Women's History

Rachel Carson

Also known as: Rachel Louise Carson

Birth: 1907
Death: 1964
Source: Earth Sciences for Students. 4 vols. Online. Macmillan Reference USA, 2008.
Updated: 05/01/2008

BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

Rachel Carson was a biologist who became a pioneer in the American environmental movement. Her writings awakened a new interest in marine life and alerted readers to the dangers of chemical pollution.

Studying the Sea

As Rachel Carson grew up in Springdale, Pennsylvania, her mother encouraged her love of nature and wildlife. Carson showed a talent for writing and studied English in college. She planned to become a writer, but a biology course renewed her interest in science.
During the early 1930s, Carson earned a master's degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Her special interest in the life of the sea led her to further studies at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts. In 1936, she took a position as an aquatic biologist with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, which later became the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Carson had not forgotten her plans to become a writer. During her years with the Fish and Wildlife Service, she wrote many leaflets about the bureau's mission--to preserve the nation's wildlife. In 1941, she published Under the Sea-Wind, a book about life on the seashore and the ocean bottom. It was so well received that in 1951, after much research, Carson published The Sea Around Us, which introduced readers to the history of the Earth and the oceans. This book displayed Carson's gift for writing about complex scientific subjects in beautiful, easy-to-read language, and it became a best-seller.

Environmental Alarm

In 1952, Carson retired from the Fish and Wildlife Service to devote herself to writing. The Edge of the Sea (1955), a guide to the seashore, reflected Carson's growing interest in ecology, the study of the interrelationships among living things and their environment. In 1962, Carson published her best-known book, Silent Spring. It opens with an account of a fictional American town, complete with farms and thriving wildlife. Then a blight arrives, bringing disease and death to animals and plants. The cause of the blight, Carson explained, is the use of chemical pesticides which gradually poison the soil and water. Drawing on published scientific studies, she documented for the ordinary reader some effects of chemical pollution on the environment. She argued that the public should carefully consider the use of these chemicals in light of the potential harm.

Silent Spring caused a sensation. The chemical industry attacked Carson's scientific ability and her work, but the scientific community and public policy makers soon agreed that her warning was appropriate. By introducing readers to ecological issues that would affect their lives, Rachel Carson's work helped spark a growing environmental awareness among Americans. The first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, was one outcome of this new awareness, and a second outcome was the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the same year.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

American biologist and environmentalist.

SOURCE CITATION

"Rachel Carson." Earth Sciences for Students. 4 vols. Online. Macmillan Reference USA, 2008.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC