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♪ ♪

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♪ ♪

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(car horns honking)

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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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♪ ♪

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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

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"Reader's Digest": "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 Müller

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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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NEWSREEL 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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(newsreel music playing)

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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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NEWSREEL 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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NEWSREEL 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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♪ ♪

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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, "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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NEWSREEL 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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♪ ♪

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MAN (on film): 
I consider this amazing chemical 
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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(birds chirping)

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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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♪ ♪

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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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(birds chirping)

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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,

244
00:12:56,766 --> 00:12:58,900
and one will wish to protect it.

245
00:12:58,900 --> 00:13:01,866
LYTLE: 
Rachel and her mother

246
00:13:01,866 --> 00:13:05,233
would spend their afternoons 
together exploring.

247
00:13:05,233 --> 00:13:08,900
She learned to identify 
wild things

248
00:13:08,900 --> 00:13:10,933
and the songs of birds,

249
00:13:10,933 --> 00:13:14,133
and she could recognize the 
nests, and the flora and fauna.

250
00:13:14,133 --> 00:13:18,966
Her mother taught her to be 
rigorous in her observation,

251
00:13:18,966 --> 00:13:20,366
but it also, of course,

252
00:13:20,366 --> 00:13:23,400
deepened her relationship 
with her mother.

253
00:13:28,666 --> 00:13:32,666
♪ ♪

254
00:13:32,666 --> 00:13:34,666
NARRATOR: 
She was the solitary 
sort of girl

255
00:13:34,666 --> 00:13:37,933
who greeted the birds on the way 
to school in the morning

256
00:13:37,933 --> 00:13:40,833
and was partial to the 
companionship of books.

257
00:13:40,833 --> 00:13:46,033
At the age of eight, she was 
writing stories of her own.

258
00:13:46,033 --> 00:13:50,066
At ten, at her mother's urging, 
Rachel entered a contest

259
00:13:50,066 --> 00:13:52,533
sponsored by the popular 
children's magazine

260
00:13:52,533 --> 00:13:55,666
"St. Nicholas" and became a 
published author.

261
00:13:55,666 --> 00:14:01,200
By 14, she was submitting 
her work to magazines for sale.

262
00:14:02,900 --> 00:14:08,433
MUSIL: 
If we picture a girl in a small 
farm in Nowhere, Pennsylvania,

263
00:14:08,433 --> 00:14:11,666
who is transported 
through literature

264
00:14:11,666 --> 00:14:15,266
and can imagine being elsewhere,

265
00:14:15,266 --> 00:14:20,233
I think she was led to see that 
as something that she could do,

266
00:14:20,233 --> 00:14:22,966
and it was constantly 
reinforced.

267
00:14:25,166 --> 00:14:29,933
LEAR: 
Maria Carson had always wanted 
to go to college and couldn't,

268
00:14:29,933 --> 00:14:32,533
so she was going to be 
quite sure that this daughter,

269
00:14:32,533 --> 00:14:35,433
this smart daughter, 
was going to go to college.

270
00:14:37,466 --> 00:14:41,533
NARRATOR: 
When Rachel won a scholarship to 
Pennsylvania College for Women,

271
00:14:41,533 --> 00:14:43,966
Maria sold off 
even the family china

272
00:14:43,966 --> 00:14:46,066
to help cover 
her daughter's expenses,

273
00:14:46,066 --> 00:14:50,066
then made the 30-mile round trip 
to Pittsburgh most weekends

274
00:14:50,066 --> 00:14:52,433
to visit her.

275
00:14:52,433 --> 00:14:54,433
SOUDER: 
She was the star pupil.

276
00:14:54,433 --> 00:14:58,100
Everyone realized right away 
what a talented writer she was

277
00:14:58,100 --> 00:15:00,300
and also saw that 
this was her ambition in life,

278
00:15:00,300 --> 00:15:03,166
that she wanted to be a writer.

279
00:15:03,166 --> 00:15:07,033
So it came as a great shock when 
she fell in love with biology.

280
00:15:09,566 --> 00:15:11,500
(wildlife chittering)

281
00:15:11,500 --> 00:15:14,833
The science of life 
just struck a chord in her

282
00:15:14,833 --> 00:15:17,866
that I think she didn't realize 
was there.

283
00:15:21,866 --> 00:15:25,400
NARRATOR: 
Thrilled by the prospect of 
understanding the natural world

284
00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:28,433
she'd been taught 
to so closely observe,

285
00:15:28,433 --> 00:15:31,600
Carson changed her major 
from English to biology

286
00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:35,066
and announced her intention 
to go on to graduate school.

287
00:15:37,133 --> 00:15:39,000
She spent the next two years

288
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:42,966
taking courses in zoology, 
physiology, anatomy.

289
00:15:42,966 --> 00:15:46,400
But her true interest

290
00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:48,933
only revealed itself 
after graduation,

291
00:15:48,933 --> 00:15:51,000
when she landed 
a coveted research spot

292
00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:55,266
at the Marine Biology Laboratory 
in Woods Hole, Massachusetts,

293
00:15:55,266 --> 00:15:57,600
and for the first time 
in her life

294
00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:00,700
laid eyes on the ocean.

295
00:16:02,700 --> 00:16:05,333
(waves crashing)

296
00:16:08,100 --> 00:16:12,900
LEAR: 
She's moved beyond just the 
ordinary person would be moved

297
00:16:12,900 --> 00:16:17,800
who would have seen the ocean 
for the first time.

298
00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:19,266
The sea taught her everything

299
00:16:19,266 --> 00:16:22,966
that she later came 
to want to understand

300
00:16:22,966 --> 00:16:26,100
and want the world 
to understand,

301
00:16:26,100 --> 00:16:30,033
that everything was connected 
to everything else.

302
00:16:36,900 --> 00:16:38,466
SOUDER: 
If you study biology

303
00:16:38,466 --> 00:16:42,133
and if you look at how all life 
on Earth has evolved,

304
00:16:42,133 --> 00:16:46,200
eventually you begin 
to see everything in totality.

305
00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:50,800
You can't divorce yourself 
or any other living thing

306
00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:53,666
from the environment 
that we all share.

307
00:16:53,666 --> 00:16:56,933
And Carson was fascinated 
by that.

308
00:17:03,333 --> 00:17:06,966
♪ ♪

309
00:17:06,966 --> 00:17:10,033
LYTLE: 
It was one 
of the most liberating,

310
00:17:10,033 --> 00:17:13,200
expansive experiences 
she ever had in her life.

311
00:17:15,266 --> 00:17:17,833
One of her overriding lessons 
was that the sea,

312
00:17:17,833 --> 00:17:23,700
with all of its massive expanse 
and its varieties of creatures,

313
00:17:23,700 --> 00:17:27,000
was beyond the controlling hand 
of man.

314
00:17:39,633 --> 00:17:41,566
NARRATOR: 
Had it not been 
for the Depression

315
00:17:41,566 --> 00:17:44,400
and her family's dire 
financial straits,

316
00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:47,800
Carson might have become 
a marine biologist.

317
00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:49,266
As it was,

318
00:17:49,266 --> 00:17:52,500
she'd barely started her 
graduate work at Johns Hopkins

319
00:17:52,500 --> 00:17:56,400
before her parents, her 
older sister, and her two nieces

320
00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:59,300
came to live with her 
in Baltimore.

321
00:17:59,300 --> 00:18:02,200
Full-time study gave way 
to part-time study

322
00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:03,700
and part-time work.

323
00:18:03,700 --> 00:18:09,566
Then, when Carson was 28, 
her father died suddenly.

324
00:18:09,566 --> 00:18:12,566
Not long after, her sister died, 
as well,

325
00:18:12,566 --> 00:18:15,800
leaving two daughters 
in Rachel and her mother's care.

326
00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:18,833
Now the family's 
sole breadwinner,

327
00:18:18,833 --> 00:18:22,066
Carson left Johns Hopkins 
with her master's degree

328
00:18:22,066 --> 00:18:24,933
and took a job with 
the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries,

329
00:18:24,933 --> 00:18:26,900
writing an assortment 
of publications

330
00:18:26,900 --> 00:18:32,233
about the bureau's 
marine conservation work.

331
00:18:32,233 --> 00:18:34,766
SOUDER: 
As she's looking over the press 
releases she's writing,

332
00:18:34,766 --> 00:18:36,533
she realizes 
that some of these subjects

333
00:18:36,533 --> 00:18:37,933
are kind of interesting

334
00:18:37,933 --> 00:18:39,566
and could be turned 
into feature stories

335
00:18:39,566 --> 00:18:41,433
for a local newspaper.

336
00:18:41,433 --> 00:18:46,466
So she starts selling stories 
to the "Baltimore Sun"

337
00:18:46,466 --> 00:18:48,800
that are based 
on some of the work

338
00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:53,400
that she's seeing being done 
at the Bureau of Fisheries.

339
00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:54,800
NARRATOR: 
From time to time,

340
00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:57,933
Carson omitted her first name 
from her signature,

341
00:18:57,933 --> 00:19:00,666
believing certain pieces 
would have more credibility

342
00:19:00,666 --> 00:19:04,666
if they were presumed to have 
been written by a man.

343
00:19:04,666 --> 00:19:08,533
Still, as she later said, 
"It was a turning point.

344
00:19:08,533 --> 00:19:11,166
"I had given up writing forever, 
I thought.

345
00:19:11,166 --> 00:19:12,700
"It never occurred to me

346
00:19:12,700 --> 00:19:17,100
that I was merely getting 
something to write about."

347
00:19:17,100 --> 00:19:19,266
SOUDER: 
She has at last found this way

348
00:19:19,266 --> 00:19:22,233
to combine her two passions 
in life.

349
00:19:22,233 --> 00:19:25,166
Biology and writing merge,

350
00:19:25,166 --> 00:19:28,300
and I think really 
from that time forward,

351
00:19:28,300 --> 00:19:31,566
she never thinks of them 
as being separate things.

352
00:19:31,566 --> 00:19:36,866
What she is is someone 
who writes about science.

353
00:19:36,866 --> 00:19:40,900
NARRATOR: 
In 1937, a piece Carson 
published in "The Atlantic"

354
00:19:40,900 --> 00:19:43,666
came to the attention 
of Simon & Schuster,

355
00:19:43,666 --> 00:19:45,833
which offered her 
a small advance

356
00:19:45,833 --> 00:19:48,000
for a book about the sea.

357
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:50,200
Hopeful the opportunity 
would help her

358
00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:51,833
make the leap 
to full-time writer,

359
00:19:51,833 --> 00:19:54,833
she poured three years' worth 
of nights and weekends

360
00:19:54,833 --> 00:19:58,233
into the book, 
a kind of literary triptych

361
00:19:58,233 --> 00:20:00,600
about the lives 
of three sea creatures.

362
00:20:02,900 --> 00:20:06,566
"Under the Sea-Wind" earned 
early critical praise,

363
00:20:06,566 --> 00:20:10,000
but the rush to the bookstore 
Carson had dreamed of

364
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:13,300
never happened.

365
00:20:13,300 --> 00:20:18,133
(bombs streaking and exploding)

366
00:20:18,133 --> 00:20:20,800
SOUDER: 
A few weeks after the book 
is released,

367
00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:22,733
the Japanese attack 
Pearl Harbor,

368
00:20:22,733 --> 00:20:26,533
and everybody's attention 
shifts from books,

369
00:20:26,533 --> 00:20:28,766
certainly from slight books,

370
00:20:28,766 --> 00:20:31,866
like a book about creatures 
that live in the ocean.

371
00:20:31,866 --> 00:20:34,700
And "Under The Sea-Wind" just 
kind of vanishes

372
00:20:34,700 --> 00:20:38,733
without a trace, 
never sells even 2,000 copies.

373
00:20:38,733 --> 00:20:44,433
NARRATOR: 
For Carson, there would be 
no escape from her day job.

374
00:20:44,433 --> 00:20:48,066
The Bureau of Fisheries by then 
had merged with another agency

375
00:20:48,066 --> 00:20:51,366
to become the 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

376
00:20:51,366 --> 00:20:54,800
but Carson's position 
was essentially unchanged.

377
00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:59,966
And though she excelled in it, 
it was not work that she loved.

378
00:20:59,966 --> 00:21:01,866
♪ ♪

379
00:21:01,866 --> 00:21:05,500
By the time the war came 
to an end, in 1945,

380
00:21:05,500 --> 00:21:07,800
she was back 
to pitching feature stories

381
00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:10,466
and frustrated beyond measure.

382
00:21:10,466 --> 00:21:12,733
What she was, 
as a friend put it,

383
00:21:12,733 --> 00:21:14,566
was a "would-be writer

384
00:21:14,566 --> 00:21:19,333
who could not afford the time 
for creative work."

385
00:21:19,333 --> 00:21:23,533
LEAR: 
I don't think Rachel sees 
that there's much alternative.

386
00:21:23,533 --> 00:21:27,100
She's got a good job, 
she's got family to support.

387
00:21:27,100 --> 00:21:28,900
So she's really stuck.

388
00:21:28,900 --> 00:21:31,433
She felt she'd come 
to an obstacle

389
00:21:31,433 --> 00:21:34,666
that didn't have 
any easy way around.

390
00:21:37,066 --> 00:21:38,900
Really for the first time 
in her life,

391
00:21:38,900 --> 00:21:41,900
I think she really didn't see 
the way forward.

392
00:21:41,900 --> 00:21:45,266
And I think she was in the "now 
what?" phase for several years.

393
00:21:49,166 --> 00:21:50,833
ANNOUNCER: 
Headlines in Chemistry.

394
00:21:50,833 --> 00:21:54,133
(newsreel music playing)

395
00:21:55,633 --> 00:21:57,700
ANNOUNCER 2: 
And here is our first headline.

396
00:21:57,700 --> 00:22:00,866
Science can now rid the country 
of mosquitoes.

397
00:22:00,866 --> 00:22:02,366
ANNOUNCER 3: 
The mosquito is doomed!

398
00:22:02,366 --> 00:22:04,400
And so is the tiny bloodthirsty 
black fly.

399
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:07,800
These biting insects can now 
be completely wiped out

400
00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:10,633
by man-made fogs 
loaded with DDT.

401
00:22:10,633 --> 00:22:16,400
NARRATOR: 
Not long after "Reader's Digest" 
declined Carson's DDT piece,

402
00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:20,266
the "miracle pesticide" 
was released for civilian use.

403
00:22:20,266 --> 00:22:25,000
For the first time, 
the insect-borne scourges

404
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,600
that spread disease 
and ravaged crops

405
00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:30,000
seemed subject to man's control.

406
00:22:32,033 --> 00:22:34,200
LYTLE: 
Most people were inclined 
to think of humans

407
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:36,633
as the superior, apex species,

408
00:22:36,633 --> 00:22:40,433
and that the rest of the animal, 
plant kingdom

409
00:22:40,433 --> 00:22:41,966
existed for our convenience,

410
00:22:41,966 --> 00:22:45,533
and that man's function was 
to dominate

411
00:22:45,533 --> 00:22:50,133
and in a sense 
bend nature to his purposes.

412
00:22:50,133 --> 00:22:52,900
And so the ethos of science 
and technology

413
00:22:52,900 --> 00:22:55,233
is that humans could improve 
on nature.

414
00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:03,033
SOUDER: 
DDT was going to end diseases 
like malaria and typhus.

415
00:23:03,033 --> 00:23:06,900
It was going to greatly increase 
agricultural output.

416
00:23:08,266 --> 00:23:11,133
DDT was thought to be 
so important

417
00:23:11,133 --> 00:23:14,166
that Paul Müller won the 
Nobel Prize for discovering DDT.

418
00:23:16,500 --> 00:23:21,766
NARRATOR: 
Cheap and long-lasting, DDT 
was rushed into widespread use

419
00:23:21,766 --> 00:23:23,900
practically overnight.

420
00:23:23,900 --> 00:23:26,233
In the southeastern 
United States,

421
00:23:26,233 --> 00:23:28,233
where malaria was rife,

422
00:23:28,233 --> 00:23:31,900
a coalition of state and 
local health agencies

423
00:23:31,900 --> 00:23:35,500
treated some four-and-a-half 
million homes with DDT.

424
00:23:35,500 --> 00:23:39,766
By 1951, malaria had been 
eliminated

425
00:23:39,766 --> 00:23:42,300
from the entire country.

426
00:23:42,300 --> 00:23:45,500
(engine buzzing)

427
00:23:48,266 --> 00:23:51,133
The U.S. Department 
of Agriculture, meanwhile,

428
00:23:51,133 --> 00:23:54,233
promoted DDT to farmers

429
00:23:54,233 --> 00:23:56,266
and, in conjunction 
with the military,

430
00:23:56,266 --> 00:23:59,466
sold thousands of decommissioned 
planes as crop dusters,

431
00:23:59,466 --> 00:24:03,066
boosting agricultural yields 
across the country.

432
00:24:05,633 --> 00:24:07,800
SOUDER: 
It's hard to understand now

433
00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:09,800
because it seems instinctive 
to us.

434
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:12,200
But the idea that a chemical

435
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:16,166
might present a hazard 
to your health

436
00:24:16,166 --> 00:24:18,333
or to the well-being 
of the natural environment,

437
00:24:18,333 --> 00:24:21,033
this was not front-of-mind 
for anybody at the time.

438
00:24:21,033 --> 00:24:25,600
There was really no rigorous 
testing of these chemicals

439
00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:27,133
to ensure their safety.

440
00:24:27,133 --> 00:24:29,233
There was much greater attention 
paid

441
00:24:29,233 --> 00:24:30,400
to whether they were effective.

442
00:24:32,700 --> 00:24:37,233
BLUM: 
Nature was big, and dark, 
and scary, and dangerous

443
00:24:37,233 --> 00:24:40,566
in profound ways 
through much of human history.

444
00:24:40,566 --> 00:24:43,633
So when people looked at nature,

445
00:24:43,633 --> 00:24:45,533
they saw that the world 
would be safer

446
00:24:45,533 --> 00:24:46,933
if they could master it.

447
00:24:46,933 --> 00:24:51,866
And when you get something 
that looks like a tool,

448
00:24:51,866 --> 00:24:53,000
a "magic bullet,"

449
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,033
you want the magic bullet.

450
00:24:57,866 --> 00:25:01,100
♪ ♪

451
00:25:01,100 --> 00:25:03,966
NARRATOR: 
Spurred by the success of DDT,

452
00:25:03,966 --> 00:25:07,466
chemists soon created a host 
of new pesticidal compounds:

453
00:25:07,466 --> 00:25:11,933
endrin, dieldrin, toxaphene.

454
00:25:11,933 --> 00:25:15,166
Over the decade to come, 
all would be weapons

455
00:25:15,166 --> 00:25:17,566
in the struggle 
to master nature.

456
00:25:17,566 --> 00:25:22,400
KINKELA: 
So you see an explosion 
of American science

457
00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:25,333
that has the potential to solve 
deep-seated problems

458
00:25:25,333 --> 00:25:28,066
of famine and disease 
around the world.

459
00:25:28,066 --> 00:25:31,700
And so there's this sense 
of a quest.

460
00:25:31,700 --> 00:25:34,866
We have the tools, 
we have the technology,

461
00:25:34,866 --> 00:25:38,500
we have the know-how, 
and this is our moment.

462
00:25:48,433 --> 00:25:51,500
NARRATOR: 
On an overcast morning 
in July 1949,

463
00:25:51,500 --> 00:25:53,833
Rachel Carson found herself

464
00:25:53,833 --> 00:25:56,366
in a boat 
off the coast of Miami,

465
00:25:56,366 --> 00:25:58,933
staring down 
into the storm-churned waters

466
00:25:58,933 --> 00:26:01,400
of Biscayne Bay.

467
00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:04,100
After five years spent 
making the best of her job

468
00:26:04,100 --> 00:26:06,400
at the Fish and Wildlife 
Service,

469
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:08,333
she'd begun to toy with the idea

470
00:26:08,333 --> 00:26:11,000
of writing another book 
about the sea,

471
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:12,966
and this time, 
she was determined

472
00:26:12,966 --> 00:26:16,966
to experience her subject 
firsthand.

473
00:26:16,966 --> 00:26:20,000
SOUDER: 
She probably didn't let on that 
she was a very poor swimmer.

474
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:22,333
She didn't like boats.

