Rachel Carson

"S even years after I was born, biologist Rachel Carson writes a path-breaking bestseller that launches the modern environmental movement. It is an “ominous little parable” called “Fable for Tomorrow.”  In it, an idyllic American hamlet suffers mysterious maladies. First, plants turn brown and wither, pets and livestock die, fish disappear from streams and birds no longer adorn the woodlands and meadows with their songs. Next, baffling illnesses ravage the town, killing children and elders while survivors desperately search for answers. Was this the work of some kind of evil spell or secret weapon? No, Rachel explained, “No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.” Their own “wonder chemicals” had turned against them. By the time “Silent Spring” hit the bookstores in 1962, the chemical industry had already produced and stashed,  about 100 trillion pounds of hazardous wastes, enough to create a highway to the moon 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep. Of course, none of this is on my radar yet. I am still just a young boy loving nothing more than watching the sea spraying off the bow of my grandfather’s boat."