Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 - April 14, 1964) is an American marine biologist, author and conservationist whose Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the movement global environment.
Carson began his career as a water biologist at the US Fisheries Bureau, and became a full-time nature writer in the 1950s. His famous 1951 bestselling book The Sea Around Us won it the U.S. National Book Award, recognition as a gifted writer, and financial security. The next book, The Edge of the Sea , and the reissued version of his first book, Under the Sea Wind , is also a bestseller. This marine trilogy explores the entire marine life from coast to depth.
In the late 1950s, Carson turned his attention to conservation, particularly some of the problems he believed to be caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was the book Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental problems to an unprecedented part of the American people. Although Silent Spring received fierce opposition by chemical companies, it triggered a reversal in the national pesticide policy, which led to a national ban on DDT and other pesticides. It also inspires a grassroots environmental movement that leads to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter.
Video Rachel Carson
Live and work
Early life and education
Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907, on a family farm near Springdale, Pennsylvania, at Allegheny River from Pittsburgh. She is the daughter of Maria Frazier (McLean) and Robert Warden Carson, an insurance salesman. He spent a lot of time exploring around his family's 65-hectare farm (26 hectares). A diligent reader, he began writing stories (often involving animals) at the age of eight and had his first story published at the age of ten. She really enjoyed St. Nicholas Magazine (which brought his first published story), Beatrix Potter's works, and Gene Stratton-Porter novels, and in his teenage years, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad and Robert Louis Stevenson. The natural world, especially the oceans, is a common thread of his favorite literature. Carson attended the Springdale high school until the tenth grade, then finished high school in Parnassus, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1925 at an upper class of forty-five students.
At Pennsylvania College for Women (now known as Chatham University), as in high school, Carson is rather a loner. He originally studied English, but switched biology in January 1928, although he continued to contribute to school students' newspapers and literary supplements. Although admitted to graduating at Johns Hopkins University in 1928, he was forced to remain at Pennsylvania College for Women for his final year due to financial difficulties; he graduated magna cum laude in 1929. After a summer course at the Marine Biological Laboratory, he continued his studies in zoology and genetics at Johns Hopkins in the fall of 1929.
After the first year of graduate school, Carson became a part-time student, taking an assistant at Raymond Pearl's lab, where he worked with rats and Drosophila, to earn money for school fees. After a false start with pit viper and squirrel, he completed a dissertation project about embryonic development of pronephros in fish. He obtained his master's degree in zoology in June 1932. He intended to continue to his doctorate, but in 1934 Carson was forced to leave Johns Hopkins to seek full-time teaching positions to help support his family during the Great Depression. In 1935, his father died suddenly, exacerbated their already critical financial situation and left Carson to care for his elderly mother. At the urging of her graduate biology mentor Mary Scott Skinker, she settled for a temporary position with the US Fisheries Bureau, writing a copy of the radio for a series of weekly educational broadcasts entitled Romance Under the Waters. A series of fifty-two seven-minute programs focus on aquatic life and are intended to arouse public interest in fish biology and in the work of the bureau, a task performed by some authors before Carson is not managed. Carson also began submitting articles on marine life in the Chesapeake Bay, based on his research for the series, to local newspapers and magazines.
Supervisor Carson, delighted with the success of the radio series, asked him to write an introduction to the general brochure on the fisheries bureau; he also worked to secure his first full-time position available. Sitting for the civil service examination, he defeated all other applicants and, in 1936, became the second woman employed by the Fisheries Bureau for a full-time professional position, as a junior water biologist.
Early career and publication
At the US Fisheries Bureau, Carson's primary responsibility is to analyze and report field data on fish populations, and to write brochures and other literature to the public. Using research and consultation with marine biologists as a starting point, he also wrote a flow of articles for The Baltimore Sun and other newspapers. However, his family's responsibilities intensified in January 1937 when his sister died, leaving Carson as the sole breadwinner for her mother and two of her nieces.
