The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization that works to preserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.^[2]

Founded in 1951, The Nature Conservancy works in more than 30 countries, including all 50 states of the United States. The Conservancy has over one million members, and has protected more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide. The Nature Conservancy also operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.^[3] The organization's assets total $5.64 billion as of 2009.^[1]

The Nature Conservancy is the Americas' third-largest nonprofit by assets,^[4] and its largest environmental nonprofit by assets and by revenue.^[5]

The Nature Conservancy rates as one of the most trusted national organizations in Harris Interactive polls every year since 2005.^[6][7][8][9] Forbes magazine rated The Nature Conservancy's fundraising efficiency at 88% in its 2005 survey of the largest U.S. charities.^[10] The Conservancy received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator in 2008 (three-star in 2010)^[11] and was named by that organization in 2005 on their list of "10 of the Best Charities Everyone's Heard Of". The American Institute of Philanthropy gives the Conservancy an A− rating and includes it on its list of "Top-Rated Charities".

The Nature Conservancy is led by President and CEO Mark Tercek, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, and an adjunct professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.^[12] The organization draws from all segments of the community. Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of coalition forces during the First Gulf War, was a member of the Conservancy's President's Conservation Council.^{[13][better source needed]}

Approach[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The Nature Conservancy takes a scientific approach to conservation, selecting the areas it seeks to preserve based on analysis of what is needed to ensure the preservation of the local plants, animals, and ecosystems. The Nature Conservancy is one of the world's largest environmental organizations as measured by number of members and area protected. It is a nonprofit organization supported primarily by private donations.

The Nature Conservancy works with all sectors of society including businesses, individuals, communities, partner organizations, and government agencies to achieve its goals. The Nature Conservancy is known for working effectively and collaboratively with traditional land owners such as farmers and ranchers, with whom it partners when such a partnership provides an opportunity to advance mutual goals. The Nature Conservancy is in the forefront of private conservation groups implementing prescribed fire to restore and maintain healthy ecosystems and working to address the threats to biodiversity posed by non-native and invasive plants and animals.

The Nature Conservancy has pioneered new land preservation techniques such as the conservation easement and debt for nature swaps. A conservation easement is a way for land owners to ensure that their land remains in its natural state while capitalizing on some of the land's potential development value. Debt for nature swaps are tools used to encourage natural area preservation in third world countries while assisting the country economically as well: in exchange for setting aside land, some of the country's foreign debt is forgiven.

Featured project sites[link]

Nature Conservancy of Tennessee's William B. Clark, Sr., Nature Preserve on the Wolf River at Rossville, Tennessee.

The Nature Conservancy's expanding international conservation efforts include work in North America, Central America, and South America, Africa, the Pacific Rim, the Caribbean, and Asia. Increasingly, the Conservancy focuses on projects at significant scale, recognizing the threat habitat fragmentation brings to plants and animals.^{[citation needed]} Below are a few examples of such work:

The Nature Conservancy was instrumental in the creation in 2004 of the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. The Conservancy's efforts in China's Yunnan province, one of the most vital centers of plant diversity in the northern temperate hemisphere, serve as a model for locally based ecotourism with a global impact. The Nature Conservancy and its conservation partner, Pronatura Peninsula Yucatán, are working to halt deforestation on private lands in and around the 1.8 million acre (7,300 km²) Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, along the Mexico-Guatemala border. In November 2004, 370,000 acres (1,500 km²) of threatened tropical forest in Calakmul were permanently protected under a historic land deal between the Mexican federal and state government, Pronatura Peninsula Yucatán, four local communities and the Conservancy.^{[citation needed]}

The Nature Conservancy's programs in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are working together to build partnerships and enhance the profile of the conservation needs in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem by supporting voluntary, private land conservation of important wildlife habitat. Conservation easements, land acquisition, stewardship agreements, grassbanks, prescribed fires and weed districts are a few of the tools the Conservancy and its partners use to protect this region's natural heritage. The Nature Conservancy's worldwide office is located in Arlington, Virginia.^{[citation needed]}

The Conservancy was instrumental in the 2004 establishment of the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota. Glacial Ridge is reputed to be the largest tallgrass prairie and wetlands restoration project ever.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007 the Nature Conservancy made a 161,000-acre (650 km²) purchase of New York forestland from Finch Paper Holdings LLC for $110 million, its largest purchase ever in that state.^{[14][better source needed]}

In 2008 June The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land announced they reached an agreement to purchase approximately 320,000 acres (1,300 km²) of western Montana forestland from Plum Creek Timber Company (NYSE:PCL) for $510 million. The purchase, known as the Montana Legacy Project, is part of an effort to keep these forests in productive timber management and protect the area’s clean water and abundant fish and wildlife habitat, while promoting continued public access to these lands for fishing, hiking, hunting and other recreational pursuits.^{[15][better source needed]}

Plant a Billion Trees campaign[link]

The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees Campaign is an effort to restore 2,500,000 acres (10,100 km²) of land and plant 1 billion trees by 2015 in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. Each donated dollar results in one planted tree in the Atlantic Forest.^{[16][better source needed]}

Environmental benefits[link]

The Plant a Billion Trees campaign has also been identified as a tool to help slow climate change, as the Atlantic Forest – one of the biggest tropical forests in the world – helps regulate the atmosphere and stabilize global climate. The reforestation of the Atlantic Forest has the capability to remove 10 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The Nature Conservancy states that this is equivalent to taking 2 million cars off the road. The Atlantic Forest’s restoration could help to slow the process of climate change that is affecting the earth.^{[citation needed]}

The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees Campaign also aims to protect 10 critical watersheds in the Atlantic Forest that provide water and hydro power to more than 70 million people, create 20,000 direct jobs, and an additional 70,000 indirectly as part of this effort. The Plant a Billion Trees Campaign is also associated with The Nature Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre program, which consists of nine locations, including Brazil.^{[17][better source needed]}

Involvement in the community[link]

The Nature Conservancy also features e-cards from the Atlantic Forest, as well as video of the Atlantic Forest and detailed information about the seedlings on their micro-site at http://www.plantabillion.org. The Web site also features a news feed and an interactive map of the Atlantic Forest region in Brazil, as well as information on many of the plants, animals, and people that are impacted by the plight of the forest and who may benefit from its restoration.^{[18][better source needed]}

Tree planting[link]

The Nature Conservancy plants one tree in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil for each dollar donated by supporters.^{[citation needed]} Some of the seeds being planted consist of:

• Guapuruvu Tree (Schizolobium parahyba) – An indigenous plant of Atlantic Forest, this has one of the fastest growth rates of all the native species.
• Golden Trumpet Tree (Tabebuia umbellate) – According to popular belief, when this tree’s yellow blooms appear, no more frosts will occur. The wood of a Golden Trumpet Tree has the same fire rating as concrete and is denser than water. Illegal logging activity has grown due to this tree’s growing popularity.
• Ice-Cream Bean Tree (Inga edulis) – Leafy and abundant, this tree controls weeds and erosion. Its popular fruit is a long pod up to a few feet, containing a sweet pulp surrounding large seeds.
• Capororoca Tree (Myrsine ferruginea) – Birds like the Rufous-bellied Thrush enjoy the fruit off of this tree.^{[16][better source needed]}

History of the campaign[link]

The Nature Conservancy launched the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign in 2008 with a micro-site (http://plantabillion.org) that is affiliated but not hosted by The Nature Conservancy’s Web site, http://www.nature.org.

