Rachel Carson :: essays research papers

Area of Work. A marine biologist, writer, and an expositor of protecting the environment for the future, Rachel wrote many articles and three moving books about the sea, and a final book, Silent Spring, for which she is remembered. She was not by nature a crusader, but when aerial spraying of DDT killed the birds in a friends bird sanctuary, she began to study the effect of pesticides on the chains of life. Silent Spring provides an authentic and chilling warning that the chemicals we use in pesticides can create greater problems than they intended to solve. Rachel warned that if we do not learn to respect nature we might face a spring when no bird songs could be heard.      Education. At the Pennsylvania College For Women, a required college draw in biology made Rachel change here assumptions about her career. She majored in zoology, and after graduating with honors, she received a scholarship from Johns Hopkins, where she got a Masters Degree in genetics in 1 932.     Challenges. Rachel first broke barriers as a women. She took her first job with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. In 1936 she became the first women to pass the civil service exam. all over the next fifteen years she rose in the ranks until she was the editor of all publications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.      After resigning from government service, she wrote best selling books. Silent Spring set(p) off a national controversy and made her the subject of attack by the pesticide industriousness. She challenged DDT, whose inventor had received a Nobel prize After reading the book, electric chair Kennedy called for probeing of the chemicals mentioned in the book.      Her Work Background. Her years at U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service coincided with World War II experimentation with deadly chemicals. Insects were used to test these agents. Powerful pesticides were a byproduct of the tests. Rachel was the fi rst one to see the dangerous effects of introducing these deadly agents into our food chain.     Achievements. Rachel set off the controversy between environmentalists and the pesticide industry that is still raging. Silent Spring warns that for "the first time in the history of the World every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals from the wink of our conception until death." Rachel came to be regarded as the mother of the modern environmental movement. "The environment" and "ecology" have since become household words.