In July 1937, the Atlantic Monthly received a revised version of an essay, The World of Waters , which he originally wrote for his first fisheries brochure brochure. Her boss thinks it's too good for that purpose. The essay, published as Undersea , is a clear narrative of the journey along the ocean floor. This marked a major turning point in Carson's writing career. Simon & amp; Schuster, impressed by Undersea , contacted Carson and suggested that he develop it into a book. Several years of writing produced Under the Sea Wind (1941), which received very good reviews but sold poorly. Meanwhile, the success of Carson's article writing continues - its features appear in SunMagazine, Nature and Collier's. Carson attempted to leave the Bureau (at that time changed to the US Fish and Wildlife Service) in 1945, but there was little work for naturalists available, as much of the money for science focused on the technical field behind the Manhattan Project. In mid-1945, Carson first discovered the subject of DDT, a revolutionary new pesticide - hailed as an "insect bomb" after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs - just beginning to test for ecological safety and effects. DDT was just one of Carson's many interest in writing at the time, and the editor found the subject unattractive; he did not publish anything about DDT until 1962.
Carson boarded the Fish and Wildlife Service, in 1945 oversaw the small writing staff and in 1949 became editor in chief of publications. Although his position provides an increasing opportunity for fieldwork and freedom in selecting his writing projects, it also leads to exhausting administrative responsibilities. In 1948, Carson worked on material for the second book, and had made a conscious decision to begin the transition to full-time writing. That year, he took a literary agent, Marie Rodell; they formed a close professional relationship that would end the rest of Carson's career.
Oxford University Press expressed interest in Carson's book proposal for the history of ocean life, spurring him to finish in the early 1950s what the text would be The Sea Around Us . The chapter appeared at Science Digest and The Yale Review - the last chapter, The Birth of an Island , won the American Association for the Advancement of Scientific Writing Award George Westinghouse Science. Nine chapters were introduced in The New Yorker beginning June 1951 and the book was published July 2, 1951, by Oxford University Press. The Sea Around Us remains on the list of the Best Seller New York Times for 86 weeks, summarized by Reader's Digest , won the 1952 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the John Burroughs Medal, and produced Carson was awarded two honorary doctorates. He also licensed the documentary film based on it. The Sea 's success led to the re-publishing Under the Sea Wind , which became the bestseller itself. With success in financial security, and in 1952, Carson managed to get rid of his job to concentrate on writing full-time.
Carson was flooded with lectures, fan letters, and other correspondence on The Sea Around Us , along with work on documentary scripts that he had earned the right to review. He was very unhappy with the final version of the manuscript by writer, director and producer Irwin Allen; he finds it untrue to the atmosphere of the book and shamefully scientifically, describing it as "a cross between trust-it-or-no and windy travel." However, he found that his right to review the manuscript did not include control over its contents. Allen went on despite Carson's objection to producing a very successful documentary. He won the 1953 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, but Carson was so battered by the experience that he never again sold the movie rights for his work.
Relationship with Dorothy Freeman
Carson first met Dorothy Freeman in the summer of 1953 in Southport Island, Maine. Freeman had written to Carson to welcome him in the area when he heard that the famous writer was to be his neighbor. It was the beginning of a very close friendship that would end the rest of Carson's life. Their relationship is mainly done by mail, and during the summer time spent together in Maine. For 12 years, they will swap places around 900 letters. Much of this is published in Always, Rachel's book , published in 1995 by Beacon Press.
Dorothy Murdoch (1898-1978) grew up in the coastal town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, and spent the summer with her family in Southport, Maine. He worked in the home economy until his marriage to Stanley Freeman in 1924. Their only child, Stanley Freeman, Jr., was born in 1926.
Carson's biographer, Linda J. Lear, writes that "Carson desperately needs a dutiful friend and a friendly spirit who will listen without advising and fully accepting, neither the writer nor the woman." He found this in Freeman. The two women had a number of similar interests, the head of nature among them, and began exchanging letters regularly as they separated. They will share the summer for the rest of Carson's life, and meet whenever their schedule is allowed.
