“Silent Spring” Critique

“‘Silent Spring’ revered and overwrought,” by Rory Cohen.
In the late 19th century, the Audubon Society was created to address concerns about disappearance of American bird species. These concerns stemmed not from fear over chemicals, but were due in large part to women’s hat fashions that required the slaughtering of birds for feathers. “That there should be an owl or ostrich left with a single feather apiece hardly seems possible,” an 1897 issue of Harper’s Bazaar commented. Egg collection, hunting and habitat destruction also led to activists pushing to protect bird populations from being decimated. Real the full story in the Orange County Register.