Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Science Friday Book Club Talks Silent Spring
This is from a week ago, not today, transcript and audio at the link,
interesting discussion and interesting calls from listeners:
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/06/156380374/scifri-book-club-talks-em-silent-spring-em
SciFri Book Club Talks Silent Spring
July 6, 2012
The Science Friday Book Club meets for the first time this week, to talk about Rachel Carson's classic book, Silent Spring. Carson biographer William Souder joins Ira Flatow and Flora Lichtman to discuss Carson's writing style and the book's legacy, 50 years after it was published.
<snip>
William Souder is the author of a forthcoming biography of Rachel Carson "On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson," and he joins us from Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY.
<snip>
FLATOW: Let's go to the phones. Judy(ph) in Des Moines. Hi, Judy.
JUDY: Hello.
FLATOW: Hi there.
JUDY: I just wanted to relate a incident. In 1973, I was a student at Iowa State University, taking courses in nutrition. And I distinctly remember my professor just mocking Rachel Carson for "Silent Spring" and just lambasting her as some kind of a nutcase for what she was proposing and what she had written in "Silent Spring."
And only after I graduated and, you know, read more about her did I realize, you know, what a prophet she was. And also, since then, living in Iowa, we had had no bald eagles as a result of the pesticides being used. And now, after they've been banned, there's a resurgence of them. They are wonderful to see, and I often think of her and her words that she spoke in "Silent Spring." I just wanted to relay that.
FLATOW: Thank you, Judy.
SOUDER: Thanks, Judy. I'm not sure what they were teaching back in 1973 down in Iowa. But, you know, the record after Carson's death in 1964 - she died of cancer two years after "Silent Spring" was completed - we can certainly see the effect that she had on this country and on the world. In 1970, President Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency, really a direct result of conversations that go back to Carson's time about a need for some sort of federal regulatory authority that could bring some order to the use of pesticides, which were basically being used without any controls at all up until then.
<snip>
SciFri Book Club Talks Silent Spring
July 6, 2012
The Science Friday Book Club meets for the first time this week, to talk about Rachel Carson's classic book, Silent Spring. Carson biographer William Souder joins Ira Flatow and Flora Lichtman to discuss Carson's writing style and the book's legacy, 50 years after it was published.
<snip>
William Souder is the author of a forthcoming biography of Rachel Carson "On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson," and he joins us from Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY.
<snip>
FLATOW: Let's go to the phones. Judy(ph) in Des Moines. Hi, Judy.
JUDY: Hello.
FLATOW: Hi there.
JUDY: I just wanted to relate a incident. In 1973, I was a student at Iowa State University, taking courses in nutrition. And I distinctly remember my professor just mocking Rachel Carson for "Silent Spring" and just lambasting her as some kind of a nutcase for what she was proposing and what she had written in "Silent Spring."
And only after I graduated and, you know, read more about her did I realize, you know, what a prophet she was. And also, since then, living in Iowa, we had had no bald eagles as a result of the pesticides being used. And now, after they've been banned, there's a resurgence of them. They are wonderful to see, and I often think of her and her words that she spoke in "Silent Spring." I just wanted to relay that.
FLATOW: Thank you, Judy.
SOUDER: Thanks, Judy. I'm not sure what they were teaching back in 1973 down in Iowa. But, you know, the record after Carson's death in 1964 - she died of cancer two years after "Silent Spring" was completed - we can certainly see the effect that she had on this country and on the world. In 1970, President Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency, really a direct result of conversations that go back to Carson's time about a need for some sort of federal regulatory authority that could bring some order to the use of pesticides, which were basically being used without any controls at all up until then.
<snip>