Regarding the extent of their relationship, commentators say that: "their expression of love is limited almost entirely to letters and farewell kissing or holding hands occasionally." Freeman shared parts of Carson's letter with her husband to help her understand the relationship, but much of their correspondence was carefully guarded.
Shortly before Carson's death, he and Freeman destroyed hundreds of letters. Surviving correspondence was published in 1995 as a Always, Rachel: Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964: Friendship Intimate Portrait Extraordinary , edited by grandson Freeman. According to one reviewer, the couple was "suited to the characterization Carolyn Heilbrun about the friendship of a strong woman, where what matters is 'not whether friends are homosexual or heterosexual, lover or not, but whether they share the incredible energy of the work in public space'. "
The Edge of the Sea and the transition to conservation work
Beginning in 1953, Carson began a library and field research on ecology and organisms on the Atlantic coast. In 1955, he completed the third volume of his marine trilogy, The Edge of the Sea, which focuses on life in coastal ecosystems, particularly along the East Coast. It appeared in The New Yorker in two thick installments shortly before the October 26 book release by Houghton Mifflin (again a new publisher). By this time, Carson's reputation for clear and poetic prose was well established; The Edge of the Sea received excellent reviews, if not quite as enthusiastic as The Sea Around Us .
Through 1955 and 1956, Carson worked on a number of projects - including scripts for the Omnibus episode, Something About the Sky, and writing articles for popular magazines. His plan for the next book was to discuss evolution, but Julian Huxley's Evolution in Action - and his own difficulty in finding a clear and interesting approach to the topic - led him to leave the project. Instead, his interest turned to conservation. She considers an environmental-themed book project titled while Remembering Earth and is involved with The Nature Conservancy and other conservation groups. He also made plans to buy and maintain from the development of an area in Maine he and Freeman called "Lost Woods."
Beginning in 1957, the family tragedy struck the third time when one of his nephews in 1940 died at the age of 31, leaving a five-year-old boy, Roger Christie. Carson took that responsibility, adopted the boy, in addition to caring for his elderly mother. This is very damaging to Carson. He moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, to care for Roger, and many of the 1957 spent to put their new life situation in order and focusing on certain environmental threats.
At the end of 1957, Carson followed closely the federal proposal for widespread pesticide spraying; The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to combat the fire ants, and other spray programs involving chlorinated hydrocarbons and organophosphates are on the rise. For the rest of his life, Carson's main professional focus is the danger of excessive use of pesticides.
Silent Spring
Silent Spring , Carson's most famous book, published by Houghton Mifflin on September 27, 1962. This book describes the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment, and is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement. Carson was not the first, or the only person who raised concerns about DDT, but the combination of "scientific knowledge and poetical writing" reached a wide audience and helped focus opposition to the use of DDT. In 1994, the Silent Spring edition was published with an introduction written by Vice President Al Gore. In 2012 Silent Spring is designated as National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society for its role in the development of the modern environmental movement.
Research and writing
Beginning in the mid-1940s, Carson became concerned about the use of synthetic pesticides, much of which has been developed through military science funding since World War II. It was a 1957 US gypsy gypsy gypsy extermination program, however, that prompted Carson to devote his research, and the next book, to pesticides and environmental toxins. Gypsy moth programs involve air spraying of DDT and other pesticides (mixed with fuel oil), including spraying of private land. Landowners in Long Island filed a lawsuit to stop spraying, and many people in the affected area followed. Although the lawsuit is missing, the Supreme Court grants the applicant the right to command for potential future environmental damage; this laid the foundation for environmental action which then succeeded.
The Audubon Naturalist Society is also actively opposed to such spraying programs, and recruits Carson to help publicize appropriate spraying practices from government and related research. Carson started a four-year project of what would become Silent Spring by collecting examples of environmental damage associated with DDT. He also tried to get others to join the cause: E. B. White, and a number of journalists and scientists. In 1958, Carson had arranged a book deal, with plans to work with Edwin Diamond's science journalist Newsweek . However, when The New Yorker commissioned a long and well-paid article on the topic from Carson, he began to consider writing more than just the introduction and conclusion as planned; soon it is a solo project. (Diamond will later write one of the harshest criticisms of Silent Spring ).
