Topic: From Calm Leadership; Lasting Change
By: Nancy F. Koehn
Date: October 27, 2012
http://ogoapes.weebly.com/uploads/3/2/3/9/3239894/rachel_carsons_lessons_50_years_after_silent_spring_-_nytimes.com.pdf
Date: October 27, 2012
http://ogoapes.weebly.com/uploads/3/2/3/9/3239894/rachel_carsons_lessons_50_years_after_silent_spring_-_nytimes.com.pdf
Summary
Rachel Carson, although soft-spoken and an introvert, made the way to begin the environmental movement by forcing government and business to confront the dangers of pesticides. At first, as a youngster, she went to Pennsylvania College for Women and then later in Chatham College where she took part in the sciences to earn the degree in zoology. There weren't a lot of job opportunities for women in the science zone at the time. However, she managed to find a job writing radio scripts about the ocean on the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Later on, she had interest of being a writer and that led her to publish two books, "Under the Sea-Wind" & "The Sea Around Us". During the time when she wrote those books, she had surgery to remove a tumor from her left breast. After witnessing that her books were very successful, it motivated her to leave her job and transitioned to writing. This paved the way for the next book called the "Silent Spring" as the most important one she has written because it made a big impact to the public and government officials. Consequently, she faced a lot of struggles in battling cancer and taking care of her ailing mother and as well as a child that was adopted. It took longer than she expected it to be published. Eventually, after all the medical problems that she had encountered, she learned that she had cancer. Even more so, she had to go through great measures of many treatments and operations. Finally reaching to the point in publishing her book, she received strong resentment by the public and the government and also angered the chemical companies who produced pesticides. She argued that synthetic pesticides like DDT and heptachlor were being applied in profligate quantities without regard to their effect on human health, animals and the environment. After awhile, the disease and complications that she had led to her death. Following her unfortunate death, her book has opened the peoples' mind to see the critical dangers of pesticide use and the effects that it contributes to. In 1972, DDT was banned of use in the U.S and later came the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. At the end, she was able to make a positive change to prove her viewpoints on how pesticides are dangerous for altering the course of action to remove the use of pesticides while even facing hardships along the way.
Reflection
It's amazing to see that someone like Rachel Carson has the potential to keep striving for her goals in the environmental movement while undergoing struggles in extremely tough medical conditions and receiving harsh feedbacks. Seeing this quick overview of what she did and who she is is truly inspiring. I would also agree that pesticides should be gone from existence because it can leave devastating effects. If she did not express her views into making the book and publishing it, the people would have not been aware of the consequences of what pesticides could really bring to the degradation of health and the environment. Most of all, what would the world be like and would it still exist today with people, animals, and nature if it had not been for her upbringing concerns.
Rachel Carson, although soft-spoken and an introvert, made the way to begin the environmental movement by forcing government and business to confront the dangers of pesticides. At first, as a youngster, she went to Pennsylvania College for Women and then later in Chatham College where she took part in the sciences to earn the degree in zoology. There weren't a lot of job opportunities for women in the science zone at the time. However, she managed to find a job writing radio scripts about the ocean on the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Later on, she had interest of being a writer and that led her to publish two books, "Under the Sea-Wind" & "The Sea Around Us". During the time when she wrote those books, she had surgery to remove a tumor from her left breast. After witnessing that her books were very successful, it motivated her to leave her job and transitioned to writing. This paved the way for the next book called the "Silent Spring" as the most important one she has written because it made a big impact to the public and government officials. Consequently, she faced a lot of struggles in battling cancer and taking care of her ailing mother and as well as a child that was adopted. It took longer than she expected it to be published. Eventually, after all the medical problems that she had encountered, she learned that she had cancer. Even more so, she had to go through great measures of many treatments and operations. Finally reaching to the point in publishing her book, she received strong resentment by the public and the government and also angered the chemical companies who produced pesticides. She argued that synthetic pesticides like DDT and heptachlor were being applied in profligate quantities without regard to their effect on human health, animals and the environment. After awhile, the disease and complications that she had led to her death. Following her unfortunate death, her book has opened the peoples' mind to see the critical dangers of pesticide use and the effects that it contributes to. In 1972, DDT was banned of use in the U.S and later came the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. At the end, she was able to make a positive change to prove her viewpoints on how pesticides are dangerous for altering the course of action to remove the use of pesticides while even facing hardships along the way.
Reflection
It's amazing to see that someone like Rachel Carson has the potential to keep striving for her goals in the environmental movement while undergoing struggles in extremely tough medical conditions and receiving harsh feedbacks. Seeing this quick overview of what she did and who she is is truly inspiring. I would also agree that pesticides should be gone from existence because it can leave devastating effects. If she did not express her views into making the book and publishing it, the people would have not been aware of the consequences of what pesticides could really bring to the degradation of health and the environment. Most of all, what would the world be like and would it still exist today with people, animals, and nature if it had not been for her upbringing concerns.