As a part of this launch, The Nature Conservancy pledged to plant 25 million trees as part of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)’s Billion Tree Campaign.^{[19][better source needed]} This campaign encourages individuals and organizations to plant their own trees around the world and record this action on the website as a tally. The UNEP Billion tree Campaign is currently attempting to plant 7 billion trees by the end of 2009.^[20]

On Earth Day 2009, Disneynature’s film “Earth” debuted, promising to plant a tree for every ticket sold to the film in its first week. This resulted in a donation of 2.7 million trees to the Plant a Billion Trees program.^[21]

Partnerships[link]

The Plant a Billion Trees Campaign has followed The Nature Conservancy’s approach of partnering with larger organizations (such as Disneynature, Planet Green, Penguin Books, Payless Shoesource, AT&T, Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, and Visa) to leverage donations from supporters and increase efficiency and effectiveness of the campaign.^{[22][better source needed]}

• Penguin Classics sponsored a Penguin Walk ^[23] to benefit the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign on June 6, 2009 as well.^[24]

• Payless Shoesource sponsored the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign^{[25][better source needed]} by giving $1 to The Nature Conservancy for every Plant a Billion Trees reusable bag sold between 4/13/09 to 12/31/09 (sold at a retail value of $1.99) and $1 from each zoe&zac branded product sold between 4/13/09 and 5/4/09. Payless guaranteed a minimum total contribution of $100,000 in 2009 from these sales and the sales of other merchandise during 2009.

• Panasonic has been involved by planting a tree for each customer who selects The Nature Conservancy in their “Giving Back” program.^{[19][better source needed]}

• Organic Bouquet has donated 10 percent for every flower and gift purchased during the month of April 2008 at www.organicbouquet.com/nature.^{[19][better source needed]}

The Nature Conservancy and its scientists also work with other conservation organizations, local landowners, state and federal officials, agencies, and private companies to protect, connect, and buffer what is left of the Atlantic Forest.^{[19][better source needed]}

Criticism[link]

Over the years, The Nature Conservancy has faced a number of criticisms. They fall into the following main categories:

Too close to business[link]

Some environmentalists consider industrial development to be antagonistic to environmentalism, and disapprove of The Nature Conservancy's policy of permitting oil drilling, timbering, mining, and natural gas drilling on land donated to the Conservancy.^[26] The Nature Conservancy has ties with roughly 1900 corporate sponsors.Their governing board consists of numerous executives and directors of oil companies, chemical producers, auto manufacturers, mining concerns, logging operations, and electric utilities.In fact, they have a reputation to remain silent on key environmental issues that involve business practices in general. For example, many environmental organizations battled against the Bush Administration’s plan to allow oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the Nature Conservancy did not participate in this fight. It was later discovered that legislation to allow drilling is supported by members of the Conservancy leadership council, which consists of members from BP and ExxonMobil, as well as by Phillips Alaska, Inc. These organizations have also donated over $1 million to the group. Mark Tercek, the current president and CEO of the Nature Conservancy, had little to say about the accusations that ensued. Although there was a lot of pressure for the Conservancy to cut ties with BP, Tercek refused and would not take this type of action. ^[27]

Questionable resale[link]

There have been allegations of The Nature Conservancy obtaining land and reselling it at a profit, sometimes to supporters,^[28] who have then made use of it in ways not perceived by many as being sufficiently environmentally friendly. The rationale for the resale has been that the profit allows The Nature Conservancy to increase its preservation of what the Nature Conservancy claims are more important locations.^[29] However, the Conservancy does have a no-net-profit policy that has been in effect for years for all transactions of this type.

Animal rights[link]

The Nature Conservancy has also been criticized, like many large environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the World Wildlife Fund for using hunting in its management policies. Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, the Commander of coalition forces during the First Gulf War, was a member of the President's Conservation Counsel of the Conservancy, is also a member of the trophy hunting organization the Safari Club ^[30]

Hands off our Land[link]

A cause for concern in the integrity of the Nature Conservancy is known as the concept “hands off our land.” It is the discontent that ranchers, outdoorsmen and other recreational enthusiasts question if the conservation of land, plants and animals restricts the ability for farmers to do so responsibly. ^[31]

From 2005 to 2007 the Nature Conservancy, along with the National Park Service, implemented an eradication program to remove non-native feral pigs from Santa Cruz Island, in the Channel Islands of California. Throughout, the program was challenged in the courts, but those challenges were rejected. The program removed 5036 pigs. Island fox numbers have since rebounded, from a presumed low of 100 to an estimate of 700 individuals as of the Summer of 2009.^[32]

See also[link]

	Environment portal
	Ecology portal
	Earth sciences portal
	Sustainable development portal

• Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance
• List of environmental issues
• List of environmental organizations
• Natural capital
• Natural environment
• Natural landscape
• Natural resource
• Nature
• Sustainability
• Sustainable development
• Timeline of environmental events

References[link]

Notes

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010)

This article's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking. (August 2010)

Bibliography

• Noel Grove, with photographs by Stephen J. Krasemann, Preserving Eden: The Nature Conservancy (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1992) ISBN 0-8109-3663-1
• David E. Morine, Good Dirt: Confessions of a Conservationist (Chester, CT: The Globe Pequot Press, 1990) ISBN 0-87106-444-8
• Bill Birchard, "Nature's Keepers"(Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint,San Francisco,CA, 2005) ISBN 0-7879-7158-8
• Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, "Senators Question Conservancy's Practices: End to 'Insider' and 'Side' Deals by Nonprofit Organizations Is Urged" (Wednesday, June 8, 2005) Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/AR2005060701640.html
• Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, "Conservancy Scientists Question Their Role" (Saturday, May 3, 2003) Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10232-2003May3
• Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, "$420,000 a Year and No-Strings Fund: Conservancy Underreported President's Pay and Perks of Office" (Sunday, May 4, 2003) Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062600880.html
• Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, "Charity Hiring Lawyers to Try to Prevent Hill Probe" Friday, (May 16, 2003) Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062601287.html

External links[link]

• The Nature Conservancy - Sourcewatch
• The Nature Conservancy
• The Nature Conservancy - Plant a billion trees campaign
• Cool Green Science - The Conservation Blog of The Nature Conservancy
• The Nature Conservancy's Conservation Data
  • Charity Navigator budget summary

Jason Thomas Mraz
Jason Mraz in March 2011
Background information
Birth name	Jason Thomas Mraz
Born	(1977-06-23) June 23, 1977 (age 34) Mechanicsville, Virginia, U.S.
Genres	Pop rock, blue-eyed soul, alternative rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, mandolin, mandola, banjo, ukulele, baritone ukulele
Years active	1999–present
Labels	Elektra Records (2002–2005) Atlantic Records (2005–present)
Associated acts	Tristan Prettyman, Bushwalla, Jack Johnson, Colbie Calliat
Website	jasonmraz.com
Notable instruments
Taylor Guitars

Jason Mraz ( /məˈræz/;^[1] born June 23, 1977 in Mechanicsville, Virginia) is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, Mr. A-Z, in 2005, that Mraz achieved major commercial success. The album peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and sold over 100,000 copies in the US. In 2008, Mraz released his third studio album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and was a commercial success worldwide, peaking in the top ten of many international charts.

