Carson, Rachel

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Rachel Carson

Born May 27, 1907
Springdale, Pennsylvania

Died April 14, 1964
Silver Spring, Maryland

Naturalist, marine biologist, writer,
environmental activist

Rachel Carson was as much a political activist as a biologist, naturalist, and writer. She spent her lifetime appreciating, exploring, and writing about nature and emphasizing the importance of the natural world in everyday life. In 1962, Carson's book Silent Spring was published. In the work, she reported on the manner in which the poisons found in pesticides—chemical mixtures used to wipe out insects that thrive on plants and animals—were destroying Earth and its atmosphere. The publicity her book generated helped give birth to the modern-day environmental movement.

"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."

—Rachel Carson.

An early love of nature

Rachel Louise Carson was born on May 27, 1907 in Springdale, a rural community located along the Allegheny River in southwestern Pennsylvania. She grew up in a five-room farmhouse, where she was surrounded by nature. Spurred on by her mother, Maria McLean Carson, young Rachel developed an appreciation for the natural world. In particular, she became fascinated by life as it existed in and around waterways. She also displayed a gift for writing. In fourth grade, she published her first work, a story titled "A Battle in the Clouds," in St. Nicholas, a children's magazine.

Carson wished to pursue a writing career. She started out as an English major at the Pennsylvania College for Women (later known as Chatham College), which she attended during the late 1920s. Upon taking a biology course taught by an inspiring professor, May Scott Skinker, Carson changed her major to zoology during her junior year. She graduated with academic honors in 1929 and won a full scholarship to perform graduate work at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Three years later, Carson earned a master's degree in marine zoology, a life sciences discipline that focuses on sea organisms. During this period, she continued her education by spending summers at the Marine Biological Laboratories in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She also taught zoology at the University of Maryland and summer-school classes at Johns Hopkins.

Early career

For most of her early professional life, Carson worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. (In 1940 the bureau was combined with the Biological Survey unit and renamed the Fish and Wildlife Service.) Carson first worked on a part-time basis, writing scripts for bureau-sponsored radio programs in 1935. The following year, she accepted a full-time position with the bureau as a biologist-researcher and writer-editor. The information-oriented government pamphlets that she wrote included such titles as Food from the Sea: Fish and Shellfish of New England (1943), Food from Home Waters: Fishes of the Middle West (1943), and Fish and Shellfish of the Middle Atlantic Coast (1945).

Carson also wrote articles about natural history for the Baltimore Sun. In 1937 she penned a well-received piece titled "Undersea," published in the Atlantic Monthly. In 1949 she was appointed editor in chief of all Fish and Wildlife Service publications.

Books on the environment

Carson's books express her intense interest in nature, particularly the sea, and in environmental protection. Her first three books explore the manner in which living things are interconnected. The first, Under the Sea-Wind, published in 1941, was an expansion of Carson's Atlantic Monthly article, and "Chesapeake Eels Seek the Sargasso Sea," one of her Baltimore Sun pieces. Under the Sea-Wind offered a view of life as it exists near waterways and underwater, spotlighting the fierce battle for survival among the creatures living in these environments. Although Carson's later books earned her greater fame, Under the Sea-Wind remained her personal favorite.

The Sea Around Us was published in 1951 after being serialized as "A Profile of the Sea" in New Yorker magazine. In the book, Carson examined how the oceans, Earth, and Moon came into existence. Unlike Under the Sea-Wind, which sold poorly, The Sea Around Us became a runaway success. It sold more than 200,000 copies and became a Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection. It earned Carson the National Book Award for nonfiction and brought her international fame. The work was adapted as a documentary film, which won an Academy Award in 1952.

The financial success of The Sea Around Us gave Carson the means to quit her job with the Fish and Wildlife Service. While maintaining a residence in the Washington, D.C. area, she then began spending her summers in a cottage by Sheepscot Bay along the Maine shoreline. From her summer cottage, Carson completed much of the research for her follow-up book, 1955's The Edge of the Sea. In the work, she discussed the various forms of life that are found in and by the sea. It also became a bestseller.

