RICH KLEINFELDT: The chemical industry felt threatened. Industry spokesmen and other critics said the book was non-scientific and emotional. They misunderstood the message of the book. Miss Carson did not suggest that all pesticides be banned. She urged that control of these substances be given to biologists who could make informed decisions about the risks involved.
Support for the book increased. By the end of nineteen sixty-two, there were more than forty bills in state legislatures proposing to control pesticides. Finally, in November, nineteen sixty-nine, the United States government ruled that the use of DDT must stop in two years.
Rachel Carson did not live to see how her book influenced the government’s decision to ban DDT. She died of breast cancer in nineteen sixty-four. She was fifty-six years old.
STEVE EMBER: Two memorials honor Rachel Carson. One is the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine. The other is the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, Pennsylvania, the home she lived in when she was a child. Education programs are offered there that teach children and adults about her environmental values.
Rachel Carson’s voice is alive in her writings that express the wonder and beauty of the natural world. And her worldwide influence continues through the activities of the environmental protection movement she started.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25