Rachel Carson

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Rachel Carson : biography

May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964

Other defenders point out Carson never actually called for an outright ban on DDT, and part of the argument she made in Silent Spring was that even if DDT and other insecticides had no environmental side effects, their indiscriminate overuse was counter-productive because it would created insect resistance to the pesticide(s), making them (the pesticides) useless in eliminating the target insect populations:

Carson further noted that "Malaria programmes are threatened by resistance among mosquitoes"Silent Spring, p. 267 and emphasized the advice given by the director of Holland’s Plant Protection Service: "Practical advice should be ‘Spray as little as you possibly can’ rather than ‘Spray to the limit of your capacity’…Pressure on the pest population should always be as slight as possible."Silent Spring, p. 275

Consequently, 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.". Retrieved March 15, 2006. 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.", Bill Moyers Journal, September 21, 2007. Retrieved September 29, 2007.

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, archived October 18, 2007. Retrieved August 1, 2009. A 17¢ Great Americans series postage stamp was issued in her honor the following year; several other countries have since issued Carson postage as well., ,

Carson’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.. Retrieved September 7, 2007. Her home in Colesville, Maryland where she wrote Silent Spring was named a National Historic Landmark in 1991. Near Pittsburgh, a hiking trail, maintained by the Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy, was dedicated to Carson in 1975.. Retrieved September 26, 2007. A Pittsburgh bridge was also renamed in Carson’s honor as the Rachel Carson Bridge.Jerome L. Sherman, , Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 23, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2007. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection State Office Building in Harrisburg is named in her honor. Elementary schools in Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, Maryland,. Retrieved February 22, 2008. Sammamish, Washington. Retrieved 15 June 2011. and San Jose, California .Retrieved 5 October 2012 were named in her honor, as were middle schools in Beaverton, Oregon. Retrieved 5 October 2012 and Herndon, Virginia . Retrieved February 28, 2008. (Rachel Carson Middle School), and a high school in Brooklyn, New York.. Retrieved 5 October 2012

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.. REtrieved August 18, 2009.

A number of conservation areas have been named for Carson as well. Between 1964 and 1990, 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.. Retrieved August 26, 2007. 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 .. Retrieved September 11, 2007. In 1985, North Carolina renamed one of its estuarine reserves in honor of Carson, in Beaufort.. Retrieved October 12, 2007.