Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson was a world renowned writer, marine biologist, ecologist, and environmentalist who tirelessly worked to raise awareness about the dangers of releasing chemical hazards in the environment, and the implications they pose on the health of the environment and future generations.   Rachel Louise Carson was born on May 27^th, 1907 in the small rural town of town of Springdale, Pennsylvania. Her passion for nature and writing began with her exploration of the forests and streams that surrounded her 65 acre farm house. At age 10, one of her first writings was published in a magazine devoted to young writers. In 1925, Carson attended the Pennsylvania College for Women and began as an English major but later switched to Biology. After graduating, she then received a scholarship to complete her graduate studies at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.  Rachel Carson received a position as an aquatic biologist at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries in 1935, and published her first novel, Under the Sea-Wind, in 1941 in which she eloquently describes the beauty marine life.  Carson published two more novels The Sea around Us in 1951, and The Edge of the Sea in 1956 which both offered a unique perspective on the term ecology, which involves the study of our living environment.

 Although Rachel Carson’s many publications highly influenced the way the world viewed nature, it was her last novel The Silent Spring, published in 1962 after years of research across U.S. and Europe, that changed history by setting the stage for the environmental movement that followed afterwards. In The Silent Spring, Carson describes, in excruciating detail, the atrocities observed in the ecosystem as a result of the release of harmful pesticides such as DDT. The growing abnormalities observed in fish and wildlife, were among the first evidence that demonstrated the immense danger of these chemicals to the overall environment and human health.  Carson urged that more research be done on DDT and other pesticides to ensure safe use, particularly on agriculture, and development of other safe alternatives. She challenged humanity to take responsibility for the damages they have caused in natural and wild life, and stressed the importance of protecting the ecosystem. The Silent Spring evoked a thunderstorm of controversy and Carson endured monumental attacks on her professional integrity where the pesticide industry promoted a huge campaign to discredit her work.  Carson, in turn, spoke out advocating that the humanity is a part of the natural ecosystem, and therefore, is just as vulnerable to the harmful effects of pesticides like the rest of the ecosystem.   In 1963, she appeared before the congressional committee to speak on the damaging effects of pesticides in the ecosystem, and stressed a need for the development of new policies to protect human health and the environment.  Her remarkable bravery and impeccable contribution to research and writing led to the banning of DDT and other pesticides as well as the development of environmental policies.  Rachel Carson died in 1964, at age 57, after a life long battle with breast cancer. The legacy of this extraordinary woman to conserve and protect the integrity of all life continues to be the inspiration of current and future generations.

 "man's endeavors to control nature by his powers to alter and to destroy would inevitably evolve into a war against himself, a war he would lose unless he came to terms with nature." 

-Rachel Carson

http://www.rachelcarsoncouncil.org/index.php?page=photo-rentals

http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Rachel_Carson/about/rachelcarson.html