Blue Skies, Silent Springs

Since today is such a beautiful day, I decided that today's historical female would be Rachel Carson.
I remember reading Silent Spring as a freshman in college. I had heard of Rachel Carson and this book, but it wasn't until I took an intro-level biology class aimed at non-biology majors that I was assigned it (probably the single most useful thing I did in that class, other than meet someone who didn't believe in natural selection for the first time in my life. The rest of the curriculum had been well-covered by my ninth-grade biology teacher, Mrs. Acattato, and by Mr. Goodfriend, with whom I took Anatomy and Phisiology in twelfth grade).
I grew up in a relatively eco-conscious household. We recycled more than we threw away, even taking into account that garbage was collected twice as often as recylcables. I had books on how kids could save the planet. I also had lots, and I mean lots of books and magazines about animals and nature. This isn't to say that I was a particularly outdoorsy kid, but I loved nature, and I still do (note to potential suitors- the zoo is on my list of top 5 best first dates). I spend so much time indoors that sometimes I forget how restorative fresh air and sunshine can be. But even though I knew that CFCs were bad for the ozone and you shouldn't throw out soda rings, I didn't necessarily know all about the complexities of the environment.

Rachel Carson's book was the kind of book that shakes up the world, much like Uncle Tom's Cabin or The Jungle. It made people aware of how their actions were (and are) dramatically impacting their environment for the worse, and ways that they could try to restore the balance they had upset. Long before Al Gore started telling us An Inconvient Truth Rachel Carson was spreading the word about environmental destruction. Her book challenged the conventional wisdom that man-made chemicals were always the correct solution and were a sign of progress. I'm sure I'm not the only person whose choices to use natural or organic products whenever possible were influenced by Rachel Carson's work.

As spring begins to bloom around you, I encourage you to pick up a copy of Silent Spring from your local library and try to think of ways you can live Ms. Carson's environmental legacy in your life.