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Legacy
Collected papers and posthumous publications
Carson bequeathed her manuscripts and papers to Yale University, to
take advantage of the new state-of-the-art preservations facilities
of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Her longtime agent
and literary executor Marie Rodell spent nearly two years organizing
and cataloging Carson's papers and correspondence, distributing all
the letters to their senders so that only what each correspondent
approved of would be submitted to the archive.
In 1965, Rodell arranged for the publication of an essay Carson had
intended to expand into a book: A Sense of Wonder. The essay, which
was combined with photographs by Charles Pratt and others, exhorts
parents to help their children experience the "lasting pleasures of
contact with the natural world", which "are available to anyone who
will place himself under the influence of earth, sea and sky and
their amazing life."
In addition to the letters in Always Rachel, in 1998 a volume of
Carson's previously unpublished work was published as Lost Woods:
The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson, edited by Linda Lear. All
of Carson's books remain in print.
Grassroots environmentalism and the EPA
Carson's work had a powerful impact on the environmental movement.
Silent Spring, in particular, was a rallying point for the fledgling
social movement in the 1960s. According to environmental engineer
and Carson scholar H. Patricia Hynes, "Silent Spring altered the
balance of power in the world. No one since would be able to sell
pollution as the necessary underside of progress so easily or
uncritically." Carson's work, and the activism it inspired, are at
least partly responsible for the deep ecology movement, and the
overall strength of the grassroots environmental movement since the
1960s. It was also influential on the rise of ecofeminism and on
many feminist scientists.
Carson's most direct legacy in the environmental movement was the
campaign to ban the use of DDT in the United States (and related
efforts to ban or limit its use throughout the world). Though
environmental concerns about DDT had been considered by government
agencies as early as Carson's testimony before the President's
Science Advisory Committee, the 1967 formation of the Environmental
Defense Fund was the first major milestone in the campaign against
DDT. The organization brought lawsuits against the government to
"establish a citizen's right to a clean environment", and the
arguments employed against DDT largely mirrored Carson's. By 1972,
the Environmental Defense Fund and other activist groups had
succeeded in securing a phase-out of DDT use in the United States
(except in emergency cases).
The creation, in 1970, of the Environmental Protection Agency
addressed another concern that Carson had brought to light. Until
then, the same agency (the USDA) was responsible both for regulating
pesticides and promoting the concerns of the agriculture industry;
Carson saw this as a conflict of interest, since the agency was not
responsible for effects on wildlife or other environmental concerns
beyond farm policy. Fifteen years after its creation, one journalist
described the EPA as "the extended shadow of Silent Spring". Much of
the agency's early work, such as enforcement of the 1972 Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, was directly related to
Carson's work.
Criticisms of environmentalism and DDT restrictions
Carson and the environmental movement were—and continue to
be—criticized by some conservatives and libertarians as well as
chemical industry trade groups and scientists, who argue that
restrictions placed on pesticides, specifically DDT, have caused
tens of millions of needless deaths and hampered agriculture, and
more generally that environmental regulation unnecessarily restricts
economic freedom. For example, the conservative magazine Human
Events gave Silent Spring an honorable mention for the "Ten Most
Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries". In the 1980s, the
policies of the Reagan Administration emphasized economic growth at
the expense of environmental regulation, rolling back many of the
environmental policies adopted in response to Carson and her work.
Carson's vocal expressions of concern about the human health effects
and environmental impact of DDT has come under the most intense
fire. Political scientist Charles Rubin was one of the most
vociferous critics in the 1980s and 1990s, though he accused her
merely of selective use of source and fanaticism (rather than the
more severe criticism Carson received upon Silent Spring's release).
In the 2000s, critics have claimed that Carson is responsible for
millions of malaria deaths, because of the DDT bans her work
prompted. Biographer Mark Hamilton Lytle claims these estimates
unrealistic, even assuming that Carson can be "blamed" for worldwide
DDT policies, and John Quiggin and Tim Lambert have written that
"the most striking feature of the claim against Carson is the ease
with which it can be refuted." Carson never actually called for an
outright ban on DDT.
