​"The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves."

• BIOLOGIST & AUTHOR
• Wrote Silent Spring, which documented four years' worth of research regarding the detrimental effects of the pesticide DDT on wildlife, and urged humanity to recognize the interconnectedness of all life
• DDT was banned in the U.S. ten years later (took them long enough!)
• After earning her master's degree in zoology, she worked for the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood's Hole in Massachusetts
• Published in 1962, Silent Spring is often cited as the beginning of the modern environmental movement
• Chemical manufacturers spent nearly $250,000 attempting to discredit Carson and her work (that's over $2 million today!)
• Wrote several other successful books celebrating nature -- her second book, The Sea Around Us (written before Silent Spring), was a bestseller, winning her the National Book Award and enabling her to quit her job and write full time
• Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: Drimmer, Stephanie W. National Geographic Kids: The Book of Heroines: Tales of History's Gutsiest Gals.
Ignotofsky, Rachel. Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2016. Print.
Washington DC: National Geographic Partners, LLC, 2016. Print.
Yount, Lisa. A to Z of Women in Science and Math. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1999. Print.

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Support these organizations dedicated to preserving her story & mission:

Rachel Carson Homestead & Association
Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge
Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy

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