475
00:26:22,333 --> 00:26:25,533
You know, she was happy being in 
up to about her knees,

476
00:26:25,533 --> 00:26:29,066
and beyond that she really 
wasn't very comfortable.

477
00:26:29,066 --> 00:26:32,400
But she felt that if she could 
somehow muster the courage

478
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:33,800
to go under the surface,

479
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:35,833
that it would be illuminating 
and helpful to her

480
00:26:35,833 --> 00:26:38,166
in her writing.

481
00:26:38,166 --> 00:26:39,700
NARRATOR: 
From her desk in Maryland,

482
00:26:39,700 --> 00:26:41,500
it had seemed critical 
to her research

483
00:26:41,500 --> 00:26:43,033
that she make this dive.

484
00:26:43,033 --> 00:26:46,033
But now, on the boat,

485
00:26:46,033 --> 00:26:48,866
the prospect of simply 
getting into the water

486
00:26:48,866 --> 00:26:51,766
seemed impossibly daunting.

487
00:26:51,766 --> 00:26:54,700
The diving helmet alone 
weighed 84 pounds.

488
00:26:54,700 --> 00:26:59,900
Carson, at 5 feet, 4 inches 
tall, weighed all of 120.

489
00:27:02,233 --> 00:27:05,600
Trembling, she managed 
to descend about eight feet,

490
00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:07,466
to the bottom 
of the boat's ladder,

491
00:27:07,466 --> 00:27:10,933
staying just long enough to note 
the presence of seaweed

492
00:27:10,933 --> 00:27:13,800
and a few vibrantly colored 
fish.

493
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,900
She never once let go 
of the ladder's rung.

494
00:27:17,900 --> 00:27:20,033
SOUDER: 
Her facemask kind of clouded up.

495
00:27:20,033 --> 00:27:22,433
She was breathing heavily, 
she was terrified.

496
00:27:22,433 --> 00:27:23,866
But she spent a few minutes 
there

497
00:27:23,866 --> 00:27:25,433
and then climbed back 
up the ladder

498
00:27:25,433 --> 00:27:27,466
and went home.

499
00:27:30,033 --> 00:27:32,600
NARRATOR: 
Carson judged the dive 
a success,

500
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:34,133
because she'd at least been able

501
00:27:34,133 --> 00:27:37,100
to glimpse the ocean's surface 
from below.

502
00:27:37,100 --> 00:27:40,100
But as research, 
it was largely irrelevant:

503
00:27:40,100 --> 00:27:44,000
the new book was to be based 
not on firsthand observation,

504
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:46,833
but rather on the surfeit 
of oceanographic studies

505
00:27:46,833 --> 00:27:50,366
that lately had been piling up 
on her desk.

506
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,833
ORESKES: 
Up until World War II, 
nobody really worried much

507
00:27:57,833 --> 00:28:00,933
about what happened 
below the waves.

508
00:28:00,933 --> 00:28:02,800
But in World War II,

509
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:05,300
submarine warfare becomes 
important for the first time,

510
00:28:05,300 --> 00:28:08,433
and the only way you can operate 
in the submarine environment

511
00:28:08,433 --> 00:28:11,566
is with a very, very detailed 
understanding of the ocean.

512
00:28:11,566 --> 00:28:14,500
(sonar pinging)

513
00:28:14,500 --> 00:28:16,233
And so we start learning 
a tremendous amount

514
00:28:16,233 --> 00:28:19,233
about the ocean and 
about the life in the deep ocean

515
00:28:19,233 --> 00:28:22,900
that had been quite mysterious 
before that.

516
00:28:22,900 --> 00:28:24,166
And the idea that there was

517
00:28:24,166 --> 00:28:25,566
all this amazing diverse life 
in the ocean

518
00:28:25,566 --> 00:28:28,100
that we didn't really know about 
and that is existing

519
00:28:28,100 --> 00:28:30,600
as a kind 
of parallel universe,

520
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:33,600
I think that that really 
captured her.

521
00:28:37,566 --> 00:28:42,266
LEAR: 
Carson wanted to be 
the biographer of the ocean.

522
00:28:42,266 --> 00:28:45,000
She wanted certainly to tell 
about its beauty

523
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,366
and about how intricate 
nature was.

524
00:28:48,366 --> 00:28:52,400
It's the same question 
that she approached

525
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:54,600
in "Under the Sea-Wind,"

526
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:56,766
only now there was 
all this information

527
00:28:56,766 --> 00:29:00,500
that she could tap.

528
00:29:00,500 --> 00:29:03,633
She had access 
to confidential information.

529
00:29:03,633 --> 00:29:05,200
She had access to war records.

530
00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:08,833
She had access 
to submarine research.

531
00:29:08,833 --> 00:29:11,166
She was a master synthesizer.

532
00:29:11,166 --> 00:29:13,666
She could take information 
from this place and that place

533
00:29:13,666 --> 00:29:16,033
and then see 
how it went together

534
00:29:16,033 --> 00:29:19,300
in ways that I don't think 
very many people can do.

535
00:29:19,300 --> 00:29:22,166
♪ ♪

536
00:29:22,166 --> 00:29:24,766
SOUDER: 
Carson's technique 
was to identify

537
00:29:24,766 --> 00:29:26,833
the leading experts 
in the field,

538
00:29:26,833 --> 00:29:30,600
ask a few harmless questions 
about their work,

539
00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:32,833
and then once she got 
her foot in the door with them,

540
00:29:32,833 --> 00:29:34,166
to expand the questioning

541
00:29:34,166 --> 00:29:35,866
so that she could really pick 
their brains.

542
00:29:38,333 --> 00:29:40,900
NARRATOR: 
In the evenings, 
after a full day at the office

543
00:29:40,900 --> 00:29:42,900
and dinner with her mother,

544
00:29:42,900 --> 00:29:45,200
Carson cloistered herself 
in her study

545
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:49,100
and worked on her book, 
sometimes until dawn.

546
00:29:51,033 --> 00:29:54,966
DEBORAH CRAMER: 
Once you have all these 
hundreds and hundreds of papers,

547
00:29:54,966 --> 00:29:59,033
you need to shape them 
in some kind of narrative,

548
00:29:59,033 --> 00:30:02,200
and that requires 
a very different prose style

549
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:05,100
than what she was reading.

550
00:30:05,100 --> 00:30:08,700
And so when you go about 
taking that material

551
00:30:08,700 --> 00:30:12,833
and transforming it, 
but still being true to it,

552
00:30:12,833 --> 00:30:15,933
it's just an extraordinarily 
difficult thing,

553
00:30:15,933 --> 00:30:19,933
because when you choose 
different words to describe it,

554
00:30:19,933 --> 00:30:21,800
you run the risk

555
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,933
of mistranslating 
what you're reading.

556
00:30:27,100 --> 00:30:32,133
LEAR: 
It was a painstaking process 
because she was a perfectionist.

557
00:30:32,133 --> 00:30:34,300
She had to get 
the first sentence right

558
00:30:34,300 --> 00:30:36,400
before she could go 
to the second sentence.

559
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:38,733
And then she'd revise.

560
00:30:38,733 --> 00:30:41,966
It takes a long time for her 
to get something that she likes,

561
00:30:41,966 --> 00:30:46,033
and then in the morning, 
she's likely to revise it again,

562
00:30:46,033 --> 00:30:47,733
so things go very slowly.

563
00:30:49,566 --> 00:30:52,200
NARRATOR: 
Determined that this book 
would not languish

564
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:54,333
as "Under the Sea-Wind" had,

565
00:30:54,333 --> 00:30:58,033
Carson signed on with a literary 
agent named Marie Rodell,

566
00:30:58,033 --> 00:31:00,233
who sold the volume 
to Oxford Press

567
00:31:00,233 --> 00:31:01,866
even before it had a title.

568
00:31:01,866 --> 00:31:04,066
"Current suggestions

569
00:31:04,066 --> 00:31:07,233
from irreverent friends 
and relatives," Carson joked,

570
00:31:07,233 --> 00:31:13,000
"include 'Out of My Depth' 
and 'Carson at Sea.'"

571
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,000
By the spring of 1950, 
the manuscript,

572
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:18,700
now bearing the title 
"The Sea Around Us,"

573
00:31:18,700 --> 00:31:20,933
was nearly finished.

574
00:31:20,933 --> 00:31:24,300
Hoping to foster advance 
interest in its publication,

575
00:31:24,300 --> 00:31:28,333
Rodell began shopping excerpts 
to magazines.

576
00:31:28,333 --> 00:31:30,866
15 turned the material down

577
00:31:30,866 --> 00:31:33,966
before it finally made its way 
to William Shawn,

578
00:31:33,966 --> 00:31:35,833
editor of the "New Yorker,"

579
00:31:35,833 --> 00:31:40,433
who offered to publish ten 
of the book's chapters.

580
00:31:40,433 --> 00:31:43,833
SOUDER: 
This is the turning point 
in Carson's career.

581
00:31:43,833 --> 00:31:46,333
The "New Yorker" 
is a very prestigious,

582
00:31:46,333 --> 00:31:48,900
widely read, widely respected 
magazine,

583
00:31:48,900 --> 00:31:51,800
and so to be serialized 
in the "New Yorker,"

584
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:54,166
to have your work preview there

585
00:31:54,166 --> 00:31:55,866
ahead of its publication 
as a book

586
00:31:55,866 --> 00:31:57,633
is almost a guarantee 
of success.

587
00:31:59,866 --> 00:32:03,333
NARRATOR: 
Carson would clear more from 
the "New Yorker" serialization

588
00:32:03,333 --> 00:32:05,233
than she did from an entire year

589
00:32:05,233 --> 00:32:08,033
at the Fish and Wildlife 
Service.

590
00:32:08,033 --> 00:32:11,066
"I am still in a daze," 
she cabled Rodell.

591
00:32:11,066 --> 00:32:15,800
"All I know is how lucky I am 
to have you."

592
00:32:22,100 --> 00:32:24,433
(people chattering, 
car horns honking)

593
00:32:26,333 --> 00:32:31,333
By the time Carson's book went 
to print in the spring of 1951,

594
00:32:31,333 --> 00:32:33,533
the world seemed to be cleaving 
in two.

595
00:32:33,533 --> 00:32:38,366
The Soviet Union had shaken 
Americans' sense of security

596
00:32:38,366 --> 00:32:40,800
with the successful test 
of an atomic bomb.

597
00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:44,633
Communist forces had triumphed 
in China.

598
00:32:44,633 --> 00:32:48,033
Now there was 
a pervasive feeling

599
00:32:48,033 --> 00:32:50,833
that the struggle to stem 
the red tide

600
00:32:50,833 --> 00:32:52,466
would be unremitting.

601
00:32:52,466 --> 00:32:54,566
ANNOUNCER: 
From the White House 
in Washington, D.C.,

602
00:32:54,566 --> 00:32:56,466
President Harry S. Truman.

603
00:32:56,466 --> 00:32:58,466
TRUMAN: 
My fellow Americans,

604
00:32:58,466 --> 00:33:01,000
I want to talk to you plainly 
tonight

605
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:04,100
about what we are doing in Korea

606
00:33:04,100 --> 00:33:07,633
and about our policy 
in the Far East.

607
00:33:07,633 --> 00:33:10,966
In the simplest terms, 
what we are doing in Korea

608
00:33:10,966 --> 00:33:16,366
is this: we are trying 
to prevent a third world war.

609
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,566
NARRATOR: 
Against the backdrop of war, 
both hot and cold,

610
00:33:21,566 --> 00:33:23,533
Carson worried 
that her second book

611
00:33:23,533 --> 00:33:25,966
would founder like the first.

612
00:33:25,966 --> 00:33:28,400
But thanks to the "New Yorker" 
serialization,

613
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,133
readers snapped it up 
all across the country

614
00:33:31,133 --> 00:33:36,033
and found in its pages 
an antidote to anxiety.

615
00:33:38,166 --> 00:33:41,933
♪ ♪

616
00:33:43,700 --> 00:33:45,400
READER: 
"The whole world ocean extends

617
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:49,400
"over about three-fourths 
of the surface of the globe.

618
00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:52,700
"If we subtract the shallow 
areas of the continental shelves

619
00:33:52,700 --> 00:33:54,733
"and the scattered banks 
and shoals,

620
00:33:54,733 --> 00:33:57,266
"where at least the pale ghost 
of sunlight

621
00:33:57,266 --> 00:34:00,433
"moves over the underlying 
bottom,

622
00:34:00,433 --> 00:34:02,900
"there still remains 
about half the Earth

623
00:34:02,900 --> 00:34:07,233
"that is covered by miles-deep, 
lightless water,

624
00:34:07,233 --> 00:34:10,733
that has been dark 
since the world began."

625
00:34:13,766 --> 00:34:17,233
NARRATOR: 
Drawing upon all that was then 
known about the ocean,

626
00:34:17,233 --> 00:34:21,133
Carson told the story 
of its life over the eons

627
00:34:21,133 --> 00:34:24,500
and revealed a natural realm 
largely indifferent

628
00:34:24,500 --> 00:34:28,266
to the rhythms of man.

629
00:34:28,266 --> 00:34:33,033
SOUDER: 
It's a book that is jammed with 
news from the natural world.

630
00:34:33,033 --> 00:34:36,066
It's about currents, 
about the propagation of waves,

631
00:34:36,066 --> 00:34:41,800
about storm systems, about the 
ocean's relationship to climate.

632
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:44,133
You have to remember 
that this is all new.

633
00:34:44,133 --> 00:34:47,666
Nobody knows 
what the ocean is like.

634
00:34:47,666 --> 00:34:52,600
So there's a lot 
of really compelling information

635
00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:54,466
that transcends that term.

636
00:34:54,466 --> 00:34:58,133
It's not just information, 
it's revelation.

637
00:34:58,133 --> 00:35:02,100
It's this immersive experience.

638
00:35:02,100 --> 00:35:05,200
NARRATOR: 
"It is a work of science," 
one critic raved.

639
00:35:05,200 --> 00:35:07,666
"It is stamped with authority.

640
00:35:07,666 --> 00:35:09,366
"It is a work of art:

641
00:35:09,366 --> 00:35:12,933
"It is saturated 
with the excitement of mystery.

642
00:35:12,933 --> 00:35:15,533
It is literature."

643
00:35:15,533 --> 00:35:21,333
CRAMER: 
What she has done is to take 
a very complicated subject

644
00:35:21,333 --> 00:35:25,500
and distill it into its essence,

645
00:35:25,500 --> 00:35:30,033
and bring the reader 
right there.

646
00:35:30,033 --> 00:35:32,066
So science, which can be

647
00:35:32,066 --> 00:35:36,333
extraordinarily impersonal 
and dry,

648
00:35:36,333 --> 00:35:42,133
has suddenly become immediate 
and very important.

649
00:35:45,300 --> 00:35:48,233
NARRATOR: 
Three weeks after it appeared 
in bookstores,

650
00:35:48,233 --> 00:35:50,300
"The Sea Around Us" made

651
00:35:50,300 --> 00:35:52,166
the "New York Times" bestseller 
list.

652
00:35:52,166 --> 00:35:56,133
Amid the near-universal praise 
for the book,

653
00:35:56,133 --> 00:35:59,733
there occasionally emerged 
a distorted portrait of Carson

654
00:35:59,733 --> 00:36:03,533
as a working scientist 
with rare literary gifts,

655
00:36:03,533 --> 00:36:07,000
or as an experienced diver 
who'd come to know her subject

656
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:09,400
at a depth of a hundred feet.

657
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:11,100
Thrilled about the book's 
success

658
00:36:11,100 --> 00:36:14,200
but dismayed at the attention 
focused on its author,

659
00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:17,366
Carson did nothing 
to correct the misconceptions.

660
00:36:17,366 --> 00:36:18,866
SOUDER: 
Critic after critic

661
00:36:18,866 --> 00:36:23,933
would remark in some way, 
either offhandedly or directly,

662
00:36:23,933 --> 00:36:25,633
how amazing it was

663
00:36:25,633 --> 00:36:27,833
that a woman understood 
these technical matters

664
00:36:27,833 --> 00:36:29,833
and wrote so beautifully 
about them,

665
00:36:29,833 --> 00:36:33,066
particularly because the ocean 
was such a hostile place,

666
00:36:33,066 --> 00:36:36,833
where, you know, 
presumably only men could go.

667
00:36:36,833 --> 00:36:38,433
So Carson had to endure that.

668
00:36:38,433 --> 00:36:41,933
And so I think 
letting this fiction stand

669
00:36:41,933 --> 00:36:44,300
was her little way 
of kind of getting even

670
00:36:44,300 --> 00:36:47,933
with the people that doubted her 
or doubted her gender.

671
00:36:47,933 --> 00:36:51,333
I think it amused her.

672
00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:56,100
NARRATOR: 
By early September, 
"The Sea Around Us"

673
00:36:56,100 --> 00:36:59,600
had reached number one 
on the bestseller list.

674
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:05,600
There it would remain 
for an astonishing 32 weeks.

675
00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:09,400
When it at last dropped a notch, 
it was joined on the list

676
00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:11,600
by a re-issue 
of Carson's first book,

677
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:13,400
in what the "New York Times" 
called

678
00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:18,066
a "publishing phenomenon as rare 
as a total solar eclipse."

679
00:37:18,066 --> 00:37:24,066
At 44, Rachel Carson, 
the one-time "would-be writer,"

680
00:37:24,066 --> 00:37:28,933
had two of the country's 
non-fiction bestsellers.

681
00:37:28,933 --> 00:37:30,433
LYTLE: 
"The Sea Around Us" was

682
00:37:30,433 --> 00:37:33,933
one of the bestselling 
science books of all time.

683
00:37:33,933 --> 00:37:36,200
It sold 
almost two million copies

684
00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:39,066
in its initial publication.

685
00:37:39,066 --> 00:37:42,600
It was also translated into, 
I think, 30 foreign languages,

686
00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:45,666
so it was an international 
bestseller.

687
00:37:47,033 --> 00:37:49,100
It won the National Book Award.

688
00:37:49,100 --> 00:37:50,866
So it really made her 
a public figure

689
00:37:50,866 --> 00:37:55,200
with a very large following.

690
00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:57,400
NARRATOR: 
"We have been troubled 
about the world,

691
00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:01,166
and had almost lost faith in 
man," one reader wrote Carson.

692
00:38:01,166 --> 00:38:04,500
"It helps to think about 
the long history of the Earth,

693
00:38:04,500 --> 00:38:06,766
"and of how life came to be.

694
00:38:06,766 --> 00:38:09,766
"When we think in terms 
of millions of years,

695
00:38:09,766 --> 00:38:11,333
"we are not so impatient

696
00:38:11,333 --> 00:38:14,400
that our own problems 
be solved tomorrow."

697
00:38:19,666 --> 00:38:21,433
You have a grandstand seat here

698
00:38:21,433 --> 00:38:23,066
to one of the most momentous 
events

699
00:38:23,066 --> 00:38:24,633
in the history of science.

700
00:38:24,633 --> 00:38:29,666
This is the first full-scale 
test of a hydrogen device.

701
00:38:29,666 --> 00:38:34,333
If the reaction goes, 
we're in the thermonuclear era.

702
00:38:34,333 --> 00:38:37,566
MAN (on loudspeaker): 
It is now 30 seconds 
to zero time.

703
00:38:37,566 --> 00:38:39,933
Put on goggles or turn away.

704
00:38:39,933 --> 00:38:45,000
MAN (on loudspeaker): 
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

705
00:38:48,900 --> 00:38:53,500
♪ ♪

706
00:39:00,433 --> 00:39:01,900
(low rumbling)

707
00:39:01,900 --> 00:39:02,933
(explosion booming)

708
00:39:07,766 --> 00:39:13,033
♪ ♪

709
00:39:13,033 --> 00:39:16,033
LEAR: 
Carson was always aware, 
I think,

710
00:39:16,033 --> 00:39:19,166
from, especially, 
her time in government,

711
00:39:19,166 --> 00:39:21,833
that some people looked 
at science

712
00:39:21,833 --> 00:39:25,533
as discovering 
something beautiful and new,

713
00:39:25,533 --> 00:39:27,900
and some people 
looked at science

714
00:39:27,900 --> 00:39:31,633
as discovering ways 
in which to wage war,

715
00:39:31,633 --> 00:39:36,000
to destroy things, 
not to create things,

716
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:37,666
that by the time 
of the Cold War,

717
00:39:37,666 --> 00:39:43,133
there are really two sciences 
going on in the United States.

