Keep Rachel Carson’s Legacy Alive. Proclaim May 27 Rachel Carson Day!
Rachel Carson’s birthday, May 27 is an annual call to action for the policies and safeguards that protect our health and community from threats such as climate change, pollution, and waste. (See suggested proclamation language below.*)
Carson, a marine biologist and ecologist, warned us about climate change in her 1951 book, The Sea Around Us, “…Now in our own lifetime we are witnessing a startling alteration of climate.”
In 1962 Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, alerted the world to the hazards of pesticides. She explained that our health is intimately connected to the quality of our environment.
Carson’s gift for eloquent advocacy not only catalyzed a worldwide environmental movement but we can thank Carson for generating the public support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. ban on DDT, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.
A Call to Action: “Prevention Is the Imperative.”
Today Carson’s message is an urgent call to action just as it was in 1962. As we witness our health and environmental protections being destroyed by an anti-science agenda, Carson has the power to inspire a new wave of public engagement dedicated to safeguarding public health and enriching the quality and sustainability of our communities.
Voting for Our Lives.
Proclaim May 27 Rachel Carson Day and urge our fellow citizens to support policies that promote clean energy, clean water and clean air. We can choose 100% local renewable sources of electricity. We can use reusables and stop using plastic bags, bottles and other plastic and styrofoam.
We can work for candidates and policies that represent our values. We can vote and bring our friends and families with us to the polls.
*Suggested wording to proclaim and celebrate Rachel Carson Day.
PROCLAMATION [your town, school, organization, congregation…] May 27, 2018
Whereas Rachel Carson’s birthday, May 27, is an annual opportunity to remember and celebrate her legacy, her unabashed love of nature, her sense of wonder and her extraordinary sense of responsibility, and
Whereas Rachel Carson taught us that our health is intimately connected to the health of our environment; and
Whereas Rachel Carson faced overwhelming illness and adversity, as well as an orchestrated campaign to discredit her, and yet she was unwavering in speaking out about the hazards of pesticides and the unbridled chemical industry until her untimely death on April 14, 1964;
Now, therefore, be it resolved, that we do hereby proclaim and observe May 27 as “Rachel Carson Day.”
And we call on our fellow citizens to remember Rachel Carson’s life and legacy and to create a culture of political engagement dedicated to strengthening the protections of our health and the sustainability of communities.
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***Cambridge City Council Declares Annual Rachel Carson Day 2007***
Rachel Carson, The Life and Legacy
