500
at the Fish and Wildlife Service.
577
00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:19,930
"I am still in a daze," she cabled Rodell.
578
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:23,300
"All I know is how lucky I am to have you."
579
00:32:35,260 --> 00:32:40,190
By the time Carson's book went
to print in the spring of 1951,
580
00:32:40,260 --> 00:32:42,390
the world seemed to be cleaving in two.
581
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:47,230
The Soviet Union had shaken
Americans' sense of security
582
00:32:47,300 --> 00:32:50,200
with the successful test
of an atomic bomb.
583
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,490
Communist forces had triumphed in China.
584
00:32:55,300 --> 00:32:57,500
Now there was a pervasive feeling
585
00:32:57,500 --> 00:32:59,700
that the struggle to stem the red tide
586
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:01,390
would be unremitting.
587
00:33:01,460 --> 00:33:03,490
ANNOUNCER :
From the White House in Washington, D.C.,
588
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:05,390
President Harry S. Truman.
589
00:33:05,460 --> 00:33:07,390
TRUMAN :
My fellow Americans,
590
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,600
I want to talk to you plainly tonight
591
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:12,800
about what we are doing in Korea
592
00:33:13,300 --> 00:33:15,300
and about our policy in the Far East.
593
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:19,830
In the simplest terms,
what we are doing in Korea
594
00:33:19,900 --> 00:33:24,800
is this: we are trying
to prevent a third world war.
595
00:33:26,930 --> 00:33:30,430
Narrator :
Against the backdrop of war, both hot and cold,
596
00:33:30,500 --> 00:33:32,800
Carson worried
that her second book
597
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:34,500
would founder like the first.
598
00:33:34,900 --> 00:33:37,260
But thanks to The New Yorker serialization,
599
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:40,300
readers snapped it up
all across the country
600
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:44,600
and found in its pages
an antidote to anxiety.
601
00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:54,700
READER :
"The whole world ocean extends
602
00:33:54,700 --> 00:33:57,700
over about three-fourths
of the surface of the globe.
603
00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:02,000
If we subtract the shallow
areas of the continental shelves
604
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:03,800
and the scattered banks
and shoals,
605
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:06,600
where at least the pale ghost
of sunlight
606
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:09,000
moves over the underlying
bottom,
607
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:12,300
there still remains
about half the Earth
608
00:34:12,300 --> 00:34:16,000
that is covered by miles-deep,
lightless water,
609
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:18,900
that has been dark
since the world began."
610
00:34:22,700 --> 00:34:26,090
Narrator :
Drawing upon all that was then known about the ocean,
611
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,990
Carson told the story
of its life over the eons
612
00:34:30,060 --> 00:34:33,360
and revealed a natural realm
largely indifferent
613
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:35,300
to the rhythms of man.
614
00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:41,890
SOUDER :
It's a book that is jammed with news from the natural world.
615
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:45,400
It's about currents,
about the propagation of waves,
616
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:49,500
about storm systems, about the
ocean's relationship to climate.
617
00:34:50,730 --> 00:34:52,990
You have to remember
that this is all new.
618
00:34:53,060 --> 00:34:55,800
Nobody knows
what the ocean is like.
619
00:34:56,600 --> 00:35:01,530
So there's a lot
of really compelling information
620
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:03,390
that transcends that term.
621
00:35:03,460 --> 00:35:06,700
It's not just information,
it's revelation.
622
00:35:07,130 --> 00:35:09,400
It's this immersive experience.
623
00:35:11,030 --> 00:35:14,060
Narrator :
"It is a work of science," one critic raved.
624
00:35:14,130 --> 00:35:16,530
"It is stamped with authority.
625
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:18,230
It is a work of art:
626
00:35:18,300 --> 00:35:21,790
It is saturated
with the excitement of mystery.
627
00:35:21,860 --> 00:35:23,400
It is literature."
628
00:35:24,460 --> 00:35:30,190
CRAMER :
What she has done is to take a very complicated subject
629
00:35:30,260 --> 00:35:34,360
and distill it into its essence,
630
00:35:34,430 --> 00:35:38,300
and bring the reader right there.
631
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:40,930
So science, which can be
632
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:45,190
extraordinarily impersonal and dry,
633
00:35:45,260 --> 00:35:51,400
has suddenly become immediate and very important.
634
00:35:54,230 --> 00:35:57,090
Narrator :
Three weeks after it appeared in bookstores,
635
00:35:57,160 --> 00:36:01,090
The Sea Around Us made The New York Times bestseller list.
636
00:36:02,500 --> 00:36:05,060
Amid the near-universal praise for the book,
637
00:36:05,130 --> 00:36:08,660
there occasionally emerged
a distorted portrait of Carson
638
00:36:08,730 --> 00:36:12,390
as a working scientist
with rare literary gifts,
639
00:36:12,460 --> 00:36:15,860
or as an experienced diver
who'd come to know her subject
640
00:36:15,930 --> 00:36:17,800
at a depth of a hundred feet.
641
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:20,400
Thrilled about the book's success
642
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:23,100
but dismayed at the attention
focused on its author,
643
00:36:23,100 --> 00:36:26,360
Carson did nothing
to correct the misconceptions.
644
00:36:27,100 --> 00:36:28,300
SOUDER :
Critic after critic
645
00:36:28,300 --> 00:36:32,790
would remark in some way,
either off handedly or directly,
646
00:36:32,860 --> 00:36:34,490
how amazing it was
647
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:36,690
that a woman understood
these technical matters
648
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:38,690
and wrote so beautifully
about them,
649
00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:42,400
particularly because the ocean
was such a hostile place,
650
00:36:42,700 --> 00:36:45,500
where, you know,
presumably only men could go.
651
00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:47,290
So Carson had to endure that.
652
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:50,790
And so I think
letting this fiction stand
653
00:36:50,860 --> 00:36:53,500
was her little way
of kind of getting even
654
00:36:53,500 --> 00:36:57,000
with the people that doubted her
or doubted her gender.
655
00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:58,500
I think it amused her.
656
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:05,500
Narrator :
By early September, The Sea Around Us
657
00:37:05,500 --> 00:37:08,100
had reached number one
on the bestseller list.
658
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:12,800
There it would remain
for an astonishing 32 weeks.
659
00:37:14,530 --> 00:37:18,260
When it at last dropped a notch,
it was joined on the list
660
00:37:18,330 --> 00:37:20,460
by a re-issue
of Carson's first book,
661
00:37:20,530 --> 00:37:22,600
in what The New York Times called
662
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:26,800
a "publishing phenomenon as rare
as a total solar eclipse."
663
00:37:28,500 --> 00:37:32,930
At 44, Rachel Carson,
the one-time "would-be writer,"
664
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:36,700
had two of the country's
non-fiction bestsellers.
665
00:37:37,860 --> 00:37:39,100
LYTLE :
The Sea Around Us was
666
00:37:39,100 --> 00:37:42,790
one of the bestselling
science books of all time.
667
00:37:42,860 --> 00:37:45,060
It sold almost two million copies
668
00:37:45,130 --> 00:37:47,400
in its initial publication.
669
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,900
It was also translated into,
I think, 30 foreign languages,
670
00:37:51,900 --> 00:37:54,600
so it was an international bestseller.
671
00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:57,960
It won the National Book Award.
672
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,000
So it really made her
a public figure
673
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,300
with a very large following.
674
00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:06,330
Narrator :
"We have been troubled about the world,
675
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:10,030
and had almost lost faith in
man," one reader wrote Carson.
676
00:38:10,100 --> 00:38:13,360
"It helps to think about
the long history of the Earth,
677
00:38:13,430 --> 00:38:15,630
and of how life came to be.
678
00:38:15,700 --> 00:38:18,630
When we think in terms
of millions of years,
679
00:38:18,700 --> 00:38:20,190
we are not so impatient
680
00:38:20,260 --> 00:38:22,800
that our own problems
be solved tomorrow."
681
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:30,700
MILITARY SPOKESMAN :
You have a grandstand seat here
682
00:38:30,700 --> 00:38:32,600
to one of the most momentous events
683
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:34,000
in the history of science.
684
00:38:34,700 --> 00:38:38,530
This is the first full-scale
test of a hydrogen device.
685
00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:43,190
If the reaction goes,
we're in the thermonuclear era.
686
00:38:43,260 --> 00:38:46,430
MAN (on loudspeaker) :
It is now 30 seconds to zero time.
687
00:38:46,500 --> 00:38:48,790
Put on goggles or turn away.
688
00:38:49,300 --> 00:38:53,830
MAN (on loudspeaker) :
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
689
00:39:10,830 --> 00:39:11,760
(explosion booming)
690
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:24,890
LEAR :
Carson was always aware, I think,
691
00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:28,030
from, especially,
her time in government,
692
00:39:28,100 --> 00:39:30,690
that some people looked at science
693
00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:34,390
as discovering
something beautiful and new,
694
00:39:34,460 --> 00:39:36,760
and some people
looked at science
695
00:39:36,830 --> 00:39:40,490
as discovering ways
in which to wage war,
696
00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:44,860
to destroy things,
not to create things,
697
00:39:45,500 --> 00:39:47,600
that by the time
of the Cold War,
698
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:51,100
there are really two sciences
going on in the United States.
699
00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:56,090
Narrator :
World War II had raised the profile of American science.
700
00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:59,260
Now the Cold War made it soar.
701
00:40:01,060 --> 00:40:05,390
KINKELA :
The atom was used in a very destructive way,
702
00:40:05,460 --> 00:40:07,690
but it also suggested in many ways
703
00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:11,960
that science was at the
forefront of something grand.
704
00:40:13,500 --> 00:40:17,300
This is the way in which we will
solve the problems of the world.
705
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:24,800
Narrator :
The laboratory was no longer merely the source
706
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:26,600
of the nation's military might.
707
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:29,390
It was also, ever increasingly,
708
00:40:29,460 --> 00:40:32,300
a font of ingenious chemical tools
709
00:40:32,300 --> 00:40:34,300
that gave mankind an edge
710
00:40:34,300 --> 00:40:36,430
against its enemies
in the natural world.
711
00:40:38,100 --> 00:40:41,100
KINKELA :
For any sort of question that deals with nature,
712
00:40:41,100 --> 00:40:43,030
what is emerging
in the postwar period
713
00:40:43,100 --> 00:40:45,500
is that chemicals
will solve the problem.
714
00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:51,300
So if your question is about
crop production, more chemicals.
715
00:40:51,300 --> 00:40:54,100
If your question is about
public health, more chemicals.
716
00:40:54,300 --> 00:40:55,400
If your question is about,
717
00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:58,500
"How do I protect my home from these unwanted pests?"
718
00:40:58,500 --> 00:40:59,600
More chemicals.
719
00:41:00,860 --> 00:41:04,500
BLUM :
People are worshiping at the altar of science and technology
720
00:41:04,500 --> 00:41:09,500
because finally it's making us
the human masters of the planet,
721
00:41:10,500 --> 00:41:13,400
and we're taking
this incredibly dangerous,
722
00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:15,200
un-nurturing landscape,
723
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:17,800
and it is now under our control.
724
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:23,200
Science is rewriting
the way we live on Earth.
725
00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:26,800
And so there was
very little questioning.
726
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:31,100
Narrator :
Rachel Carson was less sure.
727
00:41:31,300 --> 00:41:34,590
To her, there seemed something
dangerous about a world
728
00:41:34,660 --> 00:41:37,590
in which human ingenuity
knew no limits.
729
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:44,700
LEAR :
She sees human beings in their post-World War II form
730
00:41:44,700 --> 00:41:46,760
as being arrogant,
731
00:41:46,830 --> 00:41:50,160
that human arrogance
outruns human wisdom,
732
00:41:50,230 --> 00:41:53,400
and we ought to try
to put them back together
733
00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:54,690
as equals again.
734
00:42:06,900 --> 00:42:09,800
Narrator :
When the demands of promoting The Sea Around Us
735
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:11,390
threatened to overwhelm her,
736
00:42:11,460 --> 00:42:13,830
Carson escaped to Maine,
737
00:42:13,900 --> 00:42:16,330
to a remote stretch
of the central coast,
738
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:19,090
where slivers of land reach out
into the ocean
739
00:42:19,160 --> 00:42:21,800
and the tides rise higher
than anywhere
740
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:23,500
along the Atlantic seaboard.
741
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:29,700
A research trip had
first brought her to the area
742
00:42:29,700 --> 00:42:30,890
some years before,
743
00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:33,100
and it had since been
her ambition,
744
00:42:33,100 --> 00:42:34,490
as she'd put it to a friend,
745
00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:36,390
"to be able to buy a place here
746
00:42:36,460 --> 00:42:40,000
and then manage to spend
a great deal of time in it."
747
00:42:44,460 --> 00:42:48,230
Now, flush from the sales
of two bestselling books,
748
00:42:48,300 --> 00:42:51,190
she purchased a plot
on Southport Island
749
00:42:51,260 --> 00:42:53,930
and built a summer cottage
of her own.
750
00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:58,760
SOUDER :
At the edge of her property,
751
00:42:58,830 --> 00:43:04,190
there's this large area
of rocky shelf tableland
752
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:06,200
that at high tide
is under the water,
753
00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:08,300
but at low tide is exposed.
754
00:43:09,130 --> 00:43:12,100
And so this exposes
all the crevices
755
00:43:12,100 --> 00:43:13,760
and nooks and tidal pools
756
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:19,600
where starfish and periwinkles
and sea anemones live.
757
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:22,100
All these creatures
of this intertidal zone
758
00:43:22,100 --> 00:43:25,300
that so fascinated Carson
and always had,
759
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:28,600
that's all available to her
right there.
760
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:36,630
MUSIL :
She identifies with the creatures who live on the edge,
761
00:43:36,700 --> 00:43:41,390
this borderland
between the power of water
762
00:43:41,460 --> 00:43:43,190
that could also crush you,
763
00:43:43,300 --> 00:43:47,100
and its ability to release life and to create new life.
764
00:43:49,730 --> 00:43:54,600
Rachel wanted to be still, to feel and to imagine,
765
00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:58,200
and this was the place
that would allow her to do that.
766
00:44:04,330 --> 00:44:06,490
Narrator :
Before her house was even habitable,
767
00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:10,030
Carson received a letter
from a Mrs. Dorothy Freeman,
768
00:44:10,100 --> 00:44:13,900
whose family owned a cottage
a half-mile up the shoreline
769
00:44:13,900 --> 00:44:15,100
from Carson's property.
770
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:17,590
Dorothy's husband, Stanley,
771
00:44:17,660 --> 00:44:20,400
had been given a copy of The Sea Around Us
772
00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:21,500
for his birthday.
773
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:25,900
MARTHA FREEMAN :
My grandparents had read it out loud to each other
774
00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:28,200
sailing or on the porch of their cottage,
775
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,430
and had adored it.
776
00:44:30,500 --> 00:44:34,500
It really spoke to a lot of
what they cared about in life.
777
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:38,900
My grandmother read
about Rachel coming
778
00:44:38,900 --> 00:44:40,200
in the local newspaper,
779
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:43,430
and sent her a little
welcoming note in 1952,
780
00:44:44,100 --> 00:44:46,100
and she got a note back.
