My Hero: Rachel Carson

Ever since I started wanting to protect and save our beautiful environment, Rachel Carson has been my hero. I aspire to be like her. Her book, Silent Springs, really sparked the environmental movement. Rachel Carson cleared the way for environmental protection by making the public aware of the situation at hand. That is exactly what I am trying to do now, with this blog, and soon enough, videos. For those of you who don't know much about Rachel Carson, I have put some links on this post and a brief bio of her life below. She was really a remarkable woman.

Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907. When she grew up she became a biologist who wrote popular books about nature and science. The last book she wrote was titled Silent Springs. This book changed the way we treated the environment. Rachel made it known to the world that the chemical pesticide, DDT, was not as harmless as the world was made to believe. Her terrific book is about how the DDT had bad effects on more than it was supposed. It was used to kill mosquitoes and flies but ended up killing so much more. When a toxin is exposed into any ecosystem, it climbs up the entire food web. DDT caused the killing of birds, fish, and all kinds of animals. Rachel also found evidence that it caused some human illness. In 1963, she was invited to D.C., where she spoke to a special committee formed by President J.F.K. Rachel Carson talked about the dangers of misusing tons of pesticides. The committee was very impressed with her and agreed that overuse of chemical poisons was a major problem. She then testified before the U.S. congress, where she asked for new policies to protect human health and the environment. Because of Rachel Carson, DDT was banned and Congress passed important environmental protection laws. She is truly an amazing woman and should be every little girl's role model.
She has lead me to my life of dreams!



http://www.rachelcarson.org/
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/carsonrachel/p/rachel_carson.htm
http://ecotopia.org/ecology-hall-of-fame/rachel-carson/