I hereby declare today International Rachel Carson Day, in honour of what would have been the 100th birthday of the woman who, seemingly single-handedly, woke the world out of its slumber in relation to the damage that indiscriminate spraying of chemicals was causing to humans and to the planet. You can read what the master, E B White, wrote after Rachel's death here.
What is becoming increasingly clear, as the news regarding climate change goes from bad to worse on an almost daily basis, is that the world now needs another Rachel Carson to brush the cobwebs from our eyes. But who will it be? Elizabeth Kolbert (who writes here about Carson, and who herself has covered climate change for the New Yorker with horrifying frankness)? Or will it be Al Gore? (Some time ago I formed the view that the only person standing between us and oblivion is the next President of the United States, whomever it may be. Although their first job, not a small one, will be undoing the damage done by the current President. The problem being, of course, that the people who should be voting the the next President are all the people who cannot do so, namely, the rest of the world.) Tim Flannery? Bindi Irwin? Me (Heaven help us)?
