"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction."

"No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves."

"One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, 'What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?'”

"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.”"

"It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility."

"Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world."

"Like the resource it seeks to protect, wildlife conservation must be dynamic, changing as conditions change, seeking always to become more effective."

"There is no drop of water in the ocean, not even in the deepest parts of the abyss, that does not know and respond to the mysterious forces that create the tide."

“The discipline of the writer is to learn to be still and listen to what his subject has to tell him.”

“The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery - not over nature but of ourselves.”

“As crude a weapon as the cave man's club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life.”

“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.”

“Under the philosophy that now seems to guide our destinies, nothing must get in the way of the man with the spray gun.”

“I recognized the need for certain parts that were not available in the open market.”

“An era dominated by industry, in which the right to make money, at whatever cost to others, is seldom challenged.”

The Environmental Movement: Who Started It All

Rachel Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist. She started her career as a biologist in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, but became a full time nature writer in the 1950s. She wrote the bestselling trilogy The Sea Around Us, The Edge of the Sea, and the republished version of her first book, Under the Sea Wind. These books covered all of ocean life. Carson then turned to conservation and environmental problems in the late 1950s. She wrote Silent Spring, and the American public was notified to these environmental concerns.

It was challenged fiercely by chemical companies, and started to change the national pesticide policy. The book inspired the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom after death. We chose this person because we thought she was courageous to stand up despite opposition by more powerful opponents, even when dying of breast cancer, and because she advanced the global environmentalist movement, a great accomplishment.