Rachel Carson: a Subjective Force for Good

Rachel Carson:

A Subjective Force for Good

Assignment 1

Rachel Carson:

A Subjective Force for Good

At a time of social conformity with a climate of intolerance, the chemical industry was one of the principal beneficiaries of post war technology. The use of chemical pesticides was commonplace and socially accepted as a necessity. With the threat of food shortages and the world being “run by insects”, DDT, an organochlorine insecticide, was widely used not just on a variety of food crops, but for public health benefits including the control of malaria, typhus, and body lice. Common enough for children to see the “fog man” spraying a fog of DDT in the streets and playfully run through it as a child runs through the spraying water of a sprinkler. A disturbing image to picture now as we understand the detrimental effects the pesticide can have on one’s health. It was not until a writer turned scientist named Rachel Carson took on the challenge of enlightening the public and combating the government and chemical industry that the widely common use of DDT came to a halt.

“-Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.”-R.C.

Rachel Carson grew up on a farm in a rural river town in Springdale, Pennsylvania, just north of Pittsburgh. It was here that she first discovered nature along the banks of the Allegheny River observing the plants and wildlife around her. She loved to read and displayed a clear talent for writing, publishing her first story in a children’s literary magazine at age ten. She attended Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College) and studied English until a female zoology professor urged her to major in biology. Although there were few opportunities for women in the field, she decided to pursue a career in science. After obtaining her masters in zoology from John Hopkins University in 1932, she began writing articles about the natural history of the Chesapeake Bay for the Baltimore...