Mraz's international breakthrough came with the release of the single "I'm Yours" from the album We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. The single peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Mraz his first top ten single. The song was on the Hot 100 for 76 weeks, beating the previous record of 69 weeks held by LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live". The song was a huge commercial success in the US, receiving a 5x platinum certification from the RIAA for sales of over five million.^[2] The song was successful internationally, topping the charts in New Zealand and Norway and peaking in the top ten of multiple international charts.

Early life[link]

Jason Mraz was born and raised in Mechanicsville, Virginia.^[3] He is of Czech descent through his grandfather, who moved to the United States from Austria-Hungary in 1915.^[4] His surname is Czech for "frost"^[4] (Czech: mráz). His parents, Tom (Tomáš) Mraz and June, divorced when he was four years old, but he asserts that he had an idyllic childhood, saying, "My hometown of Mechanicsville was very American. There were white picket fences, a church on every street corner, low crime and virtually no drug use. It was a good place to grow up."^[5] He went to Lee Davis High School^[6]

Music career[link]

[edit] Live at Java Joe's (2001)

In 2001, Mraz released a live acoustic album, Live at Java Joe's, a coffee-house type place in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego where Jewel also made her debut. Here, Mraz performed with percussionist Noel "Toca" Rivera and bassist Ian Sheridan and felt at home singing and scatting through jazzy-pop songs. He would deliver rapidfire lyrics full of verbal mischief, and he would riff off the crowd like a stand-up comic.^[7] The album featured Mraz's free-lancing vocal style and songs he later re-released, including "1000 Things", "You and I Both", and "Halfway Home."

The album was made available to download on iTunes on March 11, 2008, under the title Jason Mraz: Live & Acoustic 2001.

[edit] Waiting for My Rocket to Come (2002–2003)

In 2002, Mraz signed a recording contract with Elektra Records. He recorded his first album with the Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer producer John Alagía, and Virginia-based roots rock band the Agents Of Good Root.^[8] Mraz then released his first major-label debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come. The album was a relative commercial success, peaking at number 55 on the Billboard Hot 200 and at number two on the Top Heatseekers Chart. The lead single from the album, "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" was co-written by music production team The Matrix and it was Mraz's first top 20 single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 15.

Mraz's friend and former roommate Billy "Bushwalla" Galewood collaborated on the album, co-writing "Curbside Prophet" and the album's third single, and "I'll Do Anything".

[edit] Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom (2004)

In 2004, while touring, Mraz released a live album and accompanying DVD^[9], Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom, a special two-disc set including an audio CD of his concert from Milwaukee's Eagles Ballroom^[10] , plus a video DVD of the concert plus tons of backstage footage. Mraz performed with his touring band including drummer Adam King, percussionist Noel "Toca" Rivera and bassist Ian Sheridan and keyboardist Eric Hinojosa along with a guest appearance from Blues Traveler lead John Popper. The Eagles Ballroom (part of The Rave complex) has a capacity of only about 3,200^[11] making it possible for Mraz to have significant interaction with the audience, bridging his earlier coffeeshop performances to his later much larger venue concerts.

[edit] Touring and Mr. A–Z (2003–2008)

Mraz opened for Tracy Chapman in March 2003 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In July 2005, Mraz opened for Alanis Morissette during her Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour. On July 26, 2005, he released his second major-label album, Mr. A–Z, for Atlantic Records. It entered the Billboard 200 album chart at number 5.^[12] In December, the album earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, while its producer, the prolific Steve Lillywhite, received a nomination for Producer of the Year.^[13] In 2006 "Life is Wonderful" the first track of the album was featured in the Hilton Journeys Hotel commercial"

Mraz began his long-running tour in support of Mr. A–Z at the San Diego Music Awards on September 12. The tour featured several opening acts, including Bushwalla and Tristan Prettyman, with whom he had co-written the duet "Shy That Way" in 2002.^[14] Mraz and Prettyman dated, ending their relationship in 2006. They also co-wrote the song "All I Want For Christmas is Us".^{[citation needed]} In November 2005, Mraz opened for the Rolling Stones on five dates during their 2005–2006 world tour. Also in 2005, Mraz was one of many singers featured in the fall advertisement campaign for The Gap entitled "Favorites". The music-themed campaign also featured other singers including Tristan Prettyman, Michelle Branch, Joss Stone, Keith Urban, Alanis Morissette, Brandon Boyd, and Michelle Williams.^[15] In December 2005, Mraz released the first part of his ongoing podcast.

Jason Mraz performs at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut on May 17, 2006.

Jason Mraz at Gröna Lund In Stockholm, Sweden 2008

In March 2006, Mraz also performed for the first time at a sold-out performance in Singapore with Noel "Toca" Rivera as part of the annual Mosaic Music Festival.^{[citation needed]} In May 2006, Mraz toured mostly small venues and music festivals in the U.S., along with a few shows in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The tour included a May 6, 2006 acoustic show with P.O.D., Better Than Ezra, Live, and The Presidents of the United States of America. Mraz was featured as a headlining guest of St. Louis's annual Fair St. Louis and performed a free concert at the base of the Arch on July 1, 2006. During this time, Mraz was also the opening act at several dates for Rob Thomas' Something to Be Tour.

In December 2006, Selections for Friends, the live, online-only album recorded during the Songs for Friends Tour, was released. Selections for Friends features Jason's favorite songs from the Schubas Tavern and Villa Montalvo shows he played in July 2006. Jason Mraz began 2007 by debuting his new single "The Beauty in Ugly", an earlier track penned by Mraz entitled "Plain Jane" that he rewrote for the ABC television program Ugly Betty. The song was featured as a part of ABC's "Be Ugly in '07" campaign.^[16] He has since released a song in Spanish entitled "La Nueva Belleza (The New Beauty)".^[17]

In 2007, American Idol contestant Chris Richardson performed "Geek in the Pink", which subsequently garnered the song mass recognition and increased downloads at the American iTunes Store. "Geek in the Pink" peaked at No. 22 on the U.S. iTunes Store on March 10, 2007, but it was ineligible for the site's Hot 100.^{[citation needed]} The tape-recording of bootlegs during Mraz's shows is explicitly supported by him and his management.^[18] In 2007, he also provided background vocals on Mandy Moore's song "Slummin' in Paradise", of her studio album Wild Hope.

