The photo above is enough to make anyone today cringe at how careless we were when it came to the environment back then. Until Silent Spring, we didn't really hear about any of the negative effects of DDT. It was the miracle chemical..it couldn't possibly do any harm.
Prior to the mainstream use of DDT, there were more than 3,800 breeding pairs of peregrine falcons in North America. After using DDT for two decades, the number decreased to only 39 pairs. The peregrine falcon was headed for extinction in North America. That is an astounding decrease in population in 20 years. Bald eagles saw a similar decrease in numbers. There were only around 500 breeding pairs post DDT. It would have been a tragedy if we had let the symbol of freedom, our claim to democracy, go extinct by our own doing. Raptors(a bird of prey) were so effected by the use of DDT because DDT is not able to be processed by animals. When we spray DDT on crops to kill bugs, birds will eat the bugs and ingest that DDT. The DDT doesn't get processed and builds up in the fat cells of the bird. Each bug that bird eats compounds DDT. Then the peregrine falcon comes along and kills and eats that bird. All that DDT is passed onto the falcon. This process is repeated and magnified. Eventually the falcon has so much DDT that it effects the calcium production of the bird resulting in an egg shell that is so thin, it can't incubate it. After DDT was banned, the numbers have been increasing ever since. Both the Eagle and the Falcon have a health population.
Prior to the mainstream use of DDT, there were more than 3,800 breeding pairs of peregrine falcons in North America. After using DDT for two decades, the number decreased to only 39 pairs. The peregrine falcon was headed for extinction in North America. That is an astounding decrease in population in 20 years. Bald eagles saw a similar decrease in numbers. There were only around 500 breeding pairs post DDT. It would have been a tragedy if we had let the symbol of freedom, our claim to democracy, go extinct by our own doing. Raptors(a bird of prey) were so effected by the use of DDT because DDT is not able to be processed by animals. When we spray DDT on crops to kill bugs, birds will eat the bugs and ingest that DDT. The DDT doesn't get processed and builds up in the fat cells of the bird. Each bug that bird eats compounds DDT. Then the peregrine falcon comes along and kills and eats that bird. All that DDT is passed onto the falcon. This process is repeated and magnified. Eventually the falcon has so much DDT that it effects the calcium production of the bird resulting in an egg shell that is so thin, it can't incubate it. After DDT was banned, the numbers have been increasing ever since. Both the Eagle and the Falcon have a health population.