Silent Spring

Book of the Quarter, Spring 2008
Panel Discussion
Saint Clare Room, 3rd Floor
Harrington Learning Commons, Sobrato Technology Center, and Orradre Library
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Noon - 1:30 p.m.

The Library and the Environmental Studies Institute present a panel discussion on Silent Spring by Rachel Carson as the Spring 2008 Book of the Quarter.

Panelists:

Keith Warner
California takes Carson's advice on moth, yet the public is outraged.

Lecturer, Environmental Studies Institute; Franciscan friar.

Warner's research and recent book examines agroecology.

Leslie Gray
DDT & Malaria: how best to save lives.

Associate Professor; Executive Director, Environmental Studies Institute.

Gray, a geographer, focuses on agriculture and environment in western Africa.

John Farnsworth
The book that started the environmental movement.

Lecturer, Faculty Director of the CyPhi Learning Community.

Farnsworth teaches environmental writing and environmental literature and is himself a poet.

Rachel Carson, a marine biologist, sparked modern-day environmentalism with the 1962 publication of her book Silent Spring. Today, it is a seminal book in environmental literature. In it, Carson lucidly analyzes the devastating harm that certain pesticides do to our ecosystems, and possibly to us. Bird species, especially, including our national symbol the bald eagle, were dying and declining precipitously because of mass spraying of DDT. Yet, by killing malaria-bearing mosquitoes, DDT saves lives. The World Health Organization advises DDT's use in Africa.

The controversy over Silent Spring and such pesticides continues to this day. Come hear why.

You do not have to read the book to attend. Silent Spring is available through OSCAR and LINK+. A documentary video about Rachel Carson and Silent Spring is available through OSCAR.