[edit] We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (2008–2009)

Mraz released his third studio album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. on May 13, 2008, following the April 2008 "Music, Magic, Make Peace" Tour with Bushwalla, The Makepeace Brothers, and magician Justin Willman. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 200, giving Mraz his highest charting album to date. Following the success of its lead single, "I'm Yours", the album broke into the top ten of many international music charts and charted in the top three in Australia and the US.^[19]

The first single, "I'm Yours", reached No. 1 on AAA radio charts in the US. The single was a B-side to Mr A-Z, and was made famous by recordings from his live shows. In September 2008, the song became Mraz's first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #6. As of October 14, 2008, the album has been certified Gold by the RIAA, selling in excess of 500,000 copies in the US. The song was a commercial success worldwide, peaking in the top ten of multiple European charts and topping the charts in New Zealand for six weeks.^[20] In 2008, Mraz launched his single "I'm Yours" at the music industry-only event titled Sunset Sessions. Exactly one year later, Jason was nominated for a Grammy on the single.

Mraz and his song "I'm Yours" were nominated for Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 2009 51st Grammy Awards. The album We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in 2009. On January 31, 2009, Mraz was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, performing "I'm Yours" and "Lucky", the latter with Colbie Caillat. "Lucky" peaked on the Hot 100 at 48.

With "Make It Mine" and "Lucky", Mraz won two awards for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals, respectively, at the 2010 52nd Grammy Awards.

On June 20, 2009, Mraz was awarded the Hal David Starlight award from the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.^[21]

[edit] Love Is a Four Letter Word (2009–present)

In early 2009, a song titled "Try Try Try" was leaked out into the Internet. The song was later released in 2010 by Michael Squire. New songs have been performed in his recent concerts, some of which have been uploaded onto YouTube. Earlier this year, Jason Mraz spent time in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil working with Milton Nascimento. Mraz also recently met and worked with Willie Nelson, whose 'style' is fondly referenced in one of Mraz's early hits "Curbside Prophet."

In November 2009, Mraz posted on his MySpace page plans for a new album to be recorded starting in December, stating "In 2 weeks time I will enter the studio and begin recording the next album. Only a handful of songs are written and slated but the momentum of love is with me. Every day new verses get added on. The songs are coming together piece by piece. The process is unlike any of the other records before this. It's like I'm being gifted the album without having to do the work. I'm creating that in 6 months the project will be complete and then we'll hit the road again with new sounds and new musicians."^[22]

In 2010 Mraz spent time in London, England, where he worked on songs for his new album with producer Martin Terefe and wrote with British singer-songwriter Dido.^[23]

Mraz contributed vocals for The Grooveline Horns' eponymous EP on the track "Fun", a cover of the Con Funk Shun song, released March 2, 2010.^[24]

In August 2010, Mraz had a Q&A interview with Spin magazine. In the interview, he stated the current possible titles for his fourth album are Peace Canoe or The Love Album.^[25]

On September 13, 2010, Mraz was featured on the single "Love, Love, Love" by Hope.^[26]

On September 28, 2010, Mraz announced the upcoming release of the new "Life Is Good" EP consisting of recordings from his concerts from Maine to the Life is Good Festival in Canton, Massachusetts which will include live recordings of "Coyotes" and multiple new songs, "San Disco Reggaefornia", "Up", "What Mama Say", and "The Freedom Song". The EP was released on October 5, 2010.^[27] On the same tour, Mraz also showcased other new songs, such as "Thinking About You", "Love Looks Like" and "In Your Hands".

From December 26, 2010, the official website was updated with a series of images, the first seemingly a sequence of blocks separated by points to indicate a date, and the second image containing a rectangle, circle, triangle and a square, which appear to spell out the word "love." This image was also trademarked. Popular belief was that the "love" image was the beginning of a marketing campaign for a new record.

Appearing on VH1 Top 20 Countdown on March 5, 2011, Jason Mraz noted that he had 12 songs ready to go for the album but then decided they weren't good enough. In July 2011, his team's Twitter feed (@theRKOP) confirmed that his album will be released in early 2012.^[28]

JasonMraz.com relaunched in July 2011 with a new design and a message informing fans that a special announcement was imminent. A few days later, it was announced that Mraz would embark on a mini-global tour in September to November 2011, with occasional full band shows, but mostly as an acoustic duo with long time performing partner and friend, Noel "Toca" Rivera. The special shows marked the ten-year anniversary of the independently released Live at Java Joe's album. Mraz played in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Berlin and Prague, and was due to make a festival appearance in Hossegor, France before the festival was cancelled.

On September 19, 2011, Jason Mraz announced via his Facebook page the release of a new single titled "The World as I See It", which is intended to be the theme of the "In Search of Incredible" campaign, accompanied by the song being embedded via YouTube.^[29] On September 20, 2011, the single was released on the iTunes music store.^[30]

During the fall/winter tour, many songs old and new were showcased. Towards the end of the tour, Mraz announced that 'I Never Knew You' would not be featuring on the new album, suggesting that the final tracklist has been decided on and that the album is on course for release around February 2012.

On December 8, 2011, Mraz told Jeff Benjamin of Billboard that the "album is finished" except for one track he was attempting to re-work as an acoustic version. He described the album as, "It's not a departure in the sound of the genre in any way, it's just different tones, different textures. Musically, I think people are going to like it. It's personal. It's melodic. And it's mellow. There's a couple of up-tempo tunes, but mostly the rhythm of the heartbeat kind of takes precedence on this record. Medium-tempo tunes; which I love. It feels more like the pace of life. At least, based on my life and what I've been doing."^[31]

On January 20, 2012, during a performance streamed live from the Bing Bar at the Sundance Film Festival, Mraz told the audience that the album's title is Love Is a Four Letter Word. Mraz released a new single from the album, called "I Won't Give Up", and the single has peaked at No. 1 on iTunes.^[when?]

