13 December 2007
Rachel Carson, Champion of Conservation
Fish and Wildlife Service employee spearheaded fight against pesticides
The narrator is Kaiulani Lee. The video was produced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
(begin transcript)
She started by writing radio scripts about fish. She continued as a junior aquatic biologist -- in 1936, one of only two professional women in her agency. She studied the commercial fisheries of the Chesapeake Bay. Her science was meticulous, her writing still regarded as some of the best. She earned $38 a week. Her work demanded sacrifice. She struggled to balance her job and family, was plagued by poor health, chafed at the bureaucracy, struggled to find direction in her career. Yet out of her 15 years of service came a body of work that half a century later still stands as some of the finest in conservation. She went on to devote her biology and her writing to a larger problem: the environmental damage wrought by pesticides. Her 1962 book Silent Spring challenged American agriculture and caused society to rethink its relationship to the natural world. She was far ahead of her time. Her work changed the world forever. Her name was Rachel Carson. She was a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
