Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist, ecologist, and conservationist whose book Silent Wind along with other writings is credited with advancing the global environmental movement. She was perhaps the greatest writer of the twentieth century. She is also known as the woman who challenged the notion that humans could obtain mastery over nature by chemicals.

Rachel Carson was hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts during the depression. Also during that time she wrote articles on natural history for the Baltimore Sun. She 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.

Rachel Carson wrote pamphlets on conservation and natural resources and edited scientific articles. In her free she turned her government research into lyrical prose, first with an article called Undersea (1937) then in a book Called Under the Sea-Wind (1941), followed by The Sea Around us and The Edge of the Sea. These books held a biography of the ocean and made her famous as a naturalist and science writer for the public. She resigned from government service in 1952 to devote herself to writing.

Rachel Carson was disturbed by the reckless use of synthetic chemical pesticides after WW2 and reluctantly changed her focus in order t
o warn the public about the long term effects of misusing pesticides. She challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government and called for a change in the way that humankind viewed the natural world.

Rachel Carson was attacked by the chemical industry and some in the government. She was considered an alarmist (someone who over exaggerates situations and blows them out of proportion) but 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 testified before congress in 1963 and called for new policies to protect human health and the enviorment.

Silent Spring was a true story using a composite of example drawn from many real communities where the use of DDT had caused damage to wildlife, birds, bees, agricultural animals, domestic pets, and even humans. Carson's passionate concern in Silent Spring is with the future of the planet and all life on earth. She calls for humans to act responsibly, carefully, and as stewards of the living earth. To this day Silent Spring is deemed the corner stone of the new environmentalism.