During January 2012, the Dutch online retailer bol.com accidentally released a tracklisting for the forthcoming album, which has been dismissed as being incorrect. On February 28, 2012, Jason released an EP entitled Live Is A Four Letter World. The EP was recorded live in San Diego and contains four tracks (one of which had already been released).^[32]

The new album was set to be released on May 8, 2012,^[33] however on February 14 it was stated that the new album is set to be released in stores and at all digital retailers on April 17, 2012.^[34]

Personal life[link]

Mraz was engaged to singer/songwriter and long-time close friend Tristan Prettyman.^[35] On June 7, 2011, Mraz said in an interview with the Daily Beast that he and Prettyman were no longer engaged.^[36]

Mraz lives a health-conscious lifestyle and enjoys eating mostly raw vegan foods.^[37] He owns an avocado farm in Bonsall in Northern San Diego County. Recently, he acquired the Garden Patch Farms&Orchard in Homer Glen, for its organic strawberries.^[38] Mraz is an active supporter of several charities including VH1's Save The Music Foundation, MusiCares, Free the Children, Life Rolls On, SPARC and the Human Rights Campaign.^[39] He has been named the 2010 SIMA Humanitarian of the Year. He also received the Clean Water Award in 2010 from the Surfrider Foundation.^[40] The same year, he also teamed up with The Nature Conservancy^[41] and created a PSA using his song I'm Yours to raise awareness about the non-profit organization's efforts to protect the earth.^[42] Jason performed at Farm Aid 2011 on August 13 in Kansas City. He has also advocated LGBT rights.^[43]

In 2011, Mraz appeared in the Visit California promotional film^[44] aimed at boosting tourism from the UK.

Discography[link]

• Waiting for My Rocket to Come (2002)
• Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom (2004) + accompanying DVD
• Mr. A-Z (2005)
• We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (2008)
• Love is a Four Letter Word (2012)

Awards[link]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jason Mraz

• Official website
• Jason Mraz at the Internet Movie Database
• Jason Mraz at Allmusic
• Jason Mraz's channel on YouTube
• Jason Mraz collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
• Playlist: Jason Mraz – Nightline 07/17/09 – Reggae to rock, Mraz reveals his musical influences.
• Concert Photos: Jason Mraz – 09/17/2010, 09/18/2010 – Jason Mraz opens for Dave Matthews Band for two sold out shows at Chicago's Wrigley Field.

Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson, 1940 Fish & Wildlife Service employee photo
Born	Rachel Louise Carson May 27, 1907(1907-05-27) Springdale, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	April 14, 1964(1964-04-14) (aged 56) Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.
Occupation	Marine biologist, writer and environmentalist
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Chatham University, Johns Hopkins University
Period	1937–1964
Genres	Nature writing
Subjects	Marine biology, ecology, pesticides
Notable work(s)	The Sea Around Us (1951) Silent Spring (1962)

Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement.

Carson began her career as a biologist in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, and became a full-time nature writer in the 1950s. Her widely praised 1951 bestseller The Sea Around Us won her a U.S. National Book Award,^[1] recognition as a gifted writer, and financial security. Her next book, The Edge of the Sea, and the reissued version of her first book, Under the Sea Wind, were also bestsellers. That so-called sea trilogy explores the whole of ocean life from the shores to the surface to the depths.

Late in the 1950s Carson turned her attention to environmental problems she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to an unprecedented share of the American people. It spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, which led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides, and it inspired a grassroots environmental movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter.

Life and work[link]

Carson's childhood home now is preserved as the Rachel Carson Homestead

Early life and education[link]

Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907, on a small family farm near Springdale, Pennsylvania, just up the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh. An avid reader, she also spent a lot of time exploring around her family's 65-acre (26 ha) farm. She began writing stories (often involving animals) at age eight, and had her first story published at age eleven. She especially enjoyed the St. Nicholas Magazine (which carried her first published stories), the works of Beatrix Potter, and the novels of Gene Stratton Porter, and in her teen years, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad and Robert Louis Stevenson. The natural world, particularly the ocean, was the common thread of her favorite literature. Carson attended Springdale's small school through tenth grade, then completed high school in nearby Parnassus, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1925 at the top of her class of forty-five students.^[2]

At the Pennsylvania College for Women (today known as Chatham University), as in high school, Carson was somewhat of a loner. She originally studied English, but switched her major to biology in January 1928, though she continued contributing to the school's student newspaper and literary supplement. Though admitted to graduate standing at Johns Hopkins University in 1928, she was forced to remain at the Pennsylvania College for Women for her senior year due to financial difficulties; she graduated magna cum laude in 1929. After a summer course at the Marine Biological Laboratory, she continued her studies in zoology and genetics at Johns Hopkins in the fall of 1929.^[3]

After her first year of graduate school, Carson became a part-time student, taking an assistantship in Raymond Pearl's laboratory, where she worked with rats and Drosophila, to earn money for tuition. After false starts with pit vipers and squirrels, she completed a dissertation project on the embryonic development of the pronephros in fish. She earned a master's degree in zoology in June 1932. She had intended to continue for a doctorate, but in 1934 Carson was forced to leave Johns Hopkins to search for a full-time teaching position to help support her family. In 1935, her father died suddenly, leaving Carson to care for her aging mother and making the financial situation even more critical. At the urging of her undergraduate biology mentor Mary Scott Skinker, she settled for a temporary position with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, writing radio copy for a series of weekly educational broadcasts entitled "Romance Under the Waters". The series of fifty-two seven-minute programs focused on aquatic life and was intended to generate public interest in fish biology and in the work of the bureau—a task the several writers before Carson had not managed. Carson also began submitting articles on marine life in the Chesapeake Bay, based on her research for the series, to local newspapers and magazines.^[4]

Carson's supervisor, pleased with the success of the radio series, asked her to write the introduction to a public brochure about the fisheries bureau; he also worked to secure her the first full-time position that became available. Sitting for the civil service exam, she outscored all other applicants and in 1936 became only the second woman to be hired by the Bureau of Fisheries for a full-time, professional position, as a junior aquatic biologist.^[5]

Early career and publications[link]

At the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, Carson's main responsibilities were to analyze and report field data on fish populations, and to write brochures and other literature for the public. Using her research and consultations with marine biologists as starting points, she also wrote a steady stream of articles for The Baltimore Sun and other newspapers. However, her family responsibilities further increased in January 1937 when her older sister died, leaving Carson as the sole breadwinner for her mother and two nieces.^[6]

In July 1937, the Atlantic Monthly accepted a revised version of an essay, "The World of Waters", that she had originally written for her first fisheries bureau brochure; her supervisor had deemed it too good for that purpose. The essay, published as "Undersea", was a vivid narrative of a journey along the ocean floor. It marked a major turning point in Carson's writing career. Publishing house Simon & Schuster, impressed by "Undersea", contacted Carson and suggested that she expand it into book form. Several years of writing resulted in Under the Sea Wind (1941), which received excellent reviews but sold poorly. In the meantime, Carson's article-writing success continued—her features appeared in Sun Magazine, Nature, and Collier's.^[7]

Carson attempted to leave the Bureau (by then transformed into the Fish and Wildlife Service) in 1945, but few jobs for naturalists were available as most money for science was focused on technical fields in the wake of the Manhattan Project. In mid-1945, Carson first encountered the subject of DDT, a revolutionary new pesticide (lauded as the "insect bomb" after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) that was only beginning to undergo tests for safety and ecological effects. DDT was but one of Carson's many writing interests at the time, and editors found the subject unappealing; she published nothing on DDT until 1962.^[8]