781
00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:49,400
Narrator :
Despite all the attention
782
00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:51,690
that recently had been showered upon her,
783
00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:54,530
requests for interviews,
speaking invitations,
784
00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:56,660
mountains of fan mail,
785
00:44:56,730 --> 00:44:58,390
Carson felt isolated
786
00:44:58,460 --> 00:45:01,400
and more than usually burdened by her family.
787
00:45:04,530 --> 00:45:08,290
Maria Carson, as she aged,
had grown demanding and jealous
788
00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:10,630
of Rachel's time and attention.
789
00:45:12,660 --> 00:45:15,230
And then
there was niece Marjorie,
790
00:45:15,300 --> 00:45:17,460
who had taken up
with a married man
791
00:45:17,500 --> 00:45:19,100
and become pregnant.
792
00:45:20,660 --> 00:45:22,700
LYTLE :
Carson and her mother arranged
793
00:45:22,700 --> 00:45:25,990
to have the woman
admitted to a special home,
794
00:45:26,060 --> 00:45:28,730
where she had the baby and
kept it out of the public eye,
795
00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:33,100
and sort of protected her from
the rumor mill and whatnot.
796
00:45:37,530 --> 00:45:39,090
Carson once wrote, she said,
797
00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:40,960
"If ever I was bitter
about anything,
798
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:42,800
I was bitter about that."
799
00:45:44,060 --> 00:45:47,500
The problems with her niece
really detracted
800
00:45:47,500 --> 00:45:51,200
from the joy and the wonderful
sense of success she felt
801
00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:52,500
for The Sea Around Us.
802
00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:56,800
Narrator :
Having finally resigned her position
803
00:45:56,800 --> 00:45:58,600
at the Fish and Wildlife Service
804
00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:00,260
to dedicate herself to writing,
805
00:46:00,330 --> 00:46:03,730
Carson lacked even
the companionship of colleagues.
806
00:46:12,660 --> 00:46:14,730
The friendship that bloomed
with the Freemans
807
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:16,990
was a revelation to her.
808
00:46:17,060 --> 00:46:20,130
The couple shared her love
for nature and the sea,
809
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:24,200
and enthusiastically joined
in her tide pool explorations,
810
00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:27,400
Dorothy marveling
at the unseen life
811
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:29,000
that teemed at the shoreline,
812
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:31,130
while Stanley took photographs.
813
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:41,500
But of the two, it was Dorothy
to whom Carson felt most drawn.
814
00:46:43,730 --> 00:46:47,200
FREEMAN :
I think Rachel had the same experience in a way
815
00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:48,600
that I had with my grandmother,
816
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:54,400
in that she was just so present,
so much herself,
817
00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:56,160
so comfortable in herself,
818
00:46:56,230 --> 00:47:01,630
that she was really open to
seeing who you were, listening.
819
00:47:01,700 --> 00:47:04,530
You totally felt heard
and understood.
820
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:07,000
I did, anyway,
and I believe Rachel did.
821
00:47:09,100 --> 00:47:13,330
She was just a very comfortable
person to be with,
822
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:15,330
a really wonderful friend
to have.
823
00:47:18,860 --> 00:47:22,000
SOUDER :
Dorothy Freeman and Rachel Carson had,
824
00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:23,590
almost from the beginning,
825
00:47:23,660 --> 00:47:27,530
this deep, deep,
emotional connection
826
00:47:27,600 --> 00:47:30,200
that they would later describe
as the ability
827
00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:32,100
to know exactly what
the other one was thinking
828
00:47:32,100 --> 00:47:33,100
about everything,
829
00:47:33,300 --> 00:47:36,300
to feel as though they were
inside the other person's head
830
00:47:36,300 --> 00:47:37,300
at all times.
831
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:40,330
Everything they each loved about the world
832
00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:42,300
hit them in the same way.
833
00:47:44,230 --> 00:47:48,330
Narrator :
Dorothy was 55, the mother of a grown son,
834
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:52,000
a new grandmother,
a devoted homemaker and wife.
835
00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:56,400
Now, as the summer turned to fall
836
00:47:56,400 --> 00:47:58,630
and Southport was abandoned for the season,
837
00:47:58,700 --> 00:48:00,500
she became the confidante
838
00:48:00,500 --> 00:48:03,700
that Carson, at 46,
had never had.
839
00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:07,790
CARSON (dramatized) :
Darling Dorothy,
840
00:48:07,860 --> 00:48:10,000
I don't suppose anyone
really knows
841
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:11,600
how a creative writer works
842
00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:15,100
or what sort of nourishment
his spirit must have.
843
00:48:15,460 --> 00:48:18,260
All I am certain of is this:
844
00:48:18,330 --> 00:48:20,600
that it is quite necessary
for me
845
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:22,200
to know that there is someone
846
00:48:22,200 --> 00:48:24,930
who is deeply devoted to me
as a person,
847
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:28,800
and who also has the capacity
and the depth of understanding
848
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:32,500
to share vicariously
the sometimes crushing burden
849
00:48:32,500 --> 00:48:34,760
of creative effort.
850
00:48:34,830 --> 00:48:37,900
Last summer I was feeling,
as never before,
851
00:48:37,900 --> 00:48:41,090
that there was no one
who combined all of that.
852
00:48:41,160 --> 00:48:45,700
And then, my dear one,
you came into my life!
853
00:48:47,600 --> 00:48:50,160
SOUDER :
They started writing letters to each other,
854
00:48:50,230 --> 00:48:52,300
and the letters became
more and more frequent,
855
00:48:52,300 --> 00:48:54,560
and they very quickly escalated
856
00:48:54,630 --> 00:48:57,300
to include a level
of personal affection
857
00:48:57,300 --> 00:49:01,300
that was surprising to everyone
except to them.
858
00:49:02,400 --> 00:49:04,860
Before they ever see each other
in person again,
859
00:49:04,930 --> 00:49:07,300
they've declared their love
for each other.
860
00:49:12,730 --> 00:49:14,790
Carson never really had
any relationships.
861
00:49:14,860 --> 00:49:16,760
She never dated.
862
00:49:16,830 --> 00:49:20,100
I think she knew
that Dorothy was the one person
863
00:49:20,100 --> 00:49:22,960
who really was the one person,
the soulmate.
864
00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:30,500
And the beauty is that Dorothy
feels the same thing in her way,
865
00:49:30,500 --> 00:49:32,100
to the extent that she can.
866
00:49:33,460 --> 00:49:35,960
Narrator :
In phone calls and occasional visits,
867
00:49:36,030 --> 00:49:37,890
and in letter after letter,
868
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:40,100
Carson poured out to Dorothy
869
00:49:40,100 --> 00:49:42,630
the challenges
of completing her third book,
870
00:49:42,700 --> 00:49:44,300
an Atlantic shore guide
871
00:49:44,300 --> 00:49:46,300
she'd agreed to write
for Houghton Mifflin
872
00:49:46,300 --> 00:49:49,330
even before The Sea Around Us
had been published.
873
00:49:53,230 --> 00:49:55,730
Freed at last to do nothing
but write,
874
00:49:55,800 --> 00:49:58,800
Carson found the task
nearly impossible.
875
00:49:59,500 --> 00:50:03,000
Again and again, her approach
to the guide changed.
876
00:50:03,930 --> 00:50:07,430
Entire chapters were laboriously
revised,
877
00:50:07,500 --> 00:50:09,860
and what was meant to be
a two-year project
878
00:50:09,930 --> 00:50:12,100
soon stretched into four.
879
00:50:13,630 --> 00:50:16,760
CARSON (dramatized) :
Maybe the easiest way for me to write a chapter
880
00:50:16,830 --> 00:50:21,230
would be to type "Dear Dorothy"
on the first page!
881
00:50:21,300 --> 00:50:22,930
As a matter of fact,
882
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:27,300
you and your particular kind
of interest and appreciation
883
00:50:27,300 --> 00:50:29,100
were in my mind a great deal
884
00:50:29,100 --> 00:50:33,100
when I was rewriting parts
of the section on rocky shores.
885
00:50:35,530 --> 00:50:37,160
SOUDER :
Once they're together,
886
00:50:37,230 --> 00:50:39,000
and they're rarely physically together,
887
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:40,700
they're almost always in different places
888
00:50:40,700 --> 00:50:42,160
writing letters to each other,
889
00:50:42,230 --> 00:50:44,900
once they're together, they're never apart.
890
00:50:44,900 --> 00:50:48,000
There's never any question between them.
891
00:50:50,230 --> 00:50:51,900
FREEMAN :
There's a huge amount of affection.
892
00:50:51,900 --> 00:50:53,500
I mean, it is love.
893
00:50:53,630 --> 00:50:56,800
It is the love
of kindred spirits.
894
00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:03,700
They wrote to each other
three, four, five times a week.
895
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:08,690
So their relationship was always
this caring at a distance.
896
00:51:12,930 --> 00:51:15,000
They knew each other
for about 12 years,
897
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:16,660
and I think I added it up
at one point
898
00:51:16,730 --> 00:51:19,730
that they were probably
in each other's presence
899
00:51:19,800 --> 00:51:24,530
for, at most, 60 days.
900
00:51:27,200 --> 00:51:28,730
Narrator :
When The Edge of the Sea,
901
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:31,100
the widely-acclaimed
third volume
902
00:51:31,100 --> 00:51:32,690
in Carson's marine trilogy,
903
00:51:32,760 --> 00:51:36,660
finally hit bookstores
in the summer of 1955,
904
00:51:36,730 --> 00:51:38,760
it would be dedicated
not to her mother,
905
00:51:38,830 --> 00:51:41,190
as The Sea Around Us had been,
906
00:51:41,260 --> 00:51:44,100
but to Dorothy and Stanley Freeman.
907
00:51:54,330 --> 00:51:59,360
(theme song playing)
908
00:52:11,030 --> 00:52:14,700
ANNOUNCER :
Let's face it: the threat of hydrogen bomb warfare
909
00:52:14,700 --> 00:52:17,930
is the greatest danger
our nation has ever known.
910
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:20,700
Enemy jet bombers
carrying nuclear weapons
911
00:52:20,700 --> 00:52:22,700
can sweep over a variety
of routes
912
00:52:22,700 --> 00:52:27,000
and drop bombs on any important
target in the United States.
913
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:31,200
The threat of this destruction
has affected our way of life
914
00:52:31,200 --> 00:52:34,200
in every city, town, and village
from coast to coast.
915
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:37,300
These are the signs
of the times.
916
00:52:38,100 --> 00:52:40,600
(air raid siren blaring)
917
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:43,130
KINKELA :
You can imagine what it might be like
918
00:52:43,200 --> 00:52:46,360
to be thinking and hearing
almost all the time
919
00:52:46,430 --> 00:52:49,000
that you could die at any moment, right?
920
00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:50,790
That the Soviet Union will attack.
921
00:52:50,860 --> 00:52:52,600
There's going to be no warning,
922
00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:56,600
and the only way that you could
protect yourselves
923
00:52:56,600 --> 00:52:59,300
is to duck and cover yourselves
924
00:52:59,300 --> 00:53:00,790
with whatever you have around you.
925
00:53:02,300 --> 00:53:04,100
The threat was incredibly palpable.
926
00:53:06,260 --> 00:53:07,390
Narrator :
More and more,
927
00:53:07,460 --> 00:53:09,800
when Rachel Carson raised her eyes
928
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:12,100
to take in the man-made world around her,
929
00:53:12,100 --> 00:53:14,890
what she felt was a quiet rage.
930
00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:18,400
The Cold War had become
931
00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:20,800
a macabre game
of one-up's man ship,
932
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:22,590
a high-stakes standoff
933
00:53:22,660 --> 00:53:26,200
fueled by the threat
of nuclear destruction.
934
00:53:26,730 --> 00:53:29,930
Then, on March 1, 1954,
935
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:32,600
the United States pressed
for the lead
936
00:53:32,600 --> 00:53:36,130
with the test of a dry-fuel
hydrogen bomb,
937
00:53:36,200 --> 00:53:37,830
code-named "Shrimp."
938
00:53:51,400 --> 00:53:54,460
SOUDER :
Everything goes right with this test
939
00:53:54,500 --> 00:53:56,200
except the things that go wrong,
940
00:53:56,200 --> 00:53:58,500
and the things that go wrong
are really big problems.
941
00:54:01,200 --> 00:54:02,960
The explosion
was much more powerful
942
00:54:03,030 --> 00:54:05,590
than the scientists
had predicted,
943
00:54:05,660 --> 00:54:09,100
about 2 1/2 times more powerful
than it was supposed to be;
944
00:54:09,600 --> 00:54:11,700
largest explosion
that had ever occurred
945
00:54:11,700 --> 00:54:12,500
on the face of the Earth
946
00:54:12,500 --> 00:54:13,800
that wasn't a volcano.
947
00:54:21,300 --> 00:54:23,400
Narrator :
Radioactive fallout scattered
948
00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:26,090
over more than
5,000 square miles
949
00:54:26,300 --> 00:54:28,000
and then drifted downward,
950
00:54:28,430 --> 00:54:31,490
settling on open ocean,
inhabited islands,
951
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:33,890
and a hapless
Japanese fishing boat
952
00:54:33,960 --> 00:54:36,500
named Lucky Dragon Number 5.
953
00:54:41,100 --> 00:54:46,000
SOUDER :
This gray, snow-like ash begins to fall out of the sky
954
00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:48,030
and it coats the ship
from stem to stern.
955
00:54:48,100 --> 00:54:50,030
It gets on every surface.
956
00:54:50,100 --> 00:54:51,490
And it coats the men.
957
00:54:51,560 --> 00:54:53,360
It gets in their eyes.
958
00:54:53,500 --> 00:54:56,500
They're tasting it to see if
they can figure out what it is.
959
00:54:57,700 --> 00:55:00,300
That becomes apparent
within a couple of days,
960
00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:03,100
because very soon,
everybody on the ship is sick.
961
00:55:07,260 --> 00:55:10,160
Narrator :
By the time the Lucky Dragon returned to port,
962
00:55:10,230 --> 00:55:14,000
everyone on board had succumbed
to radiation poisoning,
963
00:55:14,360 --> 00:55:18,300
their skin blackened, their hair
falling out in clumps.
964
00:55:19,400 --> 00:55:22,190
Their ordeal made headlines
all over the world.
965
00:55:25,800 --> 00:55:28,500
SOUDER :
For the first time, people realized
966
00:55:28,500 --> 00:55:31,300
that the real danger in nuclear war
967
00:55:31,300 --> 00:55:34,030
was not
the explosions themselves,
968
00:55:34,100 --> 00:55:35,600
but the fallout,
969
00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:38,390
this total contamination
of the Earth
970
00:55:38,460 --> 00:55:40,090
that had the potential
to wipe out
971
00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:42,500
every living organism
on the face of the Earth.
972
00:55:48,500 --> 00:55:51,900
Narrator :
The Atomic Energy Commission and other government agencies
973
00:55:51,900 --> 00:55:54,190
now issued a flurry
of reassurances
974
00:55:54,260 --> 00:55:56,400
that atmospheric testing
was safe,
975
00:55:56,600 --> 00:56:00,000
and that fallout constituted
no appreciable danger
976
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:01,890
outside of the test zone.
