Sixty two years ago, on this day, May 15th, 1963,
Not long after the New Yorker series appeared, President John F. Kennedy announced the formation of a special governmental group to investigate use and control of pesticides, under the direction of the President’s Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). On May 15, 1963, the committee’s report, Pesticides Use and Control, confirmed every point highlighted in Silent Spring.
MacDonald, G. 1998. Environment: The evolution of a concept. IIASA
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 319ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that Rachel Carson had written a book that no publisher was interested in. The New Yorker serialised it and the shit properly hit the fan. The pesticide manufacturers and chemical companies came out swinging of course – all the techniques that would later be standard – smears, strawmanning and the rest of it. Kennedy asked his science guys to look at it…
What I think we can learn from this. We should all stage annual am-dram productions of Henry Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” to remind ourselves of what happens if you alert folks to dangers that will interfere with capital accumulation (in a few hands).
What happened next Carson died of breast cancer in 1964. In terms of people with the biggest impact in the 20th century who isn’t a homicidal maniac, she’s pretty high up the league table.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
References
President’s Advisory Committee on Pesticides, 1963
Also on this day:
May 15, 1932 – great deluge forecast by science, reports New York Times… – All Our Yesterdays
May 15, 1950 – Getting Warmer? Asks Time Magazine… – All Our Yesterdays
May 15, 1972 – Clean Air Conference in Melbourne – All Our Yesterdays
May 15, 2006 – Australian Prime Minister John Howard spouting “nuclear to fix climate” nonsense