Rachel Carson, citizen-scientist, wrote the novel "Silent Spring" in 1962. She presented information about pesticides in a way that had never been presented before. She showed that once the chemicals had entered the biosphere they would have far reaching effects. Although the information that she used was not new, she was the first one to put it all together in a way that was easy for the general public to understand. In doing so, she sparked an environmental revolution. "Silent Spring" made the powerful case that if humankind poisoned nature, then nature would eventually in turn poison man. She was not the first to point out the effects of our destruction of the environment, but she was ahead of her time and spent many of her dying days fighting for her cause. Many people believe that we are more on top of these issues now and that they are not as damaging. If anything, environmental issues have grown larger — and more urgent — since Carson’s day. Yet no single work has had the impact of “Silent Spring." She was a pioneer and her legacy still continues today, more than 50 years later.
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