977
00:56:04,330 --> 00:56:07,330
FILM ANNOUNCER :
The atomic cloud, like a giant vacuum cleaner,
978
00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:09,760
has sucked up dirt and debris
from the Earth
979
00:56:09,830 --> 00:56:12,600
and is full
of radioactive particles.
980
00:56:14,530 --> 00:56:16,090
Is it dangerous?
981
00:56:16,160 --> 00:56:18,560
Yes, right now it is.
982
00:56:18,630 --> 00:56:20,390
You wouldn't want to go into it,
983
00:56:20,460 --> 00:56:22,300
but neither would you
deliberately walk
984
00:56:22,300 --> 00:56:23,830
into a blazing fire.
985
00:56:23,900 --> 00:56:26,300
You have to use common sense.
986
00:56:27,860 --> 00:56:30,300
BLUM :
It's really easy for us to look back
987
00:56:30,300 --> 00:56:33,100
at something like above-ground nuclear testing
988
00:56:33,100 --> 00:56:35,800
and think, "Well, that was a primitive moment."
989
00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:40,800
But people had just suffered
through a really terrible war.
990
00:56:41,060 --> 00:56:44,230
Tens and tens and tens
of thousands of young Americans
991
00:56:44,300 --> 00:56:45,490
had died abroad.
992
00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:50,530
And so you can also say
to yourself, as they did,
993
00:56:50,600 --> 00:56:53,460
"We have to have the weapon
that ends all wars."
994
00:56:53,530 --> 00:56:54,660
Right?
995
00:56:54,730 --> 00:56:57,160
"And if there's some sacrifice
involved,
996
00:56:57,230 --> 00:56:59,490
well, you know,
that's for the greater good."
997
00:57:00,300 --> 00:57:03,630
KINKELA :
People were not dying because of nuclear tests.
998
00:57:03,700 --> 00:57:09,430
And that is tied to the question
of how people understood harm.
999
00:57:09,500 --> 00:57:11,390
And throughout much
of the 20th century
1000
00:57:11,500 --> 00:57:13,600
and into the early 1950s,
1001
00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:16,160
it was really about sort of
the question of,
1002
00:57:16,230 --> 00:57:17,760
does this kill you?
1003
00:57:19,660 --> 00:57:21,230
Very simple.
1004
00:57:21,300 --> 00:57:23,860
Is it acutely toxic, and if so,
1005
00:57:23,930 --> 00:57:26,900
how much
can a human body withstand
1006
00:57:26,900 --> 00:57:28,600
before it kills somebody?
1007
00:57:31,600 --> 00:57:34,160
Narrator :
Carson framed the question differently,
1008
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:37,800
and her doubts about the vector
of modern technological science
1009
00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:40,700
now began to harden
into a certainty.
1010
00:57:43,000 --> 00:57:45,300
LEAR :
Now she has to come to grips with the fact
1011
00:57:45,300 --> 00:57:47,800
that humans can destroy nature.
1012
00:57:48,460 --> 00:57:52,460
So her mission, if you will,
is to show the world
1013
00:57:52,530 --> 00:57:56,560
what a perfect thing
the natural systems are
1014
00:57:56,630 --> 00:58:00,600
and how easily the hand of man
can muck it up.
1015
00:58:02,200 --> 00:58:04,300
And that becomes a theme
in everything
1016
00:58:04,300 --> 00:58:05,600
that she starts to write.
1017
00:58:06,400 --> 00:58:07,600
It's the undercurrent.
1018
00:58:11,400 --> 00:58:13,360
Narrator :
By the close of 1954,
1019
00:58:13,430 --> 00:58:17,330
Carson had a title in mind, Remembrance of Earth,
1020
00:58:17,400 --> 00:58:20,600
and a vague idea for a book
that would illuminate
1021
00:58:20,600 --> 00:58:22,900
the relation of life
to its environment.
1022
00:58:23,760 --> 00:58:25,560
But months gave way to years,
1023
00:58:25,630 --> 00:58:27,630
and she made no progress
with it.
1024
00:58:29,300 --> 00:58:32,130
Then, in early January 1957,
1025
00:58:32,200 --> 00:58:35,330
her niece Marjorie contracted
a pneumonia so severe
1026
00:58:35,400 --> 00:58:37,030
she had to be hospitalized.
1027
00:58:40,260 --> 00:58:42,760
Two weeks later,
Marjie was dead,
1028
00:58:42,800 --> 00:58:46,800
and her five-year-old son Roger
became Carson's responsibility.
1029
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:54,300
ROGER CHRISTIE :
Rachel kind of had a hard life that way.
1030
00:58:55,630 --> 00:58:59,130
You know, first she had to raise
my mother and my mother's sister
1031
00:58:59,200 --> 00:59:03,400
because their parents died
when they were very young,
1032
00:59:05,000 --> 00:59:07,900
and then the same thing repeated itself
1033
00:59:07,900 --> 00:59:10,060
just when she was getting out from under it.
1034
00:59:12,300 --> 00:59:16,800
She was very considerate
of my feelings all the time,
1035
00:59:16,800 --> 00:59:20,400
sometimes to the detriment
of her own work.
1036
00:59:22,530 --> 00:59:25,790
Narrator :
In the spring, on the heels of her 50th birthday,
1037
00:59:25,860 --> 00:59:29,090
Carson legally became
Roger's adoptive mother
1038
00:59:29,160 --> 00:59:32,990
and tried to resign herself
to her changed circumstances.
1039
00:59:34,800 --> 00:59:36,390
But as she confessed to Dorothy,
1040
00:59:36,460 --> 00:59:38,630
she could not entirely
keep herself
1041
00:59:38,700 --> 00:59:41,000
from feeling a dark resentment.
1042
00:59:41,960 --> 00:59:43,390
She was all but convinced
1043
00:59:43,460 --> 00:59:46,190
she'd never again have the time
to write.
1044
00:59:46,260 --> 00:59:47,990
Then, friends told her
1045
00:59:48,060 --> 00:59:50,330
about a U.S. Department
of Agriculture program
1046
00:59:50,400 --> 00:59:52,600
to eradicate the fire ant,
1047
00:59:53,000 --> 00:59:54,700
and more than a decade after
1048
00:59:54,700 --> 00:59:58,000
she'd proposed the piece
about DDT to Reader's Digest,
1049
00:59:58,200 --> 01:00:01,700
pesticides came roaring back
into her consciousness.
1050
01:00:02,600 --> 01:00:04,800
ANNOUNCER :
The fire ant is believed to have entered this country
1051
01:00:04,800 --> 01:00:06,800
from South America in 1925.
1052
01:00:06,800 --> 01:00:10,100
The destructive insect has
brought heavy losses to crops
1053
01:00:10,100 --> 01:00:12,300
in Alabama, Mississippi,
and Louisiana.
1054
01:00:12,360 --> 01:00:16,700
Once they swarm across a field
like this, nothing survives.
1055
01:00:20,200 --> 01:00:23,600
LYTLE :
The fire ant was the perfect invasive species
1056
01:00:23,600 --> 01:00:25,190
for the Cold War era.
1057
01:00:25,260 --> 01:00:28,000
They were red,
they snuck into the country,
1058
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:32,300
they were subversive,
and they were mostly annoying.
1059
01:00:33,600 --> 01:00:35,600
For some reason,
the Department of Agriculture
1060
01:00:35,600 --> 01:00:38,800
got it into their head that,
scientists there,
1061
01:00:38,800 --> 01:00:40,800
that this would be
a perfect demonstration
1062
01:00:40,800 --> 01:00:45,200
of the power of pesticides
to solve a nagging problem.
1063
01:00:46,130 --> 01:00:50,130
Narrator :
The enthusiasm for DDT and other synthetic pesticides
1064
01:00:50,200 --> 01:00:54,300
had given way to the conviction
that science could do far more
1065
01:00:54,300 --> 01:00:57,560
than control insects
and other unwanted pests.
1066
01:00:57,630 --> 01:01:00,500
The objective now
was eradication.
1067
01:01:01,260 --> 01:01:04,600
KINKELA :
It meant extermination, extermination of the species.
1068
01:01:06,300 --> 01:01:09,600
So in 1955, you see the advent
1069
01:01:09,600 --> 01:01:11,100
of the World Health Organization's
1070
01:01:11,100 --> 01:01:12,690
Malaria Eradication Program,
1071
01:01:12,800 --> 01:01:16,400
which was in many ways designed
to exterminate
1072
01:01:16,400 --> 01:01:20,100
not the problem of malaria,
but the problem of mosquitoes.
1073
01:01:21,800 --> 01:01:25,400
The Fire Ant Eradication Program
was the same idea.
1074
01:01:26,660 --> 01:01:30,730
Scientists are convinced that
this is the right way to go.
1075
01:01:30,800 --> 01:01:35,290
And if we fail, then
we're going to fail humanity.
1076
01:01:35,360 --> 01:01:39,000
It becomes this all-or-nothing
equation.
1077
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:44,800
ORESKES :
And so what we see in the 1950s is tremendous amounts of money
1078
01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:47,100
going into studying
pest killing,
1079
01:01:47,100 --> 01:01:49,100
not so much money
going into studying
1080
01:01:49,100 --> 01:01:51,800
broader questions
of wildlife biology,
1081
01:01:51,800 --> 01:01:53,790
broader questions
of environmental health,
1082
01:01:54,000 --> 01:01:56,300
broader questions
of environmental toxicity.
1083
01:01:57,900 --> 01:02:01,700
LYTLE :
The people involved, the scientists and whatnot,
1084
01:02:01,700 --> 01:02:03,800
who are inventing pesticides,
1085
01:02:04,000 --> 01:02:05,860
think they're doing God's work,
1086
01:02:05,930 --> 01:02:09,760
and that they are also helping
the United States keep its edge
1087
01:02:09,830 --> 01:02:12,490
in the Cold War environment.
1088
01:02:14,200 --> 01:02:17,300
The Department of Agriculture
and the chemical industry say,
1089
01:02:17,300 --> 01:02:20,390
one of the reasons that we have
such a rich material life
1090
01:02:20,460 --> 01:02:24,000
is that we have found ways
to control these problems,
1091
01:02:24,000 --> 01:02:26,630
to maximize food
and fiber production,
1092
01:02:26,700 --> 01:02:28,660
and it's one of the things
that distinguishes
1093
01:02:28,700 --> 01:02:33,000
the U.S. and its allies
from the Communist bloc.
1094
01:02:33,900 --> 01:02:35,800
Our standard of living
is so much higher
1095
01:02:35,800 --> 01:02:38,100
and we owe it
to human ingenuity.
1096
01:02:40,800 --> 01:02:44,170
Narrator :
In 1957, in the U.S.D.A.'s all-out war
1097
01:02:44,240 --> 01:02:45,170
against the fire ant,
1098
01:02:45,240 --> 01:02:47,540
some 20 million acres
in the South
1099
01:02:47,610 --> 01:02:51,210
were doused with pesticides,
killing not only ants,
1100
01:02:51,300 --> 01:02:55,700
but blackbirds and meadowlarks,
armadillos and opossums.
1101
01:02:57,530 --> 01:02:58,690
The sprayed areas,
1102
01:02:58,760 --> 01:03:01,790
as one Alabama agricultural
official reported,
1103
01:03:01,860 --> 01:03:04,930
"reeked with the odor
of decaying wildlife."
1104
01:03:07,060 --> 01:03:10,300
LYTLE :
The hunting-fishing community was outraged.
1105
01:03:10,300 --> 01:03:11,990
County agricultural agents
1106
01:03:12,060 --> 01:03:13,990
dropped their support
for the project
1107
01:03:14,060 --> 01:03:16,100
and it really was a black eye
1108
01:03:16,100 --> 01:03:18,100
for the Department of Agriculture,
1109
01:03:18,100 --> 01:03:20,000
but it was a warning for Carson.
1110
01:03:21,360 --> 01:03:24,000
Narrator :
What concerned Carson was not merely
1111
01:03:24,000 --> 01:03:27,190
that synthetic pesticides
had unintended consequences,
1112
01:03:27,260 --> 01:03:30,600
but that substances
about which so little was known
1113
01:03:30,600 --> 01:03:32,900
were now practically ubiquitous.
1114
01:03:34,700 --> 01:03:37,300
Widely employed
by government agencies
1115
01:03:37,300 --> 01:03:39,100
to protect
health and agriculture,
1116
01:03:39,100 --> 01:03:41,400
as well as American interests
abroad,
1117
01:03:41,400 --> 01:03:46,160
synthetic pesticides also were
sold directly to consumers,
1118
01:03:46,230 --> 01:03:48,900
who, by 1957, could choose
1119
01:03:48,900 --> 01:03:52,000
from an array of some 6,000
different products.
1120
01:03:54,200 --> 01:03:57,300
SOUDER :
You could get shelf paper for your kitchen cabinets
1121
01:03:57,300 --> 01:03:59,100
that was impregnated with DDT.
1122
01:04:00,300 --> 01:04:03,390
You could get paints and
varnishes that had DDT in them.
1123
01:04:04,800 --> 01:04:08,490
One of my favorite devices,
and my father owned this,
1124
01:04:08,560 --> 01:04:12,190
was a cylinder about the size
and shape of a beer can,
1125
01:04:12,260 --> 01:04:14,360
and it had DDT in it.
1126
01:04:14,830 --> 01:04:16,860
It attached to the muffler
of your lawn mower,
1127
01:04:16,930 --> 01:04:20,090
so the hot exhaust gas
would volatilize the DDT
1128
01:04:20,160 --> 01:04:22,990
and spray a fog out
across your yard.
1129
01:04:23,060 --> 01:04:25,430
So if you were having
company over for a picnic later,
1130
01:04:25,500 --> 01:04:27,860
you could poison the grass
before they got there
1131
01:04:27,930 --> 01:04:29,790
and nobody would get
a mosquito bite.
1132
01:04:30,100 --> 01:04:33,000
(engine slowly starting)
1133
01:04:37,430 --> 01:04:40,200
Narrator :
Although manufacturers were required by law
1134
01:04:40,200 --> 01:04:42,400
to register
new chemical compounds,
1135
01:04:42,400 --> 01:04:44,000
the government mandated
1136
01:04:44,000 --> 01:04:46,730
no independent safety testing
of those compounds
1137
01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:50,000
and placed no limitation
on their sale or use.
1138
01:04:51,500 --> 01:04:54,290
So long as the label provided
safe-use instructions,
1139
01:04:54,360 --> 01:04:57,490
the product was deemed
to be safe under the law.
1140
01:04:59,000 --> 01:05:00,530
ORESKES :
That's, of course, reinforced
1141
01:05:00,600 --> 01:05:02,890
by the manufacturers
of the pesticides.
1142
01:05:02,960 --> 01:05:05,890
The companies
that are manufacturing DDT
1143
01:05:05,960 --> 01:05:08,660
focus on this question of
immediate short-term toxicity.
1144
01:05:08,730 --> 01:05:11,060
They say,
"Well, look, it's not toxic.
1145
01:05:11,130 --> 01:05:12,960
"We applied it on all
these soldiers in World War II
1146
01:05:13,030 --> 01:05:15,730
and they were all fine, so
that proves that this is fine."
1147
01:05:17,400 --> 01:05:21,800
KINKELA :
You had examples of people digesting spoonfuls of DDT
1148
01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:23,630
just to prove how safe it was.
