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ANNCR:
People in America, a program inSpecial English on the Voice of America. Today, Steve Ember and RichKleinfeldt tell about scientist Rachel Carson. Her work started theenvironmental protection movement in the United States.
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VOICE ONE:
Rachel Carson was born on May Twenty-Seventh, Nineteen-Oh-Sevenin Springdale, Pennsylvania. Rachel’s father, Robert Carson was asalesman who invested in local land. He purchased twenty-sixhectares of land to make a home for his family. The area wassurrounded by fields, trees and streams. The Carson family enjoyedliving in the beautiful, country environment.
Rachel’s mother, Maria Carson, had been a schoolteacher. Sheloved books. She also loved nature. Rachel was the youngest of threechildren. Her sister and brother were already in school when she wasborn. So Missus Carson was able to spend a lot of time with Rachel.She showed Rachel the beauty of nature. She also taught Rachel adeep love for books. Missus Carson became the most importantinfluence on Rachel’s life.
VOICE TWO:
Rachel was a quiet child. She liked to read and to write poemsand stories. She was very intelligent. At a very early age shedecided she wanted to be a writer someday. Her first published storyappeared in a children’s magazine when she was ten years old.
Rachel went to the Pennsylvania College for Women. She studiedEnglish because she wanted to become a professional writer. Yet, shefelt she did not have the imagination to write creative stories. Shechanged her area of study from English to science after she took abiology course that she liked. Her professors advised her not tostudy science. They said there was no future for a woman in science.
VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Twenty-Nine, Rachelgraduated from college with high honors. She won a financial awardto study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. InNineteen-Thirty-Two, she earned a master’s degree in zoology, thescientific study of animals. She taught zoology at the University ofMaryland for a few years. During the summers, she studied the oceanand its life forms at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory inMassachusetts. That is when she became interested in the mysteriesof the sea.
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VOICE TWO:
Rachel’s life changed greatly in the middle Nineteen-Thirties.Her father died suddenly in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. He left verylittle financial support for Rachel’s mother. It was during theeconomic decline in the United States called the Great Depression.Rachel now had to support her mother and herself. She needed moremoney than her teaching job could provide. She began part-time workfor a federal government agency, the Bureau of Fisheries inWashington, D.C.
One year later, Rachel’s sister died. Her sister was the themother of two young girls. Rachel and her mother cared for thegirls. Rachel now had to support her mother, two nieces and herself.Again, she needed a job with better pay.
VOICE ONE:
A full time job for a biologist opened at the United StatesBureau of Fisheries. Rachel Carson was the only woman to try for theposition. She had the highest score of all people competing for thejob.
Mizz Carson got the position in August, Nineteen-Thirty-Six. Shewas chosen to work in the office of the chief of the biologydivision.
Her first job was to write a series of programs called “RomanceUnder the Waters.” The series was broadcast on radio for a year. Shecontinued to write and edit publications for the Bureau of Fisheriesfor many years. The bureau was happy to have a scientist who wasalso an excellent writer. Rachel Carson provided information to thepublic in interesting and understandable ways.
VOICE TWO:
In Nineteen-Forty, the United States Bureau of Fisheries and theBiological Survey joined to become the Fish and Wildlife Service.Mizz Carson continued as one of the few women employed there as ascientist. The other women worked as office assistants.
While she was working for the government, Mizz Carson wrote atnight and on weekends. In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven she wrote a reportabout sea life. It was called Undersea. It appeared in the magazine,Atlantic Monthly. An editor at a publishing house encouraged her towrite a book about the sea for the general public. So she did. Herfirst book, Under the Sea Wind, was published in Nineteen-Forty-One.
VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, Mizz Carson began working on anotherbook, The Sea Around Us. It became her first best-selling book.
Rachel Carson always researched carefully when she wrote. Shegathered information from more than one thousand places to write TheSea Around Us. She also wrote letters to experts all over the world.
The Sea Around Us was published in Nineteen-Fifty-One. It wasnumber one on the best-seller list for more than a year. It won theNational Book Award. The Sea Around Us made Rachel Carson famous.The money the book earned eased her financial responsibilities forthe first time in years.
In Nineteen-Fifty-Two, Mizz Carson was able to leave her job atthe Fish and Wildlife Service and spend her time writing. MizzCarson moved to a home on the coast of Maine. There she studied theecology of the sea. Her next book, The Edge of the Sea, waspublished in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. It told of the connection of allliving creatures in areas where land and ocean meet.
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VOICE TWO:
Rachel Carson’s most famous book, Silent Spring, was published inNineteen-Sixty-Two. The idea for the book developed from asuggestion from a friend. Rachel’s friend owned a protected area forbirds. An airplane had flown over the area where the birds were keptand spread a powerful chemical called DDT. It was part of a projectto control mosquitoes. Many songbirds and harmless insects werekilled by the DDT.
Mizz Carson and other scientists were very concerned about theharmful effects of DDT and other insect-killing chemicals calledpesticides. After World War Two, these poisonous chemicals werewidely used to control insects. Pesticides were sprayed almosteverywhere including agricultural fields and communities. DDT andother pesticides had become popular with the public and thegovernment because they were so effective. Manufacturing thesechemicals had become a huge industry.
VOICE ONE:
Rachel Carson tried to get many magazines interested inpublishing a report about the subject. However, none would agree topublish anything about such a disputed subject. They said no onewanted to hear that industrial companies could cause greatecological damage.
Mizz Carson believed the public needed to know about thisimportant issue. She decided to write a book about it. She collectedfacts from experts from all over the world. She gathered studiesthat showed the harmful effects of DDT, including declining birdpopulations and increased human cancers.
In her book Silent Spring, Mizz Carson questioned the right ofindustrial companies to pollute without considering the effects onthe environment. Mizz Carson argued that this kind of pollutionwould result in ever-decreasing populations of birds and otherwildlife. She said this would lead to the loss of the wonderfulsounds of nature. The chemical poisoning of the environment, shesaid, would cause a silent spring.
VOICE TWO:
The chemical industry felt threatened. Industry spokesmen andother critics said the book was non-scientific and emotional. Theymisunderstood the message of the book. Mizz Carson did not suggestthat all pesticides be banned. She urged that control of thesesubstances be given to biologists who could make informed decisionsabout the risks involved.
Support for the book increased. By the end of Nineteen-Sixty-Two,there were more than forty bills in state legislatures proposing tocontrol pesticides. Finally, in November, Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, theUnited States government ruled that the use of DDT must stop in twoyears.
Rachel Carson did not live to see how her book influenced thegovernment’s decision to ban DDT. She died of breast cancer inNineteen-Sixty-Four. She was fifty-six years old.
VOICE ONE:
Two memorials honor Rachel Carson. One is the the Rachel CarsonNational Wildlife Refuge in Maine. The other is the Rachel CarsonHomestead in Springdale, Pennsylvania, the home she lived in whenshe was a child. Education programs are offered there that teachchildren and adults about her environmental values.
Rachel Carson’s voice is alive in her writings that express thewonder and beauty of the natural world. And her worldwide influencecontinues through the activities of the environmental protectionmovement she started.
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ANNCR:
This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It wasproduced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Steve Ember and RichKleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for anotherPeople in America program on the Voice of America.