Rachel Carson

It is generally agreed that the publication of Silent Spring in 1962 by Rachel Carson started the environmental movement in the U.S. By the time Rachel started working on this famous book in 1958, she was becoming increasingly concerned about the broad use of the pesticide DDT and its indiscriminate eradication of harmful and beneficial species. In one chapter,she described the damage to the ecosystem as organisms from flowers to birds being "silenced" when they succumbed to the toxins. Her thorough and meticulous research on the topic and eloquent descriptions of the unintended environmental damage caused by this pesticide prompted President John F. Kennedy to ask the President's Science Advisory Committee to examine the problem. Soon after that,new regulations were implemented to more tightly control chemical production and application in the environment. Shortly before her death in 1964 from breast cancer,she challenged the public to understand the interrelatedness of humans and nature and to live with it instead of warring against it. Rachel Carson took on the giants in the chemical industry and in 1972 DDT was finally banned in the U.S. for general agricultural application. She won the fight,but the battle continues today as we must be ever vigilant about protecting and conserving our fragile ecosystems.