1149
01:05:24,500 --> 01:05:28,000
At the same time,
birds are dying en masse,
1150
01:05:28,000 --> 01:05:29,630
fish are dying,
1151
01:05:29,700 --> 01:05:32,300
and I think Rachel understood
1152
01:05:32,300 --> 01:05:36,060
that something radically
transformative was happening,
1153
01:05:36,130 --> 01:05:39,290
this sense that scientists had
been asking the wrong question.
1154
01:05:39,360 --> 01:05:41,130
Scientists had been thinking about
1155
01:05:41,200 --> 01:05:43,700
the question of acute toxicity,
1156
01:05:43,700 --> 01:05:46,260
rather than, what are
the long-term impacts
1157
01:05:46,300 --> 01:05:48,400
of this chemical world
that we're creating?
1158
01:05:53,600 --> 01:05:57,290
LEAR :
Carson is not eager to take on pesticides.
1159
01:05:57,600 --> 01:06:00,800
She's too busy
and life is too complicated,
1160
01:06:01,600 --> 01:06:05,200
but there's this story there,
so she knows there's a story.
1161
01:06:06,400 --> 01:06:08,900
On the other hand,
it's also the fact
1162
01:06:08,900 --> 01:06:13,690
that it is the story
about human hubris.
1163
01:06:17,200 --> 01:06:20,100
CARSON (dramatized) :
It was pleasant to believe that much of Nature
1164
01:06:20,100 --> 01:06:23,260
was forever beyond
the tampering reach of man.
1165
01:06:23,330 --> 01:06:26,630
He might level the forests
and dam the streams,
1166
01:06:26,700 --> 01:06:30,300
but the clouds and the rain
and the wind were God's.
1167
01:06:31,160 --> 01:06:34,730
But I have now opened my eyes
and my mind.
1168
01:06:34,800 --> 01:06:36,430
I may not like what I see,
1169
01:06:36,500 --> 01:06:38,990
but it does no good
to ignore it,
1170
01:06:39,060 --> 01:06:42,000
and it's worse than useless
to go on repeating
1171
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:45,800
the old "eternal verities"
that are no more eternal
1172
01:06:45,800 --> 01:06:48,000
than the hills of the poets.
1173
01:07:01,400 --> 01:07:04,890
Narrator :
Rachel Carson had long known that scientists were divided
1174
01:07:04,960 --> 01:07:07,500
on the issue
of synthetic pesticides
1175
01:07:07,600 --> 01:07:09,600
and that conclusions
about their safety
1176
01:07:09,800 --> 01:07:11,500
depended on who was asked.
1177
01:07:12,300 --> 01:07:14,300
ORESKES :
You have scientists who are working closely
1178
01:07:14,300 --> 01:07:15,700
with the Department
of Agriculture
1179
01:07:15,700 --> 01:07:17,300
and with the chemical industry,
1180
01:07:17,300 --> 01:07:20,600
and are part of a mindset,
a worldview that says,
1181
01:07:20,700 --> 01:07:24,400
"I've got a pest, I've got
a boll weevil or a gypsy moth,
1182
01:07:24,400 --> 01:07:27,690
"and I want to kill that pest,
and I want to kill effectively,
1183
01:07:27,760 --> 01:07:31,100
without killing the person who
is applying it to the crops."
1184
01:07:32,500 --> 01:07:34,200
And so almost all the attention
1185
01:07:34,200 --> 01:07:36,300
is either on the killing
of the pest
1186
01:07:36,300 --> 01:07:38,100
or the non-killing
of the farmer.
1187
01:07:40,300 --> 01:07:42,500
But on the other hand,
you have wildlife biologists
1188
01:07:42,700 --> 01:07:45,200
who are not linked
to any particular industry,
1189
01:07:45,200 --> 01:07:46,500
they're out in nature,
1190
01:07:46,500 --> 01:07:48,300
they're thinking
about the interrelations
1191
01:07:48,300 --> 01:07:51,200
between fish, birds,
pollinators, plants,
1192
01:07:51,300 --> 01:07:52,800
chemicals, and the environment,
1193
01:07:52,900 --> 01:07:55,000
and so they see
there's evidence of problems.
1194
01:07:57,630 --> 01:08:00,560
Narrator :
For Carson, it began with research,
1195
01:08:00,630 --> 01:08:02,630
a gathering of bits
of information
1196
01:08:02,700 --> 01:08:07,200
excavated from technical reports
and obscure scientific journals.
1197
01:08:09,060 --> 01:08:13,390
What soon became clear
was that pesticides such as DDT
1198
01:08:13,460 --> 01:08:15,830
accumulated in the organisms
exposed to them,
1199
01:08:15,900 --> 01:08:19,600
and grew ever more concentrated
as they moved up the food chain.
1200
01:08:21,100 --> 01:08:24,960
According to one study,
earthworms were still so toxic
1201
01:08:25,030 --> 01:08:28,360
a full year after exposure
to DDT
1202
01:08:28,400 --> 01:08:30,800
that they poisoned the robins
that fed upon them.
1203
01:08:32,200 --> 01:08:33,600
Another demonstrated
1204
01:08:33,600 --> 01:08:37,430
that when birds were fed
a miniscule amount of DDT daily,
1205
01:08:37,500 --> 01:08:40,430
both their fertility and
the survival rate of their young
1206
01:08:40,500 --> 01:08:42,400
dramatically declined.
1207
01:08:43,560 --> 01:08:46,400
Most troubling of all
was the evidence
1208
01:08:46,400 --> 01:08:49,000
that insect populations
very quickly
1209
01:08:49,000 --> 01:08:51,600
developed resistance
to synthetic pesticides.
1210
01:08:53,730 --> 01:08:56,360
ORESKES :
If you dump large amounts of pesticides in a field,
1211
01:08:56,430 --> 01:08:58,360
you will kill
many of the insects
1212
01:08:58,430 --> 01:08:59,660
you intend to kill,
1213
01:08:59,730 --> 01:09:01,330
but there'll be some fragment
that survive
1214
01:09:01,400 --> 01:09:02,600
because for whatever reason,
1215
01:09:02,600 --> 01:09:04,300
they happen
to be more resistant.
1216
01:09:05,500 --> 01:09:07,400
That sub-population lives on,
1217
01:09:07,400 --> 01:09:10,200
they breed, they pass on
to their offspring
1218
01:09:10,200 --> 01:09:12,330
whatever that resistance is
that they have,
1219
01:09:12,400 --> 01:09:13,990
and pretty soon you have
1220
01:09:14,060 --> 01:09:15,890
a pesticide-resistant
population.
1221
01:09:17,500 --> 01:09:18,900
Carson fully understood
1222
01:09:18,900 --> 01:09:22,000
that ultimately this strategy
was going to fail,
1223
01:09:23,600 --> 01:09:25,000
and the farmer would be
in the position
1224
01:09:25,000 --> 01:09:26,800
of either needing
a different pesticide
1225
01:09:27,000 --> 01:09:28,500
or using more and more and more.
1226
01:09:29,000 --> 01:09:32,100
And so then you have a kind
of arms race of pesticide use.
1227
01:09:34,400 --> 01:09:36,690
You use more pesticides,
insects become more resistant,
1228
01:09:37,500 --> 01:09:39,200
more resistance,
more pesticides,
1229
01:09:39,200 --> 01:09:42,130
more resistance, and now you're
trapped in an escalating cycle,
1230
01:09:42,200 --> 01:09:44,100
and it's a damaging cycle,
1231
01:09:44,100 --> 01:09:46,900
because meanwhile you're also
killing fish and birds
1232
01:09:46,900 --> 01:09:48,860
and other things that you like
and that you want.
1233
01:09:52,560 --> 01:09:55,400
Narrator :
In isolation, each study Carson read
1234
01:09:55,400 --> 01:09:57,200
was little more
than an anecdote.
1235
01:09:57,600 --> 01:10:00,600
Taken together,
they offered compelling evidence
1236
01:10:00,600 --> 01:10:04,360
that synthetic pesticides had
potentially grave disadvantages,
1237
01:10:04,430 --> 01:10:07,600
none of which
were yet fully understood.
1238
01:10:09,160 --> 01:10:13,200
LYTLE :
She was not against the wise use of pesticides.
1239
01:10:13,200 --> 01:10:14,830
She saw the need for that.
1240
01:10:14,900 --> 01:10:16,400
But what she was against
1241
01:10:16,400 --> 01:10:19,200
was the indiscriminate spreading
of poisons
1242
01:10:19,700 --> 01:10:23,100
that had untold
and unanticipated consequences
1243
01:10:23,100 --> 01:10:25,400
for all living things,
humans included.
1244
01:10:27,100 --> 01:10:30,400
Narrator :
"I realized that here was the material for a book,"
1245
01:10:30,400 --> 01:10:31,930
Carson later recalled.
1246
01:10:32,000 --> 01:10:34,900
"Everything which meant most
to me as a naturalist
1247
01:10:34,900 --> 01:10:37,300
"was being threatened,
and nothing I could do
1248
01:10:37,300 --> 01:10:38,700
would be more important."
1249
01:10:41,660 --> 01:10:43,360
In May 1958,
1250
01:10:43,430 --> 01:10:45,690
she signed a contract
with Houghton Mifflin
1251
01:10:45,760 --> 01:10:49,160
for what her friend and editor
Paul Brooks had dubbed
1252
01:10:49,230 --> 01:10:51,360
"the poison book."
1253
01:10:51,430 --> 01:10:55,230
It was slated to be a short
volume, perhaps 50,000 words,
1254
01:10:55,300 --> 01:10:57,890
of which William Shawn of The New Yorker
1255
01:10:58,300 --> 01:11:01,000
already had offered
to publish two excerpts.
1256
01:11:02,200 --> 01:11:04,800
Only Dorothy had misgivings.
1257
01:11:10,000 --> 01:11:14,300
LEAR :
It's a book about death, and it's a book about destruction,
1258
01:11:15,200 --> 01:11:16,830
and Dorothy's not comfortable,
1259
01:11:16,900 --> 01:11:19,500
and she's not comfortable
with Rachel writing that,
1260
01:11:19,500 --> 01:11:22,600
using her talent for beauty
and beautiful words
1261
01:11:22,600 --> 01:11:25,200
to write
about the elixirs of death.
1262
01:11:26,660 --> 01:11:28,430
She had Rachel before
1263
01:11:28,500 --> 01:11:30,960
when she's writing about tide
pools and beautiful things.
1264
01:11:31,030 --> 01:11:35,290
She can't follow her
in this research.
1265
01:11:40,000 --> 01:11:41,800
CARSON (dramatized) :
You do know, I think,
1266
01:11:41,800 --> 01:11:45,600
how deeply I believe in the
importance of what I am doing.
1267
01:11:46,100 --> 01:11:47,390
Knowing what I do,
1268
01:11:47,460 --> 01:11:49,030
there would be no future peace
for me
1269
01:11:49,100 --> 01:11:50,300
if I kept silent.
1270
01:11:53,130 --> 01:11:57,430
LEAR :
She wants to tell that story, and try to tell it fairly,
1271
01:11:57,500 --> 01:11:59,490
and tell it scientifically,
1272
01:11:59,560 --> 01:12:01,830
but she's got an argument
from the beginning.
1273
01:12:01,900 --> 01:12:03,690
It isn't, "Well, let's talk
1274
01:12:03,760 --> 01:12:06,000
about the good and bad of pesticides."
1275
01:12:07,300 --> 01:12:09,000
And the first titles of this book
1276
01:12:09,000 --> 01:12:13,000
are Man Against the Earth
and Man the Destroyer.
1277
01:12:14,000 --> 01:12:17,500
Carson's underlying anger
is right there.
1278
01:12:19,800 --> 01:12:22,290
LYTLE :
In a sense, she was going public with a lot of data
1279
01:12:22,300 --> 01:12:25,600
that was somewhat inconclusive
or premature.
1280
01:12:27,530 --> 01:12:29,730
On the other hand, she felt,
1281
01:12:29,800 --> 01:12:33,030
what is the morality of remaining quiet
1282
01:12:33,100 --> 01:12:36,700
when you have a huge amount
of circumstantial evidence
1283
01:12:36,700 --> 01:12:40,000
that points to a substance
being toxic or dangerous?
1284
01:12:41,300 --> 01:12:42,800
You know, advocacy is not something
1285
01:12:42,800 --> 01:12:45,300
scientists of the time were wont to do,
1286
01:12:45,800 --> 01:12:48,600
but for Carson,
it became a crusade.
1287
01:12:56,530 --> 01:12:59,560
Narrator :
On November 22, 1958,
1288
01:12:59,630 --> 01:13:02,790
with Carson deep
into the research for her book,
1289
01:13:02,800 --> 01:13:06,400
Maria, now 89,
suffered a stroke.
1290
01:13:07,530 --> 01:13:10,430
When she died on the morning
of December 1,
1291
01:13:10,500 --> 01:13:13,800
Rachel was at her bedside,
holding her hand.
1292
01:13:15,300 --> 01:13:16,890
"More than anyone else I know,
1293
01:13:16,960 --> 01:13:20,990
she embodied a reverence for life," Carson told a friend.
1294
01:13:21,060 --> 01:13:22,360
"And she could fight fiercely
1295
01:13:22,430 --> 01:13:24,560
against anything
she believed wrong,
1296
01:13:24,630 --> 01:13:26,930
as in our present crusade!
1297
01:13:27,000 --> 01:13:29,330
Knowing how she felt about that
will help me
1298
01:13:29,400 --> 01:13:31,560
to carry it through to completion."
1299
01:13:33,800 --> 01:13:36,600
Just weeks later,
Carson was back to work,
1300
01:13:36,630 --> 01:13:38,660
driven by the growing certainty
1301
01:13:38,730 --> 01:13:42,090
that manmade pesticides menaced
not only the environment,
1302
01:13:42,300 --> 01:13:43,800
but human health.
1303
01:13:44,800 --> 01:13:47,800
LEAR :
Carson is convinced that there is this link
1304
01:13:47,800 --> 01:13:50,800
between pesticides and cancer in humans.
1305
01:13:51,600 --> 01:13:54,700
And that is going to be
an explosive part to this book
1306
01:13:54,700 --> 01:13:56,800
that she didn't initially plan,
1307
01:13:56,830 --> 01:14:00,000
and she has to be very careful
of how she puts that out.
1308
01:14:02,000 --> 01:14:04,330
Narrator :
Once again, the evidence was preliminary,
1309
01:14:04,800 --> 01:14:06,700
much of it as yet unpublished.
1310
01:14:07,200 --> 01:14:09,000
It was also well outside
1311
01:14:09,100 --> 01:14:11,000
Carson's training as a biologist,
1312
01:14:11,200 --> 01:14:13,400
and therefore difficult for her to parse.
1313
01:14:13,960 --> 01:14:16,530
But the more she learned,
the more focused she became
1314
01:14:16,600 --> 01:14:19,590
on the parallels
between synthetic pesticides
1315
01:14:19,660 --> 01:14:21,790
and radioactive fallout.
1316
01:14:29,300 --> 01:14:31,400
SOUDER :
They operated in much the same way.
1317
01:14:32,600 --> 01:14:34,100
They were widely dispersed.