As his research progresses, Carson finds a sizable community of scientists documenting the physiological and environmental effects of pesticides. He also made use of his personal connections with many government scientists, who gave him confidential information. From reading the scientific literature and interviewing scientists, Carson discovers two scientific camps when it comes to pesticides: those who resist the possible danger of spraying pesticides that limit conclusive evidence, and those open to possible dangers and willing to consider alternative methods such as biological pest control.
He also found significant support and extensive evidence from a group of organic farm gardens of Biodynamic farmers, their advisor, Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, other contacts, and their legal action (1957-1960) against the US Government. According to a recent study by Paull (2013), this may be a major source and (for strategic reasons) unidentified for Carson's book. Marjorie Spock and Mary T. Richards, from Long Island, New York, opposed air spraying dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). They gathered their evidence and shared it with Carson, who used it, their extensive contacts, and trial transcripts, as the main input for Silent Spring. Carson wrote the content as "an information gold mine" and said, "I feel guilty about your material mass that I have here" and made numerous references to Pfeiffer and his correspondence.
In 1959, the USDA Agricultural Research Service responded to criticism by Carson and others with a public service film, Fire Ant to Court ; Carson characterizes it as a "striking propaganda" that ignores the dangers that spray pesticides (especially dieldrin and heptachlor) brought to humans and wildlife. That spring, Carson wrote a letter, published in The Washington Post, which attributes the recent decline in bird populations - in his words, "silencing birds" - to excessive use of pesticides. It was also the year of the "Great Cranberry Scandal": 1957, 1958, and 1959 US cranberry plants were found to contain high levels of aminotriazole herbicides (which cause cancer in laboratory mice) and the sale of all cranberry products is discontinued. Carson attends the next FDA hearing on revising pesticide regulations; he came reluctantly by the aggressive tactics of the representatives of the chemical industry, which included expert testimony that was firmly contradicted by most of the scientific literature he had learned. He also wondered about the possibility of "financial impetus behind a particular pesticide program."
Research at the Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health brought Carson into contact with medical researchers who investigated the entire cancer-causing chemicals. Of great importance is the work of National Cancer Institute researchers and managing director of environmental cancer, Wilhelm Hueper, who classifies many pesticides as carcinogens. Carson and his research assistant Jeanne Davis, with the help of NIH librarian Dorothy Algire, found evidence to support the pesticide-cancer relationship; for Carson, the evidence for the toxicity of various synthetic pesticides is very clear, although such conclusions are highly controversial outside the small community of scientists studying pesticide carcinogenesis.
In 1960, Carson had more than enough research material, and his writing grew rapidly. In addition to a thorough literature search, he has investigated hundreds of incidents of exposure to individual pesticides and human diseases and the resulting ecological damage. However, in January, the duodenal ulcer followed by some infections made him lie in bed for weeks, greatly delaying the settlement of Silent Spring . When he was almost fully recovered in March (just as he completed the draft of his two book cancer chapters), he found a cyst on his left breast, one of which required a mastectomy. Although his doctor described this procedure as a precaution and did not recommend further treatment, in December Carson found that the tumor was malignant and the cancer had spread. His research was also delayed by the revised work for the new edition of The Sea Around Us, and by a collaborative photo essay with Erich Hartmann. Much of the research and writing was done in the fall of 1960, except for the latest research discussions on biological pest control and the investigation of some new pesticides. However, further health problems slowed down the final revision in 1961 and early 1962.
It's hard to find titles for the book; "Silent Spring" was originally suggested as the title of the chapter on birds. In August 1961, Carson finally approved the suggestion of his literary agent, Marie Rodell: Silent Spring will be the title of the metaphor for the entire book, showing a bleak future for the whole natural world, rather than literally. the title of the chapter on the absence of birdsong. With Carson's approval, Paul Brooks's editor at Houghton Mifflin organized illustrations by Louis and Lois Darling, who also designed the cover. The last post is the first chapter, A Fable for Tomorrow , which Carson intended as a gentle introduction to what might be a very serious topic. By mid-1962, Brooks and Carson had completed most of the editing, and laid the groundwork for promoting the book by sending his manuscript to select individuals for final advice.
