It’s been more than half a century since the publication of Silent Spring by the scientist and creative writer Rachel Carson. The seminal volume caught the attention of U.S. presidents, artists and musicians, spurring the environmental movement and leading to the eventual ban of the toxic pesticide DDT. Joining the Mongabay Newscast is environmental writer and director of the creative writing program at Middlebury College, Megan Mayhew Bergman. She unpacks the impact of Carson’s work, which came under public attack from chemical companies seeking to discredit her, and how, eventually, the truth broke through. “We don’t change our minds usually based on data. We change our minds based on emotion, but historically, it’s been pretty taboo for scientists to include emotion in the way that they write. And I feel like Carson risked that here in a way that was really powerful.” Bergman explains the lessons she thinks writers or anyone advocating for the environment can learn from this book, and why it’s still so celebrated today. It comes down to Carson’s moral clarity about the impact of pesticides, bioaccumulation in human bodies and the environment, leading to long-term harm that persists today. The key to Carson’s success, Bergman says, is her ability to connect these deeply scientific problems with readers’ emotions and sense of morality — a skill she encourages more scientists to master. “I would always encourage humanists among us to go deeper in the science and scientists among us to go deeper in emotion.” But you don’t…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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