718
00:39:43,133 --> 00:39:47,233
NARRATOR: 
World War II had raised 
the profile of American science.

719
00:39:47,233 --> 00:39:50,433
Now the Cold War made it soar.

720
00:39:52,133 --> 00:39:56,533
KINKELA: 
The atom was used 
in a very destructive way,

721
00:39:56,533 --> 00:39:58,833
but it also suggested 
in many ways

722
00:39:58,833 --> 00:40:03,100
that science was at the 
forefront of something grand.

723
00:40:03,100 --> 00:40:08,033
This is the way in which we will 
solve the problems of the world.

724
00:40:13,233 --> 00:40:15,366
NARRATOR: 
The laboratory was no longer 
merely the source

725
00:40:15,366 --> 00:40:17,633
of the nation's military might.

726
00:40:17,633 --> 00:40:20,533
It was also, ever increasingly,

727
00:40:20,533 --> 00:40:22,333
a font of ingenious chemical 
tools

728
00:40:22,333 --> 00:40:24,966
that gave mankind an edge

729
00:40:24,966 --> 00:40:27,600
against its enemies 
in the natural world.

730
00:40:29,166 --> 00:40:31,466
KINKELA: 
For any sort of question 
that deals with nature,

731
00:40:31,466 --> 00:40:34,166
what is emerging 
in the postwar period

732
00:40:34,166 --> 00:40:37,466
is that chemicals 
will solve the problem.

733
00:40:37,466 --> 00:40:41,500
So if your question is about 
crop production, more chemicals.

734
00:40:41,500 --> 00:40:44,733
If your question is about 
public health, more chemicals.

735
00:40:44,733 --> 00:40:46,466
If your question is about,

736
00:40:46,466 --> 00:40:49,033
"How do I protect my home 
from these unwanted pests?"

737
00:40:49,033 --> 00:40:50,066
More chemicals.

738
00:40:51,933 --> 00:40:55,266
BLUM: 
People are worshiping at the 
altar of science and technology

739
00:40:55,266 --> 00:41:00,133
because finally it's making us 
the human masters of the planet,

740
00:41:00,133 --> 00:41:04,100
and we're taking 
this incredibly dangerous,

741
00:41:04,100 --> 00:41:05,833
un-nurturing landscape,

742
00:41:05,833 --> 00:41:09,666
and it is now under our control.

743
00:41:09,666 --> 00:41:13,900
Science is rewriting 
the way we live on Earth.

744
00:41:13,900 --> 00:41:19,466
And so there was 
very little questioning.

745
00:41:19,466 --> 00:41:22,366
NARRATOR: 
Rachel Carson was less sure.

746
00:41:22,366 --> 00:41:25,733
To her, there seemed something 
dangerous about a world

747
00:41:25,733 --> 00:41:28,766
in which human ingenuity 
knew no limits.

748
00:41:30,533 --> 00:41:34,966
LEAR: 
She sees human beings 
in their post-World War II form

749
00:41:34,966 --> 00:41:37,900
as being arrogant,

750
00:41:37,900 --> 00:41:41,300
that human arrogance 
outruns human wisdom,

751
00:41:41,300 --> 00:41:44,200
and we ought to try 
to put them back together

752
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:45,866
as equals again.

753
00:41:48,033 --> 00:41:51,433
(waves gently lapping rocks)

754
00:41:57,900 --> 00:42:00,466
NARRATOR: 
When the demands of promoting 
"The Sea Around Us"

755
00:42:00,466 --> 00:42:02,533
threatened to overwhelm her,

756
00:42:02,533 --> 00:42:04,966
Carson escaped to Maine,

757
00:42:04,966 --> 00:42:07,466
to a remote stretch 
of the central coast

758
00:42:07,466 --> 00:42:10,233
where slivers of land reach out 
into the ocean

759
00:42:10,233 --> 00:42:12,466
and the tides rise higher 
than anywhere

760
00:42:12,466 --> 00:42:15,466
along the Atlantic seaboard.

761
00:42:17,866 --> 00:42:20,266
A research trip had 
first brought her to the area

762
00:42:20,266 --> 00:42:22,033
some years before,

763
00:42:22,033 --> 00:42:23,833
and it had since been 
her ambition,

764
00:42:23,833 --> 00:42:25,633
as she'd put it to a friend,

765
00:42:25,633 --> 00:42:27,533
"to be able to buy a place here

766
00:42:27,533 --> 00:42:31,266
and then manage to spend 
a great deal of time in it."

767
00:42:32,966 --> 00:42:35,533
♪ ♪

768
00:42:35,533 --> 00:42:39,366
Now, flush from the sales 
of two bestselling books,

769
00:42:39,366 --> 00:42:42,333
she purchased a plot 
on Southport Island

770
00:42:42,333 --> 00:42:45,100
and built a summer cottage 
of her own.

771
00:42:47,033 --> 00:42:49,900
SOUDER: 
At the edge of her property,

772
00:42:49,900 --> 00:42:55,266
there's this large area 
of rocky shelf tableland

773
00:42:55,266 --> 00:42:56,933
that at high tide 
is under the water,

774
00:42:56,933 --> 00:43:00,200
but at low tide is exposed.

775
00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:02,700
And so this exposes 
all the crevices

776
00:43:02,700 --> 00:43:04,900
and nooks and tidal pools

777
00:43:04,900 --> 00:43:10,200
where starfish and periwinkles 
and sea anemones live.

778
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:12,866
All these creatures 
of this intertidal zone

779
00:43:12,866 --> 00:43:17,033
that so fascinated Carson 
and always had,

780
00:43:17,033 --> 00:43:20,400
that's all available to her 
right there.

781
00:43:23,633 --> 00:43:27,766
MUSIL: 
She identifies with the 
creatures who live on the edge,

782
00:43:27,766 --> 00:43:32,533
this borderland 
between the power of water

783
00:43:32,533 --> 00:43:34,333
that could also crush you,

784
00:43:34,333 --> 00:43:37,800
and its ability to release life 
and to create new life.

785
00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:45,233
Rachel wanted to be still, 
to feel and to imagine,

786
00:43:45,233 --> 00:43:49,266
and this was the place 
that would allow her to do that.

787
00:43:55,333 --> 00:43:57,566
NARRATOR: 
Before her house 
was even habitable,

788
00:43:57,566 --> 00:44:01,166
Carson received a letter 
from a Mrs. Dorothy Freeman,

789
00:44:01,166 --> 00:44:04,533
whose family owned a cottage 
a half-mile up the shoreline

790
00:44:04,533 --> 00:44:05,933
from Carson's property.

791
00:44:05,933 --> 00:44:08,733
Dorothy's husband, Stanley,

792
00:44:08,733 --> 00:44:11,033
had been given a copy 
of "The Sea Around Us"

793
00:44:11,033 --> 00:44:13,433
for his birthday.

794
00:44:13,433 --> 00:44:16,366
MARTHA FREEMAN: 
My grandparents had read it 
out loud to each other

795
00:44:16,366 --> 00:44:18,900
sailing or on the porch 
of their cottage,

796
00:44:18,900 --> 00:44:21,566
and had adored it.

797
00:44:21,566 --> 00:44:25,200
It really spoke to a lot of 
what they cared about in life.

798
00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:29,633
My grandmother read 
about Rachel coming

799
00:44:29,633 --> 00:44:31,233
in the local newspaper,

800
00:44:31,233 --> 00:44:34,566
and sent her a little 
welcoming note in 1952,

801
00:44:34,566 --> 00:44:36,700
and she got a note back.

802
00:44:38,633 --> 00:44:40,100
NARRATOR: 
Despite all the attention

803
00:44:40,100 --> 00:44:42,833
that recently had been showered 
upon her--

804
00:44:42,833 --> 00:44:45,666
requests for interviews, 
speaking invitations,

805
00:44:45,666 --> 00:44:47,800
mountains of fan mail--

806
00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:49,533
Carson felt isolated

807
00:44:49,533 --> 00:44:53,333
and more than usually burdened 
by her family.

808
00:44:55,533 --> 00:44:59,366
Maria Carson, as she aged, 
had grown demanding and jealous

809
00:44:59,366 --> 00:45:01,800
of Rachel's time and attention.

810
00:45:03,733 --> 00:45:06,366
And then 
there was niece Marjorie,

811
00:45:06,366 --> 00:45:08,600
who had taken up 
with a married man

812
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:11,733
and become pregnant.

813
00:45:11,733 --> 00:45:13,500
LYTLE: 
Carson and her mother arranged

814
00:45:13,500 --> 00:45:17,133
to have the woman 
admitted to a special home,

815
00:45:17,133 --> 00:45:19,866
where she had the baby and 
kept it out of the public eye,

816
00:45:19,866 --> 00:45:23,700
and sort of protected her from 
the rumor mill and whatnot.

817
00:45:23,700 --> 00:45:28,600
♪ ♪

818
00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:30,233
Carson once wrote, she said,

819
00:45:30,233 --> 00:45:32,100
"If ever I was bitter 
about anything,

820
00:45:32,100 --> 00:45:35,133
I was bitter about that."

821
00:45:35,133 --> 00:45:38,166
The problems with her niece 
really detracted

822
00:45:38,166 --> 00:45:41,933
from the joy and the wonderful 
sense of success she felt

823
00:45:41,933 --> 00:45:45,866
for "The Sea Around Us."

824
00:45:45,866 --> 00:45:47,666
NARRATOR: 
Having finally resigned 
her position

825
00:45:47,666 --> 00:45:49,366
at the Fish and Wildlife Service

826
00:45:49,366 --> 00:45:51,400
to dedicate herself to writing,

827
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:54,833
Carson lacked even 
the companionship of colleagues.

828
00:45:56,600 --> 00:46:01,566
♪ ♪

829
00:46:03,733 --> 00:46:05,866
The friendship that bloomed 
with the Freemans

830
00:46:05,866 --> 00:46:08,133
was a revelation to her.

831
00:46:08,133 --> 00:46:11,266
The couple shared her love 
for nature and the sea,

832
00:46:11,266 --> 00:46:14,900
and enthusiastically joined 
in her tide pool explorations,

833
00:46:14,900 --> 00:46:18,066
Dorothy marveling 
at the unseen life

834
00:46:18,066 --> 00:46:19,466
that teemed at the shoreline,

835
00:46:19,466 --> 00:46:22,300
while Stanley took photographs.

836
00:46:22,300 --> 00:46:26,700
(camera clicking)

837
00:46:26,700 --> 00:46:32,333
But of the two, it was Dorothy 
to whom Carson felt most drawn.

838
00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:37,866
FREEMAN: 
I think Rachel had 
the same experience in a way

839
00:46:37,866 --> 00:46:39,200
that I had with my grandmother,

840
00:46:39,200 --> 00:46:44,833
in that she was just so present, 
so much herself,

841
00:46:44,833 --> 00:46:47,300
so comfortable in herself,

842
00:46:47,300 --> 00:46:52,700
that she was really open to 
seeing who you were, listening.

843
00:46:52,700 --> 00:46:55,600
You totally felt heard 
and understood.

844
00:46:55,600 --> 00:46:58,533
I did, anyway, 
and I believe Rachel did.

845
00:47:00,166 --> 00:47:04,466
She was just a very comfortable 
person to be with,

846
00:47:04,466 --> 00:47:06,500
a really wonderful friend 
to have.

847
00:47:09,933 --> 00:47:12,700
SOUDER: 
Dorothy Freeman 
and Rachel Carson had,

848
00:47:12,700 --> 00:47:14,733
almost from the beginning,

849
00:47:14,733 --> 00:47:18,666
this deep, deep, 
emotional connection

850
00:47:18,666 --> 00:47:20,766
that they would later describe 
as the ability

851
00:47:20,766 --> 00:47:22,633
to know exactly what 
the other one was thinking

852
00:47:22,633 --> 00:47:24,233
about everything,

853
00:47:24,233 --> 00:47:26,933
to feel as though they were 
inside the other person's head

854
00:47:26,933 --> 00:47:28,233
at all times.

855
00:47:28,233 --> 00:47:31,466
Everything they each loved 
about the world

856
00:47:31,466 --> 00:47:32,900
hit them in the same way.

857
00:47:35,300 --> 00:47:39,466
NARRATOR: 
Dorothy was 55, 
the mother of a grown son,

858
00:47:39,466 --> 00:47:44,666
a new grandmother, 
a devoted homemaker and wife.

859
00:47:44,666 --> 00:47:47,066
Now, as the summer turned 
to fall

860
00:47:47,066 --> 00:47:49,766
and Southport was abandoned 
for the season,

861
00:47:49,766 --> 00:47:51,266
she became the confidante

862
00:47:51,266 --> 00:47:56,566
that Carson, at 46, 
had never had.

863
00:47:56,566 --> 00:47:58,866
CARSON (dramatized): 
Darling Dorothy,

864
00:47:58,866 --> 00:48:00,700
I don't suppose anyone 
really knows

865
00:48:00,700 --> 00:48:02,333
how a creative writer works

866
00:48:02,333 --> 00:48:06,533
or what sort of nourishment 
his spirit must have.

867
00:48:06,533 --> 00:48:09,400
All I am certain of is this:

868
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:11,333
that it is quite necessary 
for me

869
00:48:11,333 --> 00:48:13,133
to know that there is someone

870
00:48:13,133 --> 00:48:16,066
who is deeply devoted to me 
as a person,

871
00:48:16,066 --> 00:48:19,633
and who also has the capacity 
and the depth of understanding

872
00:48:19,633 --> 00:48:23,366
to share vicariously 
the sometimes crushing burden

873
00:48:23,366 --> 00:48:25,900
of creative effort.

874
00:48:25,900 --> 00:48:28,566
Last summer I was feeling, 
as never before,

875
00:48:28,566 --> 00:48:32,233
that there was no one 
who combined all of that.

876
00:48:32,233 --> 00:48:38,666
And then, my dear one, 
you came into my life!

877
00:48:38,666 --> 00:48:41,300
SOUDER: 
They started writing letters 
to each other,

878
00:48:41,300 --> 00:48:42,933
and the letters became 
more and more frequent,

879
00:48:42,933 --> 00:48:45,700
and they very quickly escalated

880
00:48:45,700 --> 00:48:47,800
to include a level 
of personal affection

881
00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:53,400
that was surprising to everyone 
except to them.

882
00:48:53,400 --> 00:48:55,933
Before they ever see each other 
in person again,

883
00:48:55,933 --> 00:49:00,933
they've declared their love 
for each other.

884
00:49:03,800 --> 00:49:05,933
Carson never really had 
any relationships.

885
00:49:05,933 --> 00:49:07,900
She never dated.

886
00:49:07,900 --> 00:49:10,866
I think she knew 
that Dorothy was the one person

887
00:49:10,866 --> 00:49:14,100
who really was the one person, 
the soulmate.

888
00:49:14,100 --> 00:49:21,366
And the beauty is that Dorothy 
feels the same thing in her way,

889
00:49:21,366 --> 00:49:24,533
to the extent that she can.

890
00:49:24,533 --> 00:49:27,100
NARRATOR: 
In phone calls 
and occasional visits,

891
00:49:27,100 --> 00:49:29,033
and in letter after letter,

892
00:49:29,033 --> 00:49:30,866
Carson poured out to Dorothy

893
00:49:30,866 --> 00:49:33,766
the challenges 
of completing her third book,

894
00:49:33,766 --> 00:49:35,033
an Atlantic shore guide

895
00:49:35,033 --> 00:49:37,066
she'd agreed to write 
for Houghton Mifflin

896
00:49:37,066 --> 00:49:40,500
even before "The Sea Around Us" 
had been published.

897
00:49:44,300 --> 00:49:46,866
Freed at last to do nothing 
but write,

898
00:49:46,866 --> 00:49:50,566
Carson found the task 
nearly impossible.

899
00:49:50,566 --> 00:49:55,000
Again and again, her approach 
to the guide changed.

900
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:58,566
Entire chapters were 
laboriously revised,

901
00:49:58,566 --> 00:50:01,000
and what was meant to be 
a two-year project

902
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:04,700
soon stretched into four.

903
00:50:04,700 --> 00:50:07,900
CARSON (dramatized): 
Maybe the easiest way for me 
to write a chapter

904
00:50:07,900 --> 00:50:12,366
would be to type "Dear Dorothy" 
on the first page!

905
00:50:12,366 --> 00:50:14,066
As a matter of fact,

906
00:50:14,066 --> 00:50:18,000
you and your particular kind 
of interest and appreciation

907
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:19,900
were in my mind a great deal

908
00:50:19,900 --> 00:50:23,766
when I was rewriting parts 
of the section on rocky shores.

909
00:50:26,600 --> 00:50:28,300
SOUDER: 
Once they're together--

910
00:50:28,300 --> 00:50:29,766
and they're rarely physically 
together,

911
00:50:29,766 --> 00:50:31,366
they're almost always 
in different places

912
00:50:31,366 --> 00:50:33,300
writing letters to each other--

913
00:50:33,300 --> 00:50:35,700
once they're together, 
they're never apart.

914
00:50:35,700 --> 00:50:38,833
There's never any question 
between them.

915
00:50:38,833 --> 00:50:41,300
(birds chirping)

916
00:50:41,300 --> 00:50:42,766
FREEMAN: 
There's a huge amount 
of affection.

917
00:50:42,766 --> 00:50:44,700
I mean, it is love.

918
00:50:44,700 --> 00:50:49,233
It is the love 
of kindred spirits.

919
00:50:49,233 --> 00:50:55,200
They wrote to each other 
three, four, five times a week.

920
00:50:55,200 --> 00:50:59,800
So their relationship was always 
this caring at a distance.

921
00:51:01,800 --> 00:51:04,000
♪ ♪

922
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:05,666
They knew each other 
for about 12 years,

923
00:51:05,666 --> 00:51:07,800
and I think I added it up 
at one point

924
00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:10,866
that they were probably 
in each other's presence

925
00:51:10,866 --> 00:51:15,700
for, at most, 60 days.

926
00:51:18,266 --> 00:51:19,866
NARRATOR: 
When "The Edge of the Sea,"

927
00:51:19,866 --> 00:51:21,633
the widely-acclaimed 
third volume

928
00:51:21,633 --> 00:51:23,833
in Carson's marine trilogy,

929
00:51:23,833 --> 00:51:27,800
finally hit bookstores 
in the summer of 1955,

930
00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:29,900
it would be dedicated 
not to her mother,

931
00:51:29,900 --> 00:51:32,333
as "The Sea Around Us" had been,

932
00:51:32,333 --> 00:51:36,533
but to Dorothy and Stanley 
Freeman.

933
00:51:37,666 --> 00:51:41,766
♪ ♪

934
00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:50,533
(newsreel music playing)

935
00:52:02,100 --> 00:52:05,400
ANNOUNCER: 
Let's face it: the threat 
of hydrogen bomb warfare

936
00:52:05,400 --> 00:52:09,066
is the greatest danger 
our nation has ever known.

937
00:52:09,066 --> 00:52:11,466
Enemy jet bombers 
carrying nuclear weapons

938
00:52:11,466 --> 00:52:13,500
can sweep over a variety 
of routes

939
00:52:13,500 --> 00:52:19,066
and drop bombs on any important 
target in the United States.

940
00:52:19,066 --> 00:52:22,100
The threat of this destruction 
has affected our way of life

941
00:52:22,100 --> 00:52:24,800
in every city, town, and village 
from coast to coast.

942
00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:28,633
These are the signs 
of the times.

943
00:52:28,633 --> 00:52:32,066
(air raid siren blaring)

944
00:52:32,066 --> 00:52:34,266
KINKELA: 
You can imagine 
what it might be like

945
00:52:34,266 --> 00:52:37,500
to be thinking and hearing 
almost all the time

946
00:52:37,500 --> 00:52:39,633
that you could die 
at any moment, right?

947
00:52:39,633 --> 00:52:41,766
That the Soviet Union 
will attack.

948
00:52:41,766 --> 00:52:43,166
There's going to be no warning,

949
00:52:43,166 --> 00:52:47,266
and the only way that you could 
protect yourselves

950
00:52:47,266 --> 00:52:49,966
is to duck and cover yourselves

951
00:52:49,966 --> 00:52:51,866
with whatever you have 
around you.