Content
As biographer Mark Hamilton Lytle wrote, Carson "consciously decided to write a book that questions the paradigm of scientific progress that defines post-war American culture." The main theme of Silent Spring is a powerful - and often harmful - human effect on the natural world.
Carson's main argument is that pesticides have a detrimental effect on the environment; they are more appropriately called biocidal , he argues, because the effect is seldom limited to the target pests. DDT is a prime example, but other synthetic pesticides also get the spotlight, many of which are bioaccumulated. Carson also accused the chemical industry of deliberately spreading disinformation and public officials from accepting uncritically industrial claims. Most books are devoted to the effects of pesticides on natural ecosystems, but four chapters also specify cases of human pesticide poisoning, cancer, and other diseases associated with pesticides. About DDT and cancer, which was the subject of much debate, Carson said little:
In laboratory tests in animals, DDT has produced suspicious liver tumors. Scientists from the Food and Drug Administration who reported the discovery of these tumors are not sure how to classify them, but feel there is some "justification for considering their low grade liver cell carcinoma." Dr. Hueper [authors of Occupational Tumors and Occupational Titors ] now gives DDT the exact value of "chemical carcinogens."
Carson estimates future increases in consequences, especially as targeted pests develop pesticide resistance, while weak ecosystems fall prey to unexpected invasive species. The book concludes with a call for a biotic approach to pest control as an alternative to chemical pesticides.
Regarding DDT pesticides, Carson never really called for a direct ban. Part of the argument he made in Silent Spring was that even if DDT and other insecticides had no environmental side effects, their excessive use of them was counterproductive because it would create insect resistance. to pesticides, making pesticides useless in eliminating target populations of insects:
No one is responsible for believing that insect-borne diseases should be ignored. The question that now comes naturally is whether it is wise or responsible to attack the problem with a method that quickly makes it worse. The world has heard many victory wars against disease through the control of infectious vector infections, but has heard little from the other side of the story - defeat, a short-lived victory that now strongly supports the worrisome view that insect enemies have been made stronger by our efforts. Worse, we may have destroyed our means of struggle.
Carson further notes that "Malaria programs are threatened by resistance among mosquitoes" and emphasize the advice given by the director of the Dutch Plant Protection Service: "Practical advice should be 'Spray as little as possible' rather than 'Spray to your limits'... Pressure on population pests should always be as small as possible. "
Promotion and acceptance
Carson and others involved with Silent Spring publications expected fierce criticism. They are especially concerned about the possibility of being prosecuted for defamation. Carson is also undergoing radiation therapy to combat the spread of his cancer, and is expected to have less energy to devote to defending his work and responding to criticism. In preparation for the anticipation of the attack, Carson and his agent sought to gather as many key supporters as possible before the book's release.
Most of the scientific chapters of this book are reviewed by scientists with relevant expertise, among which Carson has strong support. Carson attended the May 1962 Conference of the White House on Conservation; Houghton Mifflin distributed copies of the Silent Spring evidence to many delegates, and promoted the upcoming serialization of the New Yorker . Among many others, Carson also sent copies of the evidence to Supreme Court Judge William O. Douglas, a longtime environmental advocate who has opposed the court's refusal of the Long Island pesticide spraying case (and which has provided Carson with some material included in the chapter on herbicides ).
Although Silent Spring has resulted in a high level of interest based on pre-publishing promotions, this has become much more intense with the serialization in The New Yorker , which began on June 16, 1962 , problem. This brings the book to the attention of the chemical industry and its hobbyists, as well as the vastness of the American population. Around that time Carson also learned that Silent Spring had been chosen as the Moon Book for October; as he says, it will "take him to farms and villages across the country who do not know what the bookstore looks like - let alone The New Yorker." Other publicity included a positive editorial on The New York Times and excerpts from the serial version of Audubon magazine, with other publicity rounds in July and August as the chemical company responded. The story about the causative drug of thalidomide birth broke just before the publication of the book, inviting a comparison between Carson and Frances Oldham Kelsey, a Food and Drug Administration reviewer who had blocked the sale of the drug in the United States.
