By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover: Visitor Services Manager
After dinner, she was having one of those terrible moments
that five year olds have when they miss their mother. I decided to whisk my granddaughter off to
the pier for an “I spy nature” diversion.
We sat there quietly listening to
birds singing as they looked for a place to spend the night and watching water
bugs surface on the glassy river. I told
her about the dove’s call, the whippoorwill’s song, and the wren’s
chirping. Her mind was calm now, but the
sight and buzz of a pesky yellow fly chased us back into the house.
What if the birds’ songs were
silenced?
Last month, Rachel Louise Carson was
the subject of a Google doodle. Maybe
you looked at it as I did and asked, “Who is that?” The sketch was of a woman standing beside a
body of water with a notebook, binoculars, and backpack as she observed the
swarm of wildlife around her.
The doodle commemorated the 107th
birthday of the eminent scientist, author, and activist. Her book Silent
Spring was published in 1962 and led to the global environmental movement
and in 1972 the banning of the pesticide DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane). A global ban soon followed.
Carson was born in 1907 on a small
farm in Springdale, PA and grew-up as a keen observer of nature who developed
an early talent for writing. Among her
favorite authors were Herman Melville and Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote
novels about the sea. She became a
marine scientist and published a trilogy (Under
the Sea, The Sea around US, and The Edge of the Sea,) of books about the
sea. ‘
Then she turned her attention to conservation
and the widespread use of synthetic pesticides and their effects on birds and
wildlife. Silent Spring’s
publication in 1962 caused a public outcry for control of all pesticides
and chemicals.
She was viciously
attacked by the chemical industry, and the New
Yorker Magazine called her “an alarmist” and accused her of “overstepping
her place as a woman.” After a year, the
protests from citizens overcame the detractors.
When the American Bald Eagle was found to be a victim of the chemicals,
the tide turned.
One million copies of the landmark
book were sold before her death of cancer in 1964. President John F. Kennedy was an avid
supporter and had her claims investigated for further proof.
The furor that began in the sixties
gave rise to the formation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in
1980. President Jimmy Carter
posthumously awarded Carson the Medal of Freedom. Recently, TIME
magazine named her one of the
most influential people of the 20th Century.
Protests of the ban continue today
in third world countries where the mosquito population which carries malaria
has continued to rise. Today, researchers
work to find ways to control the insect population without harming wildlife and
people.
As Carson said in her landmark work,
“Chemical war is never won, and all life is caught in its crossfire.”
(Source: www.preserveamerica.noaa.gov)
