What is the significance of the book Silent Spring on today's environmental awareness and green movement?

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was the one of the first major works to clearly show the public, outside of the scientific community,how the world's use of chemical pesticides could have effects beyond what was intended. It is largely due to her book that use of DDT was banned in most areas of the world. She is credited with starting the environmental movement. Although most of the information in her book was already known in scientific circles, she is the one who clearly communicated to non-scientists the dangers of pesticide use. She came under a great deal of attack by the chemical industry, but had been very careful in writing the book, and her point of view was upheld.