Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania.
She was a writer, scientist, and ecologist. She courageously spoke
out to remind us that we are a vulnerable part of the natural world
subject to the same damage as the rest of the ecosystem. She began
working for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts
during the Depression and supplemented her income writing feature
articles on natural history for the Baltimore Sun. She then began
a fifteen-year career in the federal service as a scientist and
editor in 1936 and rose to become Editor-in-Chief of all publications
for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Her second book, The Sea
Around Us, was published and eventually translated into 32 languages.
It was on The New York Times' best-seller list for 81 weeks. The
success of her second book prompted Carson to resign her position
at the Service in 1952 to devote her time to writing.
Through her writing she promoted an interconnectedness of life
and held that humanity had no right to think they could control
nature. She challenged the notion that nature exists for the convenience
of humanity. But it was her last book, Silent Spring, published
in 1962 that awakened society to a responsibility to other forms
of life. In it, she documents in minute biological detail the true
menace to the ecosystem caused by harmful pesticides. She challenged
the practices and views of the agricultural industry and government.
She asserted that the indiscriminant use of DDT was poisoning not
just target species but also the environment itself, and she called
for an end to the misuse of this and other powerful toxins.
In 1992, a panel of distinguished Americans declared Rachel Carson's,
Silent Spring, the most influential book of the past 50 years.
Vice President Al Gore credits Carson’s work with prompting
the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Carson is
credited as a woman who almost single-handedly alerted Americans
to the dark side of science in alliance with industrial society.
She made a significant impact in paving the way for other environmental
activists and her life’s work was centered on promoting understanding,
tolerance, and respect not only among all people but also among
all living species.
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