1318
01:14:35,100 --> 01:14:38,530
You could absorb a body burden
of both of them.
1319
01:14:39,300 --> 01:14:43,330
Both of them were being linked
to cancer and birth defects.
1320
01:14:43,400 --> 01:14:47,100
Things would happen years,
even decades after the exposure.
1321
01:14:47,600 --> 01:14:49,300
These were long-range problems
1322
01:14:49,300 --> 01:14:50,800
that you didn't know
were happening
1323
01:14:50,800 --> 01:14:52,000
when they were happening.
1324
01:14:55,460 --> 01:14:58,490
Narrator :
Events soon bolstered Carson's case.
1325
01:14:58,560 --> 01:15:00,290
In the spring of 1959,
1326
01:15:00,360 --> 01:15:03,130
government officials
publicly admitted
1327
01:15:03,200 --> 01:15:06,830
that they had underestimated
the hazards of nuclear fallout.
1328
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:13,000
Of particular concern was
the radionuclide strontium-90,
1329
01:15:13,300 --> 01:15:16,000
which had made its way
into the nation's dairy supply
1330
01:15:16,300 --> 01:15:19,260
and was now thought to cause
leukemia, bone cancer,
1331
01:15:19,330 --> 01:15:20,630
and birth defects.
1332
01:15:22,800 --> 01:15:24,400
LYTLE :
This is the height of the Baby Boom,
1333
01:15:24,600 --> 01:15:26,800
and so you have a nation focused
1334
01:15:27,000 --> 01:15:28,930
on its child and family life
1335
01:15:29,000 --> 01:15:32,200
being potentially poisoned
by this by-product
1336
01:15:32,300 --> 01:15:35,060
of the nuclear testing regime.
1337
01:15:36,800 --> 01:15:39,530
Narrator :
As Carson's editor, Paul Brooks, told her,
1338
01:15:39,600 --> 01:15:41,700
"All this publicity about fallout
1339
01:15:41,700 --> 01:15:44,000
"gives you a head start
in awakening people
1340
01:15:44,100 --> 01:15:45,800
to the dangers of chemicals."
1341
01:15:49,300 --> 01:15:52,600
Then, just before
Thanksgiving 1959
1342
01:15:52,660 --> 01:15:55,360
came the so-called
cranberry scare.
1343
01:16:00,000 --> 01:16:01,200
LYTLE :
People of my generation
1344
01:16:01,200 --> 01:16:04,030
remember the Thanksgiving
with no cranberry sauce.
1345
01:16:05,200 --> 01:16:06,400
Farmers in Oregon
1346
01:16:06,400 --> 01:16:09,990
had sprayed their cranberry bogs
with a pesticide,
1347
01:16:10,060 --> 01:16:12,390
but they did it
in the wrong growth cycle,
1348
01:16:12,500 --> 01:16:15,000
so that it got into the berries themselves
1349
01:16:15,200 --> 01:16:17,200
and then into the national food supply.
1350
01:16:19,500 --> 01:16:21,990
SOUDER :
It was potentially a cancer-causing agent.
1351
01:16:23,100 --> 01:16:26,800
This might have been one of
the first public demonstrations
1352
01:16:26,800 --> 01:16:29,200
of the hazards
of chemical pesticides.
1353
01:16:30,800 --> 01:16:32,800
Of course,
this alarmed the public,
1354
01:16:32,800 --> 01:16:35,500
who wanted their cranberries
but didn't want to be poisoned,
1355
01:16:36,300 --> 01:16:39,300
and it greatly distressed
the cranberry industry.
1356
01:16:40,300 --> 01:16:42,700
To Carson,
this was just exhibit A
1357
01:16:43,000 --> 01:16:46,100
in a story she'd already formed
in her own mind
1358
01:16:46,100 --> 01:16:47,400
and was ready to tell.
1359
01:16:49,000 --> 01:16:51,990
Narrator :
With shipments of cranberries being seized for inspection
1360
01:16:52,500 --> 01:16:56,100
and panicked grocers pulling
cranberry products from shelves,
1361
01:16:56,300 --> 01:16:59,000
Oregon's bad berries
were on the verge
1362
01:16:59,000 --> 01:17:01,500
of ruining a $50 million crop.
1363
01:17:02,600 --> 01:17:05,000
Growers in other states
cried foul,
1364
01:17:05,300 --> 01:17:07,600
and government officials
went into high gear
1365
01:17:07,600 --> 01:17:09,000
to shore up the industry.
1366
01:17:11,000 --> 01:17:13,500
Secretary of Agriculture
Ezra Benson
1367
01:17:13,600 --> 01:17:15,830
had himself photographed
eating cranberries.
1368
01:17:17,200 --> 01:17:19,390
On the presidential
campaign trail,
1369
01:17:19,460 --> 01:17:23,090
Senator John F. Kennedy quaffed
a cranberry juice toast,
1370
01:17:24,200 --> 01:17:26,800
while his opponent,
Vice President Richard Nixon,
1371
01:17:27,200 --> 01:17:29,500
swallowed down
four full helpings
1372
01:17:29,500 --> 01:17:31,500
of the supposedly tainted fruit.
1373
01:17:33,800 --> 01:17:36,100
SOUDER :
Whether the public was reassured by that, we can't know.
1374
01:17:36,100 --> 01:17:38,600
But it demonstrated
that there was
1375
01:17:38,600 --> 01:17:42,300
this inherent coalition,
this inherent partnership
1376
01:17:42,300 --> 01:17:46,300
between the government
and its clients in industry--
1377
01:17:47,000 --> 01:17:49,400
the chemicals industry,
the agricultural industry--
1378
01:17:49,700 --> 01:17:52,400
that would be very resistant
to the ideas
1379
01:17:52,400 --> 01:17:53,800
that Carson was going to propose,
1380
01:17:54,260 --> 01:17:56,290
that she was going
to come head-to-head
1381
01:17:56,360 --> 01:17:58,490
with the massed might
1382
01:17:58,560 --> 01:18:01,590
of the U.S. economy
and the U.S. government
1383
01:18:01,660 --> 01:18:03,960
if she tried to prove
to the public
1384
01:18:04,100 --> 01:18:05,800
that they were being poisoned.
1385
01:18:07,860 --> 01:18:09,030
Narrator :
"I think you know,"
1386
01:18:09,100 --> 01:18:11,760
one of Carson's
research contacts warned her,
1387
01:18:11,830 --> 01:18:14,800
"how grim this struggle
with the U.S. government
1388
01:18:14,900 --> 01:18:16,600
and the whole chemical industry
1389
01:18:16,700 --> 01:18:17,800
is bound to be."
1390
01:18:30,000 --> 01:18:32,500
Initially, she'd thought it
a nuisance:
1391
01:18:32,760 --> 01:18:37,290
first, in early January 1960,
a painful ulcer,
1392
01:18:37,360 --> 01:18:40,730
then a sinus infection
that laid her low for weeks,
1393
01:18:40,800 --> 01:18:42,960
then two lumps
in her left breast,
1394
01:18:43,030 --> 01:18:46,260
discovered during an examination
in March.
1395
01:18:48,660 --> 01:18:50,560
LEAR :
Carson is making progress.
1396
01:18:50,630 --> 01:18:53,190
She knows she's going to finish this book.
1397
01:18:53,500 --> 01:18:57,800
And suddenly she's got
this catalogue of illnesses
1398
01:18:57,800 --> 01:18:59,100
that happen to her.
1399
01:18:59,800 --> 01:19:06,600
She was never very good
at facing up to limitations.
1400
01:19:07,700 --> 01:19:12,200
Probably none of us are,
but she's in denial
1401
01:19:12,630 --> 01:19:15,030
and she hides it
under the covers of herself,
1402
01:19:15,100 --> 01:19:16,960
and to herself,
1403
01:19:17,030 --> 01:19:18,990
and just tries
to plow through it.
1404
01:19:22,460 --> 01:19:24,990
Narrator :
Carson had a history of breast tumors
1405
01:19:25,060 --> 01:19:27,700
and twice had had them
surgically removed.
1406
01:19:28,500 --> 01:19:31,000
This time, one tumor
was "suspicious enough"
1407
01:19:31,000 --> 01:19:33,300
to require a radical mastectomy.
1408
01:19:34,200 --> 01:19:36,300
Still, the surgeon assured her
1409
01:19:36,300 --> 01:19:38,360
that no malignancy
had been found,
1410
01:19:38,430 --> 01:19:40,800
so Carson sought
no further treatment.
1411
01:19:42,660 --> 01:19:44,160
It was only when she discovered
1412
01:19:44,230 --> 01:19:46,790
a hard lump on her rib,
months later,
1413
01:19:47,000 --> 01:19:48,600
that she sought
a second opinion
1414
01:19:49,600 --> 01:19:52,300
and learned that the surgeon
had withheld the truth.
1415
01:19:53,630 --> 01:19:55,660
According to the pathology report,
1416
01:19:55,730 --> 01:19:58,560
the removed tumor had in fact
been malignant,
1417
01:19:58,630 --> 01:20:01,500
and it had metastasized
to her lymph nodes.
1418
01:20:03,200 --> 01:20:07,100
SOUDER :
It was common at the time for doctors in such situations
1419
01:20:07,100 --> 01:20:11,100
to discuss a diagnosis,
a prognosis, a treatment
1420
01:20:11,100 --> 01:20:12,760
with a woman's husband,
1421
01:20:12,830 --> 01:20:15,500
who they believed would be better able
1422
01:20:15,500 --> 01:20:17,660
to handle this information, process it,
1423
01:20:17,730 --> 01:20:20,300
make decisions
if decisions had to be made.
1424
01:20:23,300 --> 01:20:26,000
LYTLE :
It may also be that the cancer
1425
01:20:26,000 --> 01:20:28,600
was sufficiently
far enough advanced
1426
01:20:28,600 --> 01:20:30,000
that he figured,
1427
01:20:30,000 --> 01:20:32,100
"Well, there's nothing much
we can do about this.
1428
01:20:32,100 --> 01:20:33,300
We've done what we can."
1429
01:20:33,800 --> 01:20:35,290
But, you know, in the process,
1430
01:20:35,360 --> 01:20:39,460
he denied her six months
of potential treatment
1431
01:20:39,530 --> 01:20:41,260
that might have mitigated the cancer
1432
01:20:41,300 --> 01:20:43,900
or might have extended her life.
1433
01:20:45,730 --> 01:20:48,790
Narrator :
Carson's first thought was for her privacy.
1434
01:20:48,860 --> 01:20:50,290
"Somehow I have no wish
1435
01:20:50,360 --> 01:20:53,290
to read of my ailments
in literary gossip columns,"
1436
01:20:53,360 --> 01:20:54,890
she told a friend.
1437
01:20:55,100 --> 01:20:57,600
"Too much comfort
to the chemical companies!"
1438
01:20:59,430 --> 01:21:01,930
SOUDER :
She was sure that she would be accused
1439
01:21:02,000 --> 01:21:04,530
of having written the book
as a retribution
1440
01:21:04,600 --> 01:21:06,000
against the chemical industry
1441
01:21:06,000 --> 01:21:10,000
on the unfounded allegation
that pesticides caused cancer.
1442
01:21:11,360 --> 01:21:13,290
She understood
this was a serious risk
1443
01:21:13,360 --> 01:21:15,700
and this would be
a point of attack against her.
1444
01:21:21,460 --> 01:21:24,530
Narrator :
The months that followed were excruciating:
1445
01:21:24,600 --> 01:21:28,360
radiation treatments,
a flare-up of her ulcer,
1446
01:21:28,800 --> 01:21:30,700
a staph infection that progressed
1447
01:21:30,700 --> 01:21:32,200
to septic arthritis in her knees and ankles.
1448
01:21:34,000 --> 01:21:38,430
By the end of January 1961,
she was unable to walk
1449
01:21:38,500 --> 01:21:40,400
and could barely stand.
1450
01:21:43,630 --> 01:21:45,030
CARSON (dramatized) :
Darling,
1451
01:21:45,100 --> 01:21:46,690
you know my high hopes
1452
01:21:46,760 --> 01:21:48,990
for the goal I might meet by March,
1453
01:21:49,060 --> 01:21:52,560
hopes I entertained last October!
1454
01:21:52,630 --> 01:21:53,990
Now I look back
1455
01:21:54,060 --> 01:21:57,730
at the complete and devastating
wreckage of those plans,
1456
01:21:57,800 --> 01:22:02,560
not only no writing for months,
but the nearly complete loss
1457
01:22:02,800 --> 01:22:06,100
of any creative feeling
or desire.
1458
01:22:07,100 --> 01:22:11,000
Sometimes I wonder whether
the Author even exists anymore.
1459
01:22:13,400 --> 01:22:16,200
CHRISTIE :
I think she handled it as well as she could.
1460
01:22:18,200 --> 01:22:19,800
You know,
the only negative thing
1461
01:22:19,800 --> 01:22:23,800
I would have to say about it
in retrospect was,
1462
01:22:23,800 --> 01:22:26,300
she wasn't honest enough
with me about it,
1463
01:22:29,000 --> 01:22:31,600
although who knows whether
that would've been a good thing?
1464
01:22:34,700 --> 01:22:36,690
You know, but that's all
I remember about it,
1465
01:22:36,800 --> 01:22:41,000
just that it was kind of
a broken time.
1466
01:22:46,300 --> 01:22:48,530
Narrator :
To her research files on cancer,
1467
01:22:48,600 --> 01:22:50,490
Carson now began
to save clippings
1468
01:22:50,560 --> 01:22:53,960
on experimental treatments
and improbable miracle cures.
1469
01:22:55,200 --> 01:22:57,800
She would never be truly healthy again,
1470
01:22:58,030 --> 01:23:00,690
but as soon as the radiation
treatments were finished,
1471
01:23:00,800 --> 01:23:02,500
she went back to work.
1472
01:23:08,600 --> 01:23:12,600
CHRISTIE :
The book became a race for her to finish.
1473
01:23:15,200 --> 01:23:20,500
That was the one time
where it would impact on us
1474
01:23:20,500 --> 01:23:22,500
in that, you know,
she would say,
1475
01:23:22,500 --> 01:23:25,830
"I have to go and lock myself in the study
1476
01:23:25,900 --> 01:23:28,660
"and you have to go amuse yourself,
1477
01:23:28,730 --> 01:23:30,600
and that's just the way it is."
1478
01:23:32,000 --> 01:23:35,600
And that got more and more
intense as time went on.
1479
01:23:38,000 --> 01:23:40,360
Narrator :
In late January 1962,
1480
01:23:40,430 --> 01:23:43,360
nearly four years
after she'd begun to write it,
1481
01:23:43,430 --> 01:23:46,260
Carson finally submitted
the bulk of the manuscript
1482
01:23:46,330 --> 01:23:48,900
to both Houghton Mifflin and The New Yorker.
1483
01:23:49,500 --> 01:23:51,190
It was, she wrote Dorothy,
1484
01:23:51,260 --> 01:23:54,930
"like reaching the last station
before the summit of Everest."
1485
01:23:56,830 --> 01:24:00,530
William Shawn called as soon
as he'd finished reading it.
1486
01:24:00,600 --> 01:24:04,530
Silent Spring, he told her,
was "a brilliant achievement."
