Carson, Rachel
Rachel Carson was a marine biologist. She was also the author of Under the Sea Wind, and The Edge of the Sea. Silent Spring served as a wake-up call to the dangers of DDT and many other chemicals that were and, in many cases, still are being used as herbicides and pesticides. She died of cancer in 1964.
Exploring nature with your child is largely a matter of becoming receptive to what lies around you. It is learning again to use your eyes, ears, nostrils, and finger tips, opening up the disused channels of sensory impression. The Sense of Wonder, 1956.
A rainy day is the perfect time for a walk in the woods. Ibid.
The continents themselves dissolve and pass to the sea, in grain after grain of eroded land . . .The Sea Around Us, 1951.
It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose, should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself. Ibid.
The ocean is the earth's greatest storehouse of minerals. Ibid.
The face of the sea is always changing. Crossed by colors, lights, and moving shadows, sparkling in the sun, mysterious in the twilight, its aspects and its moods vary hour by hour. Ibid.
There is no drop of water in the ocean, not even in the deepest parts of the abyss, that does not know and respond to the mysterious forces that create the tide. No other force that affects the sea is so strong. Ibid.
For all at last return to the sea-to Oceanus, the ocean river, like the ever-flowing stream of time, the beginning and the end. Ibid.
For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death. Silent Spring, 1962.
The crusade to create a chemically sterile, insect-free world seems to have engendered a fanatic zeal on the part of many specialists and most of the so-called control agencies. Ibid.
We live in an age of rising seas. Ibid.
Future generations are unlikely to condone our lack of prudent concern for the integrity of the natural world that supports all life, Ibid.
The "control of nature" is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man. Ibid.
. . . these chemicals are now stored in the bodies of the vast majority of human beings, regardless of age. They occur in the mother's milk, and probably in the tissues of the unborn child. Ibid.
Sometimes the result of chemical spraying has been a tremendous upsurge of the very insect the spraying was intended to control . . . Ibid.
The spider mite . . . has become practically a worldwide pest as DDT and other insecticides have killed off its enemies. Ibid.
Lulled by the soft sell and the hidden persuader, the average citizen is seldom aware of the deadly materials with which he is surrounding himself, indeed, he may not realize he is using them at all. Ibid.
The mores of suburbia now dictate that crabgrass must go at whatever cost, Ibid.
It is the 'tough' insects that survive chemical attack. Spraying kills off the weaklings. Ibid.
The major chemical companies are pouring money into the universities to support research on insecticides. This creates attractive fellowships for graduate students and attractive staff positions. Ibid.
Future historians may well be amazed by our distorted sense of proportions. How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind? Ibid.
. . . genetic deterioration through man-made agents is the menace of our time, 'the last and greatest danger to our civilization.' Ibid.
The ultimate answer is to use less toxic chemicals so that the public hazard from their misuse is greatly reduced. Ibid.
In each of my books I have tried to say that all the life of the planet is inter-related, that each species has its own ties to others, and that all are related to the earth. This is the theme of The Sea Around Us and the other sea books, and it is also the message of Silent Spring. Remarks to the Women's National Book Association.