Discredited Silent Spring is Still Being Taught in College Classrooms

Andrew Follett

Rachel Carson’s discredited “Silent Spring” is being taught in more college classrooms than the “Harry Potter” series or “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Carson is the 27th most commonly assigned female author in college, according to an analysis of  1.1 million college syllabi published by Time magazine Thursday. Her work is widely considered to have inspired the modern environmental movement.

The book led to a nationwide ban on the pesticide DDT for agricultural uses, even though the science behind “Silent Spring” has been thoroughly debunked.

“‘Silent Spring'” had huge cultural and political impacts, so it’s understandable why people read  the book, but students should read it with a critical eye. Not only was Carson rebuked in Science magazine when her book was first published, her anti-pesticide alarmism—particularly related to DDT–continues to have deadly consequences,” Dr. Angela Logomasini, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation........Read more