Question

‘Silent Spring’ is -
(a)A piece of literature
(b)A valley in Kerala
(c)A flower-bedecked area in Uttar Kashi
(d)An unpolluted area in Kashmir

Answer 1

Silent Spring is a work created by Rachel Carson that was responsible for first bringing about a countrywide ban, then a worldwide ban on particular substances that caused harm to human beings more than the target it was meant to eliminate.

Complete answer:
- Silent Spring is a book in the subject of environmental science by author Rachel Carson which puts forward the harmful effects of the indiscriminate and excessive use of pesticides, especially DDT.
- The book was published in 1962.
- Her research began in the mid-1940s until the publishing of the book.
- The book brought about public awareness of the indiscriminately usage of chemical pesticides. Despite opposition from chemical companies, the knowledge led to a ban on DDT usage for agricultural purposes and other environmental movements leading to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency, under President Nixon.

Additional Information:
- The book incited disagreement from chemical companies for years but it finally led to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency in the USA in 1970.
- The book details how human activity can have a negative effect on nature. She called the pesticides ‘biocides’.
- This is because the pesticides do not affect the insects they are targeted towards but to the bird population and humans.

- So, the correct answer is ‘a piece of literature’.

Note: - DDT is an almost odorless, crystalline, an organochlorine compound that was initially used as a pesticide. It is persistent and remains in soils for a long time.
- It was used in World War II to control the outbreak of malaria and typhus.
- DDT is most importantly known to cause the thinning of eggshells of predatory birds.
- It also accumulates in the body and is toxic to the endocrine and reproductive system.