In the weeks leading up to the September 27, 1962 publication, there was strong opposition to Silent Spring from the chemical industry. DuPont (major producers of DDT and 2,4-D) and Velsicol Chemical Corporation (exclusive manufacturers of chlordane and heptachlor) are among the first to respond. DuPont compiled an extensive report on press book coverage and estimated its impact on public opinion. Velsicol threatened legal action against Houghton Mifflin and the The New Yorker and Audubon except the Silent Spring feature that was planned to be canceled. Chemical industry representatives and lobbyists also filed a variety of non-specific complaints, some of them anonymous. Chemical companies and related organizations produce a number of their own brochures and articles promoting and defending the use of pesticides. However, Carson's lawyers and publishers are confident in the Silent Spring inspection process. The publication of magazines and books goes as planned, as does Book-of-the-Month printing (including pamphlets supporting books by William O. Douglas).
American biologist Cyanamid Robert White-Stevens and former Cyanamid chemist Thomas Jukes were among the most aggressive critics, notably Carson's analysis of DDT. According to White-Stevens, "If people follow the teachings of Miss Carson, we will return to the Dark Ages, and insects and diseases and pests will once again inherit the earth." Others go further, attacking Carson's scientific credibility (because of his training in marine biology and not biochemistry) and his personal character. White-Stevens labeled him "... a fanatic advocate of the cult of natural balance," while former US Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson, in a letter to former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, reportedly concluded that because he was unmarried Although physically attractive, "maybe a Communist."
Many critics have repeatedly insisted that he called for the abolition of all pesticides. But Carson has made it clear that he does not advocate for the full prohibition or cessation of wholly beneficial pesticides, but instead encourages responsible and carefully managed use with an awareness of the chemical impact on the entire ecosystem. In fact, he deduced his share of DDT in Silent Spring not by insisting on a total ban, but with suggestions to spray as little as possible to limit the development of resistance.
The academic community, including prominent advocates like H. J. Muller, Loren Eiseley, Clarence Cottam, and Frank Egler, generally support the scientific claims of the book; public opinion soon changed the way Carson too. Chemical industry campaigns backfire, as controversy greatly increases public awareness of potential pesticide hazards, as well as the sale of Silent Spring books. The use of pesticides became a major public issue, especially after the special "Silent Spring of Rachel Carson" TV CBS Reports aired April 3, 1963. The program included segments from Carson reading from Silent Spring and interviews with a number of other experts, mostly critics (including White-Stevens); according to biographer Linda Lear, "in alignment with the wild-eyed Dr. Robert White-Stevens and loud voice in a white lab coat, Carson reveals nothing but a hysterical alarmist criticized by his critics." Reactions from the estimated audience of ten to fifteen million were very positive, and the program spurred congressional reviews on the dangers of pesticides and public release of pesticide reports by the Science Advisory Committee of the President. Within a year or so of publication, attacks on books and Carson had lost momentum.
In one of his last public appearances, Carson testified before the Science Advisory Committee of President John F. Kennedy. The committee issued its report on May 15, 1963, largely in favor of Carson's scientific claims. After the release of the report, he also testified before the US Senate subcommittee to make policy recommendations. Although Carson received hundreds of other invitations to talk, he could not accept most of them. Her health continues to decline when her cancer goes beyond radiation therapy, with only a short remission period. He talked as much as he could physically, however, including a prominent appearance on The Today Show and a speech at several dinners held in his honor. In late 1963, he received numerous awards and awards: the Audubon Medal (from the National Audubon Society), the Cullum Geographical Medal (from the American Geographical Society), and induced into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Death
Weak from breast cancer and her treatment regimen, Carson fell sick with a respiratory virus in January 1964. His condition worsened, and in February, doctors discovered that he was suffering from a severe anemia from radiation treatments and in March they found that the cancer had reached his liver. He died of a heart attack on April 14, 1964, at his home in Silver Spring, Maryland.
