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[00:00:04] A little girl born to right and fascinated by nature created a worldwide environmental movement. she was first published at the age of 10 years old in a children’s magazine called The Saint Nicholas dedicated to the work of young writers in which the likes of William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald also wrote in. As a matter of fact the magazine has an article in The American Heritage called the magazine that talked Faulkner Fitzgerald and Millay how to write in one of her writings in the article on July of 1922 she wrote. The writer is now 14 years old and told the league about the day of birdwatching that ended with a resounding sunset. And this is what she writes. “The cool of approaching night settled. The wood thrushes trilled their golden melody. The setting sun transformed the sky into a sea of blue and gold. A vesper sparrow sung his evening lullaby. We turned homeward, gloriously tired, gloriously happy!.
[00:01:30] You’ll see in 1925 she entered Pennsylvania College for Women as an English major determined to become a writer but midway through these switched to biology and graduated from what is known today as Chatham University now upon graduation from Pennsylvania college she was awarded a scholarship to complete graduate work in biology at John Hopkins University in Maryland and there she received her master’s in zoology from John Hopkins University, in 1932 now understand that you are in the middle of a depression and you’re going to college as a very young student and graduating and getting a master’s degree for a woman. This was virtually unheard of in 1932 a woman with a master’s degree in the middle of a depression.
What is she going to do. Well she was hired by the year the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries what is known today as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. And she was hired to write scripts during the depression for a seven minute radio spot called romance under the waters on a miniscule nineteen dollars and 25 cents a week and this began her 15 year career. In the federal service as a scientist and an editor of which she rose through the ranks to become editor in chief of a publication from the same Bureau and she’s always supplementing her income by writing feature articles on natural history for the Baltimore Sun now understand she wrote pamphlets on conservation Natural Resources, edited scientific articles she was the editor in chief in 1937 she wrote an article for The Atlantic Monthly called Undersea in 1941 a book titled Under the Sea was a New York Times bestseller.
[00:04:16] For eighty one weeks and it was eventually published and translated into 32 languages in 1952 she published her award winning study of the ocean called the Sea Around Us. In 1955 the Edge Of The Sea. Now these books all constituted a biography of an ocean and made her a famous naturalist and science writer in the public eye. She was already loved and respected for the writings that she wrote in basically story form. In 1956 she wrote a book called Help Your Child to Wonder and in 1957 Our Ever Changing Shore.
By this time she is an accomplished writer though depression is now over. The economy is improving and she’s had a 15 year career in government as a scientist as a writer an accomplished writer. And she is now In 1963 she is testifying before Congress and she calls for new policies to protect human health and the environment. Now she lived until 1964 where she lost her long battle with breast cancer. In 1965 after her death a book was published. The Sense of Wonder which she hadn’t finished before her death today.
If she was alive she would be on TED Talks.
[00:06:20] She would be writing books, she would be having her own podcast. She would be a world wide evangelist for the environment.
[00:06:33] On the hundredth anniversary of her birth the Fish and Wildlife Service wrote this one of the world’s foremost leaders in conservation. Her work as an educator. Scientist and writer revolutionized America’s interest in environmental issues.
In 1962 she wrote the book that would spark a worldwide environmental movement. And today we know that book as the Silent Spring. Her name was Rachel Carson and this has been Pestacular History.