952
00:52:51,866 --> 00:52:54,966
The threat was incredibly 
palpable.

953
00:52:57,266 --> 00:52:58,466
NARRATOR: 
More and more,

954
00:52:58,466 --> 00:53:00,400
when Rachel Carson 
raised her eyes

955
00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:02,400
to take in the man-made world 
around her,

956
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:06,033
what she felt was a quiet rage.

957
00:53:06,033 --> 00:53:09,066
The Cold War had become

958
00:53:09,066 --> 00:53:11,833
a macabre game 
of one-upsmanship,

959
00:53:11,833 --> 00:53:13,733
a high-stakes standoff

960
00:53:13,733 --> 00:53:17,800
fueled by the threat 
of nuclear destruction.

961
00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:21,066
Then, on March 1, 1954,

962
00:53:21,066 --> 00:53:22,933
the United States pressed 
for the lead

963
00:53:22,933 --> 00:53:27,266
with the test of a dry-fuel 
hydrogen bomb,

964
00:53:27,266 --> 00:53:29,000
code-named "Shrimp."

965
00:53:30,666 --> 00:53:33,766
♪ ♪

966
00:53:41,466 --> 00:53:45,600
SOUDER: 
Everything goes right 
with this test

967
00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:46,966
except the things that go wrong,

968
00:53:46,966 --> 00:53:49,100
and the things that go wrong 
are really big problems.

969
00:53:49,100 --> 00:53:51,100
(loud bang)

970
00:53:51,100 --> 00:53:54,033
The explosion 
was much more powerful

971
00:53:54,033 --> 00:53:55,566
than the scientists 
had predicted,

972
00:53:55,566 --> 00:53:58,000
about two-and-a-half times more 
powerful

973
00:53:58,000 --> 00:53:59,600
than it was supposed to be;

974
00:53:59,600 --> 00:54:01,833
largest explosion 
that had ever occurred

975
00:54:01,833 --> 00:54:03,100
on the face of the Earth

976
00:54:03,100 --> 00:54:04,466
that wasn't a volcano.

977
00:54:06,866 --> 00:54:09,866
♪ ♪

978
00:54:12,066 --> 00:54:13,900
NARRATOR: 
Radioactive fallout scattered

979
00:54:13,900 --> 00:54:17,233
over more than 
5,000 square miles

980
00:54:17,233 --> 00:54:19,500
and then drifted downward,

981
00:54:19,500 --> 00:54:22,633
settling on open ocean, 
inhabited islands,

982
00:54:22,633 --> 00:54:25,033
and a hapless 
Japanese fishing boat

983
00:54:25,033 --> 00:54:28,433
named Lucky Dragon Number 5.

984
00:54:32,166 --> 00:54:36,666
SOUDER: 
This gray, snow-like ash begins 
to fall out of the sky

985
00:54:36,666 --> 00:54:39,166
and it coats the ship 
from stem to stern.

986
00:54:39,166 --> 00:54:41,166
It gets on every surface.

987
00:54:41,166 --> 00:54:42,633
And it coats the men.

988
00:54:42,633 --> 00:54:44,500
It gets in their eyes.

989
00:54:44,500 --> 00:54:48,766
They're tasting it to see if 
they can figure out what it is.

990
00:54:48,766 --> 00:54:50,900
That becomes apparent 
within a couple of days,

991
00:54:50,900 --> 00:54:53,700
because very soon, 
everybody on the ship is sick.

992
00:54:58,266 --> 00:55:01,300
NARRATOR: 
By the time the Lucky Dragon 
returned to port,

993
00:55:01,300 --> 00:55:05,433
everyone on board had succumbed 
to radiation poisoning,

994
00:55:05,433 --> 00:55:09,600
their skin blackened, their hair 
falling out in clumps.

995
00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:13,366
Their ordeal made headlines 
all over the world.

996
00:55:15,633 --> 00:55:18,833
SOUDER: 
For the first time, 
people realized

997
00:55:18,833 --> 00:55:22,000
that the real danger 
in nuclear war

998
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:25,166
was not 
the explosions themselves,

999
00:55:25,166 --> 00:55:26,866
but the fallout,

1000
00:55:26,866 --> 00:55:29,533
this total contamination 
of the Earth

1001
00:55:29,533 --> 00:55:31,233
that had the potential 
to wipe out

1002
00:55:31,233 --> 00:55:34,000
every living organism 
on the face of the Earth.

1003
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:36,800
(radioactivity counter 
crackling)

1004
00:55:39,566 --> 00:55:42,566
NARRATOR: 
The Atomic Energy Commission 
and other government agencies

1005
00:55:42,566 --> 00:55:45,333
now issued a flurry 
of reassurances

1006
00:55:45,333 --> 00:55:46,966
that atmospheric testing 
was safe,

1007
00:55:46,966 --> 00:55:50,566
and that fallout constituted 
no appreciable danger

1008
00:55:50,566 --> 00:55:53,000
outside of the test zone.

1009
00:55:55,333 --> 00:55:58,400
NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: 
The atomic cloud, 
like a giant vacuum cleaner,

1010
00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:00,900
has sucked up dirt and debris 
from the Earth

1011
00:56:00,900 --> 00:56:05,600
and is full 
of radioactive particles.

1012
00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:07,233
Is it dangerous?

1013
00:56:07,233 --> 00:56:09,700
Yes, right now it is.

1014
00:56:09,700 --> 00:56:11,533
You wouldn't want to go into it,

1015
00:56:11,533 --> 00:56:13,066
but neither would you 
deliberately walk

1016
00:56:13,066 --> 00:56:14,966
into a blazing fire.

1017
00:56:14,966 --> 00:56:17,233
You have to use common sense.

1018
00:56:18,933 --> 00:56:21,266
BLUM: 
It's really easy for us 
to look back

1019
00:56:21,266 --> 00:56:23,800
at something like above-ground 
nuclear testing

1020
00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:26,533
and think, "Well, that was 
a primitive moment."

1021
00:56:26,533 --> 00:56:31,733
But people had just suffered 
through a really terrible war.

1022
00:56:31,733 --> 00:56:34,900
Tens and tens and tens 
of thousands of young Americans

1023
00:56:34,900 --> 00:56:36,233
had died abroad.

1024
00:56:36,233 --> 00:56:41,266
And so you can also say 
to yourself, as they did,

1025
00:56:41,266 --> 00:56:44,200
"We have to have the weapon 
that ends all wars."

1026
00:56:44,200 --> 00:56:45,400
Right?

1027
00:56:45,400 --> 00:56:47,900
"And if there's some sacrifice 
involved,

1028
00:56:47,900 --> 00:56:50,233
well, you know, 
that's for the greater good."

1029
00:56:50,233 --> 00:56:54,700
KINKELA: 
People were not dying 
because of nuclear tests.

1030
00:56:54,700 --> 00:57:00,566
And that is tied to the question 
of how people understood harm.

1031
00:57:00,566 --> 00:57:02,533
And throughout much 
of the 20th century

1032
00:57:02,533 --> 00:57:04,066
and into the early 1950s,

1033
00:57:04,066 --> 00:57:07,300
it was really about sort of 
the question of,

1034
00:57:07,300 --> 00:57:08,933
does this kill you?

1035
00:57:10,733 --> 00:57:12,366
Very simple.

1036
00:57:12,366 --> 00:57:15,000
Is it acutely toxic, and if so,

1037
00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:17,466
how much 
can a human body withstand

1038
00:57:17,466 --> 00:57:21,800
before it kills somebody?

1039
00:57:21,800 --> 00:57:25,300
NARRATOR: 
Carson framed the question 
differently,

1040
00:57:25,300 --> 00:57:29,500
and her doubts about the vector 
of modern technological science

1041
00:57:29,500 --> 00:57:32,300
now began to harden 
into a certainty.

1042
00:57:32,300 --> 00:57:35,733
LEAR: 
Now she has to come to grips 
with the fact

1043
00:57:35,733 --> 00:57:39,533
that humans can destroy nature.

1044
00:57:39,533 --> 00:57:43,600
So her mission, if you will, 
is to show the world

1045
00:57:43,600 --> 00:57:47,700
what a perfect thing 
the natural systems are

1046
00:57:47,700 --> 00:57:51,400
and how easily the hand of man 
can muck it up.

1047
00:57:51,400 --> 00:57:54,700
And that becomes a theme 
in everything

1048
00:57:54,700 --> 00:57:57,200
that she starts to write.

1049
00:57:57,200 --> 00:57:59,666
It's the undercurrent.

1050
00:58:02,466 --> 00:58:04,500
NARRATOR: 
By the close of 1954,

1051
00:58:04,500 --> 00:58:08,466
Carson had a title in mind, 
"Remembrance of Earth,"

1052
00:58:08,466 --> 00:58:11,133
and a vague idea for a book 
that would illuminate

1053
00:58:11,133 --> 00:58:14,833
the relation of life 
to its environment.

1054
00:58:14,833 --> 00:58:16,700
But months gave way to years,

1055
00:58:16,700 --> 00:58:18,766
and she made no progress 
with it.

1056
00:58:18,766 --> 00:58:23,266
Then, in early January 1957,

1057
00:58:23,266 --> 00:58:26,466
her niece Marjorie contracted 
a pneumonia so severe

1058
00:58:26,466 --> 00:58:28,200
she had to be hospitalized.

1059
00:58:28,200 --> 00:58:31,333
♪ ♪

1060
00:58:31,333 --> 00:58:33,900
Two weeks later, 
Marjie was dead,

1061
00:58:33,900 --> 00:58:38,466
and her five-year-old son Roger 
became Carson's responsibility.

1062
00:58:40,733 --> 00:58:46,700
ROGER CHRISTIE: 
Rachel kind of had 
a hard life that way.

1063
00:58:46,700 --> 00:58:50,266
You know, first she had to raise 
my mother and my mother's sister

1064
00:58:50,266 --> 00:58:55,433
because their parents died 
when they were very young,

1065
00:58:55,433 --> 00:58:58,533
and then the same thing 
repeated itself

1066
00:58:58,533 --> 00:59:01,233
just when she was getting out 
from under it.

1067
00:59:03,366 --> 00:59:07,600
She was very considerate 
of my feelings all the time,

1068
00:59:07,600 --> 00:59:13,600
sometimes to the detriment 
of her own work.

1069
00:59:13,600 --> 00:59:16,933
NARRATOR: 
In the spring, on the heels 
of her 50th birthday,

1070
00:59:16,933 --> 00:59:20,233
Carson legally became 
Roger's adoptive mother

1071
00:59:20,233 --> 00:59:24,133
and tried to resign herself 
to her changed circumstances.

1072
00:59:24,133 --> 00:59:27,533
But as she confessed to Dorothy,

1073
00:59:27,533 --> 00:59:29,766
she could not entirely 
keep herself

1074
00:59:29,766 --> 00:59:33,033
from feeling a dark resentment.

1075
00:59:33,033 --> 00:59:34,533
She was all but convinced

1076
00:59:34,533 --> 00:59:37,333
she'd never again have the time 
to write.

1077
00:59:37,333 --> 00:59:39,133
Then, friends told her

1078
00:59:39,133 --> 00:59:41,466
about a U.S. Department 
of Agriculture program

1079
00:59:41,466 --> 00:59:43,200
to eradicate the fire ant,

1080
00:59:43,200 --> 00:59:44,966
and more than a decade

1081
00:59:44,966 --> 00:59:49,266
after she'd proposed the piece 
about DDT to "Reader's Digest,"

1082
00:59:49,266 --> 00:59:53,133
pesticides came roaring back 
into her consciousness.

1083
00:59:53,133 --> 00:59:55,233
ANNOUNCER: 
The fire ant is believed 
to have entered this country

1084
00:59:55,233 --> 00:59:57,000
from South America in 1925.

1085
00:59:57,000 --> 01:00:00,666
The destructive insect has 
brought heavy losses to crops

1086
01:00:00,666 --> 01:00:03,033
in Alabama, Mississippi, 
and Louisiana.

1087
01:00:03,033 --> 01:00:09,766
Once they swarm across a field 
like this, nothing survives.

1088
01:00:09,766 --> 01:00:14,033
LYTLE: 
The fire ant was 
the perfect invasive species

1089
01:00:14,033 --> 01:00:16,333
for the Cold War era.

1090
01:00:16,333 --> 01:00:18,666
They were red, 
they snuck into the country,

1091
01:00:18,666 --> 01:00:23,900
they were subversive, 
and they were mostly annoying.

1092
01:00:23,900 --> 01:00:26,166
For some reason, 
the Department of Agriculture

1093
01:00:26,166 --> 01:00:29,233
got it into their head that, 
scientists there,

1094
01:00:29,233 --> 01:00:31,400
that this would be 
a perfect demonstration

1095
01:00:31,400 --> 01:00:37,200
of the power of pesticides 
to solve a nagging problem.

1096
01:00:37,200 --> 01:00:41,266
NARRATOR: 
The enthusiasm for DDT 
and other synthetic pesticides

1097
01:00:41,266 --> 01:00:44,766
had given way to the conviction 
that science could do far more

1098
01:00:44,766 --> 01:00:48,700
than control insects 
and other unwanted pests.

1099
01:00:48,700 --> 01:00:52,266
The objective now 
was eradication.

1100
01:00:52,266 --> 01:00:55,533
KINKELA: 
It meant extermination, 
extermination of the species.

1101
01:00:55,533 --> 01:01:00,000
So in 1955, you see the advent

1102
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:01,766
of the World Health 
Organization's

1103
01:01:01,766 --> 01:01:03,833
Malaria Eradication Program,

1104
01:01:03,833 --> 01:01:06,966
which was in many ways designed 
to exterminate

1105
01:01:06,966 --> 01:01:10,733
not the problem of malaria, 
but the problem of mosquitoes.

1106
01:01:10,733 --> 01:01:17,733
The Fire Ant Eradication Program 
was the same idea.

1107
01:01:17,733 --> 01:01:21,866
Scientists are convinced that 
this is the right way to go.

1108
01:01:21,866 --> 01:01:26,433
And if we fail, then 
we're going to fail humanity.

1109
01:01:26,433 --> 01:01:31,100
It becomes this all-or-nothing 
equation.

1110
01:01:31,100 --> 01:01:35,233
ORESKES: 
And so what we see in the 1950s 
is tremendous amounts of money

1111
01:01:35,233 --> 01:01:37,966
going into studying 
pest killing,

1112
01:01:37,966 --> 01:01:39,600
not so much money 
going into studying

1113
01:01:39,600 --> 01:01:42,500
broader questions 
of wildlife biology,

1114
01:01:42,500 --> 01:01:44,933
broader questions 
of environmental health,

1115
01:01:44,933 --> 01:01:46,833
broader questions 
of environmental toxicity.

1116
01:01:48,800 --> 01:01:52,300
LYTLE: 
The people involved, 
the scientists and whatnot,

1117
01:01:52,300 --> 01:01:54,400
who are inventing pesticides,

1118
01:01:54,400 --> 01:01:56,933
think they're doing God's work,

1119
01:01:56,933 --> 01:02:00,900
and that they are also helping 
the United States keep its edge

1120
01:02:00,900 --> 01:02:03,633
in the Cold War environment.

1121
01:02:03,633 --> 01:02:06,966
The Department of Agriculture 
and the chemical industry say,

1122
01:02:06,966 --> 01:02:11,533
one of the reasons that we have 
such a rich material life

1123
01:02:11,533 --> 01:02:13,700
is that we have found ways 
to control these problems,

1124
01:02:13,700 --> 01:02:17,766
to maximize food 
and fiber production,

1125
01:02:17,766 --> 01:02:19,800
and it's one of the things 
that distinguishes

1126
01:02:19,800 --> 01:02:23,366
the U.S. and its allies 
from the Communist bloc.

1127
01:02:23,366 --> 01:02:26,466
Our standard of living 
is so much higher

1128
01:02:26,466 --> 01:02:28,866
and we owe it 
to human ingenuity.

1129
01:02:31,566 --> 01:02:34,366
NARRATOR: 
In 1957, in the U.S.D.A.'s 
all-out war

1130
01:02:34,366 --> 01:02:35,533
against the fire ant,

1131
01:02:35,533 --> 01:02:37,866
some 20 million acres 
in the South

1132
01:02:37,866 --> 01:02:41,566
were doused with pesticides, 
killing not only ants,

1133
01:02:41,566 --> 01:02:46,233
but blackbirds and meadowlarks, 
armadillos and opossums.

1134
01:02:48,466 --> 01:02:49,833
The sprayed areas,

1135
01:02:49,833 --> 01:02:52,866
as one Alabama agricultural 
official reported,

1136
01:02:52,866 --> 01:02:56,033
"reeked with the odor 
of decaying wildlife."

1137
01:02:58,066 --> 01:03:01,166
LYTLE: 
The hunting-fishing community 
was outraged.

1138
01:03:01,166 --> 01:03:03,133
County agricultural agents

1139
01:03:03,133 --> 01:03:05,133
dropped their support 
for the project

1140
01:03:05,133 --> 01:03:06,733
and it really was a black eye

1141
01:03:06,733 --> 01:03:09,033
for the Department 
of Agriculture,

1142
01:03:09,033 --> 01:03:10,600
but it was a warning for Carson.

1143
01:03:12,433 --> 01:03:14,500
NARRATOR: 
What concerned Carson 
was not merely

1144
01:03:14,500 --> 01:03:18,333
that synthetic pesticides 
had unintended consequences,

1145
01:03:18,333 --> 01:03:21,200
but that substances 
about which so little was known

1146
01:03:21,200 --> 01:03:23,566
were now practically ubiquitous.

1147
01:03:25,766 --> 01:03:27,866
Widely employed 
by government agencies

1148
01:03:27,866 --> 01:03:30,000
to protect 
health and agriculture,

1149
01:03:30,000 --> 01:03:31,933
as well as American interests 
abroad,

1150
01:03:31,933 --> 01:03:37,300
synthetic pesticides also were 
sold directly to consumers,

1151
01:03:37,300 --> 01:03:39,500
who, by 1957, could choose

1152
01:03:39,500 --> 01:03:42,966
from an array of some 6,000 
different products.

1153
01:03:42,966 --> 01:03:47,833
SOUDER: 
You could get shelf paper 
for your kitchen cabinets

1154
01:03:47,833 --> 01:03:50,266
that was impregnated with DDT.

1155
01:03:50,266 --> 01:03:54,466
You could get paints and 
varnishes that had DDT in them.

1156
01:03:54,466 --> 01:03:59,566
One of my favorite devices, 
and my father owned this,

1157
01:03:59,566 --> 01:04:03,333
was a cylinder about the size 
and shape of a beer can,

1158
01:04:03,333 --> 01:04:05,500
and it had DDT in it.

1159
01:04:05,500 --> 01:04:07,600
It attached to the muffler 
of your lawn mower,

1160
01:04:07,600 --> 01:04:10,833
so the hot exhaust gas 
would volatilize the DDT

1161
01:04:10,833 --> 01:04:13,733
and spray a fog out 
across your yard.

1162
01:04:13,733 --> 01:04:16,166
So if you were having 
company over for a picnic later,

1163
01:04:16,166 --> 01:04:18,600
you could poison the grass 
before they got there

1164
01:04:18,600 --> 01:04:20,533
and nobody would get 
a mosquito bite.

1165
01:04:20,533 --> 01:04:23,766
(engine slowly starting)

1166
01:04:28,500 --> 01:04:30,866
NARRATOR: 
Although manufacturers 
were required by law

1167
01:04:30,866 --> 01:04:32,966
to register 
new chemical compounds,

1168
01:04:32,966 --> 01:04:34,333
the government mandated

1169
01:04:34,333 --> 01:04:37,866
no independent safety testing 
of those compounds

1170
01:04:37,866 --> 01:04:40,833
and placed no limitation 
on their sale or use.

1171
01:04:40,833 --> 01:04:45,433
So long as the label provided 
safe-use instructions,

1172
01:04:45,433 --> 01:04:48,633
the product was deemed 
to be safe under the law.

1173
01:04:48,633 --> 01:04:51,266
ORESKES: 
That's, of course, reinforced

1174
01:04:51,266 --> 01:04:53,566
by the manufacturers 
of the pesticides.

1175
01:04:53,566 --> 01:04:56,566
The companies 
that are manufacturing DDT

1176
01:04:56,566 --> 01:04:59,333
focus on this question of 
immediate short-term toxicity.