Carson rose within the Fish and Wildlife Service, supervising a small writing staff by 1945 and becoming chief editor of publications in 1949. Though her position provided increasing opportunities for fieldwork and freedom in choosing her writing projects, it also entailed increasingly tedious administrative responsibilities. By 1948, Carson was working on material for a second book and had made the conscious decision to begin a transition to writing full-time. That year, she took on a literary agent, Marie Rodell; they formed a close professional relationship that would last the rest of Carson's career.^[9]

Oxford University Press expressed interest in Carson's book proposal for a life history of the ocean, spurring her to complete the manuscript of what would become The Sea Around Us by early 1950.^[10] Chapters appeared in Science Digest and the Yale Review—the latter chapter, "The Birth of an Island", winning the American Association for the Advancement of Science's George Westinghouse Science Writing Prize. Nine chapters were serialized in The New Yorker beginning June 1951 and the book was published July 2, 1951, by Oxford University Press. The Sea Around Us remained on the New York Times Best Seller List for 86 weeks, was abridged by Reader's Digest, won the 1952 National Book Award for Nonfiction^[1] and the Burroughs Medal, and resulted in Carson's being awarded two honorary doctorates. She also licensed a documentary film based on it. The Sea's success led to the republication of Under the Sea Wind, which became a bestseller itself. With success came financial security, and Carson was able to give up her job in 1952 to concentrate on writing full time.^[11]

Carson was inundated with speaking engagements, fan mail and other correspondence regarding The Sea Around Us, along with work on the documentary script that she had secured the right to review.^[12] She was very unhappy with the final version of the script by writer, director and producer Irwin Allen; she found it untrue to the atmosphere of the book and scientifically embarrassing, describing it as "a cross between a believe-it-or-not and a breezy travelogue."^[13] She discovered, however, that her right to review the script did not extend to any control over its content. Allen proceeded in spite of Carson's objections to produce a very successful documentary. It won the 1953 Oscar for Best Documentary, but Carson was so embittered by the experience that she never again sold film rights to her work.^[14]

Relationship with Dorothy Freeman[link]

Carson moved with her mother to Southport Island, Maine, in 1953, and in July of that year met Dorothy Freeman (1898–1978) — the beginning of an extremely close relationship that would last the rest of Carson's life. The nature of the relationship between Carson and Freeman has been the subject of speculation. Carson met Freeman, a summer resident of the island along with her husband, after Freeman had written to Carson to welcome her. Freeman had read The Sea Around Us, a gift from her son, and was excited to have the prominent author as a neighbor. Carson's biographer, Linda Lear, writes that "Carson sorely needed a devoted friend and kindred spirit who would listen to her without advising and accept her wholly, the writer as well as the woman."^[15] She found this in Freeman. The two women had a number of common interests, nature chief among them, and began exchanging letters regularly while apart. They would share summers for the remainder of Carson's life, and meet whenever else their schedules permitted.^[16]

Though Lear does not explicitly describe the relationship as romantic, others (such as the encyclopedia glbtq^[17]) have noted that Carson and Freeman realized the letters could be interpreted as lesbian, even though "the expression of their love was limited almost wholly to letters and very occasional farewell kisses or holding of hands".^[18] Freeman shared parts of Carson's letters with her husband to help him understand the relationship, but much of their correspondence was carefully guarded.^[19]

Shortly before Carson's death, she and Freeman destroyed hundreds of letters. The surviving correspondence was published in 1995 as Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952–1964: An Intimate Portrait of a Remarkable Friendship, edited by Freeman's granddaughter. According to one reviewer, the pair "fit Carolyn Heilbrun's characterization of a strong female friendship, where what matters is 'not whether friends are homosexual or heterosexual, lovers or not, but whether they share the wonderful energy of work in the public sphere'".^[20]

[edit] The Edge of the Sea and transition to conservation work

Early in 1953 Carson began library and field research on the ecology and organisms of the Atlantic shore.^[21] In 1955, she completed the third volume of her sea trilogy, The Edge of the Sea, which focuses on life in coastal ecosystems (particularly along the Eastern Seaboard). It appeared in The New Yorker in two condensed installments shortly before its October 26 book release by Houghton Mifflin (again a new publisher). By this time, Carson's reputation for clear and poetical prose was well established; The Edge of the Sea received highly favorable reviews, if not quite as enthusiastic as for The Sea Around Us.^[22]

Through 1955 and 1956, Carson worked on a number of projects—including the script for an Omnibus episode, "Something About the Sky"—and wrote articles for popular magazines. Her plan for the next book was to address evolution, but the publication of Julian Huxley's Evolution in Action—and her own difficulty in finding a clear and compelling approach to the topic—led her to abandon the project. Instead, her interests were turning to conservation. She considered an environment-themed book project tentatively entitled Remembrance of the Earth and became involved with The Nature Conservancy and other conservation groups. She also made plans to buy and preserve from development an area in Maine she and Freeman called the "Lost Woods".^[23]

Early in 1957, family tragedy struck a third time when one of the nieces she had cared for in the 1940s died at the age of 31, leaving a five-year-old orphan son, Roger Christie. Carson took on that responsibility, adopting the boy, alongside continuing to care for her aging mother; this took a considerable toll on Carson. She moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, to care for Roger, and much of 1957 was spent putting their new living situation in order and focusing on specific environmental threats.^[24]

By fall 1957, Carson was closely following federal proposals for widespread pesticide spraying; the USDA planned to eradicate fire ants, and other spraying programs involving chlorinated hydrocarbons and organophosphates were on the rise.^[25] For the rest of her life, Carson's main professional focus would be the dangers of pesticide overuse.

[edit] Silent Spring

Silent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin on 27 September 1962.^[26] The book is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement.^[27]

Research and writing[link]

Starting in the mid-1940s, Carson had become concerned about the use of synthetic pesticides, many of which had been developed through the military funding of science since World War II. It was the USDA's 1957 fire ant eradication program,^{[citation needed]} however, that prompted Carson to devote her research, and her next book, to pesticides and environmental poisons. The fire ant program involved aerial spraying of DDT and other pesticides (mixed with fuel oil), including the spraying of private land. Landowners in Long Island filed a suit to have the spraying stopped, and many in affected regions followed the case closely. Though the suit was lost, the Supreme Court granted petitioners the right to gain injunctions against potential environmental damage in the future; this laid the basis for later successful environmental actions.^[28]

The Washington, D.C. chapter of the Audubon Society also actively opposed such spraying programs, and recruited Carson to help make public the government's exact spraying practices and the related research.^[29] Carson began the four-year project of what would become Silent Spring by gathering examples of environmental damage attributed to DDT. She also attempted to enlist others to join the cause: essayist E. B. White, and a number of journalists and scientists. By 1958, Carson had arranged a book deal, with plans to co-write with Newsweek science journalist Edwin Diamond. However, when The New Yorker commissioned a long and well-paid article on the topic from Carson, she began considering writing more than simply the introduction and conclusion as planned; soon it was a solo project. (Diamond would later write one of the harshest critiques of Silent Spring.)^[30]

