Rachel Carson
Born: May 27, 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania
Died: April 14, 1964 in Silver Spring, Maryland
“One species – man– has acquired
significant power to alter the nature
of his world”
Writer, scientist, and ecologist
One of the 20th Century’s most important people.
“(1960-1980): Conservation and environmental
movement took off; fueled by a number of books
and essays: Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson”
Born in
Springdale, Pennsylvania
May 27, 1907
This is the house that Rachel and her family lived in.
What was
Rachel
Carson’s
life like?
Her family
1917
-- Rachel's first story was published in
St. Nicholas Magazine
1929
Rachel saw the ocean for the first time
The stock market crashed and the Great Depression
began.
She loved the Sea, and nature
Educated as a Scientist
1929-- Rachel attends
Pennsylvania College for
Women
1932 -- MA in zoology from
Johns Hopkins Universit
Biology or writing?
Her career
Combining Writing & Science
U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts
during the Depression.
Wrote feature articles on natural history for the
Baltimore Sun.
1936 Federal service as a scientist and editor
Later became Editor-in-Chief of all
publications for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
Writing + Science = Books
1941
1941 -- Rachel's first book Under the Sea Wind is published
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii is bombed
“Eventually it dawned on me that by
becoming a biologist I would be giving
myself something to write about."
1950 -- The Sea Around Us is published
1951 -- The Sea Around Us receives the National Book Award
1952 -- Under the Sea Wind and The Sea Around Us become
bestsellers (her favorite book)
1955 -- The Edge of the Sea is published
Widespread Use of Pesticides
Rachel become alarmed by
government abuse of new chemical
pesticides such as DDT, in particular
the "predator" and "pest" control
programs, which were broadcasting
poisons with little regard for the
welfare of other creatures.
Chemical companies made other
pesticides: dieldrin, parathion,
heptachlor, malathion and other
compounds many times stronger than
DDT
The government planned to distribute
these poisons through the Department
of Agriculture for public use and
commercial manufacture.
1962 -- Silent Spring was published
“The book that launched the environmental movement”
Chemical Industry uproar
She was immediately
assailed by threats of
lawsuits and derision,
including suggestions
that this meticulous
scientist was a
"hysterical woman"
unqualified to write
such a book.
Courageously speaking out
Testifying before
Congress in 1963,
Carson called for new
policies to protect
human health and the
environment.
a cry in the wilderness
1964 -- Rachel dies of cancer
“ [Rachel Carson ] brought us back to
a fundamental idea lost to an amazing
degree in modern civilization: the
interconnection of human beings and
the natural environment. “
… Al Gore
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
Chapter 1. A Fable for Tomorrow
"There was once a town in the heart of America where all life
seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town
lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with
fields of grains and hillsides of orchards where, in spring,
white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields …. The
countryside was, in fact, famous for the abundance and
variety of its bird life, and when the flood of migrants was
pouring through in spring and fall people travel from great
distances to observe them.
... Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything
began to change ... There was a strange stillness ...
The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they
trembled violently and could not fly.
It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had
once throbbed with the dawn chorus of scores of bird
voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the
fields and woods and marsh. Even the streams were now
lifeless...
On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks
hatched. The farmers complained that they were
unable to raise any pigs—the litters were small and
the young survived only a few days. The apple
trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned
among the blossoms, so there was no pollination
and there would be no fruit.
In the gutters under the eaves and between the
shingles of the roofs, a white granular powder still
showed a few patches; some weeks before it had
fallen like snow upon the roofs and the lawns, the
field and the streams.
No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the
rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people
had done it themselves.
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), pp. 2-3
Resources
Rachel Carson Biography
http://www.rachelcarson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=bio
Interesting Facts about Rachel Carson
http://www.eiu.edu/~wow/carsfacts.html
1994 Introduction to Silent Spring by Al Gore
http://www.uneco.org/ssalgoreintro.html