1177
01:04:59,333 --> 01:05:01,800
They say, 
"Well, look, it's not toxic.

1178
01:05:01,800 --> 01:05:03,700
"We applied it on all 
these soldiers in World War II

1179
01:05:03,700 --> 01:05:06,466
and they were all fine, so 
that proves that this is fine."

1180
01:05:06,466 --> 01:05:12,500
KINKELA: 
You had examples of people 
digesting spoonfuls of DDT

1181
01:05:12,500 --> 01:05:14,766
just to prove how safe it was.

1182
01:05:14,766 --> 01:05:18,600
At the same time, 
birds are dying en masse,

1183
01:05:18,600 --> 01:05:20,766
fish are dying,

1184
01:05:20,766 --> 01:05:22,866
and I think Rachel understood

1185
01:05:22,866 --> 01:05:27,200
that something radically 
transformative was happening,

1186
01:05:27,200 --> 01:05:30,433
this sense that scientists had 
been asking the wrong question.

1187
01:05:30,433 --> 01:05:32,266
Scientists had been thinking

1188
01:05:32,266 --> 01:05:35,300
about the question 
of acute toxicity,

1189
01:05:35,300 --> 01:05:37,400
rather than, what are 
the long-term impacts

1190
01:05:37,400 --> 01:05:38,966
of this chemical world 
that we're creating?

1191
01:05:38,966 --> 01:05:42,066
♪ ♪

1192
01:05:42,066 --> 01:05:44,666
(birds squawking)

1193
01:05:44,666 --> 01:05:48,433
LEAR: 
Carson is not eager 
to take on pesticides.

1194
01:05:48,433 --> 01:05:51,466
She's too busy 
and life is too complicated,

1195
01:05:51,466 --> 01:05:57,366
but there's this story there, 
so she knows there's a story.

1196
01:05:57,366 --> 01:05:59,433
On the other hand, 
it's also the fact

1197
01:05:59,433 --> 01:06:04,866
that it is the story 
about human hubris.

1198
01:06:08,266 --> 01:06:10,766
CARSON (dramatized): 
It was pleasant to believe 
that much of Nature

1199
01:06:10,766 --> 01:06:14,400
was forever beyond 
the tampering reach of man.

1200
01:06:14,400 --> 01:06:17,766
He might level the forests 
and dam the streams,

1201
01:06:17,766 --> 01:06:22,233
but the clouds and the rain 
and the wind were God's.

1202
01:06:22,233 --> 01:06:25,866
But I have now opened my eyes 
and my mind.

1203
01:06:25,866 --> 01:06:27,566
I may not like what I see,

1204
01:06:27,566 --> 01:06:30,133
but it does no good 
to ignore it,

1205
01:06:30,133 --> 01:06:32,566
and it's worse than useless 
to go on repeating

1206
01:06:32,566 --> 01:06:36,600
the old "eternal verities" 
that are no more eternal

1207
01:06:36,600 --> 01:06:39,266
than the hills of the poets.

1208
01:06:39,266 --> 01:06:42,300
(thunder rumbling)

1209
01:06:46,433 --> 01:06:49,033
(engine roaring)

1210
01:06:51,233 --> 01:06:55,966
NARRATOR: 
Rachel Carson had long known 
that scientists were divided

1211
01:06:55,966 --> 01:06:57,866
on the issue 
of synthetic pesticides

1212
01:06:57,866 --> 01:06:59,533
and that conclusions 
about their safety

1213
01:06:59,533 --> 01:07:01,833
depended on who was asked.

1214
01:07:03,366 --> 01:07:04,800
ORESKES: 
You have scientists 
who are working closely

1215
01:07:04,800 --> 01:07:06,066
with the Department 
of Agriculture

1216
01:07:06,066 --> 01:07:08,366
and with the chemical industry,

1217
01:07:08,366 --> 01:07:11,233
and are part of a mindset, 
a worldview that says,

1218
01:07:11,233 --> 01:07:15,200
"I've got a pest, I've got 
a boll weevil or a gypsy moth,

1219
01:07:15,200 --> 01:07:18,833
"and I want to kill that pest, 
and I want to kill effectively,

1220
01:07:18,833 --> 01:07:21,866
without killing the person who 
is applying it to the crops."

1221
01:07:21,866 --> 01:07:24,466
And so almost all the attention

1222
01:07:24,466 --> 01:07:27,633
is either on the killing 
of the pest

1223
01:07:27,633 --> 01:07:29,600
or the non-killing 
of the farmer.

1224
01:07:31,366 --> 01:07:33,566
But on the other hand, 
you have wildlife biologists

1225
01:07:33,566 --> 01:07:36,333
who are not linked 
to any particular industry,

1226
01:07:36,333 --> 01:07:37,433
they're out in nature,

1227
01:07:37,433 --> 01:07:39,433
they're thinking 
about the interrelations

1228
01:07:39,433 --> 01:07:41,666
between fish, birds, 
pollinators, plants,

1229
01:07:41,666 --> 01:07:43,533
chemicals, and the environment,

1230
01:07:43,533 --> 01:07:45,600
and so they see 
there's evidence of problems.

1231
01:07:45,600 --> 01:07:48,700
♪ ♪

1232
01:07:48,700 --> 01:07:51,633
NARRATOR: 
For Carson, it began 
with research,

1233
01:07:51,633 --> 01:07:53,700
a gathering of bits 
of information

1234
01:07:53,700 --> 01:08:00,133
excavated from technical reports 
and obscure scientific journals.

1235
01:08:00,133 --> 01:08:04,533
What soon became clear 
was that pesticides such as DDT

1236
01:08:04,533 --> 01:08:06,966
accumulated in the organisms 
exposed to them,

1237
01:08:06,966 --> 01:08:10,333
and grew ever more concentrated 
as they moved up the food chain.

1238
01:08:10,333 --> 01:08:12,166
(baby birds chirping)

1239
01:08:12,166 --> 01:08:16,100
According to one study, 
earthworms were still so toxic

1240
01:08:16,100 --> 01:08:19,500
a full year after exposure 
to DDT

1241
01:08:19,500 --> 01:08:21,700
that they poisoned the robins 
that fed upon them.

1242
01:08:21,700 --> 01:08:24,300
Another demonstrated

1243
01:08:24,300 --> 01:08:28,566
that when birds were fed 
a miniscule amount of DDT daily,

1244
01:08:28,566 --> 01:08:31,566
both their fertility and 
the survival rate of their young

1245
01:08:31,566 --> 01:08:34,633
dramatically declined.

1246
01:08:34,633 --> 01:08:37,133
Most troubling of all 
was the evidence

1247
01:08:37,133 --> 01:08:39,200
that insect populations 
very quickly

1248
01:08:39,200 --> 01:08:42,500
developed resistance 
to synthetic pesticides.

1249
01:08:44,800 --> 01:08:47,500
ORESKES: 
If you dump large amounts 
of pesticides in a field,

1250
01:08:47,500 --> 01:08:49,500
you will kill 
many of the insects

1251
01:08:49,500 --> 01:08:50,800
you intend to kill,

1252
01:08:50,800 --> 01:08:52,400
but there'll be some fragment 
that survive

1253
01:08:52,400 --> 01:08:53,800
because for whatever reason,

1254
01:08:53,800 --> 01:08:56,500
they happen 
to be more resistant.

1255
01:08:56,500 --> 01:08:57,833
That sub-population lives on,

1256
01:08:57,833 --> 01:09:01,500
they breed, they pass on 
to their offspring

1257
01:09:01,500 --> 01:09:03,466
whatever that resistance is 
that they have,

1258
01:09:03,466 --> 01:09:05,133
and pretty soon you have

1259
01:09:05,133 --> 01:09:07,033
a pesticide-resistant 
population.

1260
01:09:07,033 --> 01:09:09,733
Carson fully understood

1261
01:09:09,733 --> 01:09:12,566
that ultimately this strategy 
was going to fail,

1262
01:09:12,566 --> 01:09:15,500
and the farmer would be 
in the position

1263
01:09:15,500 --> 01:09:16,966
of either needing 
a different pesticide

1264
01:09:16,966 --> 01:09:19,766
or using more and more and more.

1265
01:09:19,766 --> 01:09:24,233
And so then you have a kind 
of arms race of pesticide use.

1266
01:09:24,233 --> 01:09:27,833
You use more pesticides, 
insects become more resistant,

1267
01:09:27,833 --> 01:09:29,866
more resistance, 
more pesticides,

1268
01:09:29,866 --> 01:09:33,266
more resistance, and now you're 
trapped in an escalating cycle,

1269
01:09:33,266 --> 01:09:34,800
and it's a damaging cycle,

1270
01:09:34,800 --> 01:09:37,433
because meanwhile you're also 
killing fish and birds

1271
01:09:37,433 --> 01:09:40,033
and other things that you like 
and that you want.

1272
01:09:43,633 --> 01:09:46,000
NARRATOR: 
In isolation, 
each study Carson read

1273
01:09:46,000 --> 01:09:48,666
was little more 
than an anecdote.

1274
01:09:48,666 --> 01:09:51,433
Taken together, 
they offered compelling evidence

1275
01:09:51,433 --> 01:09:55,500
that synthetic pesticides had 
potentially grave disadvantages,

1276
01:09:55,500 --> 01:10:00,233
none of which 
were yet fully understood.

1277
01:10:00,233 --> 01:10:03,833
LYTLE: 
She was not against 
the wise use of pesticides.

1278
01:10:03,833 --> 01:10:05,966
She saw the need for that.

1279
01:10:05,966 --> 01:10:07,266
But what she was against

1280
01:10:07,266 --> 01:10:09,766
was the indiscriminate spreading 
of poisons

1281
01:10:09,766 --> 01:10:13,600
that had untold 
and unanticipated consequences

1282
01:10:13,600 --> 01:10:16,300
for all living things, 
human beings included.

1283
01:10:18,133 --> 01:10:21,133
NARRATOR: 
"I realized that here 
was the material for a book,"

1284
01:10:21,133 --> 01:10:23,066
Carson later recalled.

1285
01:10:23,066 --> 01:10:25,533
"Everything which meant most 
to me as a naturalist

1286
01:10:25,533 --> 01:10:28,133
"was being threatened, 
and nothing I could do

1287
01:10:28,133 --> 01:10:30,766
would be more important."

1288
01:10:32,733 --> 01:10:34,500
In May 1958,

1289
01:10:34,500 --> 01:10:36,833
she signed a contract 
with Houghton Mifflin

1290
01:10:36,833 --> 01:10:40,300
for what her friend and editor 
Paul Brooks had dubbed

1291
01:10:40,300 --> 01:10:42,500
"the poison book."

1292
01:10:42,500 --> 01:10:46,366
It was slated to be a short 
volume, perhaps 50,000 words,

1293
01:10:46,366 --> 01:10:49,033
of which William Shawn 
of the "New Yorker"

1294
01:10:49,033 --> 01:10:53,066
already had offered 
to publish two excerpts.

1295
01:10:53,066 --> 01:10:55,433
Only Dorothy had misgivings.

1296
01:10:57,400 --> 01:11:01,133
♪ ♪

1297
01:11:01,133 --> 01:11:05,200
LEAR: 
It's a book about death, and 
it's a book about destruction,

1298
01:11:05,200 --> 01:11:07,966
and Dorothy's not comfortable,

1299
01:11:07,966 --> 01:11:10,100
and she's not comfortable 
with Rachel writing that,

1300
01:11:10,100 --> 01:11:13,133
using her talent for beauty 
and beautiful words

1301
01:11:13,133 --> 01:11:17,733
to write 
about the elixirs of death.

1302
01:11:17,733 --> 01:11:19,566
She had Rachel before

1303
01:11:19,566 --> 01:11:22,100
when she's writing about tide 
pools and beautiful things.

1304
01:11:22,100 --> 01:11:26,466
She can't follow her 
in this research.

1305
01:11:30,900 --> 01:11:32,566
CARSON (dramatized): 
You do know, I think,

1306
01:11:32,566 --> 01:11:37,166
how deeply I believe in the 
importance of what I am doing.

1307
01:11:37,166 --> 01:11:38,533
Knowing what I do,

1308
01:11:38,533 --> 01:11:40,166
there would be no future peace 
for me

1309
01:11:40,166 --> 01:11:44,200
if I kept silent.

1310
01:11:44,200 --> 01:11:48,566
LEAR: 
She wants to tell that story, 
and try to tell it fairly,

1311
01:11:48,566 --> 01:11:50,633
and tell it scientifically,

1312
01:11:50,633 --> 01:11:52,900
but she's got an argument 
from the beginning.

1313
01:11:52,900 --> 01:11:54,766
It isn't, "Well, let's talk

1314
01:11:54,766 --> 01:11:58,466
about the good and bad 
of pesticides."

1315
01:11:58,466 --> 01:12:00,700
And the first titles 
of this book

1316
01:12:00,700 --> 01:12:03,233
are "Man Against the Earth" 
and "Man the Destroyer."

1317
01:12:03,233 --> 01:12:08,133
Carson's underlying anger 
is right there.

1318
01:12:10,233 --> 01:12:13,433
LYTLE: 
In a sense, she was going public 
with a lot of data

1319
01:12:13,433 --> 01:12:18,600
that was somewhat inconclusive 
or premature.

1320
01:12:18,600 --> 01:12:20,866
On the other hand, she felt,

1321
01:12:20,866 --> 01:12:24,166
what is the morality 
of remaining quiet

1322
01:12:24,166 --> 01:12:27,366
when you have a huge amount 
of circumstantial evidence

1323
01:12:27,366 --> 01:12:32,000
that points to a substance 
being toxic or dangerous?

1324
01:12:32,000 --> 01:12:33,533
You know, advocacy 
is not something

1325
01:12:33,533 --> 01:12:36,866
scientists of the time 
were wont to do,

1326
01:12:36,866 --> 01:12:40,233
but for Carson, 
it became a crusade.

1327
01:12:41,566 --> 01:12:44,433
♪ ♪

1328
01:12:47,600 --> 01:12:50,700
NARRATOR: 
On November 22, 1958,

1329
01:12:50,700 --> 01:12:53,866
with Carson deep 
into the research for her book,

1330
01:12:53,866 --> 01:12:58,533
Maria, now 89, 
suffered a stroke.

1331
01:12:58,533 --> 01:13:01,566
When she died on the morning 
of December 1,

1332
01:13:01,566 --> 01:13:05,166
Rachel was at her bedside, 
holding her hand.

1333
01:13:05,166 --> 01:13:08,033
"More than anyone else I know,

1334
01:13:08,033 --> 01:13:12,133
she embodied a 'reverence for 
life,'" Carson told a friend.

1335
01:13:12,133 --> 01:13:13,500
"And she could fight fiercely

1336
01:13:13,500 --> 01:13:15,700
"against anything 
she believed wrong,

1337
01:13:15,700 --> 01:13:18,066
"as in our present crusade!

1338
01:13:18,066 --> 01:13:20,466
"Knowing how she felt about that 
will help me

1339
01:13:20,466 --> 01:13:22,700
to carry it through 
to completion."

1340
01:13:22,700 --> 01:13:27,700
Just weeks later, 
Carson was back to work,

1341
01:13:27,700 --> 01:13:29,800
driven by the growing certainty

1342
01:13:29,800 --> 01:13:33,233
that manmade pesticides menaced 
not only the environment,

1343
01:13:33,233 --> 01:13:35,866
but human health.

1344
01:13:35,866 --> 01:13:38,433
LEAR: 
Carson is convinced 
that there is this link

1345
01:13:38,433 --> 01:13:42,633
between pesticides 
and cancer in humans.

1346
01:13:42,633 --> 01:13:45,333
And that is going to be 
an explosive part to this book

1347
01:13:45,333 --> 01:13:47,900
that she didn't initially plan,

1348
01:13:47,900 --> 01:13:50,666
and she has to be very careful 
of how she puts that out.

1349
01:13:50,666 --> 01:13:55,400
NARRATOR: 
Once again, the evidence 
was preliminary--

1350
01:13:55,400 --> 01:13:58,100
much of it as yet unpublished.

1351
01:13:58,100 --> 01:13:59,733
It was also well outside

1352
01:13:59,733 --> 01:14:01,566
Carson's training 
as a biologist,

1353
01:14:01,566 --> 01:14:05,033
and therefore difficult 
for her to parse.

1354
01:14:05,033 --> 01:14:07,666
But the more she learned, 
the more focused she became

1355
01:14:07,666 --> 01:14:10,733
on the parallels 
between synthetic pesticides

1356
01:14:10,733 --> 01:14:12,966
and radioactive fallout.

1357
01:14:18,866 --> 01:14:23,500
SOUDER: 
They operated 
in much the same way.

1358
01:14:23,500 --> 01:14:24,966
They were widely dispersed.

1359
01:14:24,966 --> 01:14:29,666
You could absorb a body burden 
of both of them.

1360
01:14:29,666 --> 01:14:34,466
Both of them were being linked 
to cancer and birth defects.

1361
01:14:34,466 --> 01:14:37,600
Things would happen years, 
even decades after the exposure.

1362
01:14:37,600 --> 01:14:39,866
These were long-range problems

1363
01:14:39,866 --> 01:14:41,400
that you didn't know 
were happening

1364
01:14:41,400 --> 01:14:43,366
when they were happening.

1365
01:14:46,533 --> 01:14:49,633
NARRATOR: 
Events soon bolstered 
Carson's case.

1366
01:14:49,633 --> 01:14:51,433
In the spring of 1959,

1367
01:14:51,433 --> 01:14:54,200
government officials 
publicly admitted

1368
01:14:54,200 --> 01:14:57,900
that they had underestimated 
the hazards of nuclear fallout.

1369
01:14:57,900 --> 01:15:03,500
Of particular concern was 
the radionuclide strontium-90,

1370
01:15:03,500 --> 01:15:06,333
which had made its way 
into the nation's dairy supply

1371
01:15:06,333 --> 01:15:10,400
and was now thought to cause 
leukemia, bone cancer,

1372
01:15:10,400 --> 01:15:11,800
and birth defects.

1373
01:15:13,100 --> 01:15:15,100
LYTLE: 
This is the height 
of the Baby Boom,

1374
01:15:15,100 --> 01:15:18,466
and so you have a nation 
focused

1375
01:15:18,466 --> 01:15:20,066
on its child and family life

1376
01:15:20,066 --> 01:15:22,700
being potentially poisoned 
by this by-product

1377
01:15:22,700 --> 01:15:26,200
of the nuclear testing regime.

1378
01:15:26,200 --> 01:15:30,666
NARRATOR: 
As Carson's editor, Paul Brooks, 
told her,

1379
01:15:30,666 --> 01:15:32,400
"All this publicity 
about fallout

1380
01:15:32,400 --> 01:15:34,933
"gives you a head start 
in awakening people

1381
01:15:34,933 --> 01:15:38,066
to the dangers of chemicals."

1382
01:15:40,233 --> 01:15:43,733
Then, just before 
Thanksgiving 1959,

1383
01:15:43,733 --> 01:15:46,533
came the so-called 
cranberry scare.

1384
01:15:46,533 --> 01:15:50,033
♪ ♪

1385
01:15:50,033 --> 01:15:52,733
LYTLE: 
People of my generation

1386
01:15:52,733 --> 01:15:55,100
remember the Thanksgiving 
with no cranberry sauce.

1387
01:15:55,100 --> 01:15:57,100
Farmers in Oregon

1388
01:15:57,100 --> 01:16:01,133
had sprayed their cranberry bogs 
with a pesticide,

1389
01:16:01,133 --> 01:16:03,533
but they did it 
in the wrong growth cycle,

1390
01:16:03,533 --> 01:16:05,633
so that it got into the berries 
themselves

1391
01:16:05,633 --> 01:16:08,733
and then 
into the national food supply.

1392
01:16:10,066 --> 01:16:13,133
SOUDER: 
It was potentially 
a cancer-causing agent.

1393
01:16:13,133 --> 01:16:17,366
This might have been one of 
the first public demonstrations

1394
01:16:17,366 --> 01:16:21,666
of the hazards 
of chemical pesticides.

1395
01:16:21,666 --> 01:16:23,666
Of course, 
this alarmed the public,

1396
01:16:23,666 --> 01:16:26,133
who wanted their cranberries 
but didn't want to be poisoned,

1397
01:16:26,133 --> 01:16:30,033
and it greatly distressed 
the cranberry industry.

