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About Rachel Carson: |
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| A Letter to the Editor of the Washington Times Comments by Ellen H. Kelly on "A New Chapter to Silent Spring" Book Review: Rachel: The Story of Rachel Carson |
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*Rachel Carson's Life |
Rachel Louise Carson was born May 27, 1907, on a farm in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Rachel's mother encouraged her interests in nature and in writing. Her first published story "A Battle in the Clouds" appeared in St. Nicholas magazine when she was in fourth grade.
At Pennsylvania College for Women (later Chatham College) Rachel switched her major from English to biology when inspired by an outstanding biology teacher. She graduated magna cum laude and was awarded a full scholarship that enabled her to attain a master's degree in marine zoology from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
The subsequent death of her father brought increased responsibility for her family and caused a period of financial struggle that ended when she was employed as a writer/editor and finally Editor-in-Chief for the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife's publications department.
Under the Sea Wind, her first book, published in November of 1941, expressed her life-long fascination with the sea as did her second book, The Sea Around Us, which became a best-seller and established her worldwide fame as a scientist and writer. Its earnings gave her the financial independence to leave Fish and Wildlife and to build the cottage on the coast of Maine near Booth Bay Harbor. It was there that she began to write The Edge of the Sea. The Maine environment and friendship with her neighbors, the Freemans, became a source of joy and strength that sustained her through the deaths of her mother, her niece, Marjorie, followed by her own ill health and the adoption of Marjorie's young son, Roger.
Her dismay and outrage at the impact of pesticides on human and environmental health forced her to undertake the formidable task of alerting the public. Despite learning that she had breast cancer in 1960, she continued the meticulous research that resulted in publication in 1962 of Silent Spring - the lucid and compelling book that inspired the environmental movement. Paul Brooks, her editor and the author of The House of Life, a splendid Rachel Carson biography, tells us that she made a "...book about death a celebration of life."
Although she was attacked and ridiculed by the pesticide industry, her research and conclusions were sustained by a Science Advisory Committee appointed during the Kennedy administration. State legislatures responded by introducing pesticide-regulating legislation. Silent Spring was translated into more than a dozen foreign languages. Rachel was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received many other honors. On April 14, 1964, she died in her home in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Her experience as Roger's mother, her fondness for young people and her awareness of the need to preserve children's love of nature resulted in Rachel Carson's last work, The Sense of Wonder, published posthumously.
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To the Editor of the Washington Times newspaper, Washington, DC |
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| "For those who elect not to recognize humanity's responsibility for keeping its natural
house in order, Rachel Carson remains the emotional target. Thirty-eight years after the publication of her book
Silent Spring, the pesticide manufacturers, the mega-farmers, the chemical-industry titans and the nuclear
power industry still froth at the mention of her name. Their defense of the indefensible - including the manufacture
for sale overseas of poisons banned here because they are human carcinogens and the creation of nightmare wastes
that literally cannot be disposed - is as spirited as the tobacco industry's adamantine assertion that smoking
isn't harmful - and even longer-running. Like all big-money spenders, these industries have their mouthpieces, apparently including certain newspaper editorial departments. Kenneth Smith's Feb.10 (2000) Op-Ed column, "Rachel Carson's curse," is a case in point. Because the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are at odds over how much radiation is safe for humans (and other living things) to ingest and because the decision may have a substantial impact on the expense of "disposing" of nuclear waste, industry rolls out its apologists, and a new round of name-calling - mostly Rachel Carson's name, by the way - starts. She would be delighted. Carson died of cancer in 1964, just two years after publication of her book, which opened the eyes of persons around the world to the terrible sterile legacy of human egotism and neglect. This new understanding that humans have a responsibility not only to their own species, but to all other species to preserve a habitable environment has been called one of the greatest revolutions in human thought. She shared the March 29, 1999, cover of Time magazine with Albert Einstein and Jonas Salk as one of the most influential scientists and thinkers of the 20th century. Of course, such honors would have meant little to her. The saving of lives, human and otherwise, was her passion. I suppose the name-calling in columns such as Mr. Smith's is a good thing, in a way. It demonstrates that through her words she remains a formidable adversary to those entities that rank corporate profits ahead of life, and to their newsprint toadies. DDT, the pesticide that destroyed birds' reproductive cycle - leading to the title Silent Spring - and thalidomide, the terrible drug that caused grotesque birth defects in humans worked their destruction in similar ways. The banning of both began in 1962, the year of the book's publication, sparing future avian and human populations death and misery." KIRK RENSE Laguna Hills, CA Feb. 19, 2000 |
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Rachel Carson's "A New Chapter to Silent Spring"
with comments by Ellen H. Kelly
One of the most influential women of the 20th century speaks to us compellingly in this 21st Century.
"A New Chapter to Silent Spring" is the text of a 1963 address by Rachel Carson to the Garden Club of America. In it, she reminds club members of the need to be vigilant, ask questions, and insist on the truth. The message is, if anything, more appropriate and relevant today just as it was forty years ago.