1487
01:24:07,730 --> 01:24:11,230
That night, while listening
to her favorite violin concerto
1488
01:24:11,300 --> 01:24:13,030
alone in her study,
1489
01:24:13,100 --> 01:24:14,830
Carson wept.
1490
01:24:19,300 --> 01:24:24,800
CARSON (dramatized) :
Darling, I could never again listen happily to a thrush song
1491
01:24:24,800 --> 01:24:27,000
if I had not done all I could.
1492
01:24:28,500 --> 01:24:30,200
And last night the thoughts
1493
01:24:30,200 --> 01:24:32,600
of all the birds
and other creatures
1494
01:24:32,600 --> 01:24:35,200
and all the loveliness
that is in nature
1495
01:24:35,200 --> 01:24:39,030
came to me with such a surge
of deep happiness,
1496
01:24:39,100 --> 01:24:41,800
that now I had done
what I could.
1497
01:24:42,300 --> 01:24:44,200
I had been able to complete it.
1498
01:24:45,200 --> 01:24:47,000
Now it had its own life.
1499
01:24:58,260 --> 01:25:00,960
Narrator :
On June 16, 1962,
1500
01:25:01,030 --> 01:25:02,890
as the elements of Silent Spring
1501
01:25:02,960 --> 01:25:04,990
were being prepared for publication,
1502
01:25:05,060 --> 01:25:08,260
the first New Yorker installment
arrived on the newsstands,
1503
01:25:08,330 --> 01:25:10,360
and with its opening paragraphs
1504
01:25:10,600 --> 01:25:13,900
lured readers
into a fertile world of plenty.
1505
01:25:17,130 --> 01:25:19,660
READER :
"There was once a town in the heart of America
1506
01:25:20,000 --> 01:25:21,700
where all life seemed to live
1507
01:25:21,700 --> 01:25:23,800
in harmony
with its surroundings.
1508
01:25:24,700 --> 01:25:26,460
The town lay in the midst
1509
01:25:26,530 --> 01:25:28,790
of a checkerboard
of prosperous farms,
1510
01:25:29,000 --> 01:25:32,300
with fields of grain
and hillsides of orchards
1511
01:25:32,600 --> 01:25:35,600
where, in spring,
white clouds of bloom
1512
01:25:35,600 --> 01:25:37,600
drifted above the green fields."
1513
01:25:39,400 --> 01:25:42,960
LYTLE :
The birds sing, and the woods are filled with living things,
1514
01:25:43,000 --> 01:25:45,800
and it's an abundant, happy place.
1515
01:25:47,030 --> 01:25:52,430
And then suddenly the residents
discover the birds are gone
1516
01:25:52,500 --> 01:25:54,330
and the animals have died
1517
01:25:54,400 --> 01:25:56,200
and many of the plants
have withered.
1518
01:25:59,000 --> 01:26:02,830
SOUDER :
People start to get sick for reasons that can't be explained.
1519
01:26:03,900 --> 01:26:06,800
Livestock have stunted offspring.
1520
01:26:07,300 --> 01:26:08,760
Everything goes bad.
1521
01:26:12,300 --> 01:26:14,000
READER :
"In the gutters under the eaves
1522
01:26:14,000 --> 01:26:15,930
and between the shingles
of the roofs,
1523
01:26:16,300 --> 01:26:19,600
a few patches of white granular
powder could be seen.
1524
01:26:20,500 --> 01:26:24,100
Some weeks earlier, this powder
had been dropped, like snow,
1525
01:26:24,100 --> 01:26:27,600
upon the roofs and the lawns,
the fields and the streams.
1526
01:26:28,600 --> 01:26:31,030
No witchcraft, no enemy action
1527
01:26:31,100 --> 01:26:33,800
had snuffed out life
in this stricken world.
1528
01:26:34,800 --> 01:26:37,000
The people had done it themselves."
1529
01:26:40,400 --> 01:26:43,100
ORESKES :
She creates an image of silence.
1530
01:26:44,060 --> 01:26:46,990
"What would it be like
if you woke up in the morning
1531
01:26:47,060 --> 01:26:49,060
and you went outside
1532
01:26:49,130 --> 01:26:51,690
and instead
of hearing birds chirp or sing,
1533
01:26:52,600 --> 01:26:54,200
you heard nothing?"
1534
01:26:55,160 --> 01:26:57,330
And that's
so amazingly powerful, right?
1535
01:26:57,400 --> 01:27:00,100
And it just, you know,
it stops you in your tracks.
1536
01:27:03,260 --> 01:27:06,790
Narrator :
In the zealous quest for mastery, Carson argued,
1537
01:27:06,860 --> 01:27:09,960
synthetic pesticides
had been used indiscriminately,
1538
01:27:10,030 --> 01:27:12,130
excessively, heedlessly,
1539
01:27:12,600 --> 01:27:15,000
upsetting the delicate balance of nature
1540
01:27:15,100 --> 01:27:17,300
and putting all life at risk.
1541
01:27:19,600 --> 01:27:23,560
LYTLE :
She felt that proponents of widespread pesticide use
1542
01:27:23,630 --> 01:27:26,560
were conducting an experiment
with life itself
1543
01:27:26,630 --> 01:27:29,360
without having done
adequate testing or research
1544
01:27:29,430 --> 01:27:32,600
to determine
what the consequences might be.
1545
01:27:33,000 --> 01:27:36,300
And that the citizenry
weren't being informed
1546
01:27:36,300 --> 01:27:38,400
because the proponents
of pesticides
1547
01:27:38,500 --> 01:27:40,900
were telling them
only one side of the story
1548
01:27:41,000 --> 01:27:43,200
and the one that benefited
their own interests.
1549
01:27:44,760 --> 01:27:46,960
And so all these things are part
1550
01:27:47,030 --> 01:27:50,200
of the Cold War consensus
by which Americans lived:
1551
01:27:51,000 --> 01:27:53,990
the benevolence of corporations,
the authority of science.
1552
01:27:54,400 --> 01:27:57,200
Well, Carson's challenging
all of those things.
1553
01:27:59,800 --> 01:28:01,700
Narrator :
The furor arose even before
1554
01:28:01,700 --> 01:28:04,600
the second and third
installments of Silent Spring
1555
01:28:04,700 --> 01:28:05,800
hit the newsstands.
1556
01:28:06,600 --> 01:28:09,230
The New Yorker was deluged with letters.
1557
01:28:09,300 --> 01:28:11,500
So, too, was the U.S.D.A.
1558
01:28:12,130 --> 01:28:13,330
Most of those who wrote,
1559
01:28:13,400 --> 01:28:15,990
an agency spokesman told The New York Times,
1560
01:28:16,060 --> 01:28:17,990
expressed "horror and amazement"
1561
01:28:18,060 --> 01:28:20,260
that the use
of such toxic chemicals
1562
01:28:20,330 --> 01:28:21,800
was even permitted.
1563
01:28:22,500 --> 01:28:24,490
CRAMER :
She raised the level of awareness
1564
01:28:24,560 --> 01:28:26,460
of the general public
1565
01:28:26,600 --> 01:28:30,000
of all of these chemical applications
1566
01:28:30,000 --> 01:28:33,600
and why we need to think
about their implications.
1567
01:28:34,600 --> 01:28:39,600
People were deeply moved
and frightened by what she said.
1568
01:28:41,160 --> 01:28:44,330
Narrator :
Scientists for the chemical industry and the U.S.D.A.
1569
01:28:44,400 --> 01:28:47,000
were incensed
by Carson's assertions.
1570
01:28:47,600 --> 01:28:51,200
What, they wondered publicly,
was the death of a songbird
1571
01:28:51,200 --> 01:28:52,500
against the possibility
1572
01:28:52,500 --> 01:28:54,600
of ending malaria
or world hunger?
1573
01:28:55,600 --> 01:28:57,230
As one industry chemist put it,
1574
01:28:57,300 --> 01:29:00,600
"DDT alone has saved
as many human lives
1575
01:29:00,600 --> 01:29:02,130
"over the past 15 years
1576
01:29:02,200 --> 01:29:04,600
as all the wonder drugs combined."
1577
01:29:07,100 --> 01:29:09,230
LYTLE :
The proponents of pesticides argued
1578
01:29:09,300 --> 01:29:11,560
that you have to take risks
to go forward.
1579
01:29:13,000 --> 01:29:14,060
That's very much part
1580
01:29:14,100 --> 01:29:16,900
of our scientific, technological culture.
1581
01:29:18,600 --> 01:29:20,600
BLUM :
They saw themselves
1582
01:29:20,600 --> 01:29:23,000
as doing something in the higher good.
1583
01:29:23,830 --> 01:29:25,660
They were fostering human development.
1584
01:29:25,730 --> 01:29:27,600
They were killing plagues.
1585
01:29:28,000 --> 01:29:30,200
They were making the world a better place.
1586
01:29:33,600 --> 01:29:34,890
ORESKES :
Carson herself acknowledged
1587
01:29:34,960 --> 01:29:38,500
there was this benefit
through the use of pesticides.
1588
01:29:38,800 --> 01:29:41,000
But the whole point of her argument
1589
01:29:41,000 --> 01:29:43,490
is that there's been a kind of
an assumption and a rush.
1590
01:29:43,560 --> 01:29:45,660
The benefits were obvious,
so people rushed
1591
01:29:45,700 --> 01:29:47,800
to take advantage
of those benefits,
1592
01:29:48,500 --> 01:29:49,800
but there were
these other problems
1593
01:29:49,800 --> 01:29:51,530
that were maybe not as obvious,
1594
01:29:51,600 --> 01:29:54,100
but actually might outweigh the benefits.
1595
01:29:56,400 --> 01:29:59,100
Narrator :
By August, with the publication of the book
1596
01:29:59,100 --> 01:30:00,660
still more than a month away,
1597
01:30:00,730 --> 01:30:03,300
the controversy over Silent Spring
1598
01:30:03,300 --> 01:30:05,000
had reached the nation's capital,
1599
01:30:05,230 --> 01:30:07,590
and a special
Science Advisory Committee
1600
01:30:07,600 --> 01:30:09,000
had been convened
1601
01:30:09,000 --> 01:30:12,100
to review all federal policies
on pesticides.
1602
01:30:13,560 --> 01:30:17,600
On August 28, the subject
even found its way into one
1603
01:30:17,600 --> 01:30:20,600
of the president's regular
televised press conferences.
1604
01:30:21,600 --> 01:30:24,100
REPORTER :
There appears to be growing concern among scientists
1605
01:30:24,100 --> 01:30:25,160
as to the possibility
1606
01:30:25,230 --> 01:30:27,930
of dangerous long-range side effects
1607
01:30:28,000 --> 01:30:31,460
from the widespread use
of DDT and other pesticides.
1608
01:30:31,530 --> 01:30:33,890
Have you considered asking
the Department of Agriculture
1609
01:30:33,960 --> 01:30:36,000
or the Public Health Service
1610
01:30:36,000 --> 01:30:37,300
to take a closer look at this?
1611
01:30:37,300 --> 01:30:40,790
Yes, and I know that they already are,
1612
01:30:40,860 --> 01:30:43,660
I think particularly, of course,
since Miss Carson's book,
1613
01:30:43,730 --> 01:30:45,900
but they are examining the matter.
1614
01:30:47,400 --> 01:30:48,800
SOUDER :
You can only imagine how worried
1615
01:30:48,800 --> 01:30:51,400
the people who made
these pesticides were.
1616
01:30:51,600 --> 01:30:53,000
When President Kennedy said,
1617
01:30:53,000 --> 01:30:54,200
Yeah, we're going to look into this.
1618
01:30:54,400 --> 01:30:57,200
We're going to reach in
to the private sector
1619
01:30:57,500 --> 01:30:59,900
and see if we need to
regulate these products
1620
01:30:59,900 --> 01:31:01,000
in a different way,"
1621
01:31:01,000 --> 01:31:02,000
that was a threat.
1622
01:31:02,300 --> 01:31:03,560
That's a threat to the bottom line.
1623
01:31:03,630 --> 01:31:06,500
That's a threat to the business
that these companies were in.
1624
01:31:06,930 --> 01:31:09,490
LYTLE :
They formed essentially a war council
1625
01:31:09,560 --> 01:31:12,160
to get together and develop
a propaganda campaign
1626
01:31:12,300 --> 01:31:13,800
to discredit Carson,
1627
01:31:13,800 --> 01:31:16,100
to discredit the science in her book,
1628
01:31:16,100 --> 01:31:18,300
and to defend their practices.
1629
01:31:22,300 --> 01:31:24,100
Narrator :
From public relations departments
1630
01:31:24,100 --> 01:31:25,600
throughout the chemical industry
1631
01:31:25,600 --> 01:31:29,000
now came a flood
of bulletins and brochures
1632
01:31:29,000 --> 01:31:31,600
which emphasized
the benefits of pesticides.
1633
01:31:33,900 --> 01:31:36,140
The Monsanto Company,
an industry leader,
1634
01:31:36,200 --> 01:31:38,570
papered news outlets
across the country
1635
01:31:38,670 --> 01:31:41,470
with a spoof of Silent Spring's opening chapter,
1636
01:31:42,400 --> 01:31:44,300
in which a pesticide-free world
1637
01:31:44,300 --> 01:31:47,200
loses millions
to yellow fever and malaria...
1638
01:31:47,600 --> 01:31:49,500
FILM NARRATOR :
She dines on healthy blood,
1639
01:31:49,800 --> 01:31:53,300
and in payment leaves
the chills and fever of malaria.
1640
01:31:54,300 --> 01:31:57,000
Narrator :
...and crop-ravaging insects drive humanity
1641
01:31:57,000 --> 01:31:58,460
to the brink of famine.
1642
01:31:59,600 --> 01:32:01,530
Silent Spring, critics charged,
1643
01:32:01,600 --> 01:32:03,360
was a "high-pitched, emotional,
1644
01:32:03,430 --> 01:32:06,300
scientifically indefensible" screed.
1645
01:32:07,200 --> 01:32:10,330
To heed Carson's call
for restraint, it was argued,
1646
01:32:10,400 --> 01:32:13,800
meant nothing less than
"the end of all human progress."
1647
01:32:15,000 --> 01:32:17,160
KINKELA :
There is this sort of real tension
1648
01:32:17,230 --> 01:32:20,300
between this understanding
of chemical sciences
1649
01:32:20,300 --> 01:32:24,960
as a sort of hyper-masculine,
lab-intensive research
1650
01:32:25,030 --> 01:32:27,860
that produces
these wonderful technologies
1651
01:32:29,100 --> 01:32:31,330
and these scientists
who work in nature,
1652
01:32:31,400 --> 01:32:33,830
who examine issues
over the long term,
1653
01:32:33,900 --> 01:32:36,500
but who really
aren't scientists.
1654
01:32:36,600 --> 01:32:37,890
They're sort of like a cult.
1655
01:32:39,500 --> 01:32:42,000
And having a woman
at this particular moment
1656
01:32:42,000 --> 01:32:46,590
being the lead spokesperson
of that kind of idea
1657
01:32:46,660 --> 01:32:48,590
really chafed,
1658
01:32:48,660 --> 01:32:52,500
and made the chemical scientists
really angry.