1398
01:16:30,033 --> 01:16:33,433
To Carson, 
this was just exhibit A

1399
01:16:33,433 --> 01:16:35,600
in a story she'd already

1400
01:16:35,600 --> 01:16:38,233
formed in her own mind 
and was ready to tell.

1401
01:16:38,233 --> 01:16:43,133
NARRATOR: 
With shipments of cranberries 
being seized for inspection

1402
01:16:43,133 --> 01:16:46,933
and panicked grocers pulling 
cranberry products from shelves,

1403
01:16:46,933 --> 01:16:49,600
Oregon's bad berries 
were on the verge

1404
01:16:49,600 --> 01:16:53,433
of ruining a $50 million crop.

1405
01:16:53,433 --> 01:16:56,066
Growers in other states 
cried foul,

1406
01:16:56,066 --> 01:16:58,166
and government officials 
went into high gear

1407
01:16:58,166 --> 01:16:59,300
to shore up the industry.

1408
01:17:01,500 --> 01:17:03,933
Secretary of Agriculture 
Ezra Benson

1409
01:17:03,933 --> 01:17:06,966
had himself photographed 
eating cranberries.

1410
01:17:06,966 --> 01:17:10,533
On the presidential 
campaign trail,

1411
01:17:10,533 --> 01:17:14,233
Senator John F. Kennedy quaffed 
a cranberry juice toast,

1412
01:17:14,233 --> 01:17:17,566
while his opponent, 
Vice President Richard Nixon,

1413
01:17:17,566 --> 01:17:20,000
swallowed down 
four full helpings

1414
01:17:20,000 --> 01:17:22,800
of the supposedly tainted fruit.

1415
01:17:22,800 --> 01:17:26,900
SOUDER: 
Whether the public was reassured 
by that, we can't know.

1416
01:17:26,900 --> 01:17:28,633
But it demonstrated 
that there was

1417
01:17:28,633 --> 01:17:32,966
this inherent coalition, 
this inherent partnership

1418
01:17:32,966 --> 01:17:36,900
between the government 
and its clients in industry--

1419
01:17:36,900 --> 01:17:40,500
the chemicals industry, 
the agricultural industry--

1420
01:17:40,500 --> 01:17:42,900
that would be very resistant 
to the ideas

1421
01:17:42,900 --> 01:17:45,333
that Carson 
was going to propose,

1422
01:17:45,333 --> 01:17:47,433
that she was going 
to come head-to-head

1423
01:17:47,433 --> 01:17:49,633
with the massed might

1424
01:17:49,633 --> 01:17:52,666
of the U.S. economy 
and the U.S. government

1425
01:17:52,666 --> 01:17:55,033
if she tried to prove 
to the public

1426
01:17:55,033 --> 01:17:56,933
that they were being poisoned.

1427
01:17:58,733 --> 01:18:00,166
NARRATOR: 
"I think you know,"

1428
01:18:00,166 --> 01:18:02,900
one of Carson's 
research contacts warned her,

1429
01:18:02,900 --> 01:18:05,633
"how grim this struggle 
with the U.S. government

1430
01:18:05,633 --> 01:18:07,500
"and the whole chemical industry

1431
01:18:07,500 --> 01:18:09,766
is bound to be."

1432
01:18:14,600 --> 01:18:18,866
(thunder rumbling, 
rain pattering)

1433
01:18:21,000 --> 01:18:23,833
Initially, she'd thought it 
a nuisance:

1434
01:18:23,833 --> 01:18:28,433
first, in early January 1960, 
a painful ulcer,

1435
01:18:28,433 --> 01:18:31,866
then a sinus infection 
that laid her low for weeks,

1436
01:18:31,866 --> 01:18:34,100
then two lumps 
in her left breast,

1437
01:18:34,100 --> 01:18:37,433
discovered during an examination 
in March.

1438
01:18:39,733 --> 01:18:41,700
LEAR: 
Carson is making progress.

1439
01:18:41,700 --> 01:18:44,333
She knows she's going to finish 
this book.

1440
01:18:44,333 --> 01:18:48,533
And suddenly she's got 
this catalogue of illnesses

1441
01:18:48,533 --> 01:18:50,866
that happen to her.

1442
01:18:50,866 --> 01:18:58,733
She was never very good 
at facing up to limitations.

1443
01:18:58,733 --> 01:19:03,700
Probably none of us are, 
but she's in denial

1444
01:19:03,700 --> 01:19:06,166
and she hides it 
under the covers of herself,

1445
01:19:06,166 --> 01:19:08,100
and to herself,

1446
01:19:08,100 --> 01:19:10,166
and just tries 
to plow through it.

1447
01:19:13,533 --> 01:19:16,133
NARRATOR: 
Carson had a history 
of breast tumors

1448
01:19:16,133 --> 01:19:19,300
and twice had had them 
surgically removed.

1449
01:19:19,300 --> 01:19:21,866
This time, one tumor 
was "suspicious enough"

1450
01:19:21,866 --> 01:19:25,266
to require a radical mastectomy.

1451
01:19:25,266 --> 01:19:27,000
Still, the surgeon assured her

1452
01:19:27,000 --> 01:19:29,500
that no malignancy 
had been found,

1453
01:19:29,500 --> 01:19:31,300
so Carson sought 
no further treatment.

1454
01:19:33,733 --> 01:19:35,300
It was only when she discovered

1455
01:19:35,300 --> 01:19:37,866
a hard lump on her rib, 
months later,

1456
01:19:37,866 --> 01:19:39,333
that she sought 
a second opinion

1457
01:19:39,333 --> 01:19:44,700
and learned that the surgeon 
had withheld the truth.

1458
01:19:44,700 --> 01:19:46,800
According to the pathology 
report,

1459
01:19:46,800 --> 01:19:49,700
the removed tumor had in fact 
been malignant,

1460
01:19:49,700 --> 01:19:53,800
and it had metastasized 
to her lymph nodes.

1461
01:19:53,800 --> 01:19:57,733
SOUDER: 
It was common at the time 
for doctors in such situations

1462
01:19:57,733 --> 01:20:01,633
to discuss a diagnosis, 
a prognosis, a treatment

1463
01:20:01,633 --> 01:20:03,900
with a woman's husband,

1464
01:20:03,900 --> 01:20:06,233
who they believed 
would be better able

1465
01:20:06,233 --> 01:20:08,800
to handle this information, 
process it,

1466
01:20:08,800 --> 01:20:11,866
make decisions 
if decisions had to be made.

1467
01:20:14,233 --> 01:20:16,533
LYTLE: 
It may also be that the cancer

1468
01:20:16,533 --> 01:20:19,200
was sufficiently 
far enough advanced

1469
01:20:19,200 --> 01:20:20,900
that he figured,

1470
01:20:20,900 --> 01:20:22,766
"Well, there's nothing much 
we can do about this.

1471
01:20:22,766 --> 01:20:24,600
We've done what we can."

1472
01:20:24,600 --> 01:20:26,433
But, you know, in the process,

1473
01:20:26,433 --> 01:20:30,600
he denied her six months 
of potential treatment

1474
01:20:30,600 --> 01:20:32,400
that might have mitigated 
the cancer

1475
01:20:32,400 --> 01:20:36,800
or might have extended her life.

1476
01:20:36,800 --> 01:20:39,933
NARRATOR: 
Carson's first thought 
was for her privacy.

1477
01:20:39,933 --> 01:20:41,433
"Somehow I have no wish

1478
01:20:41,433 --> 01:20:44,433
to read of my ailments 
in literary gossip columns,"

1479
01:20:44,433 --> 01:20:46,033
she told a friend.

1480
01:20:46,033 --> 01:20:50,100
"Too much comfort 
to the chemical companies!"

1481
01:20:50,100 --> 01:20:52,600
SOUDER: 
She was sure 
that she would be accused

1482
01:20:52,600 --> 01:20:55,200
of having written the book 
as a retribution

1483
01:20:55,200 --> 01:20:57,200
against the chemical industry

1484
01:20:57,200 --> 01:21:02,033
on the unfounded allegation 
that pesticides caused cancer.

1485
01:21:02,033 --> 01:21:04,033
She understood 
this was a serious risk

1486
01:21:04,033 --> 01:21:07,133
and this would be 
a point of attack against her.

1487
01:21:08,433 --> 01:21:10,900
♪ ♪

1488
01:21:12,533 --> 01:21:15,666
NARRATOR: 
The months that followed 
were excruciating:

1489
01:21:15,666 --> 01:21:19,500
radiation treatments, 
a flare-up of her ulcer,

1490
01:21:19,500 --> 01:21:21,233
a staph infection 
that progressed

1491
01:21:21,233 --> 01:21:25,066
to septic arthritis in her knees 
and ankles.

1492
01:21:25,066 --> 01:21:29,566
By the end of January 1961, 
she was unable to walk

1493
01:21:29,566 --> 01:21:32,200
and could barely stand.

1494
01:21:34,700 --> 01:21:36,166
CARSON (dramatized): 
Darling,

1495
01:21:36,166 --> 01:21:37,833
you know my high hopes

1496
01:21:37,833 --> 01:21:40,133
for the goal I might meet 
by March,

1497
01:21:40,133 --> 01:21:43,700
hopes I entertained 
last October!

1498
01:21:43,700 --> 01:21:45,133
Now I look back

1499
01:21:45,133 --> 01:21:48,866
at the complete and devastating 
wreckage of those plans,

1500
01:21:48,866 --> 01:21:53,633
not only no writing for months, 
but the nearly complete loss

1501
01:21:53,633 --> 01:21:57,933
of any creative feeling 
or desire.

1502
01:21:57,933 --> 01:22:01,733
Sometimes I wonder whether 
the Author even exists anymore.

1503
01:22:04,466 --> 01:22:09,233
CHRISTIE: 
I think she handled it 
as well as she could.

1504
01:22:09,233 --> 01:22:11,333
You know, 
the only negative thing

1505
01:22:11,333 --> 01:22:14,700
I would have to say about it 
in retrospect was,

1506
01:22:14,700 --> 01:22:19,900
she wasn't honest enough 
with me about it,

1507
01:22:19,900 --> 01:22:23,100
although who knows whether 
that would've been a good thing?

1508
01:22:25,766 --> 01:22:27,833
You know, but that's all 
I remember about it,

1509
01:22:27,833 --> 01:22:33,266
just that it was kind of 
a broken time.

1510
01:22:34,533 --> 01:22:36,966
(birds chirping)

1511
01:22:36,966 --> 01:22:39,266
NARRATOR: 
To her research files on cancer,

1512
01:22:39,266 --> 01:22:41,233
Carson now began 
to save clippings

1513
01:22:41,233 --> 01:22:44,700
on experimental treatments 
and improbable miracle cures.

1514
01:22:44,700 --> 01:22:49,100
She would never be truly healthy 
again,

1515
01:22:49,100 --> 01:22:51,766
but as soon as the radiation 
treatments were finished,

1516
01:22:51,766 --> 01:22:55,033
she went back to work.

1517
01:22:55,033 --> 01:22:59,566
(typewriter keys clacking)

1518
01:22:59,566 --> 01:23:03,100
CHRISTIE: 
The book became a race 
for her to finish.

1519
01:23:05,533 --> 01:23:11,866
That was the one time 
where it would impact on us

1520
01:23:11,866 --> 01:23:13,866
in that, you know, 
she would say,

1521
01:23:13,866 --> 01:23:16,966
"I have to go and lock myself 
in the study

1522
01:23:16,966 --> 01:23:19,800
"and you have to go 
amuse yourself,

1523
01:23:19,800 --> 01:23:23,066
and that's just the way it is."

1524
01:23:23,066 --> 01:23:27,566
And that got more and more 
intense as time went on.

1525
01:23:27,566 --> 01:23:31,500
NARRATOR: 
In late January 1962,

1526
01:23:31,500 --> 01:23:34,500
nearly four years 
after she'd begun to write it,

1527
01:23:34,500 --> 01:23:37,400
Carson finally submitted 
the bulk of the manuscript

1528
01:23:37,400 --> 01:23:40,566
to both Houghton Mifflin 
and the "New Yorker."

1529
01:23:40,566 --> 01:23:42,333
It was, she wrote Dorothy,

1530
01:23:42,333 --> 01:23:46,100
"like reaching the last station 
before the summit of Everest."

1531
01:23:47,900 --> 01:23:51,666
William Shawn called as soon 
as he'd finished reading it.

1532
01:23:51,666 --> 01:23:55,633
"Silent Spring," he told her, 
was "a brilliant achievement."

1533
01:23:58,733 --> 01:24:02,366
That night, while listening 
to her favorite violin concerto

1534
01:24:02,366 --> 01:24:04,166
alone in her study,

1535
01:24:04,166 --> 01:24:06,000
Carson wept.

1536
01:24:10,200 --> 01:24:15,866
CARSON (dramatized): 
Darling, I could never again 
listen happily to a thrush song

1537
01:24:15,866 --> 01:24:17,966
if I had not done all I could.

1538
01:24:17,966 --> 01:24:20,933
And last night the thoughts

1539
01:24:20,933 --> 01:24:23,300
of all the birds 
and other creatures

1540
01:24:23,300 --> 01:24:25,866
and all the loveliness 
that is in nature

1541
01:24:25,866 --> 01:24:30,166
came to me with such a surge 
of deep happiness,

1542
01:24:30,166 --> 01:24:33,200
that now I had done 
what I could.

1543
01:24:33,200 --> 01:24:36,000
I had been able 
to complete it.

1544
01:24:36,000 --> 01:24:39,633
Now it had its own life.

1545
01:24:49,333 --> 01:24:52,033
NARRATOR: 
On June 16, 1962,

1546
01:24:52,033 --> 01:24:53,966
as the elements of 
"Silent Spring"

1547
01:24:53,966 --> 01:24:56,066
were being prepared 
for publication,

1548
01:24:56,066 --> 01:24:58,033
the first "New Yorker" 
installment arrived

1549
01:24:58,033 --> 01:25:01,500
on the newsstands, and with its 
opening paragraphs

1550
01:25:01,500 --> 01:25:04,966
lured readers 
into a fertile world of plenty.

1551
01:25:08,200 --> 01:25:10,800
READER: 
"There was once a town 
in the heart of America

1552
01:25:10,800 --> 01:25:12,500
"where all life seemed to live

1553
01:25:12,500 --> 01:25:15,766
"in harmony 
with its surroundings.

1554
01:25:15,766 --> 01:25:17,600
"The town lay in the midst

1555
01:25:17,600 --> 01:25:19,933
"of a checkerboard 
of prosperous farms,

1556
01:25:19,933 --> 01:25:23,500
"with fields of grain 
and hillsides of orchards

1557
01:25:23,500 --> 01:25:26,333
"where, in spring, 
white clouds of bloom

1558
01:25:26,333 --> 01:25:30,466
drifted above the green fields."

1559
01:25:30,466 --> 01:25:34,100
LYTLE: 
The birds sing, and the woods 
are filled with living things,

1560
01:25:34,100 --> 01:25:38,100
and it's an abundant, 
happy place.

1561
01:25:38,100 --> 01:25:43,566
And then suddenly the residents 
discover the birds are gone

1562
01:25:43,566 --> 01:25:45,466
and the animals have died

1563
01:25:45,466 --> 01:25:50,066
and many of the plants 
have withered.

1564
01:25:50,066 --> 01:25:53,900
SOUDER: 
People start to get sick for 
reasons that can't be explained.

1565
01:25:53,900 --> 01:25:58,300
Livestock have 
stunted offspring.

1566
01:25:58,300 --> 01:25:59,866
Everything goes bad.

1567
01:26:03,100 --> 01:26:04,700
READER: 
"In the gutters under the eaves

1568
01:26:04,700 --> 01:26:07,066
"and between the shingles 
of the roofs,

1569
01:26:07,066 --> 01:26:11,433
"a few patches of white granular 
powder could be seen.

1570
01:26:11,433 --> 01:26:14,800
"Some weeks earlier, this powder 
had been dropped, like snow,

1571
01:26:14,800 --> 01:26:19,666
"upon the roofs and the lawns, 
the fields and the streams.

1572
01:26:19,666 --> 01:26:22,166
"No witchcraft, no enemy action

1573
01:26:22,166 --> 01:26:25,633
"had snuffed out life 
in this stricken world.

1574
01:26:25,633 --> 01:26:28,666
The people had done it 
themselves."

1575
01:26:31,166 --> 01:26:35,133
ORESKES: 
She creates an image of silence.

1576
01:26:35,133 --> 01:26:38,133
"What would it be like 
if you woke up in the morning

1577
01:26:38,133 --> 01:26:40,200
"and you went outside

1578
01:26:40,200 --> 01:26:42,833
"and instead 
of hearing birds chirp or sing,

1579
01:26:42,833 --> 01:26:46,233
you heard nothing?"

1580
01:26:46,233 --> 01:26:48,466
And that's 
so amazingly powerful, right?

1581
01:26:48,466 --> 01:26:50,866
And it just, you know, 
it stops you in your tracks.

1582
01:26:54,266 --> 01:26:57,866
NARRATOR: 
In the zealous quest 
for mastery, Carson argued,

1583
01:26:57,866 --> 01:27:01,100
synthetic pesticides 
had been used indiscriminately,

1584
01:27:01,100 --> 01:27:03,266
excessively, heedlessly,

1585
01:27:03,266 --> 01:27:05,333
upsetting the delicate balance 
of nature

1586
01:27:05,333 --> 01:27:09,166
and putting all life at risk.

1587
01:27:09,166 --> 01:27:14,700
LYTLE: 
She felt that proponents 
of widespread pesticide use

1588
01:27:14,700 --> 01:27:17,700
were conducting an experiment 
with life itself

1589
01:27:17,700 --> 01:27:20,500
without having done 
adequate testing or research

1590
01:27:20,500 --> 01:27:24,766
to determine 
what the consequences might be.

1591
01:27:24,766 --> 01:27:26,666
And that the citizenry 
weren't being informed

1592
01:27:26,666 --> 01:27:29,100
because the proponents 
of pesticides

1593
01:27:29,100 --> 01:27:31,433
were telling them 
only one side of the story

1594
01:27:31,433 --> 01:27:35,833
and the one that benefited 
their own interests.

1595
01:27:35,833 --> 01:27:38,100
And so all these things are part

1596
01:27:38,100 --> 01:27:40,566
of the Cold War consensus 
by which Americans lived:

1597
01:27:40,566 --> 01:27:45,133
the benevolence of corporations, 
the authority of science.

1598
01:27:45,133 --> 01:27:47,833
Well, Carson's challenging 
all of those things.

1599
01:27:50,500 --> 01:27:52,233
NARRATOR: 
The furor arose even before

1600
01:27:52,233 --> 01:27:55,366
the second and third 
installments of "Silent Spring"

1601
01:27:55,366 --> 01:27:57,366
hit the newsstands.

1602
01:27:57,366 --> 01:28:00,366
The "New Yorker" was deluged 
with letters.

1603
01:28:00,366 --> 01:28:03,100
So, too, was the U.S.D.A.

1604
01:28:03,100 --> 01:28:04,466
Most of those who wrote,

1605
01:28:04,466 --> 01:28:07,133
an agency spokesman 
told the "New York Times,"

1606
01:28:07,133 --> 01:28:09,133
expressed "horror and amazement"

1607
01:28:09,133 --> 01:28:11,400
that the use 
of such toxic chemicals

1608
01:28:11,400 --> 01:28:13,566
was even permitted.

1609
01:28:13,566 --> 01:28:15,633
CRAMER: 
She raised the level 
of awareness

1610
01:28:15,633 --> 01:28:17,600
of the general public

1611
01:28:17,600 --> 01:28:20,700
of all of these chemical 
applications

1612
01:28:20,700 --> 01:28:24,166
and why we need to think 
about their implications.

1613
01:28:24,166 --> 01:28:30,466
People were deeply moved 
and frightened by what she said.

1614
01:28:32,233 --> 01:28:35,466
NARRATOR: 
Scientists for the chemical 
industry and the U.S.D.A.

1615
01:28:35,466 --> 01:28:37,500
were incensed 
by Carson's assertions.