Carson's niece Marjorie, with whom she was very close, died in 1957. Carson adopted Marjorie's son Roger. Their relationship—as well as her affection for all young people—served as inspiration for her book, The Sense of Wonder (published after her death in 1965). Here, Carson stressed the need for parents to encourage their children's natural curiosity about the world and their environment. The ideas put forth in The Sense of Wonder first appeared in a 1956 Woman's Home Companion magazine piece titled "Help Your Child to Wonder."

As Carson took on the role of parent, her devotion to her environmental work remained constant. Carson wrote about nature, about the importance of humankind living in harmony with nature, and about the wonder of childhood. She also recognized that America's natural resources were being dangerously mistreated by big business. In 1957 Holiday magazine published her article, "Our Ever-Changing Shore." In the piece, she petitioned for the preservation of America's shorelines that were quickly disappearing due to erosion and industrial development.

The culmination of a life's work: Silent Spring

Back in 1945 Carson had first become concerned about federal plans to use certain insecticides in pest-control programs. She was worried that the government had not considered the potentially negative, long-term impact of such chemicals on the environment. Her concern increased during the 1950s, when many American companies used these pesticides. This awareness led to the book that was her crowning achievement, Silent Spring, published in 1962.

Silent Spring and Not-So-Silent Protest

Before Silent Spring, the everyday use of pesticides and other chemicals seemed harmless, and their destructive impact on the environment was not considered.

For example, in 1939, Paul Muller, a researcher at Geigy Pharmaceutical in Switzerland, determined that dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) could be effectively used as an insecticide. DDT was a colorless, odorless chemical that was inexpensive to produce. In 1948, he even won the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology for this finding. After World War II (1939–45), DDT usage increased across the globe. However, it also was discovered that the chemical had a toxic effect on the environment. It destroyed the reproductive cycles of birds and fish, and polluted waterways. Also, because of its chemical makeup, the presence of DDT was not immediately apparent. It slowly built up, often taking up to fifteen years to be detected.

In 1962, the year in which Silent Spring was published, efforts to ban DDT began. By 1973, the United States had outlawed DDT's use as a pesticide, but it remained in use in other parts of the world.

In Silent Spring, Carson presents evidence to show how overuse of pesticides threatens to destroy Earth and its atmosphere. She alerted the public to the dire environmental consequences if the usage remained unchecked. She cautioned that the poisons found in pesticides were killing off animals, birds, and fish and even might affect food consumed by human beings. She emphasized that all human beings are responsible for keeping Earth and its atmosphere free from contamination.

Attacks and acclaim

Silent Spring triggered much controversy. The leaders of the chemical and farming industries, whose profits depended on the production and use of pesticides, attacked Carson. She was labeled an alarmist. Her credentials were questioned. Her findings were disputed. She was threatened with lawsuits. Some critics went so far as to question Carson's sanity.

However, Carson had supporters too. For example, her findings were upheld in a report issued by the Science Advisory Committee, which had just been appointed by PresidentJohn F. Kennedy (1917–1963; served 1961–63; see entry). Immediately Silent Spring became a bestseller and further added to Carson's international fame. In 1963, she testified before the U.S. Congress about the importance of passing legislation to protect the environment. In a letter to the editor published that year in the Washington Post, she declared that "the way is being cleared for a raid upon our natural resources that is without parallel within the present century."

After the publication of Silent Spring, Carson was showered with honors, including induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. At the same time, she was suffering from breast cancer. She learned that she had cancer while researching the book. After waging a long battle with the disease, she died in 1964.

Rachel Carson's legacy is long-standing and far-reaching. The publication of Silent Spring marked the beginning of the environmental movement. It sparked awareness among the general public of the potential dangers of environmental pollution. The work spoke out about humankind's responsibilities toward nature. In March 1999, Carson appeared on the cover of Time with Jonas Salk (1914–1995) and Albert Einstein (1879–1955). Each was cited as being among the most significant scientist-theorists of the twentieth century.