Work In Colour - Work. Think. Live. In Colour
Tuesday 22nd February 2011 | 7 comments
Do you know about Rachel Carson? A most interesting woman, with a talent for asking questions.
Rachel Carson was a writer and a biologist. She started her working life in the United States in the 1930s and struggled to be taken seriously as a 'woman scientist'. This also made it hard for her to get research funding and academic positions, so she never completed her PHD. Despite this, she was insatiably curious about her twin fields of writing and biology - and curiosity has to be close to the top useful quality for creative thinking types, whether in traditional creative fields or more mainstream workplaces (unless, perhaps, you are a cat...).
This curiosity lead her to write two bestselling books about the science of the sea - The Sea Around Us and The Edge of the Sea. Along the way, she noticed the impact chemical pesticides such as DDT were having on the environment, and in one way or another the rest of her career was spent trying to convince others that these chemicals were harming the whole ecosystem, what she called 'the whole stream of life' from the environment to wildlife and even humans. We take this for granted now, both in terms of the technical science and the challenge to accepted wisdom, but back then these were truly radical suggestions.
One day in the spring of 1960, she received a phone call from a friend who had noticed the absence of birdsong as spring started - following her curiosity, she found that there were no baby birds in her entire neighbourhood. Her friend Rachel, also questioning (there's that curiosity again) discovered that the use of DDT had thinned the bird eggs so much that no babies had survived to hatch. She went on to write her seminal work, Silent Spring in 1962.
Her book was well-received in some quarters, but perhaps not surprisingly, it provoked a huge and negative reaction from those in chemical companies and from the US government. As her biographer, Linda Lear (in Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature) puts it, Carson had to deal with attacks that called her 'a hysterical woman whose alarming view of the future could be ignored or, if necessary, suppressed. She was a "bird and bunny lover," a woman who kept cats and was therefore clearly suspect. She was a romantic "spinster" who was simply overwrought about genetics. In short, Carson was a woman out of control. She had overstepped the bounds of her gender and her science. But just in case her claims did gain an audience, the industry spent a quarter of a million dollars to discredit her research and malign her character.'
She refused to shut up. Despite battling the breast cancer that would take her life 18 months later, she continued to bear witness to the truth as she saw it. Before she died, she knew she had succeeded.
As a result of Rachel Carson's work, the Kennedy administration eventually investigated the claims, which in turn lead to the banning of DDT for use in the USA (though not, tragically, its export elsewhere...).
Perhaps more importantly, grass roots environmental movements sprung up all over the USA, where DDT had harmed communities. For the first time, science and government were held accountable. The global environmental movement had been born, and though its passage has been difficult, it is now a permanent part of our lives and our democracy.
Again in Linda Lear's words: 'Rachel Carson left us a legacy that not only embraces the future of life, in which she believed so fervently, but sustains the human spirit. She confronted us with the chemical corruption of the globe and called on us to regulate our appetites-a truly revolutionary stance-for our self-preservation. "It seems reasonable to believe," she wrote, "that the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race. Wonder and humility are wholesome emotions, and they do not exist side by side with a lust for destruction."'
See where curiosity can lead you?
Tag: curiosity
What a powerful story, Joanna! I shall spend this day more thoughtfully as a result of reading your illuminating post. Many thanks! P. :)
Thanks Paul, it's a great story, isn't it?
What an amazing, inspiring woman - and great message about the importance of following what "floats our boat" - that's the energy that can sustain us not drain us. Thank you Joanna - I'd never heard of Rachel before.
Thanks, Claire. I'm reading her biography now, really quirky character, she was!
She was definitely ahead of her time. Reading about her courageous life inspires me to carry on and appreciate what we have now in the present.
Thank you for revealing a powerful character in
life.
Sincerely,
Arlene Uribe
www.creatingfinancialprosperity.com
Thanks Arlene. I'd love to hear about other men and women who have lived lives of courage and power, but who may not be as well known as they should be...
One very inspiring woman! Thanks for sharing your article Joanna.