1616
01:28:37,500 --> 01:28:42,033
What, they wondered publicly, 
was the death of a songbird

1617
01:28:42,033 --> 01:28:43,800
against the possibility

1618
01:28:43,800 --> 01:28:45,533
of ending malaria 
or world hunger?

1619
01:28:45,533 --> 01:28:48,366
As one industry chemist put it,

1620
01:28:48,366 --> 01:28:51,166
"DDT alone has saved 
as many human lives

1621
01:28:51,166 --> 01:28:53,200
"over the past 15 years

1622
01:28:53,200 --> 01:28:55,766
as all the wonder drugs 
combined."

1623
01:28:57,833 --> 01:29:00,366
LYTLE: 
The proponents of pesticides 
argued

1624
01:29:00,366 --> 01:29:02,700
that you have to take risks 
to go forward.

1625
01:29:02,700 --> 01:29:05,200
That's very much part

1626
01:29:05,200 --> 01:29:09,933
of our scientific, technological 
culture.

1627
01:29:09,933 --> 01:29:14,900
BLUM: 
They saw themselves as doing 
something in the higher good.

1628
01:29:14,900 --> 01:29:16,800
They were fostering 
human development.

1629
01:29:16,800 --> 01:29:18,333
They were killing plagues.

1630
01:29:18,333 --> 01:29:22,600
They were making the world 
a better place.

1631
01:29:24,566 --> 01:29:26,033
ORESKES: 
Carson herself acknowledged

1632
01:29:26,033 --> 01:29:29,666
there was this benefit 
through the use of pesticides.

1633
01:29:29,666 --> 01:29:31,733
But the whole point 
of her argument

1634
01:29:31,733 --> 01:29:34,633
is that there's been a kind of 
an assumption and a rush.

1635
01:29:34,633 --> 01:29:36,800
The benefits were obvious, 
so people rushed

1636
01:29:36,800 --> 01:29:38,366
to take advantage 
of those benefits,

1637
01:29:38,366 --> 01:29:40,600
but there were 
these other problems

1638
01:29:40,600 --> 01:29:42,666
that were maybe not as obvious,

1639
01:29:42,666 --> 01:29:45,266
but actually might outweigh 
the benefits.

1640
01:29:47,466 --> 01:29:49,700
NARRATOR: 
By August, with the publication 
of the book

1641
01:29:49,700 --> 01:29:51,800
still more than a month away,

1642
01:29:51,800 --> 01:29:54,000
the controversy 
over "Silent Spring"

1643
01:29:54,000 --> 01:29:56,300
had reached 
the nation's capital,

1644
01:29:56,300 --> 01:29:58,733
and a special 
Science Advisory Committee

1645
01:29:58,733 --> 01:30:00,300
had been convened

1646
01:30:00,300 --> 01:30:02,833
to review all federal policies 
on pesticides.

1647
01:30:04,633 --> 01:30:08,366
On August 28, the subject 
even found its way into one

1648
01:30:08,366 --> 01:30:12,366
of the president's regular 
televised press conferences.

1649
01:30:12,366 --> 01:30:14,400
REPORTER: 
There appears to be growing 
concern among scientists

1650
01:30:14,400 --> 01:30:16,300
as to the possibility

1651
01:30:16,300 --> 01:30:19,066
of dangerous long-range 
side effects

1652
01:30:19,066 --> 01:30:22,600
from the widespread use 
of DDT and other pesticides.

1653
01:30:22,600 --> 01:30:25,033
Have you considered asking 
the Department of Agriculture

1654
01:30:25,033 --> 01:30:26,433
or the Public Health Service

1655
01:30:26,433 --> 01:30:28,133
to take a closer look 
at this?

1656
01:30:28,133 --> 01:30:31,933
Yes, and I know 
that they already are,

1657
01:30:31,933 --> 01:30:34,800
I think particularly, of course, 
since Miss Carson's book,

1658
01:30:34,800 --> 01:30:37,700
but they are examining 
the matter.

1659
01:30:37,700 --> 01:30:39,833
SOUDER: 
You can only imagine how worried

1660
01:30:39,833 --> 01:30:41,900
the people who made 
these pesticides were.

1661
01:30:41,900 --> 01:30:43,100
When President Kennedy said,

1662
01:30:43,100 --> 01:30:45,066
"Yeah, we're going to look 
into this.

1663
01:30:45,066 --> 01:30:47,966
"We're going to reach in 
to the private sector

1664
01:30:47,966 --> 01:30:49,966
"and see if we need to 
regulate these products

1665
01:30:49,966 --> 01:30:51,100
in a different way,"

1666
01:30:51,100 --> 01:30:52,266
that was a threat.

1667
01:30:52,266 --> 01:30:54,633
That's a threat 
to the bottom line.

1668
01:30:54,633 --> 01:30:57,933
That's a threat to the business 
that these companies were in.

1669
01:30:57,933 --> 01:31:00,633
LYTLE: 
They formed essentially 
a war council

1670
01:31:00,633 --> 01:31:03,133
to get together and develop 
a propaganda campaign

1671
01:31:03,133 --> 01:31:04,333
to discredit Carson,

1672
01:31:04,333 --> 01:31:07,100
to discredit the science 
in her book,

1673
01:31:07,100 --> 01:31:08,933
and to defend their practices.

1674
01:31:08,933 --> 01:31:12,800
♪ ♪

1675
01:31:12,800 --> 01:31:14,733
NARRATOR: 
From public relations 
departments

1676
01:31:14,733 --> 01:31:16,133
throughout the chemical industry

1677
01:31:16,133 --> 01:31:19,666
now came a flood 
of bulletins and brochures

1678
01:31:19,666 --> 01:31:22,733
which emphasized 
the benefits of pesticides.

1679
01:31:24,700 --> 01:31:27,266
The Monsanto Company, 
an industry leader,

1680
01:31:27,266 --> 01:31:29,733
papered news outlets 
across the country

1681
01:31:29,733 --> 01:31:32,633
with a spoof of "Silent 
Spring's" opening chapter,

1682
01:31:32,633 --> 01:31:35,200
in which a pesticide-free world

1683
01:31:35,200 --> 01:31:38,366
loses millions 
to yellow fever and malaria...

1684
01:31:38,366 --> 01:31:40,033
NEWSREEL NARRATOR: 
She dines on healthy blood,

1685
01:31:40,033 --> 01:31:44,133
and in payment leaves 
the chills and fever of malaria.

1686
01:31:44,133 --> 01:31:47,000
NARRATOR: 
...and crop-ravaging insects 
drive humanity

1687
01:31:47,000 --> 01:31:49,600
to the brink of famine.

1688
01:31:49,600 --> 01:31:52,600
"Silent Spring," 
critics charged,

1689
01:31:52,600 --> 01:31:54,433
was a "high-pitched," 
"emotional,"

1690
01:31:54,433 --> 01:31:56,833
"scientifically indefensible" 
screed.

1691
01:31:56,833 --> 01:32:01,466
To heed Carson's call 
for restraint, it was argued,

1692
01:32:01,466 --> 01:32:05,933
meant nothing less than 
"the end of all human progress."

1693
01:32:05,933 --> 01:32:07,900
KINKELA: 
There is this sort of 
real tension

1694
01:32:07,900 --> 01:32:11,266
between this understanding 
of chemical sciences

1695
01:32:11,266 --> 01:32:15,700
as a sort of hyper-masculine, 
lab-intensive research

1696
01:32:15,700 --> 01:32:18,600
that produces 
these wonderful technologies

1697
01:32:18,600 --> 01:32:22,066
and these scientists 
who work in nature,

1698
01:32:22,066 --> 01:32:24,566
who examine issues 
over the long term,

1699
01:32:24,566 --> 01:32:27,733
but who really 
aren't scientists.

1700
01:32:27,733 --> 01:32:29,033
They're sort of like a cult.

1701
01:32:29,033 --> 01:32:32,766
And having a woman 
at this particular moment

1702
01:32:32,766 --> 01:32:37,733
being the lead spokesperson 
of that kind of idea

1703
01:32:37,733 --> 01:32:39,733
really chafed,

1704
01:32:39,733 --> 01:32:42,933
and made the chemical scientists 
really angry.

1705
01:32:45,500 --> 01:32:47,366
ORESKES: 
The idea that this woman,

1706
01:32:47,366 --> 01:32:50,266
you know, this woman with what, 
a master's degree,

1707
01:32:50,266 --> 01:32:53,666
that she knows something 
that we don't know?

1708
01:32:53,666 --> 01:32:57,666
You know, you just see their, 
their condescension towards her

1709
01:32:57,666 --> 01:32:59,566
in their just really dismissive 
approach

1710
01:32:59,566 --> 01:33:01,433
and their misrepresentation 
of her work.

1711
01:33:01,433 --> 01:33:04,933
They try to accuse her 
of rejecting modernity,

1712
01:33:04,933 --> 01:33:08,766
of being unrealistic, of 
wanting to ban all pesticides,

1713
01:33:08,766 --> 01:33:10,033
none of which are true,

1714
01:33:10,033 --> 01:33:12,000
but it's a way to try 
to discredit her

1715
01:33:12,000 --> 01:33:13,300
and discredit the argument,

1716
01:33:13,300 --> 01:33:15,400
and it's a way to not even 
have the argument.

1717
01:33:15,400 --> 01:33:18,100
♪ ♪

1718
01:33:21,266 --> 01:33:23,733
NARRATOR: 
Concerned the attacks 
from industry scientists

1719
01:33:23,733 --> 01:33:25,500
created the impression

1720
01:33:25,500 --> 01:33:27,866
that the science 
was "all on the other side,"

1721
01:33:27,866 --> 01:33:30,033
Carson prevailed 
upon Houghton Mifflin

1722
01:33:30,033 --> 01:33:35,633
to publish a rebuttal 
to her critics.

1723
01:33:35,633 --> 01:33:39,666
LYTLE: 
The commercial, monetary, 
political resources

1724
01:33:39,666 --> 01:33:42,466
that the agencies 
and the businesses

1725
01:33:42,466 --> 01:33:45,333
that were arrayed against her 
could command

1726
01:33:45,333 --> 01:33:47,200
were daunting indeed.

1727
01:33:47,200 --> 01:33:50,700
But many scientists 
strongly supported Carson

1728
01:33:50,700 --> 01:33:53,833
and accepted her case 
and even contributed to it.

1729
01:33:55,900 --> 01:33:58,933
ORESKES: 
The worst thing you could say 
about "Silent Spring"

1730
01:33:58,933 --> 01:34:01,833
is actually a compliment: 
It's not a work of science.

1731
01:34:04,500 --> 01:34:06,266
And that's true, 
it's not a work of science.

1732
01:34:06,266 --> 01:34:08,500
It's a work 
of science communication.

1733
01:34:08,500 --> 01:34:11,000
She is communicating to us 
what scientists have to say

1734
01:34:11,000 --> 01:34:12,866
and she's communicating 
the meaning

1735
01:34:12,866 --> 01:34:14,433
of that scientific work.

1736
01:34:14,433 --> 01:34:18,466
She makes clear what's at stake, 
and that's her great gift.

1737
01:34:20,800 --> 01:34:24,933
NARRATOR: 
In the end, "Silent Spring" 
flew off the shelves.

1738
01:34:24,933 --> 01:34:29,200
Within two weeks of its official 
publication, on September 27,

1739
01:34:29,200 --> 01:34:32,766
65,000 copies had been sold.

1740
01:34:32,766 --> 01:34:37,300
Before long, 
it was a runaway bestseller.

1741
01:34:37,300 --> 01:34:41,100
Every major publication in 
the country reviewed the book.

1742
01:34:41,100 --> 01:34:43,900
More than 70 newspapers 
also ran editorials.

1743
01:34:43,900 --> 01:34:46,633
Carson, meanwhile, 
was the subject

1744
01:34:46,633 --> 01:34:49,866
of so many magazine articles 
and cartoons

1745
01:34:49,866 --> 01:34:52,300
that she and Roger began 
to collect them.

1746
01:34:54,566 --> 01:34:57,166
♪ ♪

1747
01:35:05,566 --> 01:35:08,000
Absent from all the publicity 
was the fact

1748
01:35:08,000 --> 01:35:11,500
that Carson's cancer had spread 
to the right side of her body

1749
01:35:11,500 --> 01:35:16,300
and that she was once again 
undergoing radiation treatments.

1750
01:35:16,300 --> 01:35:19,733
Inundated with interview 
requests,

1751
01:35:19,733 --> 01:35:21,633
Carson agreed that fall

1752
01:35:21,633 --> 01:35:24,233
to only two 
that involved cameras:

1753
01:35:24,233 --> 01:35:26,066
a profile in "Life" magazine

1754
01:35:26,066 --> 01:35:28,800
and an appearance 
on "CBS Reports"

1755
01:35:28,800 --> 01:35:31,133
with Eric Sevareid.

1756
01:35:31,133 --> 01:35:33,733
For both, she wore 
a heavy, dark wig

1757
01:35:33,733 --> 01:35:35,800
she'd purchased 
at Elizabeth Arden.

1758
01:35:37,700 --> 01:35:39,900
The two-day interview session 
with CBS

1759
01:35:39,900 --> 01:35:41,866
at her home in Silver Spring

1760
01:35:41,866 --> 01:35:44,100
was so taxing 
that it became plain to Sevareid

1761
01:35:44,100 --> 01:35:46,700
that Carson was ill.

1762
01:35:46,700 --> 01:35:49,966
Get the piece on the air 
as soon as possible,

1763
01:35:49,966 --> 01:35:52,066
he urged his producer.

1764
01:35:52,066 --> 01:35:54,566
"You've got a dead 
leading lady."

1765
01:35:54,566 --> 01:35:59,133
♪ ♪

1766
01:35:59,133 --> 01:36:02,400
LEAR: 
Carson was determined 
as a young girl.

1767
01:36:02,400 --> 01:36:04,133
She was determined 
to get an education.

1768
01:36:04,133 --> 01:36:06,333
She was determined 
to be a writer.

1769
01:36:06,333 --> 01:36:09,733
She was determined to find 
something to write about.

1770
01:36:09,733 --> 01:36:11,466
And with "Silent Spring,"

1771
01:36:11,466 --> 01:36:15,100
she was determined 
that this message would get out.

1772
01:36:15,100 --> 01:36:18,700
She's willing to endure 
almost everything

1773
01:36:18,700 --> 01:36:21,500
to get that message out.

1774
01:36:21,500 --> 01:36:23,233
CARSON: 
My text this afternoon is taken

1775
01:36:23,233 --> 01:36:29,100
from the "Globe Times" 
of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,

1776
01:36:29,100 --> 01:36:34,000
a news item in the issue 
of October 12.

1777
01:36:34,000 --> 01:36:38,966
After describing in detail 
the reactions to "Silent Spring"

1778
01:36:38,966 --> 01:36:43,133
of the farm bureaus 
in two Pennsylvania counties,

1779
01:36:43,133 --> 01:36:45,966
the reporter continued:

1780
01:36:45,966 --> 01:36:50,333
"No one in either county farm 
office who was talked to today

1781
01:36:50,333 --> 01:36:52,000
"had read the book,

1782
01:36:52,000 --> 01:36:54,300
but all 
disapproved of it heartily."

1783
01:36:54,300 --> 01:36:56,333
(audience laughing)

1784
01:36:56,333 --> 01:36:58,900
NARRATOR: 
In early December 1962,

1785
01:36:58,900 --> 01:37:01,466
in an address to 
the Women's National Press Club,

1786
01:37:01,466 --> 01:37:05,233
Rachel Carson finally answered 
her critics.

1787
01:37:05,233 --> 01:37:07,300
Challenging the industry's 
contention

1788
01:37:07,300 --> 01:37:08,966
that "chemicals are never used

1789
01:37:08,966 --> 01:37:10,966
unless tests have shown them 
to be safe,"

1790
01:37:10,966 --> 01:37:13,033
she reminded her audience

1791
01:37:13,033 --> 01:37:16,066
that pesticide manufacturers 
financed the studies

1792
01:37:16,066 --> 01:37:18,833
of their own products' safety.

1793
01:37:18,833 --> 01:37:22,433
I know that many thoughtful 
scientists are deeply disturbed

1794
01:37:22,433 --> 01:37:26,000
that their organizations are 
becoming fronts for industry.

1795
01:37:28,366 --> 01:37:30,600
Is industry becoming a screen

1796
01:37:30,600 --> 01:37:32,600
through which facts 
must be filtered

1797
01:37:32,600 --> 01:37:37,366
so that the hard, uncomfortable 
truths are kept back

1798
01:37:37,366 --> 01:37:43,166
and only the harmless morsels 
are allowed to filter through?

1799
01:37:43,166 --> 01:37:47,233
The tailoring, the screening 
of basic truth

1800
01:37:47,233 --> 01:37:50,766
is done to accommodate 
to the short-term gain,

1801
01:37:50,766 --> 01:37:55,300
to serve the gods 
of profit and production.

1802
01:37:55,300 --> 01:37:59,100
♪ ♪

1803
01:37:59,100 --> 01:38:02,366
LEAR: 
She is calling 
for the population

1804
01:38:02,366 --> 01:38:05,600
to understand that money 
has a great deal to do

1805
01:38:05,600 --> 01:38:07,900
with what is done in science.

1806
01:38:07,900 --> 01:38:12,633
She says, "We need to ask 
who speaks and why.

1807
01:38:12,633 --> 01:38:15,166
"What is done 
in the name of science

1808
01:38:15,166 --> 01:38:17,266
and why doesn't the public 
have a right to know?"

1809
01:38:19,066 --> 01:38:21,633
These are not just 
scientific questions.

1810
01:38:21,633 --> 01:38:25,533
These are questions that 
a social revolutionary asks.

1811
01:38:25,533 --> 01:38:27,066
CARSON: 
These are matters

1812
01:38:27,066 --> 01:38:29,933
of the most serious importance 
to society.

1813
01:38:29,933 --> 01:38:32,866
And I commend their study 
to you

1814
01:38:32,866 --> 01:38:36,100
as professionals 
in the field of communication.

1815
01:38:36,100 --> 01:38:38,233
Thank you.

1816
01:38:38,233 --> 01:38:41,400
(audience applauds)

1817
01:38:41,400 --> 01:38:43,333
NARRATOR: 
Unable to silence Carson,

1818
01:38:43,333 --> 01:38:45,033
the chemical industry 
lobbied hard

1819
01:38:45,033 --> 01:38:50,100
to muzzle the forthcoming 
CBS special on "Silent Spring."

1820
01:38:50,100 --> 01:38:53,766
In March, just weeks before 
the program was slated to air,

1821
01:38:53,766 --> 01:38:55,400
the network was flooded

1822
01:38:55,400 --> 01:38:57,733
with mimeographed letters 
urging fairness--

1823
01:38:57,733 --> 01:39:00,466
a campaign orchestrated, 
CBS assumed,

1824
01:39:00,466 --> 01:39:02,366
by the chemical industry lobby.

1825
01:39:02,366 --> 01:39:06,266
Then, just days 
before the broadcast,

1826
01:39:06,266 --> 01:39:09,300
two of the show's five 
commercial sponsors pulled out,

1827
01:39:09,300 --> 01:39:12,566
followed swiftly by a third.

1828
01:39:12,566 --> 01:39:14,266
CBS was undaunted,

1829
01:39:14,266 --> 01:39:18,933
and on the evening 
of Wednesday, April 3, 1963,

1830
01:39:18,933 --> 01:39:21,533
"The Silent Spring 
of Rachel Carson"

1831
01:39:21,533 --> 01:39:24,133
was beamed into living rooms 
all across the country.

1832
01:39:24,133 --> 01:39:25,633
Good evening.

1833
01:39:25,633 --> 01:39:28,833
We are living in what has been 
called the synthetic age.

1834
01:39:28,833 --> 01:39:30,566
The age of the atom, 
the missile,

1835
01:39:30,566 --> 01:39:32,733
the frozen TV dinner.

1836
01:39:32,733 --> 01:39:34,233
In the next hour, you will hear

1837
01:39:34,233 --> 01:39:36,633
that this is also the age 
of the wormless apple

1838
01:39:36,633 --> 01:39:38,566
and the calculated risk.

1839
01:39:38,566 --> 01:39:40,066
Do you know how long

1840
01:39:40,066 --> 01:39:42,566
the pesticides persist 
in the water

1841
01:39:42,566 --> 01:39:44,166
once they get into it?

