I feel as if this is a confession and an embarrassing one at that. I say this because, as a passionate “environmentalist,” I should have already known intimately the work of Rachel Carson. But, in all honesty, I only knew about four sentences worth of who she was, a true hero that brought scientific light to the blind irresponsibility and profoundly toxic effects of spraying the chemical DDT on the living Earth. With the publishing of her monumental book Silent Spring in 1962, Carson set in motion the first laws in this country to safeguard the environment.
Yet it is only now that I have found her words, and I am grateful beyond measure. It is like opening up a treasure chest and finding pure gold. Nothing beats an insightful, poetic biologist. At the same time, her words are deeply disturbing to hear because, 50 years later, we are still irresponsibly contaminating our world and ourselves with toxic chemicals at an alarming rate. We are still ignoring science.
Words for a Better World 