Rachel Carson: Protecting Our Earth

Rachel Carson: Protecting Our Earth
Author: Adele Glimm

How One Woman's Brave Crusade Resulted in the Beginning of the Environmental Movement. In 1962, Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, told people for the first time how the overuse of chemical pesticides was poisoning the environment. As a result, she wrote, not only human beings but all other living creatures were in danger. No one had ever heard of anything like this before. Many people believed the book's message and called for change. Many others opposed it - especially powerful chemical companies, farmers, and even many members of Congress. The battle raged on in the newspapers, magazines, television, and in Congress - RAchel even testified before a commission. She won the fight and Congress passed the very first law to protect our environment. Rachel's concern for the environment had been with her all her life. Growing up in the country, she helped care for chickens, rabbits, and pigs, and pet cats and dogs. To her, everything in nature was a miracle to be treasured and studied. Rachel also had a passion for books. She wrote her first one, abut animals, at the age of seven. By ten, she was publishing stories in a children's magazine. These early passions led her to a career first as a biologist, and then as a famous writer of books about the sea, the seashore, and the whole natural world. In Rachel Carson: Protecting Our Earth, biographer Adele Glimm takes us on an exciting journey that celebrates one of the twentieth century's greatest heroines - a woman who helped make the earth a safer place for every one of us and for every living thing.