Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson was born in May 27, 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She grew up in a farm and was a lover of nature and wildlife, leading her to invest in a career related to environmental science. Carson graduated from the Pennsylvania College for Women, then earned her MA in zoology in John Hopkins University.

Rachel Carson became a very successful scientist, writer and ecologist. She worked as a marine scientist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington, DC, primarily as a writer and editor. After spending some years working as a scientist, she started to focus her time on writing. Some of her most famous works are: Under the Sea-Wind, The Sea Around Us, The Edge of the Sea ,and, one of science's most famous book, Silent Spring.

Silent Spring was written on 1962, and its mission was to warn people about the danger of misuse of chemical pesticides. Throughout the book, Carson asks hard questions like: "Does humans have the right to control nature?" and "Who should live and who should die?". Carson uses the word "biocides" instead of insecticides to describe the pesticides that are harmful not only the environment, but also human health. The cow that ate the infected plant eventually became human's food, affecting our body. Rachel Carson also talks about the direction of science nowadays, the book was written a long time ago, but she wrote about visions on how science would be today. Most of these "visions" are correct. Silent Spring led to a ban on DDT and other pesticides. Although the book brought multiple advantages to the society and human knowledge, Rachel Carson suffered some consequences after publishing the book. The way she thought was against the government and agricultural scientists, so they called an alarmist and said that her facts on pesticides were not accurate. Some years later, her ideas were proven right, leading to the ban of DDT.

Rachel Carson died of breast cancer in 1964. She left behind an enormous legacy. Carson inspired many environmental movements that began in the 1960s and still happen nowadays. The United States Environmental Protection Agency passed numerous laws that protects human health and the environment, after her book Silent Spring. But most importantly, several generations have grown up embracing Carson's ideals of ecological awareness, environmental protection, and conservation.