Rachel Carson, a Scientist, a Radical, and a Savior

Born: May 27, 1907
in Springdale, Pennsylvania

Died: April 14, 1964
in Silver Spring, Maryland

It’s no question in today’s age that chemical pesticides are toxic in human beings when used excessively and have been shown to increase hormonal aging in young adolescents. However, before the EPA and strict government over-watch, a radical at the time, alerted the world’s attention on the harmful effects of DDT and other chemical toxins used as pesticides.

Rachel Louise Carson, a graduate from Pennsylvania College for Women, and John Hopkins University, was hired by the U.S Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts during the Depression. She supplemented her income by writing articles of natural history as she began a fifteen-year career as a scientist and editor eventually rising to Editor-in-Chief of all publications for the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1952 Carson wrote The Sea Around Us and in 1955 The Edge of the Sea, both of which received large praise and made a name for Carson as a naturalist and science writer.

            Carson’s most famous work by far was her book Silent Spring, which she authored in 1962. This novel challenged the widespread practice of chemical pesticides by agricultural scientist. At the time of publication, Carson was immediately attacked by those in the chemical industry and by some in the government. Nevertheless, she continued to push this issue of chemical safety to the American public. Through Carson’s perseverance, America now takes the issue of chemical pesticides, particularly in our food supply extremely serious. Without Silent Spring and the national discussion that followed, millions more could have been effected by the overuse of pesticides. Carson sadly lost her life to breast cancer after a long battle in 1964 and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter.