Rebecca Clarren: Rachel Carson's alarm still echoes
[Rebecca Clarren writes about the environment for national magazines from her home in Northeast Portland. Her work is frequently supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. She can be reached atrclarren@yahoo.com.]
T oday marks Rachel Carson's 100th birthday.
She has been dead for more than 40 years, but the environmental movement she gave life to with her seminal book "Silent Spring" has evolved from the grass-roots movement to a politically expedient force embraced by mainstream Americans.
More than a movement, though, Carson inspired real change.
In my own backyard in Northeast Portland, I wonder how my narrow slice of the ecosystem would be different if not for Carson. Here, as late afternoon sunlight threads the tall grass and spring flowers, bugs dive and weave, bird songs pierce the din of a distant lawnmower. Without Carson, the world in my own backyard would look and sound far different.
Carson, concerned about indiscriminate use of the pesticide DDT, worried about a silent world. In the first chapter of "Silent Spring," published in 1962, she imagined an entire community destroyed by "a white granular powder." Her best-selling book challenged the mid-century assumption that pesticide use was for the greater good. A shy biologist, unmarried and in her mid-50s, Carson created a public outcry with her thorough research and lyrical prose.
Change happened fast. President Kennedy appointed a science advisory committee to examine the book's conclusions. Congress debated legislation to require pesticide labels on how to avoid damage to fish and wildlife. In less than a decade, we celebrated the first Earth Day, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency and passed the National Environmental Policy Act as well as a host of the nation's bulwark environmental laws. ...
Read entire article at Oregonian
T oday marks Rachel Carson's 100th birthday.
She has been dead for more than 40 years, but the environmental movement she gave life to with her seminal book "Silent Spring" has evolved from the grass-roots movement to a politically expedient force embraced by mainstream Americans.
More than a movement, though, Carson inspired real change.
In my own backyard in Northeast Portland, I wonder how my narrow slice of the ecosystem would be different if not for Carson. Here, as late afternoon sunlight threads the tall grass and spring flowers, bugs dive and weave, bird songs pierce the din of a distant lawnmower. Without Carson, the world in my own backyard would look and sound far different.
Carson, concerned about indiscriminate use of the pesticide DDT, worried about a silent world. In the first chapter of "Silent Spring," published in 1962, she imagined an entire community destroyed by "a white granular powder." Her best-selling book challenged the mid-century assumption that pesticide use was for the greater good. A shy biologist, unmarried and in her mid-50s, Carson created a public outcry with her thorough research and lyrical prose.
Change happened fast. President Kennedy appointed a science advisory committee to examine the book's conclusions. Congress debated legislation to require pesticide labels on how to avoid damage to fish and wildlife. In less than a decade, we celebrated the first Earth Day, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency and passed the National Environmental Policy Act as well as a host of the nation's bulwark environmental laws. ...