Keep Rachel Carson's Legacy Alive.
Proclaim May 27 Rachel Carson Day!
Make May 27 an annual opportunity to recognize our
fellow advocates working for public policies to protect
the sustainability of our community and the quality of
our environment from threats such as climate change,
waste, and pollution.
Make May 27 an annual opportunity to recognize our
fellow advocates working for public policies to protect
the sustainability of our community and the quality of
our environment from threats such as climate change,
waste, and pollution.
Rachel Carson
(May 27, 1907 – April 14,
1964)
In 1962 Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, alerted the world to the hazards of pesticides. Carson explained that our health is intimately connected to the quality of our environment. Carson’s gift for eloquent advocacy created such a wave of political urgency that it generated the modern environmental movement.
Within a few years, in spite of an orchestrated chemical industry campaign to discredit her, Congress created the US EPA, the US ban on DDT, the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act.
"Prevention is the imperative." Carson’s message is as relevant today as in 1962. Her legacy has the power to inspire a new wave of public engagement in public policy dedicated to safeguarding the public health and enriching the quality and sustainability of our communities.
Rachel Carson Day
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Whereas we believe in the power of the individual to make a difference; and
Whereas Rachel Carson's birthday, May 27, is an annual opportunity to remember and celebrate her legacy, her unabashed love of nature, her sense of wonder and her extraordinary sense of responsibility, and
Whereas Rachel Carson's birthday, May 27, is an annual opportunity to remember and celebrate her legacy, her unabashed love of nature, her sense of wonder and her extraordinary sense of responsibility, and
Whereas Rachel Carson taught us that our health is intimately connected to the health of our environment; and
Whereas Carson wrote, in The Sea Around Us (1951), “...now in our own lifetime we are witnessing a startling alteration of climate.” and
Whereas Carson’s book Silent Spring (1962) was a call for sanity, public integrity, and human rights that catalyzed a wave of such political urgency that it generated a worldwide environmental movement and public support for the creation of the U.S. EPA, the U.S. ban on DDT, and the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act; and
Whereas Carson faced overwhelming illness and adversity, as well as an orchestrated campaign to discredit her work, and yet she was unwavering in speaking out about the hazards of pesticides and the unbridled chemical industry until her untimely death on April 14, 1964; and
Now, therefore, be it resolved, that we do hereby proclaim and observe May 27 as “Rachel Carson Day” and call on our fellow citizens to remember Rachel Carson’s life and legacy, and to join together to strengthen the protections of our health and the sustainability of our homes, schools, neighborhoods, and community.
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