Peatlands, though only covering around 3% of the world’s landmass, are crucial for Earth’s climate. As they produce the prestage of lignite, they currently store double as much carbon as all the world’s forests combined.
The purpose of the RAMSAR convention is to protect wetland habitats such as coral reefs, marshes, swamps, underground cave systems, peat bogs and mangroves (plus many more). To date, 170 countries have ratified The RAMSAR Convention and an estimated 250 million hectares of wetlands are protected under it.
In Part 1, we explored the context and content of Silent Spring, investigating the relevance of the post-war period in the history of environmentalism. We also considered the threat agricultural DDT poses to ecosystems as well as Carson’s gentle scholarship. Today, we discuss the fallout from the chemical industry, see how it mirrors the persisting climate denial of today, as well as Carson’s enduring legacy in the field of environmentalism.
Published in 1962, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is credited as being one of the first books that took the chemical industry head-on, critiquing the environmental orthodoxy of its time[1]. Its poetic use of language sought to properly engage the general public in environmentalism for the first time. For this, Silent Spring received raucous applause from environmentalists and has since never been out of print [2]. But what made its content so compelling? And, as we reflect on the six decades that have passed since its publication, what impact has Silent Spring had on how we think about conservation today? Over the next 2 articles, we will begin to answer these questions. However, to properly understand Silent Spring, we first need to understand the period in which it emerged.