New Delhi: Rachel Louise Carson was an American biologist who was well known for her writings on environmental pollution and the natural history of the sea. The Google doodle commemorating her 107th birth anniversary showcases her love for nature.
Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907 and she grew up in the rural river town of Springdale, Pennsylvania. She wanted to be a writer but her love of biology took her first to Chatham College and then to Johns Hopkins University for an MS in Zoology in 1932.
Her desire for PhD was cut short by her father's and sister's death and she took on a job at the US Bureau of Fisheries to support her mother and two nieces. He job was to write radio scripts and she also wrote feature articles on natural history for the Baltimore Sun and the Atlantic Monthly.
She went on to become a scientist and editor and rose to the position of Editor-in-Chief of all publications for the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Her first book, Under the Sea-Wind, was published in 1941. It was a suspenseful account of a year in the lives of dozens of ocean creatures.
During World War II, Carson was involved in the war effort. After the War she converted her research work for the government into her second book The Sea Around Us. The book won the 1952 National Book Award and was a bestseller. A documentary based on the book won the Academy Award.
Retiring from government service, Carson devoted herself to writing. Her first book which had failed to record substantial sales, was republished in 1953 and became an instant bestseller. Her third book The Edge of Sea was published in 1955.
At 50, she adopted her 5 year old grandnephew Roger after the death of her adopted niece and she described her experiences with the young child exploring the wild in a magazine article, Help Your Child to Wonder.
Her next book, Silent Spring, published in 1962, is one of the most-influential books in the modern environmental movement. The book was first published as a serial in The New Yorker and documented the harmful effects pesticides have on the environment, Her initiative led to the banning of DDT in the United States in 1972 and internationally in 2004.
The legacy of Silent Spring includes contemporary environmental advocacy, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act and 20 million participants in the first Earth Day.
Rachel Carson died of breast cancer on April 14, 1964.
Upon posthumously awarding Carson the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the US highest civilian honour, President Jimmy Carter stated, "Always concerned, always eloquent, Rachel Carson created a tide of environmental consciousness that must not ebb."
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