His body was cremated and his ashes buried next to his mother at Parklawn Memorial Gardens, Rockville, Maryland. Some of the ash is then scattered along the coast of Southport Island, near Sheepscot Bay, Maine.
Maps Rachel Carson
Legacy
Paper collected and posthumous publication
Carson left his manuscripts and papers to Yale University, to take advantage of the new sophisticated preservation facilities of the Beinecke Rare Book & amp; Manuscript Library. His old agent and literary execcer Marie Rodell spent nearly two years organizing and cataloging Carson's letters and correspondence, distributing all letters to their senders so that only what each correspondent agreed to submit to the archive.
In 1965, Rodell arranged the publication of an essay that Carson intended to expand into a book: A Sense of Wonder . The essay, which is combined with photographs by Charles Pratt and others, urges parents to help their children experience "... eternal pleasures of contact with the natural world... available to anyone who will put himself under the influence earth, sea and sky and their amazing lives. "
In addition to letters in Always Rachel, in 1998 the volume of Carson's previously unpublished work was published as Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson, edited by Linda Lear. All Carson books are still in print.
Roots of the grassroots environment and EPA
Carson's work has a strong impact on the environmental movement. Silent Spring , in particular, was a gathering point for a new social movement in the 1960s. According to environmental engineer and scholar Carson H. Patricia Hynes, " Silent Spring changed the balance of power in the world.No one can afford to sell pollution as an important part of progress easily or uncritically." Carson , and his inspired activism, at least partly responsible for the deep ecological movement, and the overall strength of the grassroots environmental movement since the 1960s. It also affects the emergence of ecofeminism and in many feminist scientists.
Although there is no evidence that Carson is openly a women's rights activist, his work and subsequent criticism have left an iconic heritage for the eco-feminist movement. Attacks on Carson's credibility include criticism over his identity in which he is labeled "amateur" and said his writings are too "emotional." Ecophysicists argue that it is not just the disagreeable rhetoric that discounts Carson as hysterical, but is done because his argument challenges the capitalist production of a large agri-business enterprise. Others, such as Yaakov Garb, suggest that in addition to not being a women's rights activist, Carson also has no anti-capitalist agenda and that such attacks are unfounded. In addition, the way Carson's photographs are used to describe him is often questioned because some representations of him are engaged in the typical work of a scientist, but instead, his leisure activities.
Carson's direct legacy in the environmental movement is a campaign to ban the use of DDT in the United States (and related efforts to ban or restrict its use worldwide). Although environmental concerns about DDT have been considered by government agencies as early as Carson's testimony before the President's Science Advisory Committee, the creation of the 1967 Environmental Defense Fund is the first major milestone in the campaign against DDT. The organization brought a lawsuit against the government to "establish citizens' rights to a clean environment," and the arguments used against DDT largely reflect Carson's. In 1972, the Environmental Defense Fund and other activist groups have successfully secured the abolition of DDT use in the United States (except in emergency cases).
The creation of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the Nixon Administration in 1970 addressed other concerns that Carson had brought to light. Until then, the same agency (USDA) was responsible for organizing pesticides and promoting the concerns of the agricultural industry; Carson sees this as a conflict of interest, since the agency is not responsible for effects on wildlife or other environmental issues beyond agricultural policy. Fifteen years after its creation, a journalist described the EPA as a "long shadow of Silent Spring ." Much of the agency's early work, such as establishing the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticidal Act in 1972, dealt directly with Carson's work.
In the 1980s, the Reagan Administration's policy emphasized economic growth, re-rolling many of the environmental policies adopted in response to Carson and his work.
Posthumous grace
Groups ranging from government agencies to environmental and conservation organizations to the scientific community have been celebrating Carson's life and work since his death. Perhaps most significantly, on June 9, 1980, Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. The stamp series 17Ã, Â ¢ Great American was published in his honor the following year; some other countries have issued Carson postage as well.