1659
01:32:54,430 --> 01:32:56,230
ORESKES :
The idea that this woman,
1660
01:32:56,300 --> 01:32:59,130
you know, this woman with what,
a master's degree,
1661
01:32:59,200 --> 01:33:02,590
that she knows something
that we don't know?
1662
01:33:02,660 --> 01:33:06,590
You know, you just see their
condescension towards her
1663
01:33:06,660 --> 01:33:08,800
in their just really dismissive approach
1664
01:33:08,800 --> 01:33:10,800
and their misrepresentation of her work.
1665
01:33:11,300 --> 01:33:13,790
They try to accuse her
of rejecting modernity,
1666
01:33:13,860 --> 01:33:17,600
of being unrealistic, of
wanting to ban all pesticides,
1667
01:33:18,000 --> 01:33:19,200
none of which are true,
1668
01:33:19,200 --> 01:33:21,300
but it's a way to try
to discredit her
1669
01:33:21,300 --> 01:33:22,300
and discredit the argument,
1670
01:33:22,300 --> 01:33:24,500
and it's a way to not even
have the argument.
1671
01:33:30,200 --> 01:33:33,100
Narrator :
Concerned the attacks from industry scientists
1672
01:33:33,100 --> 01:33:34,360
created the impression
1673
01:33:34,430 --> 01:33:36,730
that the science was "all on the other side,"
1674
01:33:37,100 --> 01:33:39,200
Carson prevailed upon Houghton Mifflin
1675
01:33:39,200 --> 01:33:41,600
to publish a rebuttal to her critics.
1676
01:33:44,560 --> 01:33:48,530
LYTLE :
The commercial, monetary, political resources
1677
01:33:48,600 --> 01:33:51,330
that the agencies and the businesses
1678
01:33:51,400 --> 01:33:54,190
that were arrayed against her
could command
1679
01:33:54,260 --> 01:33:56,060
were daunting indeed.
1680
01:33:56,130 --> 01:33:59,560
But many scientists
strongly supported Carson
1681
01:33:59,630 --> 01:34:03,300
and accepted her case
and even contributed to it.
1682
01:34:05,100 --> 01:34:07,860
ORESKES :
The worst thing you could say about Silent Spring
1683
01:34:08,400 --> 01:34:11,200
is actually a compliment:
It's not a work of science.
1684
01:34:13,430 --> 01:34:15,130
And that's true,
it's not a work of science.
1685
01:34:15,200 --> 01:34:16,900
It's a work
of science communication.
1686
01:34:17,830 --> 01:34:20,260
She is communicating to us
what scientists have to say
1687
01:34:20,330 --> 01:34:22,130
and she's communicating the meaning
1688
01:34:22,200 --> 01:34:23,690
of that scientific work.
1689
01:34:23,760 --> 01:34:27,690
She makes clear what's at stake,
and that's her great gift.
1690
01:34:29,730 --> 01:34:33,790
Narrator :
In the end, Silent Spring flew off the shelves.
1691
01:34:33,860 --> 01:34:38,060
Within two weeks of its official publication, on September 27,
1692
01:34:38,130 --> 01:34:41,630
65,000 copies had been sold.
1693
01:34:42,000 --> 01:34:45,100
Before long,
it was a runaway bestseller.
1694
01:34:46,500 --> 01:34:49,800
Every major publication in
the country reviewed the book.
1695
01:34:50,000 --> 01:34:52,900
More than 70 newspapers
also ran editorials.
1696
01:34:54,200 --> 01:34:56,400
Carson, meanwhile,
was the subject
1697
01:34:56,400 --> 01:34:59,000
of so many magazine articles
and cartoons
1698
01:34:59,360 --> 01:35:01,600
that she and Roger began
to collect them.
1699
01:35:14,800 --> 01:35:17,300
Absent from all the publicity
was the fact
1700
01:35:17,300 --> 01:35:20,400
that Carson's cancer had spread
to the right side of her body
1701
01:35:20,430 --> 01:35:24,400
and that she was once again
undergoing radiation treatments.
1702
01:35:26,800 --> 01:35:28,590
Inundated with interview requests,
1703
01:35:28,660 --> 01:35:30,490
Carson agreed that fall
1704
01:35:30,560 --> 01:35:33,090
to only two
that involved cameras:
1705
01:35:33,300 --> 01:35:35,500
a profile in LIFE magazine
1706
01:35:35,500 --> 01:35:37,800
and an appearance on CBS Reports
1707
01:35:38,000 --> 01:35:39,500
with Eric Sevareid.
1708
01:35:40,060 --> 01:35:42,590
For both, she wore a heavy, dark wig
1709
01:35:42,800 --> 01:35:44,800
she'd purchased at Elizabeth Arden.
1710
01:35:47,030 --> 01:35:49,160
The two-day interview session with CBS
1711
01:35:49,230 --> 01:35:51,130
at her home in Silver Spring
1712
01:35:51,200 --> 01:35:54,000
was so taxing
that it became plain to Sevareid
1713
01:35:54,000 --> 01:35:55,300
that Carson was ill.
1714
01:35:56,500 --> 01:35:59,300
Get the piece on the air as soon as possible,
1715
01:35:59,300 --> 01:36:00,600
he urged his producer.
1716
01:36:01,300 --> 01:36:03,100
"You've got a dead leading lady."
1717
01:36:08,130 --> 01:36:11,260
LEAR :
Carson was determined as a young girl.
1718
01:36:11,330 --> 01:36:12,990
She was determined to get an education.
1719
01:36:13,060 --> 01:36:15,190
She was determined to be a writer.
1720
01:36:15,260 --> 01:36:18,100
She was determined to find
something to write about.
1721
01:36:18,660 --> 01:36:20,330
And with Silent Spring,
1722
01:36:20,400 --> 01:36:23,600
she was determined
that this message would get out.
1723
01:36:24,030 --> 01:36:27,560
She's willing to endure
almost everything
1724
01:36:27,700 --> 01:36:29,700
to get that message out.
1725
01:36:31,000 --> 01:36:33,400
CARSON :
My text this afternoon is taken
1726
01:36:33,400 --> 01:36:37,960
from The Globe Times
of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
1727
01:36:38,030 --> 01:36:41,400
a news item in the issue
of October 12.
1728
01:36:42,930 --> 01:36:47,830
After describing in detail
the reactions to Silent Spring
1729
01:36:47,900 --> 01:36:51,990
of the farm bureaus
in two Pennsylvania counties,
1730
01:36:52,060 --> 01:36:54,830
the reporter continued:
1731
01:36:54,900 --> 01:36:59,190
"No one in either county farm
office who was talked to today
1732
01:36:59,260 --> 01:37:00,930
had read the book,
1733
01:37:01,000 --> 01:37:03,230
but all disapproved of it heartily."
1734
01:37:03,300 --> 01:37:05,260
(audience laughing)
1735
01:37:05,330 --> 01:37:07,830
Narrator :
In early December 1962,
1736
01:37:07,900 --> 01:37:10,800
in an address to
the Women's National Press Club,
1737
01:37:11,100 --> 01:37:13,700
Rachel Carson finally answered
her critics.
1738
01:37:14,160 --> 01:37:16,300
Challenging the industry's
contention
1739
01:37:16,400 --> 01:37:18,300
that "chemicals are never used
1740
01:37:18,300 --> 01:37:20,500
unless tests have shown them
to be safe,"
1741
01:37:20,500 --> 01:37:21,890
she reminded her audience
1742
01:37:21,960 --> 01:37:24,930
that pesticide manufacturers
financed the studies
1743
01:37:25,000 --> 01:37:27,100
of their own products' safety.
1744
01:37:27,760 --> 01:37:31,290
I know that many thoughtful
scientists are deeply disturbed
1745
01:37:31,360 --> 01:37:35,300
that their organizations are
becoming fronts for industry.
1746
01:37:37,300 --> 01:37:39,460
Is industry becoming a screen
1747
01:37:39,530 --> 01:37:41,460
through which facts
must be filtered
1748
01:37:41,530 --> 01:37:46,230
so that the hard, uncomfortable
truths are kept back
1749
01:37:46,300 --> 01:37:50,600
and only the harmless morsels
are allowed to filter through?
1750
01:37:52,100 --> 01:37:56,090
The tailoring, the screening
of basic truth
1751
01:37:56,160 --> 01:37:59,630
is done to accommodate
to the short-term gain,
1752
01:37:59,700 --> 01:38:03,800
to serve the gods
of profit and production.
1753
01:38:08,500 --> 01:38:11,630
LEAR :
She is calling for the population
1754
01:38:11,700 --> 01:38:14,860
to understand that money
has a great deal to do
1755
01:38:14,930 --> 01:38:17,160
with what is done in science.
1756
01:38:17,230 --> 01:38:21,000
She says, "We need to ask
who speaks and why.
1757
01:38:22,200 --> 01:38:24,600
What is done in the name of science
1758
01:38:24,600 --> 01:38:26,600
and why doesn't the public
have a right to know?"
1759
01:38:28,000 --> 01:38:30,490
These are not just
scientific questions.
1760
01:38:30,560 --> 01:38:34,100
These are questions that
a social revolutionary asks.
1761
01:38:34,460 --> 01:38:35,930
CARSON :
These are matters
1762
01:38:36,000 --> 01:38:38,790
of the most serious importance
to society.
1763
01:38:38,860 --> 01:38:41,730
And I commend their study
to you
1764
01:38:41,800 --> 01:38:44,960
as professionals
in the field of communication.
1765
01:38:45,030 --> 01:38:46,600
Thank you.
1766
01:38:47,160 --> 01:38:50,260
(audience applauds)
1767
01:38:50,330 --> 01:38:52,190
Narrator :
Unable to silence Carson,
1768
01:38:52,500 --> 01:38:54,500
the chemical industry lobbied hard
1769
01:38:54,500 --> 01:38:58,300
to muzzle the forthcoming
CBS special on Silent Spring.
1770
01:38:59,030 --> 01:39:02,690
In March, just weeks before
the program was slated to air,
1771
01:39:02,760 --> 01:39:04,330
the network was flooded
1772
01:39:04,400 --> 01:39:06,660
with mimeographed letters urging fairness,
1773
01:39:06,730 --> 01:39:09,330
a campaign orchestrated, CBS assumed,
1774
01:39:09,400 --> 01:39:11,230
by the chemical industry lobby.
1775
01:39:12,800 --> 01:39:15,130
Then, just days before the broadcast,
1776
01:39:15,200 --> 01:39:18,160
two of the show's five
commercial sponsors pulled out,
1777
01:39:18,230 --> 01:39:20,500
followed swiftly by a third.
1778
01:39:21,500 --> 01:39:23,130
CBS was undaunted,
1779
01:39:23,200 --> 01:39:27,790
and on the evening
of Wednesday, April 3, 1963,
1780
01:39:27,860 --> 01:39:30,390
"The Silent Spring
of Rachel Carson"
1781
01:39:30,460 --> 01:39:33,090
was beamed into living rooms
all across the country.
1782
01:39:33,160 --> 01:39:34,490
Good evening.
1783
01:39:34,560 --> 01:39:37,690
We are living in what has been
called the synthetic age.
1784
01:39:37,760 --> 01:39:39,430
The age of the atom,
the missile,
1785
01:39:39,500 --> 01:39:41,590
the frozen TV dinner.
1786
01:39:41,800 --> 01:39:43,600
In the next hour, you will hear
1787
01:39:43,600 --> 01:39:46,000
that this is also the age
of the wormless apple
1788
01:39:46,000 --> 01:39:47,430
and the calculated risk.
1789
01:39:48,100 --> 01:39:48,930
Do you know how long
1790
01:39:49,000 --> 01:39:51,800
the pesticides persist in the water
1791
01:39:51,800 --> 01:39:53,030
once they get into it?
1792
01:39:53,100 --> 01:39:54,430
Not entirely.
1793
01:39:54,500 --> 01:39:57,390
Do you know the extent
to which our groundwater
1794
01:39:57,460 --> 01:40:00,730
may be contaminated right now
by pesticides?
1795
01:40:00,800 --> 01:40:03,330
We don't know that, either,
nor do we know...
1796
01:40:03,400 --> 01:40:05,300
Narrator :
As the program unfolded,
1797
01:40:05,400 --> 01:40:08,090
a welter of scientists
and government officials,
1798
01:40:08,160 --> 01:40:10,230
as well as Carson herself,
1799
01:40:10,300 --> 01:40:13,600
argued the pros and cons
of synthetic pesticides.
1800
01:40:14,600 --> 01:40:17,200
In the end, one fact was clear:
1801
01:40:17,500 --> 01:40:19,260
For every scientific certainty,
1802
01:40:19,330 --> 01:40:21,560
there was a host
of unanswered questions.
1803
01:40:22,200 --> 01:40:23,500
CARSON :
We have to remember
1804
01:40:23,500 --> 01:40:26,900
that children born today
are exposed to these chemicals
1805
01:40:26,900 --> 01:40:27,800
from birth.
1806
01:40:27,860 --> 01:40:29,630
Perhaps even before birth.
1807
01:40:29,700 --> 01:40:33,060
Now, what is going to happen
to them in adult life
1808
01:40:33,800 --> 01:40:36,100
as a result of that exposure?
1809
01:40:36,400 --> 01:40:38,560
We simply don't know.
1810
01:40:38,600 --> 01:40:41,600
Because we've never before
had this kind of experience.
1811
01:40:42,300 --> 01:40:44,100
SEVAREID :
A spokesman for the chemical industry,
1812
01:40:44,300 --> 01:40:45,900
Dr. Robert White-Stevens.
1813
01:40:46,300 --> 01:40:47,800
Miss Carson is concerned
1814
01:40:47,800 --> 01:40:51,130
with every possibility
of hazard and danger,
1815
01:40:51,200 --> 01:40:54,860
whereas the agricultural school
has to concern itself
1816
01:40:54,930 --> 01:40:58,700
with the probability,
the likelihood of danger,
1817
01:40:58,700 --> 01:41:00,900
and to assess that
against utility.
1818
01:41:00,900 --> 01:41:03,700
If we had to investigate
every possibility,
1819
01:41:03,800 --> 01:41:06,100
we would never make
any advances at all,
1820
01:41:06,300 --> 01:41:07,500
because this would require
1821
01:41:07,500 --> 01:41:10,160
an infinite time
for experimental work,
1822
01:41:10,230 --> 01:41:12,030
and we would never be finished.
1823
01:41:13,000 --> 01:41:15,600
CARSON :
We've heard the benefits of pesticides.
1824
01:41:16,800 --> 01:41:20,500
We've heard a great deal
about their safety,
1825
01:41:21,200 --> 01:41:24,830
but very little
about the hazards,
1826
01:41:24,900 --> 01:41:27,800
very little about the failures,
the inefficiencies,
1827
01:41:28,600 --> 01:41:32,800
and yet the public was being
asked to accept these chemicals,
1828
01:41:32,800 --> 01:41:36,600
was being asked to acquiesce
in their use
1829
01:41:37,300 --> 01:41:39,600
and did not have
the whole picture.
1830
01:41:39,600 --> 01:41:42,600
So I set about to remedy
the balance there.
1831
01:41:47,100 --> 01:41:51,500
LEAR :
CBS Reports becomes almost a second publication of the book.
