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Critiques of Silent Spring

Silent Spring is often subject to much praise but little thorough analysis. The section of this website of Carson’s Malaria legacy addresses Carson’s statements on DDT and public health. The following offers additional critiques of the findings and claims presented in in Silent Spring.

General Critiques:

“Chemicals and Pests, I. L. Baldwin, Science, September 28, 1962.

“Silent Spring at 40”
Reason Online
Ron Bailey

“Rachel Was Wrong”
Jonathan Tolman
Monthly Planet, March 1, 1996

“Suffering in Silence”
The real legacy of Rachel Carson
Katherine Mangu-Ward
Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2007

“How Rachel Carson Distorted The History of DDT”
John Berlau
Ecofreaks: Environmentalism Is Hazardous to Your Health! (excerpt)
Thomas Nelson, 2006

“The DDT Ban”
Bonner Cohen
The Green Wave: Environmentalism and Its Consequences (excerpt)
Capital Research Center, 2006.

“The Cancerous Legacy of Rachel Carson”
Dennis T. Avery
Knight Ridder Tribune, June 6, 2002

The Greatest Unfounded Health Scares of Recent Times
Adam J. Lieberman and Simona C. Kwon, M.P.H
National Center for Public Policy Research, January 2002

“Silent Spring—Book Reviews”
Bruce N. Ames
Reason, December 1993

Rachel Carson Syndrome
Alex Avery
Center for Global Food Issues

A Fable for Today?
Joseph L. Bast
Heartland Perspectives, April 1996

Controversies related to DDT and Birds:

“DDT, Eggshells, and Me”
Ronald Bailey
Reason Online, January 7, 2004

“Bald Eagle-DDT Myth Still Flying High”
Steven Milloy
Foxnews.com, July 6, 2006

“DDT Facts and Fictions”
Alex Avery
Letter to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, May 9, 2007

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