Environmental crusader remembered

Environmental crusader remembered

Carson pioneered current ecological safety movement

By Tatiana Botton

Very few women have been as famous in the scientific domain as
Rachel Carson. With her book "Silent Spring," she started an
ecological revolution that continues today.

To celebrate Earth Week at UCLA, the Women’s Resource Center
organized yesterday a video presentation about Carson’s life, the
first person to have noted the unregulated use of pesticides.

"As part of the Earth Week, we wanted to highlight the life of a
woman that is fascinated with nature, something that she wanted to
share with other people," said Fatima Ford, the program coordinator
for the Center.

As the video explained, in the 1920s women were not encouraged
to be scientists, but Carson wanted to become a biologist. She
received a masters degree in zoology at Johns Hopkins University,
then became a science writer and researcher.

She wrote her first marine biology book "Under the Sea Wind" in
1941 and "The Sea Around Us" in 1951, which became a New York Times
bestseller for more than 80 weeks. Her most famous book, "Spring,"
gave Carson universal recognition in 1962.

"I came to see the video, because a friend of mine was always
talking about Rachel Carson. This is a very powerful video that
shows the life of a woman ahead of her time," said Randoll
Bluestone, a third-year law student.

Carson was very interested in the mass application of pesticides
that caused the death of many animals.

During post-World War II America, pesticides were a way of life.
DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-tricloro-ethane), a powerful insecticide
saved millions of lives in the war by stopping the spread of
diseases such as Typhus fever. Following the war DDT was put into
civilian use and homes, gardens and farms were sprayed.

In less than 10 years the use of DDT grew from 120 million
pounds per year to over 600 million pounds, according to the
video.

No one was really interested in the other effects provoked by
the DDT, but many scientists knew that pesticides were deadly to
wildlife. The death of a horse was caused by the water it drank 10
hours earlier from a recently sprayed lake.

"By poisoning nature, people were poisoning each other," Carson
wrote in "Spring."

Another program organized by the government was the fight to
eradicate fire ants. When it showed how the government advertised
its fight against the ants, many of the video’s viewers laughed at
how ridiculous it seems in 1995.

"This shows that we need to use our First Amendment freedom of
speech to control the government abuse. This fire ant publicity
really shows how power can be abused," Bluestone said.

Carson described in her book the balance of nature and explained
the interrelation of things and their environment. She attacked the
government and the chemical industry that were supporting and
pushing for the use of pesticides, which made her many enemies.

"If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen
shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed either by
private individuals or by public officials, it is surely only
because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and
foresight, could conceive of no such problem," Carson cited in
"Spring."

After the publication of the book, in which she explained the
need to use pesticides properly, legislative bills were introduced
in 40 states around the country.

"Rachel Carson is still affecting our thinking and our
policymaking today," said Steward Udell, a former Secretary of the
Interior, in the video.

Carson died in 1964 of cancer, two years after the publication
of "Spring," when she was already the fountainhead of the
environmental movement.

Continuing the Earth Week festivities, an Eco-fair will be held
today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Westwood Plaza. The activities are
sponsored by a variety of campus organizations.