1832
01:41:52,260 --> 01:41:56,730
People who hadn't read it and
probably wouldn't have read it
1833
01:41:56,800 --> 01:42:02,600
can see that Rachel Carson
is a very calm, rational woman
1834
01:42:02,600 --> 01:42:06,500
who is not frothing at the mouth
and is not a raving Communist.
1835
01:42:07,500 --> 01:42:09,000
She's giving the public credit
1836
01:42:09,000 --> 01:42:11,000
for being able
to understand science.
1837
01:42:12,600 --> 01:42:16,200
Narrator :
With an audience estimated at between ten and 15 million,
1838
01:42:16,200 --> 01:42:18,900
"The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson"
1839
01:42:18,900 --> 01:42:20,430
catapulted the environment
1840
01:42:20,500 --> 01:42:22,090
to the top
of the political agenda.
1841
01:42:24,200 --> 01:42:26,960
The next day,
Senator Abraham Ribicoff,
1842
01:42:27,030 --> 01:42:30,000
chair of the subcommittee
on government operations,
1843
01:42:30,300 --> 01:42:33,600
was charged with conducting
a broad congressional review
1844
01:42:33,600 --> 01:42:36,800
of environmental hazards,
including pesticides.
1845
01:42:38,300 --> 01:42:41,900
Then, on May 15,
came the long-awaited report
1846
01:42:41,900 --> 01:42:44,800
from the president's
Science Advisory Committee.
1847
01:42:46,460 --> 01:42:49,500
ORESKES :
And they say in more prosaic language
1848
01:42:49,500 --> 01:42:51,900
what she has essentially
already said in Silent Spring,
1849
01:42:51,900 --> 01:42:55,190
which is, "Yes, there are some
benefits to using pesticides,
1850
01:42:55,600 --> 01:42:58,700
and no, we probably don't want
to outlaw and ban
1851
01:42:58,700 --> 01:43:00,200
all pesticides tomorrow,
1852
01:43:00,200 --> 01:43:02,660
but there is substantial scientific evidence
1853
01:43:02,730 --> 01:43:04,730
that the indiscriminate use of pesticides,
1854
01:43:04,800 --> 01:43:06,490
the overuse of pesticides,
1855
01:43:06,560 --> 01:43:10,930
and particularly certain
persistent pesticides like DDT
1856
01:43:11,000 --> 01:43:12,500
may be problematic."
1857
01:43:14,330 --> 01:43:15,760
Narrator :
"I think it's a splendid report,"
1858
01:43:15,830 --> 01:43:17,430
Carson told a journalist.
1859
01:43:17,500 --> 01:43:19,430
"It's strong, it's objective,
1860
01:43:19,500 --> 01:43:22,960
and, I think, a very fair
evaluation of the problem.
1861
01:43:23,030 --> 01:43:25,160
I feel that the report has vindicated me
1862
01:43:25,230 --> 01:43:27,300
and my principal contentions."
1863
01:43:33,730 --> 01:43:37,660
By now, Carson knew
she didn't have long to live.
1864
01:43:37,730 --> 01:43:39,890
Despite ongoing radiation treatments,
1865
01:43:39,960 --> 01:43:42,690
the cancer had spread and spread again,
1866
01:43:42,760 --> 01:43:45,990
to her collarbone, her neck, her shoulder.
1867
01:43:47,500 --> 01:43:49,000
Though often in pain,
1868
01:43:49,000 --> 01:43:51,300
she kept her call for change insistent,
1869
01:43:51,600 --> 01:43:54,100
appearing in late May on the Today Show
1870
01:43:54,300 --> 01:43:57,300
and in early June before
Ribicoff's Senate committee,
1871
01:43:57,800 --> 01:44:00,190
where she delivered 40 minutes of testimony
1872
01:44:00,260 --> 01:44:02,290
to a rapt, capacity crowd.
1873
01:44:03,600 --> 01:44:05,700
We have acquired technical skills
1874
01:44:05,700 --> 01:44:09,200
on a scale undreamed-of
even a generation ago.
1875
01:44:10,100 --> 01:44:13,500
We can do dramatic things
and we can do them quickly.
1876
01:44:13,860 --> 01:44:17,290
By the time damaging
side effects are apparent,
1877
01:44:17,360 --> 01:44:19,830
it is often too late or impossible
1878
01:44:19,900 --> 01:44:22,000
to reverse our actions.
1879
01:44:22,200 --> 01:44:26,200
LEAR :
She's aware that there will be changes coming
1880
01:44:26,200 --> 01:44:29,400
because of her words,
because of her book,
1881
01:44:29,400 --> 01:44:32,600
so she's at peace,
comfortable in some ways
1882
01:44:32,600 --> 01:44:36,400
with the fact that she's done
the work that she set out to do.
1883
01:44:36,800 --> 01:44:39,300
If we are ever to solve
the basic problem
1884
01:44:39,300 --> 01:44:41,500
of environmental contamination,
1885
01:44:42,100 --> 01:44:45,400
we must begin to count
the many hidden costs
1886
01:44:45,400 --> 01:44:46,930
of what we are doing
1887
01:44:47,500 --> 01:44:51,500
and to weigh them
against the gains or advantages.
1888
01:44:55,600 --> 01:44:57,600
SOUDER :
Now we enter into a period of time
1889
01:44:57,600 --> 01:45:00,200
in which everyone understands
1890
01:45:00,200 --> 01:45:02,600
that the environment
is an important subject,
1891
01:45:02,660 --> 01:45:04,500
that it's something
we should talk about,
1892
01:45:04,500 --> 01:45:06,100
something we should consider
1893
01:45:06,100 --> 01:45:07,900
when we are using new technologies
1894
01:45:07,900 --> 01:45:09,900
that might adversely affect it.
1895
01:45:10,500 --> 01:45:12,990
It puts the government squarely into the middle
1896
01:45:13,060 --> 01:45:14,960
as a regulating authority,
1897
01:45:15,100 --> 01:45:19,500
as a force that can restrain technology.
1898
01:45:20,260 --> 01:45:22,800
This hadn't been part
of the dialogue before.
1899
01:45:30,000 --> 01:45:32,800
CARSON (dramatized) :
It seems strange, looking back over my life,
1900
01:45:32,800 --> 01:45:35,200
that all that went
before this past decade
1901
01:45:35,200 --> 01:45:38,000
seems to have been merely
preparation for it.
1902
01:45:38,700 --> 01:45:41,400
Into that decade have been
crowded everything
1903
01:45:41,400 --> 01:45:43,100
I shall be remembered for.
1904
01:45:46,560 --> 01:45:50,790
Narrator :
There was for Carson one last summer at Southport,
1905
01:45:50,860 --> 01:45:53,030
a summer filled with birdsong
1906
01:45:53,100 --> 01:45:55,490
and the sound of the wind
in the spruce trees.
1907
01:45:58,660 --> 01:46:01,330
There were walks along the shore
with Dorothy,
1908
01:46:01,400 --> 01:46:05,830
slow and ginger now on account
of Carson's constant pain,
1909
01:46:05,900 --> 01:46:08,000
and bittersweet hours spent
watching the surf
1910
01:46:09,000 --> 01:46:10,400
crash against the rocks.
1911
01:46:15,600 --> 01:46:19,830
FREEMAN :
I don't think the kids, my brother and Roger and I,
1912
01:46:19,900 --> 01:46:23,800
understood that this was
some big last deal.
1913
01:46:26,100 --> 01:46:30,100
But it was Rachel's last summer
at Southport,
1914
01:46:30,100 --> 01:46:33,100
and she was unable to go down
to the beach.
1915
01:46:34,230 --> 01:46:40,000
And yet, we all still had
a lovely summer day going down
1916
01:46:40,000 --> 01:46:44,700
and bringing little creatures up to the cottage
1917
01:46:44,700 --> 01:46:48,100
for her to look at
and talk to us about,
1918
01:46:49,600 --> 01:46:52,200
and then instruct us
that they had to go back
1919
01:46:52,600 --> 01:46:54,000
where they came from.
1920
01:46:56,400 --> 01:46:58,330
I think I like that
1921
01:46:58,400 --> 01:47:01,630
as a quintessential
and last memory,
1922
01:47:01,700 --> 01:47:06,530
because that was her essence,
and there it was.
1923
01:47:13,600 --> 01:47:15,800
Narrator :
The cancer spread to her pelvis,
1924
01:47:16,100 --> 01:47:18,100
then to her upper back and arms.
1925
01:47:19,200 --> 01:47:21,790
By October,
back in Silver Spring,
1926
01:47:21,860 --> 01:47:25,260
Carson was spending
most of her time in bed.
1927
01:47:31,200 --> 01:47:34,500
LEAR :
She had all these other ideas of what she wanted to write.
1928
01:47:34,500 --> 01:47:36,800
I think she comes to terms with the fact
1929
01:47:36,800 --> 01:47:40,600
that she will lay down her pen
without having done them all.
1930
01:47:42,300 --> 01:47:44,000
Um, but the biggest thing,
of course,
1931
01:47:44,000 --> 01:47:45,100
is what to do with Roger.
1932
01:47:47,100 --> 01:47:50,560
To face the fact that when she dies,
1933
01:47:50,630 --> 01:47:53,590
which she doesn't really face well,
1934
01:47:53,660 --> 01:47:55,130
Roger needs a family,
1935
01:47:55,500 --> 01:47:59,000
and she can't seem
to come to grips with that.
1936
01:48:01,200 --> 01:48:03,900
CHRISTIE :
She tried to shield me from how serious it was,
1937
01:48:04,000 --> 01:48:05,690
and it was never...
1938
01:48:05,700 --> 01:48:07,400
You know, well, "I'm going to die."
1939
01:48:09,830 --> 01:48:12,830
I don't know how she expected it
to work really,
1940
01:48:12,900 --> 01:48:16,930
beyond, you know, making
provisions for me in her will.
1941
01:48:17,000 --> 01:48:19,300
It's not something
we talked about.
1942
01:48:21,260 --> 01:48:24,660
FREEMAN :
The best she could do was add a codicil to her will
1943
01:48:24,800 --> 01:48:30,000
that said it was her wish that
either the Paul Brooks family,
1944
01:48:30,000 --> 01:48:32,200
Paul Brooks being her editor
at Houghton Mifflin,
1945
01:48:32,600 --> 01:48:37,600
or my parents would take Roger in
and would adopt Roger.
1946
01:48:39,600 --> 01:48:42,300
I think in the end she punted.
1947
01:48:42,500 --> 01:48:45,800
She just, wherever she was
in her life,
1948
01:48:46,200 --> 01:48:47,600
the end of her life,
1949
01:48:48,460 --> 01:48:53,100
she didn't want to
or couldn't make that decision.
1950
01:49:10,200 --> 01:49:13,300
Narrator :
By spring, the cancer had spread to her brain.
1951
01:49:14,360 --> 01:49:17,190
Dorothy still wrote nearly every day,
1952
01:49:17,300 --> 01:49:19,600
but Carson no longer wrote back.
1953
01:49:20,360 --> 01:49:23,130
When Dorothy came for a visit
in early April,
1954
01:49:23,200 --> 01:49:26,600
Carson was only dimly aware
that she was there.
1955
01:49:30,600 --> 01:49:35,400
On April 14, 1964,
Rachel Carson died.
1956
01:49:36,200 --> 01:49:38,300
She was 56 years old.
1957
01:49:39,900 --> 01:49:43,490
Some of her ashes were buried
next to her mother's grave.
1958
01:49:43,600 --> 01:49:46,000
The rest Dorothy Freeman spread
1959
01:49:46,000 --> 01:49:48,300
over the ocean
at Southport Island.
1960
01:50:04,130 --> 01:50:07,390
BLUM :
There's a Before Rachel and After Rachel
1961
01:50:07,600 --> 01:50:10,500
in the way we think
about what matters
1962
01:50:10,500 --> 01:50:12,300
in protecting the environment.
1963
01:50:14,800 --> 01:50:17,500
There are not very many people
who you say,
1964
01:50:17,500 --> 01:50:19,600
"That person drove
a paradigm shift,"
1965
01:50:20,100 --> 01:50:21,100
but she did.
1966
01:50:22,100 --> 01:50:24,100
And it's post Silent Spring
1967
01:50:24,100 --> 01:50:27,090
that you start seeing
genuine environmental regulation
1968
01:50:27,200 --> 01:50:29,900
in a way
that didn't exist before.
1969
01:50:30,600 --> 01:50:33,000
It's like a rain
on a dry landscape.
1970
01:50:33,200 --> 01:50:34,400
That book was it.
1971
01:50:38,000 --> 01:50:41,300
LEAR :
Silent Spring was the book that changed the world.
1972
01:50:42,000 --> 01:50:46,600
It taught us
that life was fragile,
1973
01:50:46,800 --> 01:50:48,300
that it was mutable,
1974
01:50:49,300 --> 01:50:52,400
that science was not omniscient.
1975
01:50:54,000 --> 01:50:58,000
Her message was
that there's an ongoing story.
1976
01:50:58,200 --> 01:51:01,000
It doesn't just stop
with the removal of pesticides.
1977
01:51:03,000 --> 01:51:05,400
LYTLE :
Many business and political types
1978
01:51:05,400 --> 01:51:08,530
who can't stand
environmental regulation
1979
01:51:08,600 --> 01:51:11,900
have since been trying
to discredit Rachel Carson.
1980
01:51:12,330 --> 01:51:14,190
They feel if they can discredit her,
1981
01:51:14,260 --> 01:51:18,100
they can in a sense deconstruct
the environmental apparatus.
1982
01:51:19,100 --> 01:51:20,000
And they're still doing it.
1983
01:51:20,000 --> 01:51:21,600
It has not gone quiet.
1984
01:51:23,600 --> 01:51:25,800
ORESKES :
Rachel Carson begins a conversation
1985
01:51:25,800 --> 01:51:30,330
that we needed to have,
that we weren't having in 1963,
1986
01:51:30,400 --> 01:51:32,300
and that we still haven't
really figured out
1987
01:51:32,300 --> 01:51:35,100
how to have in an
appropriate way even today.
1988
01:51:37,000 --> 01:51:40,100
It's a conversation about
the pros and cons of technology.
1989
01:51:40,300 --> 01:51:43,000
It's a conversation about
the role of nature in our life
1990
01:51:43,300 --> 01:51:46,100
and about whether or not
we make our lives better
1991
01:51:46,300 --> 01:51:48,200
through technological
innovations
1992
01:51:48,800 --> 01:51:53,200
or whether we do damage
that outweighs the benefits.
1993
01:51:56,300 --> 01:51:57,800
SOUDER :
Carson said, "Let's try to look
1994
01:51:57,800 --> 01:51:59,400
at life from the other side.
1995
01:51:59,400 --> 01:52:01,300
Let's try to look
at the natural world
1996
01:52:01,300 --> 01:52:03,000
as if we were actually
a part of it."
1997
01:52:04,600 --> 01:52:06,600
That's a different way
to understand things
1998
01:52:06,600 --> 01:52:08,700
than anyone had ever proposed before.
1999
01:52:09,600 --> 01:52:10,600
You're not separate.
2000
01:52:10,600 --> 01:52:14,600
You're human, but you're not
separate from this living world.
2001
01:52:27,030 --> 01:52:31,060
♪
2002
01:52:31,060 --> 01:52:31,060
American Experience
154621
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