The University of California, Santa Cruz, was named one of the colleges (formerly known as the College of Eight) to Rachel Carson College in 2016. Rachel Carson College is the first campus at the University to bear the name of the woman.
The birthplace of Carson and childhood home in Springdale, Pennsylvania, now known as Rachel Carson Homestead, became the site of the National Register of Historic Places and the nonprofit Rachel Carson Homestead Association was created in 1975 to manage it. His home in Colesville, Maryland where he wrote Silent Spring was named the National Historic Landmark in 1991. Near Pittsburgh, the 35.7-mile (57-mile) climbing route, called the Rachel Carson Trail and maintained by Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy, dedicated to Carson in 1975. A Pittsburgh bridge also renamed Carson's honor as the Rachel Carson Bridge. The Pennsylvania State Department of Environmental Protection building in Harrisburg is named in his honor. Primary schools in Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, Maryland, Sammamish, Washington and San Jose, California are named in his honor, such as high school in Beaverton, Oregon and Herndon, Virginia (Rachel Carson Middle School) and high school in Brooklyn, New York.
Two research ships have sailed in the United States under the name R/V Rachel Carson . One is on the west coast, owned by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), and the other on the east coast, operated by the University of Maryland Environmental Science Center. Another ship of the name, now removed, is a former naval ship acquired and converted by the United States EPA. it is operated on the Great Lakes. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary also operates a mooring buoy maintenance vessel named Rachel Carson.
The ceremony auditorium on the third floor of the US EPA main headquarters, Ariel Rios Building, is named after Rachel Carson. The Rachel Carson room is just meters from the office of the EPA administrator and has been the site of important announcements, including the Interstate Clean Air Regulations, since the Agency moved to Ariel Rios in 2001.
A number of conservation areas have been named for Carson as well. Between 1964 and 1990, 650 acres (263 ha) near Brookeville in Montgomery County, Maryland were acquired and set aside as Rachel Carson Conservation Park, run by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. In 1969, Coastal Maine National Coastal Coast became the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Reserve; the expansion will bring the size of the shelter to about 9,125 hectares (3,693 ha). In 1985, North Carolina changed the name of one of the estuary reserves in honor of Carson, in Beaufort.
Carson also often takes names for gifts given by philanthropic, educational and scientific institutions. The Rachel Carson Prize, founded in Stavanger, Norway in 1991, is awarded to women who have contributed to the field of environmental protection. The American Society for Environmental History has awarded Rachel Carson Prize for the Best Dissertation since 1993. Since 1998, the Society for Social Studies of Science has awarded Rachel Carson's Yearbook Prize for "a long work of books on social or political relevance in the area. and technology. "The Society of Environmental Journalists awarded an annual award and two honorable mention for books on environmental issues in the name of Carson, as given to Joe Roman's Listed: Dispatches of the American Endangered Species Act in the year 2012.
Google created the 107th anniversary of Google Doodle for Carson on May 27, 2014. Carson is featured during the "HerStory" video award for prominent women on the U2 tour in 2017 for the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree during performance "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" from the band's 1991 album Achtung Baby .
Centennial Events
One hundred years of Carson's birth took place in 2007. On Earth Day (April 22), Earth Courage: Writers, Scientists and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson was released as "a hundred-year award of brave and transformative life Rachel Carson's writings. "It contained thirteen essays by environmental writers and scientists. Democratic Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland intends to submit a resolution celebrating Carson for his "scientific inheritance added with poetic sensibility" on the 100th anniversary of his birth. The resolution was blocked by Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who said that "The science of waste and stigma surrounding DDT - the cheapest and most effective insecticide on the planet - was eventually discarded." The Rachel Carson Lodging Association held a May 27 birthday party and a sustained party at his birthplace and home in Springdale, Pennsylvania, and the first Rachel Carson Legend Conference in Pittsburgh with E. O. Wilson as the keynote speaker. Both Rachel's Sustainable Celebration and conference continue as an annual event.
Organisasi terkait Carson
- The Rachel Carson Homestead
- Silent Spring Institute
- Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy
- Institut Rachel Carson
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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