Early Environmental Career

"Getting people to appreciate the sea is Miss Carson's most immediate concern...She's upset over the building up of shore areas, and would like to see stretches of beach set apart as national parks...'what has taken centuries to develop is being destroyed in a few years'"
- Washington Post, July 4th 1951, "Her Object of Affection is the Ocean", Dorothea Cruger

Rachel Carson found a way to channel her passion for biology and aptitude for prose to achieve her goal: Societal Change. Her first publications emphasized that protection of the environment inevitably results in the prosperity of humans.

Research and Awareness

"Carson’s distinction in writing and biology led to a job with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries...in 1935. She created a series of 7-minute radio spots on marine life called “Romance Under the Waters." Meanwhile, she continued to submit writings on conservation and nature to newspapers and magazines..."
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, October 2006, "Rachel Carson: A Conservation Legacy"

Source: The Baltimore Sun, 1937, "Farming Under the Chesapeake", by: Rachel Carson

"If this favorite of the Chesapeake Bay region is to hold its own against the forces of destruction, regulations must be imposed which consider the welfare of the fish as well as that of the fisherman."
- Rachel Carson, March 1st 1936, Article for the Baltimore Sunday Sun:"It’ll Be Shad-Time Soon"

Conservation in Action

Pamphlets written in the 1940's by Rachel Carson and Illustrated by Catherine Howe
Source: Wildlife and Fisheries Digital Media

"Wild creatures, like men, must have a place to live. As civilization creates cities, builds highways, and drains marshes, it takes away, little by little, the land that is suitable for wildlife. And as their space for living dwindles, the wildlife populations themselves decline. Refuges resist this trend by saving some areas from encroachment, and by preserving in them, or restoring where necessary, the conditions that wild things need in order to live."
- Rachel Carson, 1947, "Conservation in Action" series

First Publications

Under the Sea-Wind

Under the Sea-Wind - 1941

"...Thousands [of eels] passed the lighthouse that night, on the first lap of a far sea journey ... and as they passed through the surf and out to sea, so also they passed from human sight and almost from human knowledge."
Source: Excerpt from "Under the Sea Wind" by Rachel Carson, 1941

The Sea Around Us

The Sea Around Us - 1951

"...To the packaged wastes...which comes to rest on the vast surface of the sea...It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose, should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea..., will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself."
Source: Excerpt from "The Sea Around Us" by Rachel Carson, 1951

The Edge of the Sea

The Edge of the Sea - 1955

"...it is a world that keeps alive the sense of continuing creation and of the relentless drive of life. Each time I gain some new awareness...that intricate fabric of life by which one creature is linked with another, and each with its surroundings."
Source: Excerpt from "The Edge of the Sea" by Rachel Carson, 1955

Spreading Awareness