Some experts have argued that restrictions placed on the
agricultural use of DDT have increased its effectiveness as a tool
for battling malaria. According to pro-DDT advocate Amir Attaran the
result of the 2004 Stockholm Convention banning DDT's use in
agriculture "is arguably better than the status quo ... For the
first time, there is now an insecticide which is restricted to
vector control only, meaning that the selection of resistant
mosquitoes will be slower than before." But though Carson's legacy
has been closely tied to DDT, Roger Bate of the DDT advocacy
organization Africa Fighting Malaria warns that "A lot of people
have used Carson to push their own agendas. We just have to be a
little careful when you're talking about someone who died in 1964."
Posthumous honors
A variety of groups ranging from government institutions to
environmental and conservation organizations to scholarly societies
have celebrated Carson's life and work since her death. Perhaps most
significantly, on June 9, 1980 Carson was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States A
U.S. postage stamp was issued in her honor the following year;
several other countries have since issued Carson postage as
well.[citation needed]
The Rachel Carson Bridge in PittsburghCarson's birthplace and
childhood home in Springdale, Pennsylvania—now known as the Rachel
Carson Homestead—became a National Register of Historic Places site,
and the nonprofit Rachel Carson Homestead Association was created in
1975 to manage it. Her home in Colesville, Maryland where she wrote
Silent Spring was named a National Historic Landmark in 1991. Near
Pittsburgh, a 35.7 miles (57 km) hiking trail, maintained by the
Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy, was dedicated to Carson in 1975. A
Pittsburgh bridge was also renamed in Carson's honor as the Rachel
Carson Bridge. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection State Office Building in Harrisburg is named in her
honor. An elementary school in Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, MD,
built in 1990, was named in her honor, as was a middle school in
Herndon, VA.
The ceremonial auditorium on the third floor of U.S. EPA's main
headquarters, the Ariel Rios Building, is named after Rachel Carson.
The Rachel Carson room is just a few feet away from the EPA
administrator's office and has been the site of numerous important
announcements, including the Clean Air Interstate Rule, since the
Agency moved to Ariel Rios in 2001.
A number of conservation areas have been named for Carson as well.
Between 1964 and 1990, 650 acres (3 km2) near Brookeville in
Montgomery County, Maryland were acquired and set aside as the
Rachel Carson Conservation Park, administered by the
Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. In 1969, the
Coastal Maine National Wildlife Refuge became the Rachel Carson
National Wildlife Refuge; expansions will bring the size of the
refuge to about 9,125 acres (37 km2). In 1985, North Carolina
renamed one of its estuarine reserves in honor of Carson, in
Beaufort.
Carson is also a frequent namesake for prizes awarded by
philanthropic, educational and scholarly institutions. The Rachel
Carson Prize, founded in Stavanger, Norway in 1991, is awarded to
women who have made a contribution in the field of environmental
protection. The American Society for Environmental History has
awarded the Rachel Carson Prize for Best Dissertation since 1993.
Since 1998, the Society for Social Studies of Science has awarded an
annual Rachel Carson Book Prize for "a book length work of social or
political relevance in the area of science and technology studies."
Centennial events
The celebration of the 100th anniversary of Carson's birth in
Springdale, Pennsylvania2007 was the centennial of Carson's birth.
On Earth Day (April 22, 2007), Courage for the Earth: Writers,
Scientists, and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel
Carson was released as "a centennial appreciation of Rachel Carson's
brave life and transformative writing", thirteen essays by prominent
environmental writers and scientists. Democratic Senator Benjamin L.
Cardin, Maryland, had intended to submit a resolution celebrating
Carson for her "legacy of scientific rigor coupled with poetic
sensibility" on the 100th anniversary of her birth. The resolution
was blocked by Republican Senator Tom Coburn, Oklahoma, who said
that "The junk science and stigma surrounding DDT—the cheapest and
most effective insecticide on the planet—have finally been
jettisoned." The Rachel Carson Homestead Association held a May 27
birthday party and sustainable feast at her birthplace and home in
Springdale, Pennsylvania, and the first Rachel Carson Legacy
Conference in Pittsburgh with E.O. Wilson as keynote speaker. Both
Rachel's Sustainable Feast and the conference continue as annual
events.
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