As if a premonition, Carson's book begins with a distortion of truth in the dedication section. She leads the reader to believe that Schweitzer was opposed to the use of pesticides. Yet in his autobiography, Schweitzer explicitly supports DDT as a ray of hope for mankind. His quoted statement is about nuclear warfare, not pesticides. Carson makes explicit reference to DDT being deadly to humans.
Nothing is further from the truth.
Since the DDT ban, hundreds of millions have suffered from the effects of malaria and other diseases, and several million die annually. Estimates of 30 to 40 million people dying since the DDT ban are reasonable. As Charles T. Rubin put it in his detailed and withering analysis of environmentalism, The Green Crusade , Rachel Carson is the unacknowledged master of the murder mystery. Environmental promoters of the DDT ban were aware of the likely human tragedy. People are the cause of all the problems.