1842
01:39:44,166 --> 01:39:45,566
Not entirely.

1843
01:39:45,566 --> 01:39:48,533
Do you know the extent 
to which our groundwater

1844
01:39:48,533 --> 01:39:51,866
may be contaminated right now 
by pesticides?

1845
01:39:51,866 --> 01:39:54,366
We don't know that, either, 
nor do we know...

1846
01:39:54,366 --> 01:39:55,733
NARRATOR: 
As the program unfolded,

1847
01:39:55,733 --> 01:39:59,233
a welter of scientists 
and government officials,

1848
01:39:59,233 --> 01:40:01,366
as well as Carson herself,

1849
01:40:01,366 --> 01:40:04,266
argued the pros and cons 
of synthetic pesticides.

1850
01:40:04,266 --> 01:40:07,400
In the end, one fact was clear:

1851
01:40:07,400 --> 01:40:10,400
For every scientific certainty,

1852
01:40:10,400 --> 01:40:12,700
there was a host 
of unanswered questions.

1853
01:40:12,700 --> 01:40:14,333
CARSON: 
We have to remember

1854
01:40:14,333 --> 01:40:17,600
that children born today 
are exposed to these chemicals

1855
01:40:17,600 --> 01:40:18,933
from birth.

1856
01:40:18,933 --> 01:40:20,766
Perhaps even before birth.

1857
01:40:20,766 --> 01:40:24,200
Now, what is going to happen 
to them in adult life

1858
01:40:24,200 --> 01:40:27,466
as a result of that exposure?

1859
01:40:27,466 --> 01:40:29,700
We simply don't know.

1860
01:40:29,700 --> 01:40:32,466
Because we've never before 
had this kind of experience.

1861
01:40:32,466 --> 01:40:34,866
SEVAREID: 
A spokesman 
for the chemical industry,

1862
01:40:34,866 --> 01:40:36,766
Dr. Robert White-Stevens.

1863
01:40:36,766 --> 01:40:38,566
Miss Carson is concerned

1864
01:40:38,566 --> 01:40:42,266
with every possibility 
of hazard and danger,

1865
01:40:42,266 --> 01:40:46,000
whereas the agricultural school 
has to concern itself

1866
01:40:46,000 --> 01:40:49,166
with the probability, 
the likelihood of danger,

1867
01:40:49,166 --> 01:40:51,433
and to assess that 
against utility.

1868
01:40:51,433 --> 01:40:54,300
If we had to investigate 
every possibility,

1869
01:40:54,300 --> 01:40:56,200
we would never make 
any advances at all,

1870
01:40:56,200 --> 01:40:58,100
because this would require

1871
01:40:58,100 --> 01:41:01,300
an infinite time 
for experimental work,

1872
01:41:01,300 --> 01:41:03,166
and we would never be finished.

1873
01:41:03,166 --> 01:41:06,633
CARSON: 
We've heard the benefits 
of pesticides.

1874
01:41:06,633 --> 01:41:10,833
We've heard a great deal 
about their safety,

1875
01:41:10,833 --> 01:41:15,966
but very little 
about the hazards,

1876
01:41:15,966 --> 01:41:19,066
very little about the failures, 
the inefficiencies,

1877
01:41:19,066 --> 01:41:23,600
and yet the public was being 
asked to accept these chemicals,

1878
01:41:23,600 --> 01:41:28,166
was being asked to acquiesce 
in their use

1879
01:41:28,166 --> 01:41:30,500
and did not have 
the whole picture.

1880
01:41:30,500 --> 01:41:33,266
So I set about to remedy 
the balance there.

1881
01:41:33,266 --> 01:41:37,933
♪ ♪

1882
01:41:37,933 --> 01:41:43,333
LEAR: 
"CBS Reports" becomes almost a 
second publication of the book.

1883
01:41:43,333 --> 01:41:47,866
People who hadn't read it and 
probably wouldn't have read it

1884
01:41:47,866 --> 01:41:53,300
can see that Rachel Carson 
is a very calm, rational woman

1885
01:41:53,300 --> 01:41:57,200
who is not frothing at the mouth 
and is not a raving Communist.

1886
01:41:57,200 --> 01:41:59,533
She's giving the public credit

1887
01:41:59,533 --> 01:42:02,400
for being able 
to understand science.

1888
01:42:02,400 --> 01:42:06,400
NARRATOR: 
With an audience estimated 
at between ten and 15 million,

1889
01:42:06,400 --> 01:42:09,100
"The Silent Spring 
of Rachel Carson"

1890
01:42:09,100 --> 01:42:11,566
catapulted the environment

1891
01:42:11,566 --> 01:42:13,233
to the top 
of the political agenda.

1892
01:42:13,233 --> 01:42:18,100
The next day, 
Senator Abraham Ribicoff,

1893
01:42:18,100 --> 01:42:21,000
chair of the subcommittee 
on government operations,

1894
01:42:21,000 --> 01:42:24,200
was charged with conducting 
a broad congressional review

1895
01:42:24,200 --> 01:42:27,633
of environmental hazards, 
including pesticides.

1896
01:42:27,633 --> 01:42:32,533
Then, on May 15, 
came the long-awaited report

1897
01:42:32,533 --> 01:42:37,133
from the president's 
Science Advisory Committee.

1898
01:42:37,133 --> 01:42:40,200
ORESKES: 
And they say 
in more prosaic language

1899
01:42:40,200 --> 01:42:42,600
what she has essentially 
already said in "Silent Spring,"

1900
01:42:42,600 --> 01:42:46,333
which is, "Yes, there are some 
benefits to using pesticides,

1901
01:42:46,333 --> 01:42:49,100
"and no, we probably don't want 
to outlaw and ban

1902
01:42:49,100 --> 01:42:51,266
"all pesticides tomorrow,

1903
01:42:51,266 --> 01:42:53,733
"but there is substantial 
scientific evidence

1904
01:42:53,733 --> 01:42:55,800
"that the indiscriminate use 
of pesticides,

1905
01:42:55,800 --> 01:42:57,566
"the overuse of pesticides,

1906
01:42:57,566 --> 01:43:01,766
"and particularly certain 
persistent pesticides like DDT

1907
01:43:01,766 --> 01:43:03,133
may be problematic."

1908
01:43:05,400 --> 01:43:06,900
NARRATOR: 
"I think it's 
a splendid report,"

1909
01:43:06,900 --> 01:43:08,566
Carson told a journalist.

1910
01:43:08,566 --> 01:43:10,566
"It's strong, it's objective,

1911
01:43:10,566 --> 01:43:14,100
"and, I think, a very fair 
evaluation of the problem.

1912
01:43:14,100 --> 01:43:16,300
"I feel that the report 
has vindicated me

1913
01:43:16,300 --> 01:43:19,766
and my principal contentions."

1914
01:43:24,800 --> 01:43:28,800
By now, Carson knew 
she didn't have long to live.

1915
01:43:28,800 --> 01:43:31,033
Despite ongoing 
radiation treatments,

1916
01:43:31,033 --> 01:43:33,833
the cancer had spread 
and spread again,

1917
01:43:33,833 --> 01:43:37,133
to her collarbone, her neck, 
her shoulder.

1918
01:43:37,133 --> 01:43:39,733
Though often in pain,

1919
01:43:39,733 --> 01:43:42,500
she kept her call for change 
insistent,

1920
01:43:42,500 --> 01:43:44,700
appearing in late May 
on the "Today Show"

1921
01:43:44,700 --> 01:43:49,200
and in early June before 
Ribicoff's Senate committee,

1922
01:43:49,200 --> 01:43:51,266
where she delivered 40 minutes 
of testimony

1923
01:43:51,266 --> 01:43:53,366
to a rapt, capacity crowd.

1924
01:43:53,366 --> 01:43:56,300
We have acquired 
technical skills

1925
01:43:56,300 --> 01:44:01,200
on a scale undreamed-of 
even a generation ago.

1926
01:44:01,200 --> 01:44:04,933
We can do dramatic things 
and we can do them quickly.

1927
01:44:04,933 --> 01:44:08,433
By the time damaging 
side effects are apparent,

1928
01:44:08,433 --> 01:44:10,966
it is often too late 
or impossible

1929
01:44:10,966 --> 01:44:13,300
to reverse our actions.

1930
01:44:13,300 --> 01:44:16,233
LEAR: 
She's aware that 
there will be changes coming

1931
01:44:16,233 --> 01:44:21,000
because of her words, 
because of her book,

1932
01:44:21,000 --> 01:44:23,366
so she's at peace, 
comfortable in some ways

1933
01:44:23,366 --> 01:44:27,733
with the fact that she's done 
the work that she set out to do.

1934
01:44:27,733 --> 01:44:29,833
If we are ever to solve 
the basic problem

1935
01:44:29,833 --> 01:44:33,166
of environmental contamination,

1936
01:44:33,166 --> 01:44:36,200
we must begin to count 
the many hidden costs

1937
01:44:36,200 --> 01:44:38,066
of what we are doing

1938
01:44:38,066 --> 01:44:42,166
and to weigh them 
against the gains or advantages.

1939
01:44:42,166 --> 01:44:46,166
♪ ♪

1940
01:44:46,166 --> 01:44:48,533
SOUDER: 
Now we enter 
into a period of time

1941
01:44:48,533 --> 01:44:50,800
in which everyone understands

1942
01:44:50,800 --> 01:44:53,666
that the environment 
is an important subject,

1943
01:44:53,666 --> 01:44:55,166
that it's something 
we should talk about,

1944
01:44:55,166 --> 01:44:56,900
something we should consider

1945
01:44:56,900 --> 01:44:58,533
when we are using 
new technologies

1946
01:44:58,533 --> 01:45:01,566
that might adversely affect it.

1947
01:45:01,566 --> 01:45:04,133
It puts the government squarely 
into the middle

1948
01:45:04,133 --> 01:45:06,100
as a regulating authority,

1949
01:45:06,100 --> 01:45:11,333
as a force that can restrain 
technology.

1950
01:45:11,333 --> 01:45:14,833
This hadn't been part 
of the dialogue before.

1951
01:45:20,766 --> 01:45:23,800
CARSON (dramatized): 
It seems strange, 
looking back over my life,

1952
01:45:23,800 --> 01:45:26,033
that all that went 
before this past decade

1953
01:45:26,033 --> 01:45:29,766
seems to have been merely 
preparation for it.

1954
01:45:29,766 --> 01:45:32,433
Into that decade have been 
crowded everything

1955
01:45:32,433 --> 01:45:34,666
I shall be remembered for.

1956
01:45:37,633 --> 01:45:41,933
NARRATOR: 
There was for Carson 
one last summer at Southport,

1957
01:45:41,933 --> 01:45:44,166
a summer filled with birdsong

1958
01:45:44,166 --> 01:45:46,666
and the sound of the wind 
in the spruce trees.

1959
01:45:49,733 --> 01:45:52,400
There were walks along the shore 
with Dorothy,

1960
01:45:52,400 --> 01:45:56,900
slow and ginger now on account 
of Carson's constant pain,

1961
01:45:56,900 --> 01:45:59,366
and bittersweet hours spent 
watching the surf

1962
01:45:59,366 --> 01:46:02,533
crash against the rocks.

1963
01:46:06,666 --> 01:46:10,966
FREEMAN: 
I don't think the kids, 
my brother and Roger and I,

1964
01:46:10,966 --> 01:46:17,100
understood that this was 
some big last deal.

1965
01:46:17,100 --> 01:46:20,800
But it was Rachel's last summer 
at Southport,

1966
01:46:20,800 --> 01:46:25,300
and she was unable to go down 
to the beach.

1967
01:46:25,300 --> 01:46:29,766
And yet, we all still had 
a lovely summer day

1968
01:46:29,766 --> 01:46:35,400
going down and bringing little 
creatures up to the cottage

1969
01:46:35,400 --> 01:46:38,833
for her to look at 
and talk to us about,

1970
01:46:38,833 --> 01:46:42,600
and then instruct us 
that they had to go back

1971
01:46:42,600 --> 01:46:44,966
where they came from.

1972
01:46:44,966 --> 01:46:47,466
♪ ♪

1973
01:46:47,466 --> 01:46:49,466
I think I like that

1974
01:46:49,466 --> 01:46:52,700
as a quintessential 
and last memory,

1975
01:46:52,700 --> 01:46:57,633
because that was her essence, 
and there it was.

1976
01:47:04,500 --> 01:47:10,266
NARRATOR: 
The cancer spread to her pelvis, 
then to her upper back and arms.

1977
01:47:10,266 --> 01:47:12,933
By October, 
back in Silver Spring,

1978
01:47:12,933 --> 01:47:16,433
Carson was spending 
most of her time in bed.

1979
01:47:17,900 --> 01:47:22,200
♪ ♪

1980
01:47:22,200 --> 01:47:25,166
LEAR: 
She had all these other ideas 
of what she wanted to write.

1981
01:47:25,166 --> 01:47:27,233
I think she comes to terms 
with the fact

1982
01:47:27,233 --> 01:47:32,133
that she will lay down her pen 
without having done them all.

1983
01:47:32,133 --> 01:47:34,500
Um, but the biggest thing, 
of course,

1984
01:47:34,500 --> 01:47:35,800
is what to do with Roger.

1985
01:47:38,166 --> 01:47:41,700
To face the fact 
that when she dies--

1986
01:47:41,700 --> 01:47:44,733
which she doesn't really 
face well--

1987
01:47:44,733 --> 01:47:46,266
Roger needs a family,

1988
01:47:46,266 --> 01:47:52,200
and she can't seem 
to come to grips with that.

1989
01:47:52,200 --> 01:47:54,500
CHRISTIE: 
She tried to shield me 
from how serious it was,

1990
01:47:54,500 --> 01:47:56,766
and it was never...

1991
01:47:56,766 --> 01:47:59,366
You know, well, 
"I'm going to die."

1992
01:48:00,900 --> 01:48:03,966
I don't know how she expected it 
to work, really,

1993
01:48:03,966 --> 01:48:08,066
beyond, you know, making 
provisions for me in her will.

1994
01:48:08,066 --> 01:48:10,000
It's not something 
we talked about.

1995
01:48:12,333 --> 01:48:15,800
FREEMAN: 
The best she could do was 
add a codicil to her will

1996
01:48:15,800 --> 01:48:20,633
that said it was her wish that 
either the Paul Brooks family--

1997
01:48:20,633 --> 01:48:23,233
Paul Brooks being her editor 
at Houghton Mifflin--

1998
01:48:23,233 --> 01:48:28,400
or my parents would take Roger 
in, would adopt Roger.

1999
01:48:30,600 --> 01:48:33,566
I think in the end she punted.

2000
01:48:33,566 --> 01:48:37,200
She just, wherever she was 
in her life,

2001
01:48:37,200 --> 01:48:39,533
the end of her life,

2002
01:48:39,533 --> 01:48:45,000
she didn't want to 
or couldn't make that decision.

2003
01:48:48,766 --> 01:48:53,133
(rain pattering, 
thunder rumbling)

2004
01:49:00,166 --> 01:49:05,433
NARRATOR: 
By spring, the cancer had spread 
to her brain.

2005
01:49:05,433 --> 01:49:08,333
Dorothy still wrote 
nearly every day,

2006
01:49:08,333 --> 01:49:11,433
but Carson no longer wrote back.

2007
01:49:11,433 --> 01:49:14,266
When Dorothy came for a visit 
in early April,

2008
01:49:14,266 --> 01:49:18,433
Carson was only dimly aware 
that she was there.

2009
01:49:21,733 --> 01:49:27,200
On April 14, 1964, 
Rachel Carson died.

2010
01:49:27,200 --> 01:49:30,966
She was 56 years old.

2011
01:49:30,966 --> 01:49:34,633
Some of her ashes were buried 
next to her mother's grave.

2012
01:49:34,633 --> 01:49:36,733
The rest Dorothy Freeman spread

2013
01:49:36,733 --> 01:49:40,133
over the ocean 
at Southport Island.

2014
01:49:41,200 --> 01:49:45,333
♪ ♪

2015
01:49:47,333 --> 01:49:50,900
(waves gently crashing)

2016
01:49:55,200 --> 01:49:58,533
BLUM: 
There's a Before Rachel 
and After Rachel

2017
01:49:58,533 --> 01:50:00,933
in the way we think 
about what matters

2018
01:50:00,933 --> 01:50:05,266
in protecting the environment.

2019
01:50:05,266 --> 01:50:08,200
There are not very many people 
who you say,

2020
01:50:08,200 --> 01:50:10,633
"That person drove 
a paradigm shift,"

2021
01:50:10,633 --> 01:50:11,866
but she did.

2022
01:50:11,866 --> 01:50:14,800
And it's post-"Silent Spring"

2023
01:50:14,800 --> 01:50:18,233
that you start seeing 
genuine environmental regulation

2024
01:50:18,233 --> 01:50:21,500
in a way 
that didn't exist before.

2025
01:50:21,500 --> 01:50:23,866
It's like a rain 
on a dry landscape.

2026
01:50:23,866 --> 01:50:26,000
That book was it.

2027
01:50:28,633 --> 01:50:32,033
LEAR: 
"Silent Spring" was the book 
that changed the world.

2028
01:50:32,033 --> 01:50:37,733
It taught us 
that life was fragile,

2029
01:50:37,733 --> 01:50:43,100
that it was mutable, 
that science was not omniscient.

2030
01:50:43,100 --> 01:50:48,833
Her message was 
that there's an ongoing story.

2031
01:50:48,833 --> 01:50:51,733
It doesn't just stop 
with the removal of pesticides.

2032
01:50:54,000 --> 01:50:56,000
LYTLE: 
Many business 
and political types

2033
01:50:56,000 --> 01:50:59,600
who can't stand 
environmental regulation

2034
01:50:59,600 --> 01:51:03,400
have since been trying 
to discredit Rachel Carson.

2035
01:51:03,400 --> 01:51:05,333
They feel if they can 
discredit her,

2036
01:51:05,333 --> 01:51:08,733
they can in a sense deconstruct 
the environmental apparatus.

2037
01:51:08,733 --> 01:51:10,900
And they're still doing it.

2038
01:51:10,900 --> 01:51:13,966
It has not gone quiet.

2039
01:51:13,966 --> 01:51:16,600
ORESKES: 
Rachel Carson begins 
a conversation

2040
01:51:16,600 --> 01:51:21,466
that we needed to have, 
that we weren't having in 1963,

2041
01:51:21,466 --> 01:51:23,100
and that we still haven't 
really figured out

2042
01:51:23,100 --> 01:51:26,000
how to have in an 
appropriate way even today.

2043
01:51:27,933 --> 01:51:30,900
It's a conversation about 
the pros and cons of technology.

2044
01:51:30,900 --> 01:51:33,900
It's a conversation about 
the role of nature in our life

2045
01:51:33,900 --> 01:51:37,033
and about whether or not 
we make our lives better

2046
01:51:37,033 --> 01:51:39,433
through technological 
innovations

2047
01:51:39,433 --> 01:51:43,933
or whether we do damage 
that outweighs the benefits.

2048
01:51:46,766 --> 01:51:48,766
SOUDER: 
Carson said, "Let's try to look

2049
01:51:48,766 --> 01:51:50,066
"at life from the other side.

2050
01:51:50,066 --> 01:51:51,733
"Let's try to look 
at the natural world

2051
01:51:51,733 --> 01:51:53,600
as if we were actually 
a part of it."

2052
01:51:53,600 --> 01:51:57,200
That's a different way 
to understand things

2053
01:51:57,200 --> 01:51:59,933
than anyone had ever proposed 
before.

2054
01:51:59,933 --> 01:52:01,533
You're not separate.

2055
01:52:01,533 --> 01:52:05,266
You're human, but you're not 
separate from this living world.

2056
01:52:05,266 --> 01:52:08,600
♪ ♪

2057
01:52:16,933 --> 01:52:21,733
♪ ♪

2058
01:52:36,700 --> 01:52:39,200
♪ ♪

2059
01:52:39,200 --> 01:52:41,933
ANNOUNCER: 
"American Experience: 
Rachel Carson"

2060
01:52:41,933 --> 01:52:46,033
is available with PBS Passport 
and on Amazon Prime Video.

2061
01:52:47,166 --> 01:52:52,200
♪ ♪

2062
01:53:02,233 --> 01:53:07,266
♪ ♪