I next looked up some of the references that Carson cited and quickly found that they did not support her contentions about the harm caused by pesticides. I began to lose confidence in Rachel Carson, even though I thought that as an environmentalist I really should continue to support her. Also, each reference was cited separately each time it appeared in the book, thus producing an impressive array of references even though not many different sources were actually cited. I then took notice of her bibliography and realized that it was filled with references from very unscientific sources. She was carefully omitting everything that failed to support her thesis that pesticides were bad, that industry was bad, and that any scientists who did not support her views were bad. As I read the first several chapters I noticed many statements that I realized were false however, one can overlook such things when they are produced by ones cohorts, and I did just that.Īs I neared the middle of the book, the feeling grew in my mind that Rachel Carson was really playing loose with the facts and was also deliberately wording many sentences in such a way as to make them imply certain things without actually saying them. I eagerly read the condensed version of Silent Spring in the New Yorker magazine and bought a copy of the book as soon as I could find it in the stores.
At the time, I had been engaged in field work at the University of Wyoming research station in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for three summers and I worked as biological coordinator for the National Park Service in Glacier National Park.
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