Rachel Carson

I watched a special on PBS last night about Rachel Carson. She was the author of Silent Spring in 1963, the first scientific book to express alarm at how our species was tipping the balance of nature. Her concern was pesticides and chemicals in the environment.

I had only ever known about Rachel Carson as a name, an almost legendary figure in the environmental movement. Now I have seen her face and heard her story. It was very moving.

Carson was vilified, mocked, and shunned even by the science community for her research. She was warned not to publish it. How alone she must have felt. Yet she kept appearing in public, making presentations to anyone who would listen, until she finally got the ear of the federal government.

She didn't live to see much of the results of her efforts because she was already dying of cancer. She died in 1964. Yet she gave up to her last breath to help save a planet.

Sometimes when we feel hoarse and exhausted from fighting for the truth we need to have faith that truth has its own life and power. If we keep speaking it, eventually it will take root, even if we don't live to see it.