As her research progressed, Carson found a sizable community of scientists who were documenting the physiological and environmental effects of pesticides. She also took advantage of her personal connections with many government scientists, who supplied her with confidential information. From reading the scientific literature and interviewing scientists, Carson found two scientific camps when it came to pesticides: those who dismissed the possible danger of pesticide spraying barring conclusive proof, and those who were open to the possibility of harm and willing to consider alternative methods such as biological pest control.^[31]

By 1959, the USDA's Agricultural Research Service responded to the criticism of Carson and others with a public service film, Fire Ants on Trial; Carson characterized it as "flagrant propaganda" that ignored the dangers that spraying pesticides (especially dieldrin and heptachlor) posed to humans and wildlife. That spring, Carson wrote a letter, published in The Washington Post, that attributed the recent decline in bird populations—in her words, the "silencing of birds"—to pesticide overuse.^[32] That was also the year of the "Great Cranberry Scandal": the 1957, 1958, and 1959 crops of U.S. cranberries were found to contain high levels of the herbicide aminotriazole (which caused cancer in laboratory rats) and the sale of all cranberry products was halted. Carson attended the ensuing FDA hearings on revising pesticide regulations; she came away discouraged by the aggressive tactics of the chemical industry representatives, which included expert testimony that was firmly contradicted by the bulk of the scientific literature she had been studying. She also wondered about the possible "financial inducements behind certain pesticide programs".^[33]

Research at the Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health brought Carson into contact with medical researchers investigating the gamut of cancer-causing chemicals. Of particular significance was the work of National Cancer Institute researcher and founding director of the environmental cancer section Wilhelm Hueper, who classified many pesticides as carcinogens. Carson and her research assistant Jeanne Davis, with the help of NIH librarian Dorothy Algire, found evidence to support the pesticide-cancer connection; to Carson the evidence for the toxicity of a wide array of synthetic pesticides was clear-cut, though such conclusions were very controversial beyond the small community of scientists studying pesticide carcinogenesis.^[34]

By 1960, Carson had more than enough research material, and the writing was progressing rapidly. In addition to the thorough literature search, she had investigated hundreds of individual incidents of pesticide exposure and the human sickness and ecological damage that resulted. However, in January, a duodenal ulcer followed by several infections kept her bedridden for weeks, greatly delaying the completion of Silent Spring. As she was nearing full recovery in March (just as she was completing drafts of the two cancer chapters of her book), she discovered cysts in her left breast, one of which necessitated a mastectomy. Though her doctor described the procedure as precautionary and recommended no further treatment, by December Carson discovered that the tumor was in fact malignant and the cancer had metastasized.^[35] Her research was also delayed by revision work for a new edition of The Sea Around Us, and by a collaborative photo essay with Erich Hartmann.^[36] Most of the research and writing was done by the fall of 1960, except for the discussion of recent research on biological controls and investigations of a handful of new pesticides. However, further health troubles slowed the final revisions in 1961 and early 1962.^[37]

It was difficult finding a title for the book; "Silent Spring" was initially suggested as a title for the chapter on birds. By August 1961, Carson finally agreed to the suggestion of her literary agent Marie Rodell: Silent Spring would be a metaphorical title for the entire book—suggesting a bleak future for the whole natural world—rather than a literal chapter title about the absence of birdsong.^[38] With Carson's approval, editor Paul Brooks at Houghton Mifflin arranged for illustrations by Louis and Lois Darling, who also designed the cover. The final writing was the first chapter, "A Fable for Tomorrow", which was intended to provide a gentler introduction to what might otherwise be a forbiddingly serious topic. By mid-1962, Brooks and Carson had largely finished the editing, and were laying the groundwork for promoting the book by sending the manuscript out to select individuals for final suggestions.^[39]

Argument[link]

As biographer Mark Hamilton Lytle writes, Carson "quite self-consciously decided to write a book calling into question the paradigm of scientific progress that defined postwar American culture." The overriding theme of Silent Spring is the powerful—and often negative—effect humans have on the natural world.^[40]

Carson's main argument is that pesticides have detrimental effects on the environment; they are more properly termed "biocides", she argues, because their effects are rarely limited to the target pests. DDT is a prime example, but other synthetic pesticides come under scrutiny as well—many of which are subject to bioaccumulation. Carson also accuses the chemical industry of intentionally spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically. Most of the book is devoted to pesticides' effects on natural ecosystems, but four chapters also detail cases of human pesticide poisoning, cancer, and other illnesses attributed to pesticides.^[41] About DDT and cancer, the subject of so much subsequent debate, Carson says only a little:

In laboratory tests on animal subjects, DDT has produced suspicious liver tumors. Scientists of the Food and Drug Administration who reported the discovery of these tumors were uncertain how to classify them, but felt there was some "justification for considering them low grade hepatic cell carcinomas." Dr. Hueper [author of Occupational Tumors and Allied Diseases] now gives DDT the definite rating of a "chemical carcinogen."^[42]

Carson predicts increased consequences in the future, especially as targeted pests develop resistance to pesticides while weakened ecosystems fall prey to unanticipated invasive species. The book closes with a call for a biotic approach to pest control as an alternative to chemical pesticides.^[43]

Promotion and reception[link]

Carson and the others involved with publication of Silent Spring expected fierce criticism. They were particularly concerned about the possibility of being sued for libel. Carson was also undergoing radiation therapy to combat her spreading cancer, and expected to have little energy to devote to defending her work and responding to critics. In preparation for the anticipated attacks, Carson and her agent attempted to amass as many prominent supporters as possible before the book's release.^[44]

Most of the book's scientific chapters were reviewed by scientists with relevant expertise, among whom Carson found strong support. Carson attended the White House Conference on Conservation in May, 1962; Houghton Mifflin distributed proof copies of Silent Spring to many of the delegates, and promoted the upcoming New Yorker serialization. Among many others, Carson also sent a proof copy to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, a long-time environmental advocate who had argued against the court's rejection of the Long Island pesticide spraying case (and who had provided Carson with some of the material included in her chapter on herbicides).^[45]

Though Silent Spring had generated a fairly high level of interest based on pre-publication promotion, this became much more intense with the serialization in The New Yorker, which began in the June 16, 1962 issue. This brought the book to the attention of the chemical industry and its lobbyists, as well as a wide swath of the American populace. Around that time Carson also learned that Silent Spring had been selected as the Book-of-the-Month for October; as she put it, this would "carry it to farms and hamlets all over that country that don't know what a bookstore looks like—much less The New Yorker."^[46] Other publicity included a positive editorial in The New York Times and excerpts of the serialized version in Audubon Magazine, with another round of publicity in July and August as chemical companies responded. The story of the birth defect-causing drug thalidomide broke just before the book's publication as well, inviting comparisons between Carson and Frances Oldham Kelsey, the Food and Drug Administration reviewer who had blocked the drug's sale in the United States.^[47]

