Thirty-five years after the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, this article takes stock of the relevance of her message for present-day society. How much progress has been achieved with respect to reducing and regulating pesticides? The answer is a grim one. Not only have Carson's warnings too often gone unheeded, but we are entering a new stage in our understanding of the level of risk that these chemicals pose, beyond the scope even of Silent Spring. More than ever we need to draw on powers of understanding and explanation of the kind that Rachel Carson exemplified.
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