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SUSTAINABILITY Recycling • Resources • Lifestyle
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The Sea-Poet Who
Changed the World
Above the Water Line
1
Sally Bethea
Sally Bethea
is the retired
executive director
of Chattahoochee
Riverkeeperand
an environmental
and sustainability
advocate.
I held my breath as we turned off a
paved road on an island in Maine
and navigated a rocky, private drive
lined with spruce, firs, and birch.
The modest gray cottage that I had
been anticipating emerged through the
trees, perched on a granite ledge above the
Sheepscot River.
Opening an old screen door, we walked
through a small kitchen to a large, sunlit
room: pine-paneled and filled with the
comfortable rattan furniture that was
popular more than fifty years ago. A
braided rug on the floor reminded me
of my childhood home, as did the book-
lined shelves, reading lamps, wall maps,
and seashells. On the sill below a large,
west-facing picture window sat a pair
of binoculars — her binoculars. I could
hardly believe it, but I was standing in the
beloved summer cottage that was built by
Rachel Carson: the woman who launched
the environmental movement, teaching
us the vital connections between all living
things.
Now owned by Rachel’s grandnephew
Roger Christie — who she adopted after his
mother died — the cottage is available for
rent during summer months. I had waited
a year and a half, through the pandemic,
to spend a week at this special place: the
refuge where the famous marine biologist,
author, and environmentalist was annually
re-energized.
Low-Tide World
In Rachel’s tiny bedroom, I fell asleep
beneath an open window, listening to
the sound of wind-driven water against
stone and sand. I sat in the homemade,
wooden chair at the desk in her study,
where she wrote, “often in longhand, with
frequent revision,” with the woods, river
and sky visible through large windows.
From her white-railed deck, behind the
dark silhouettes of fir trees, I watched the
sun set — painting clouds vibrant shades of
orange, pink, and purple.
In a tide pool surrounded by bladder
wrack and eelgrass — at the bottom of
sloping, sea-slick rocks — I startled a fast
swimming crab and imagined Rachel’s
explorations here with Roger, when he
was young. She loved her “low-tide world,
when the ebb tide falls very early in the
morning, and world is full of salt smell
and the sound of water and the softness of
fog.” This and other shorelines, including
Georgia’s coast, inspired Rachel’s book,
The Edge of the Sea, the third in her sea-
trilogy. Along with other writings, they led
to her recognition as one of the best nature
writers of the 20th century.
It was The Sea Around Us (1951),
the second in the trilogy, that provided
sufficient income, allowing the sole wage-
earner for her extended family to build a
summer cottage in Maine. On the New
York Times best seller list for a record-
breaking, eighty-six weeks, the book’s
popularity and commercial success made
it possible for Rachel to leave her job as
editor-in-chief at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service and commit herself fulltime to
writing.
Largely forgotten due to the
extraordinary success of her final book,
Silent Spring, the sea books include
some of Rachel’s most lyrical writing and
profound insights. “As a writer,” she once
said, “my interest is divided between the
presentation of facts and the interpretation
of their significance, with emphasis toward
the latter.” Rachel Carson’s brilliance was
in her ability to synthesize and present
complex scientific information using a
literary style that engaged her readers.
According to her longtime editor Paul
Brooks, “She was like the stonemason who
never lost sight of the cathedral.”
Silent Spring
Working as a scientific writer for a
federal agency during the 1940s, Rachel
had early access to reports of scientific
discoveries (many oceanographic) and
new technologies that were emerging at
a staggering pace in support of military
operations during World War II. Until
The Sea Around Us, the general public
knew little about the vast, deep oceans
that are critical to life on earth. Effectively
blending knowledge and wonder, this
classic book explains how oceans and their
ecosystems work. Importantly, Rachel
became a trusted source of information.
Alarmed by the bombing of FFiroshima
and the impacts associated with the
civilian use of DDT and other pesticides,
Rachel decided to write a book about the
destruction of the environment. No longer
able to sell pesticides to the military to
control lice and other insects after the war
ended, chemical companies determined
to sell their toxic products commercially
for farms and gardens—although they
had not been tested for civilian use. In
the late 1950s, complaints about the
indiscriminate spraying of pesticides
escalated; birds and other wildlife were
dying.
Although her health was deteriorating
with the cancer that would ultimately kill
her just two years after Silent Spring was
published, Rachel concluded: “Knowing
what I do there would be no future peace
for me, if I kept silent.” When her final
book was printed in 1962, it ignited her
readers in this country and around the
world to demand an end to the “mass
poisoning.” Not surprisingly, it enraged
the chemical industry and their allies,
who called her a “hysterical woman,” and
a “pseudo-scientist.” She responded with
quiet, determined courage — secured by
well-researched facts.
In her search for the truth, Rachel
questioned the direction of post-war
science and technology, calling for greater
public awareness about its risks. In the
decade that followed Silent Spring, major
federal environmental laws were passed to
protect our air, water, and wildlife and to
create the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. In 1973, DDT was finally
banned.
Nearing the end of her life — sixty years
ago — Rachel observed: “We live in an age
of rising seas. In our own lifetime, we are
witnessing a startling alteration of climate.”
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1 8 SEPTEMBER 2021 | [d