PROFILE - Rachel Carson: Conservationist who fought pesticides

By Burak Bir

ANKARA (AA) - Tuesday will mark 56 years since the death of environmentalist, author, and marine biologist Rachel Carson, who is well-known for fighting against pesticides.

Carson was born on May 27, 1907, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and grew up on a farm where she observed the natural world and the wildlife that surrounded her.

At 22, she graduated from the Pennsylvania College for Women and studied at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory before attending John Hopkins University where she earned a post-graduate degree in zoology.

After her master’s in 1932, Carson intended to proceed to a doctorate degree but financial difficulties of the Great Depression forced her to put that goal on the back burner.

She left school to take a full-time position to support her family but the situation worsened after her father died in 1935.

Amid financial struggles, Carson became the second woman hired by the Bureau of Fisheries for a full-time professional position in 1936, where she worked as a junior aquatic biologist.

While working at the bureau, Carson wrote articles on marine life for local newspapers and magazines.

She was previously employed during a successful stint writing radio scripts for a weekly educational radio program, Romance Under the Waters, which ran 52 episodes and was intended to raise awareness of fish biology.

- Success in hard times

In July 1937, her efforts began to pay off, when the venerated Atlantic Monthly magazine accepted a revised version of her essay, The World of Waters, a piece she originally wrote for a fisheries bureau brochure.

After the essay was published under the title, Undersea, publishing house Simon & Schuster urged her to turn the essay into a book.

In 1941, Carson's first book, Under the Sea Wind, was published and it won praise for its vivid descriptions of marine life, though it did not sell very well.

Through the 1940s she continued to work for the government to support her family.

In 1945, Carson grew interested in DDT, a colorless and tasteless insecticide, leading to her penning numerous essays warning of its harm to the environment, but publishers were not always interested.

The 1950s paved the way for more success as well as freedom from financial difficulties when she published The Sea Around Us in 1951, which promptly shot up the sales charts, and remained on the New York Times Best Seller List for a record- 86 weeks.

The book brought much acclaim to Carson, winning the National Book Award for nonfiction and the John Burroughs Medal. She was also the recipient of two honorary doctorates.

Carson's third book, The Edge of the Sea, that focused on coastal marine ecosystems, was published in 1955 after two years of research in libraries and ecologies and organisms of the Atlantic Ocean.

In later years, Carson began focusing efforts against the use of pesticides containing chlorinated hydrocarbons and organophosphates.

The dangers of pesticides became one of Carson's main professional concerns.

- Roar of Silent Spring

Sept. 27, 1962 saw the publication of Silent Spring, the book that spearheaded environmental activism and led Carson to be called the "mother of environmental movements."

The book written about the future of the world and life on Earth, describes the harmful effects of DDT on the environment.

Carson called for people to act responsibly and with care as stewards of the Earth, which led to the launch of many environmental movements.

Although the book was not the first to discuss the topic and raise awareness of the environment, her combination of poetic sensibility and scientific understanding made the book an instant bestseller.

Carson faced blowback from the chemical industry from the book, but ultimately the "roar of Silent Spring" led to the banning of DDT and other pesticides in the U.S., and was quickly translated into multiple languages.

In 2012, fifty years after it was published, Carson's influential book was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society for its contribution to establishing the modern environmental movement.

On April 14, 1964, Carson died at age 56 in the state of Maryland, after a long battle with breast cancer.

She left a legacy of unique works and a struggle to protect human health and the environment.

As environmentalist and founder of the 350 movement, Bill McKibben, said in his prominent book, The End of Nature: "Had she not written when she did about the dangers of DDT, it might well have been too late before anyone cared about what was happening. She pointed out the problem, she offered a solution; the world shifted course."

- Publications

In addition to her sea trilogy and Silent Spring, Carson’s "Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson" and "The Sense of Wonder," a collection of magazine articles, were also published in 1998.

Along with her own books, many others were written about Carson after her death. They include:

Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature, 1997

Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964, 1994

Rachel Carson: The Writer at Work, 1998

The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement, 2007

Courage for the Earth: Writers, Scientists, and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson, 2007

Rachel Carson: Legacy and Challenge (S U N Y Series in Environmental Philosophy and Ethics), 2008

DDT, Silent Spring, and the Rise of Environmentalism: Classic Texts, 2008

Understanding Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (Words That Changed the World), 2010

Silent Spring Revisited, 2012

On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson, Author of Silent Spring, 2012

Carson's Silent Spring: A Reader's Guide, 2014

Rachel Carson and Her Sisters: Extraordinary Women Who Have Shaped America's Environment, 2014