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A brave prophet for life
"The beauty of the living world I
was trying to save has always been uppermost in my mind
— that, and anger at the senseless, brutish things
that were being done. I have felt bound by a solemn obligation
to do what I could — if I didn't at least try I could
never be happy again in nature. But now I can believe that
I have at least helped a little. It would be unrealistic
to believe one book could bring a complete change."
Rachel Carson, from a letter to a friend, 1962.
For more than fifty years, Rachel Carson has been an inspiration
for people of all ages interested in the beauty of nature
and in its preservation. Many consider her as the mother
of modern ecology; the strong will that gave life to a new
spur of conservationist movements around the world.
Rachel Carson was not a born leader. She showed none of
the usual qualities of leadership; on the contrary, she
was shy, unsociable, and secretive. However, throughout
her life, she was persistent at following and re-enacting
her passion, talents and commitments—a deep reverence
for nature, an intense desire to share knowledge about life,
some exquisite powers of observation, and an expressive
pen.
Her first national success as a writer came with the publication
of The Sea Around Us in 1951 which topped the best seller
list for 86 weeks. In this fresh poetic view of nature she
opened up scientific knowledge about the oceans to the layperson.
Her four books all became best sellers, and she won virtually
every prestigious literary award. She was elected as one
of the fifty members of the prestigious American Academy
of Arts and Letters.
Rachel Carson published her famous book Silent Spring
in 1962. This clear, evocative and rigorous criticism of
our blind faith in technological ‘elixirs of death’
to control nature to our advantage touched the heart and
mind of the public. Despite attacks from the chemical industry
questioning her credibility and sanity, and a cancer that
would take her life some months later, she never turned
her back on her mission. She left behind a world where pesticides
would no more be considered harmless to human and animal
life: a few years later after Silent Spring, DDT was banned
as well as a “dirty dozen” pesticides, and prospective
pesticides had to be thoroughly tested for their toxicological
effects before going to the market.
A stream of unprecedented environmental policies followed
that profoundly changed the social and political landscape
of America and most Western countries. The chemical industry
– including giants like Monsanto, which was actively
involved in discrediting Rachel Carson in 1962 - has since
integrated environmental issues into their strategic planning.
Rachel Carson was a lady of deep vision, of sincere respect
for all life forms, and of indomitable dedication to preserve
and share the beauty of nature. Her short passage among
us has raised the spirits of many and helped create a better
world for us and for future generations to live in.
Quotes from Rachel Carson
To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense
the ebb and flow of the tides, to feelthe breath of a mist
moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore
birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the
continents for untold thousands of year, to see the running
of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have
knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly
life can be.”
“I believe that whenever we substitute something man-made
and artificial for a natural feature of the earth, we have
retarded some part of man's spiritual growth.”
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the
wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less
taste we shall have for destruction.”
“The more I learned about the use of pesticides, the
more appalled I became. I realized that here was the material
for a book. What I discovered was that everything which
meant most to me as a naturalist was being threatened, and
that nothing I could do would be more important.”
“Understanding comes only when, standing on a beach,
we can sense the long rhythms of sea and earth that sculpted
its land forms and produced the rock and sand of which it
is composed; when we can sense with the eye and ear of the
mind the surge of life beating always at its shores—blindly,
inexorably pressing for a foothold.”
“In the truest sense, there is no separate literature
of biology or of any science. Knowledge of the facts of
science is not a prerogative of a small number of men, isolated
in their laboratories, but belongs to all men, for the realities
of science are the realities of life itself.”
“I hope we can establish an awareness of a dynamic
process that is never completed, a sequence of events in
time and space that is full of meaning for us living creatures.”
“We still talk in terms of conquest. We still haven’t
become mature enough to think of ourselves as only a very
tiny part of a vast and incredible universe. Now I truly
believe that we in this generation must come to terms with
nature, and I think we’re challenged, as mankind has
never been challenged before, to prove our maturity and
our mastery, not of nature but of ourselves.”
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CHOSEN LEADERS AND THEIR RESEARCHERS
