Keeping Rachel Carson’s Legacy Alive

Newton Proclaims Rachel Carson Day 2018

The City of Newton and Green Newton have been observing Rachel Carson Day annually since 1997. Ellie Goldberg, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller.

On May 23 at Newton City Hall, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller honored the legacy of scientist Rachel Carson by proclaiming her birthday, May 27, as City of Newton Rachel Carson Day.*

Carson‘s birthday is an urgent call to action for the policies and safeguards that protect us from threats such as climate change, pollution, and waste.

In 1962, Carson’s best known book, Silent Spring, alerted the world to the hazards of pesticides. It generated a worldwide awareness and sense of urgency about the quality of the environment.

Carson inspired such a groundswell of political engagement that it led to the creation of the U.S. EPA, the U.S. ban on DDT, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

Even earlier, in 1951, in The Sea Around Us, Carson warned, “…Now in our own lifetime we are witnessing a startling alteration of climate.”

Today, as we witness our health and environmental protections being destroyed by an anti-science agenda, we need to make clean energy, clean water and clean air a priority. We need to work for candidates that share our values, to vote and bring our friends and families with us to the polls.

Indeed, in 2018, we are literally voting for our lives.

So we are grateful to our Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, our Newton legislators Senator Cynthia Creem, Representatives Kay Khan and Ruth Balser. We can always count on them to be champions for policies that promote energy efficiency, renewable energy, pollution prevention and conservation of natural resources.

We are grateful to our City Councilors who promote aggressive emissions reduction, fixing gas pipeline leaks, more durable and energy efficient buildings, green and open space, enhanced recycling, eliminating single use plastic bags and polystyrene, and Newton Power Choice to increase renewable energy in Newton’s electricity supply.

Front: Ellie Goldberg, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller. Back row: Jim Purdy, Rosemarie Mullin, Amy Tai, Brita Lundberg, Rachel Adler-Golden, Cory Alperstein, Karen Bray, Sharon Cushing, Marcia Cooper, Pat Berdick, Bev Droz, and Peter Barrer.

We are grateful to our fellow citizens who spend countless hours as volunteers on boards, commissions and committees, and members of organizations such as Green Newton, Mothers Out Front, 350 Newton, Bike Newton, Newton Energy Commission, the Coalition for Climate Action, Newton Conservators and many many others.

Mothers Out Front (MOF) under the leadership of Rachel Adler-Golden, is dedicated to mobilizing for a livable climate by advocating for clean energy and energy efficiency.

Mothers Out Front (MOF) Newton has organized two gas leak tagging events to increase awareness of the need to fix Newton’s 600 gas pipeline leaks and educational programs about the hazards of fracked gas.

MOF members also actively support state legislation to raise the Renewable Portfolio Standard, to stop new fossil fuel infrastructure, to expand solar energy, to stop attempts to impose a pipeline tax, to stop utilities from charging consumers for lost gas and to speak out for climate justice.

Green Newton, under the leadership of Marcia Cooper, has facilitated hundreds of Home Energy Assessments and weatherization upgrades with its programs Newton Goes Solar and Newton Energy $avers. The Green Newton Schools Connections Group is conducting a survey to assess waste, recycling and composting in Newton Schools to get data to improve the sustainability of our schools.

Green Newton member Karen Bray is the leader of Newton CALM (Clean Alternatives to Lawn Maintenance) for leaf blower guidelines that decrease air and noise pollution. Green Newton member Cory Alperstein is a leader in both 350 Newton and the Newton Coalition for Climate Action that advocates for a high level of renewables in the new aggregate electricity plan.

Green Newton member Brita E. Lundberg, M.D. is a leader in Health Professionals for Clean Energy and most recently testified for a bill to restrict the pesticides that decimate bee populations, essential for our food security and our economy.

Green Newton member Peter Smith has been Co-Chair of the Environment Committee of the Newton Needham Chamber of Commerce since 2007 initiating their Green Business Awards Breakfast and “Green Solutions EXPO” and coordinating outreach for the Newton Business Energy Savers.

Newton’s annual Proclamation of Rachel Carson Day calls on us all to honor Carson by promoting an ethic of community health and sustainability and a culture of political engagement that mobilizes every family member, friend and neighbor.

* Rachel Carson Day in the City of Newton — A Proclamation

Whereas, Rachel Carson’s birthday, May 27, serves as an annual opportunity to remember and celebrate the life and legacy of a woman who loved nature and unabashedly felt an extraordinary sense of responsibility to protect it

Whereas, Rachel Carson, as a biologist, author, and conservationist taught us that our health is intimately connected to the health of our environment;

Whereas, Rachel Carson, warned us in her prescient 1951 book, The Sea Around Us” that, “…Now in our own lifetime we are witnessing a startling alteration of climate;”

Whereas, Rachel Carson, faced significant illness and adversity, as well as an orchestrated campaign to discredit her, and yet she bravely wrote and spoke out about the hazards of pesticides and chemicals until her untimely death at age fifty-six;

Therefore, with deep gratitude for the work and legacy of this fine ecologist who launched the modern environmental movement in 1962 with her book “Silent Spring,” I, Ruthanne Fuller, on behalf of the residents of Newton, proclaim May 27, 2018, to be:

Rachel Carson Day in the City of Newton

And urge all residents to honor Rachel Carson’s life by working together to strengthen the protections or our health our environment, our water and air, and the sustainability of our City.

Given this twenty-seventh day of May, in the year of Two Thousand and Eighteen.

Ruthanne Fuller
Mayor, City of Newton