Rachel Carson’s birthday, May 27, is an annual call to action for policies and safeguards protecting our health and community.
Rachel Carson was a marine biologist and ecologist who gave us an ethic of ecology — that we are all connected and interdependent. In 1962 her book, Silent Spring, alerted the world to the hazards of pesticides. She explained the intimate connection between our health and the quality of our environment.
Rachel was a rigorous scientist and a gifted writer deeply motivated by a love of nature, a sense of wonder, and empathy for all living things. She understood the connection between environmental protection and human rights.
In the 1960s, Carson’s work catalyzed a worldwide movement that generated public support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. ban on DDT, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. These protections are all now under attack by a virulent anti-science agenda.
Today, the Call to Action is urgent. We witness extreme heat, violent weather, pollution and waste. In our own neighborhoods we smell the explosive danger of gas from leaky pipelines.
In Newton, we are lucky to have representatives who champion energy efficiency and renewable energy. We have many organizations dedicated to climate action, biodiversity, pollution prevention and conservation.
But we can’t take it for granted. As parents, citizens, scientists, teachers, students, experts, voters, activists and policymakers, we know solutions exist.
To honor Rachel Carson’s life and legacy we must work together to create a culture of political engagement, to mobilize for candidates and policies that can stop our dependence on fossil fuels and promote clean energy. The safety and security of our families and sustainability of our community depends on us. Rachel Carson was right.
Ellie Goldberg
Newton Centre