Ellen H. Kelly, Advisor of the National Affairs and Legislation Committee of the Garden Club of America and former member of Rachel Carson Council's Board of Directors, comments:
I listen as if for the first time to the speech Rachel Carson gave to the Garden Club of America, ten years after she had received its Francis Hutchinson award. It could have been given today.
Her mandate to act and her thoughts stirred me so much that I stopped everything and quoted her in a letter to the Editor about an editorial claiming we should rely on science to determine a politically manipulated issue about openwater dumping of dredged material.
Rachel Carson had advised us: "I recommend you ask yourself, Who speaks? [with the voice of science] And why?" Her recommendation still hits the mark some 40 years later.
Today's reckless, careless, nonselective use of chemical pesticides happens on lawns, on golf courses, with spraying of gypsy months, and with the spraying of malathion in New York in the summer of 1999 because of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus.
Decisions about chemical pesticide applications still rest not with a consortium of those impacted, but a single authoritative body. She asked why Departments of Agriculture should be supreme. What about those other unrepresented interests about soil and about water pollution, wildlife and public health?
What if genetically-engineered (GE) grains became mixed into feed much like the chilling story she told about the Turkish children? Have these GE modified seeds been color coded as a warning as she suggested?
Her even-handed insights show that her aim was not to prevent the eradication of undesirable pests, merely to adjust the means and to apply less harmful scientific solutions. Simple, focused, clear expressions carry her sparkling thoughts through the fog of confusions.
She cries out to members of the Garden Club of America and to members of other groups and to future groups such as the one that would be founded in her name, the Rachel Carson Council, to collectively continue to exert the determination and persistence that she had throughout her lifetime. She wants us to continue to awaken strong public interest, to sift through propaganda, and to continue public vigilance.
"The way is not made easy for those who would defend the public interest" she warned quietly.
Would that the misuse and inappropriate use of chemical pesticides were a finished chapter, but since it is not, I believe that Rachel Carson would be proud of some of the work that Garden Club members have carried forward. Her commendation in 1963 for the quality of their work, their aims in promoting plant life, beauty, and constructive conservation causes continue to issue a challenge. In response, today's golf course brochure, water brochure, and continual educational letters and articles seek to educate others to affect better public policy in her spirit.
The Rachel Carson Council has a myriad of scientific publications helpful to the public. The Council has also conducted highly regarded conferences and other events that call attention to fostering the health of the "Green Mantle". All these efforts aim to "promote that onward flow of life which is the essence of the world."
Quotes are from "A New Chapter to Silent Spring," Garden Club of America Bulletin, May 1963, Vol. 51 (3), a somewhat abbreviated version of the speech given by Rachel Carson on January 8, 1963 in New York to the Conservation Committee of the Garden Club of America.
A New Chapter to "Silent Spring" with comments by Ellen H. Kelly, is reprinted by Rachel Carson Council, Inc. with the permission of the Garden Club of America.
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**Book Review *****Rachel: The Story of Rachel Carson |
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Written by Amy Ehrlich for children ages 5-8. Illustrated by Wendell Minor |
In Rachel, a very real yet extraordinary person comes alive for the reader of any age, including the young child. The book admirably chooses not to talk down to children but portrays Rachel Carson's life as one of progress despite obstacles. It encourages children to remain curious about their natural surroundings and to follow dreams that can lead to the sea's edge, to evergreen forests or to other precious wild places.
Author Amy Ehrlich has created a series of 13 one-page narratives in clear and caring prose. Each is complete in itself, capturing a decisive moment that determined the direction of Rachel Carson's life. Each is presented in language familiar to a child. The book's format is tailor-made for a series of bedtime readings or for a group reading session.
Illustrator Wendell Minor has created 17 wonderful full color scenes and a dozen exquisite small designs, every one a delight to view. The artwork involves the child in the story and enhances the story's interest to the child. In this project, as in his other work, Wendell Minor shows an appreciation of nature's beauty and a gift for enhancing it through his art.
Further, Wendell has let us know that both he and Amy think of this book as a contribution to the mission of Rachel Carson Council, through helping to re-educate a generation as to who Rachel was and what she still represents: "the perseverance of spirit, the belief in what you want to do in life, and the belief in the larger cause, which is the benefit to humanity" (Wendell Minor).
In Rachel: The Story of Rachel Carson, author and illustrator succeed admirably in making understandable to children what fascinated and motivated a complex person. This book is a must for the young reader interested in nature and in the lives of inspiring people.
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Rachel Carson Council, Inc.
PO Box 10779, Silver Spring, Maryland 20914
Phone: (301) 593-7507
e-mail: rccouncil@aol.com
| http://members.aol.com/rccouncil/ourpage/spring.htm | ||
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Fostering Rachel Carson's vision for a healthy and diverse environment |
August 26, 2003
