[pf] Rachel Carson

by Molly Williams

22 December 2000 00:07 UTC

I'm researching Rachel Carson for a writers' page I maintain, and came
across this, from her obituary in the New York Times; I thought it was
interesting in light of our recent conversations on GMOs and
risks-taking in general.

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With the publication of “Silent Spring” in 1962, Rachel Louise Carson,
the essence
of gentle scholarship, set off a nationally publicized struggle between
the proponents and opponents of the widespread use of poisonous
chemicals to kill insects. Miss Carson was an opponent. 

Some of miss Carson’s critics, admiringly and some not so admiringly,
compared her
to Carrie Nation, the hatchet-wielding temperance advocate. 

This comparison was rejected quietly by Miss Carson, who in her very
mild but firm
manner refused to accept the identification of an emotional crusader. 

Miss Carson’s position, as a biologist, was simply that she was a
natural scientist in search of truth and that the indiscriminate use of
poisonous chemical sprays called for public awareness of what was going
on. 

She emphasized that she was not opposed to the use of poisonous chemical
sprays--only their “indiscriminate use,” and, at a time when their
potential was not
truly known. 

Quoting Jean Rostand, the French writer and biologist, she said: “The
obligation to
endure gives us the right to know.” 

On April 3, 1963, the Columbia Broadcasting System’s television series
“C.B.S.
Reports” presented the program “The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson.” In
it, Miss
Carson said: 

“It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks that the
insect controllers
calculate. The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the
present road,
and it can do so only when in full possession of the facts. 

“We still talk in terms of conquest. We still haven’t become mature
enough to think
of ourselves as only a tiny part of a vast and incredible universe.
Man’s attitude
toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now
acquired a
fateful power to alter and destroy nature. 

“But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a
war against
 himself. The rains have become an instrument to bring down from the
atmosphere the
 deadly products of atomic explosions. Water, which is probably our most
important
 natural resource, is now used and re-used with incredible recklessness. 

“Now, I truly believe, that we in this generation, must come to terms
with nature, and I think we’re challenged as mankind has never been
challenged before to prove our
maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.” 

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