In the weeks leading up to the September 27 publication there was strong opposition to Silent Spring. DuPont (a main manufacturer of DDT and 2,4-D) and Velsicol Chemical Company (exclusive manufacturer of chlordane and heptachlor) were among the first to respond. DuPont compiled an extensive report on the book's press coverage and estimated impact on public opinion. Velsicol threatened legal action against Houghton Mifflin as well as The New Yorker and Audubon Magazine unless the planned Silent Spring features were canceled. Chemical industry representatives and lobbyists also lodged a range of non-specific complaints, some anonymously. Chemical companies and associated organizations produced a number of their own brochures and articles promoting and defending pesticide use. However, Carson's and the publishers' lawyers were confident in the vetting process Silent Spring had undergone. The magazine and book publications proceeded as planned, as did the large Book-of-the-Month printing (which included a pamphlet endorsing the book by William O. Douglas).^[49]

American Cyanamid biochemist Robert White-Stevens and former Cyanamid chemist Thomas Jukes were among the most aggressive critics, especially of Carson's analysis of DDT.^[50] According to White-Stevens, "If man were to follow the teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the earth."^[51] Others went further, attacking Carson's scientific credentials (because her training was in marine biology rather than biochemistry) and her personal character. White-Stevens labeled her "a fanatic defender of the cult of the balance of nature",^[52] while former Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson—in a letter to Dwight D. Eisenhower—reportedly concluded that because she was unmarried despite being physically attractive, she was "probably a Communist".^[53]

Many critics repeatedly asserted that she was calling for the elimination of all pesticides. Yet Carson had made it clear she was not advocating the banning or complete withdrawal of helpful pesticides, but was instead encouraging responsible and carefully managed use with an awareness of the chemicals' impact on the entire ecosystem.^[54] In fact, she concludes her section on DDT in Silent Spring not by urging a total ban, but with advice for spraying as little as possible to limit the development of resistance.^[55]

The academic community—including prominent defenders such as H. J. Muller, Loren Eisley, Clarence Cottam, and Frank Egler—by and large backed the book's scientific claims; public opinion soon turned Carson's way as well. The chemical industry campaign backfired, as the controversy greatly increased public awareness of potential pesticide dangers, as well as Silent Spring book sales. Pesticide use became a major public issue, especially after the CBS Reports TV special "The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson" that aired April 3, 1963. The program included segments of Carson reading from Silent Spring and interviews with a number of other experts, mostly critics (including White-Stevens); according to biographer Linda Lear, "in juxtaposition to the wild-eyed, loud-voiced Dr. Robert White-Stevens in white lab coat, Carson appeared anything but the hysterical alarmist that her critics contended."^[56] Reactions from the estimated audience of ten to fifteen million were overwhelmingly positive, and the program spurred a congressional review of pesticide dangers and the public release of a pesticide report by the President's Science Advisory Committee.^[57] Within a year or so of publication, the attacks on the book and on Carson had largely lost momentum.^[58][59]

In one of her last public appearances, Carson had testified before President Kennedy's Science Advisory Committee. The committee issued its report on May 15, 1963, largely backing Carson's scientific claims.^[60] Following the report's release, she also testified before a Senate subcommittee to make policy recommendations. Though Carson received hundreds of other speaking invitations, she was unable to accept the great majority of them. Her health was steadily declining as her cancer outpaced the radiation therapy, with only brief periods of remission. She spoke as much as she was physically able, however, including a notable appearance on The Today Show and speeches at several dinners held in her honor. In late 1963, she received a flurry of awards and honors: the Audubon Medal (from the National Audubon Society), the Cullum Medal (from the American Geographical Society), and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.^[61]

Death [link]

Weakened from breast cancer and her treatment regimen, Carson became ill with a respiratory virus in January 1964. Her condition worsened, and in February, doctors found that she had severe anemia from her radiation treatments and in March discovered that the cancer had reached her liver. She died of a heart attack on April 14, 1964.^[62]

She was interred at Parklawn Memorial Park and Menorah Gardens in Rockville, Maryland.

Legacy[link]

Collected papers and posthumous publications[link]

Carson bequeathed her manuscripts and papers to Yale University, to take advantage of the new state-of-the-art preservations facilities of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Her longtime agent and literary executor Marie Rodell spent nearly two years organizing and cataloging Carson's papers and correspondence, distributing all the letters to their senders so that only what each correspondent approved of would be submitted to the archive.^[63]

In 1965, Rodell arranged for the publication of an essay Carson had intended to expand into a book: A Sense of Wonder. The essay, which was combined with photographs by Charles Pratt and others, exhorts parents to help their children experience the "lasting pleasures of contact with the natural world", which "are available to anyone who will place himself under the influence of earth, sea and sky and their amazing life."^[64]

In addition to the letters in Always Rachel, in 1998 a volume of Carson's previously unpublished work was published as Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson, edited by Linda Lear. All of Carson's books remain in print.^[64]

Grassroots environmentalism and the EPA[link]

Carson's work had a powerful impact on the environmental movement. Silent Spring, in particular, was a rallying point for the fledgling social movement in the 1960s. According to environmental engineer and Carson scholar H. Patricia Hynes, "Silent Spring altered the balance of power in the world. No one since would be able to sell pollution as the necessary underside of progress so easily or uncritically."^[65] Carson's work, and the activism it inspired, are at least partly responsible for the deep ecology movement, and the overall strength of the grassroots environmental movement since the 1960s. It was also influential on the rise of ecofeminism and on many feminist scientists.^[66]

Carson's most direct legacy in the environmental movement was the campaign to ban the use of DDT in the United States (and related efforts to ban or limit its use throughout the world). Though environmental concerns about DDT had been considered by government agencies as early as Carson's testimony before the President's Science Advisory Committee, the 1967 formation of the Environmental Defense Fund was the first major milestone in the campaign against DDT. The organization brought lawsuits against the government to "establish a citizen's right to a clean environment", and the arguments employed against DDT largely mirrored Carson's. By 1972, the Environmental Defense Fund and other activist groups had succeeded in securing a phase-out of DDT use in the United States (except in emergency cases).^[67]

The creation of the Environmental Protection Agency by the Nixon administration in 1970 addressed another concern that Carson had brought to light. Until then, the same agency (the USDA) was responsible both for regulating pesticides and promoting the concerns of the agriculture industry; Carson saw this as a conflict of interest, since the agency was not responsible for effects on wildlife or other environmental concerns beyond farm policy. Fifteen years after its creation, one journalist described the EPA as "the extended shadow of Silent Spring". Much of the agency's early work, such as enforcement of the 1972 Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, was directly related to Carson's work.^[68]

Science, nature, DDT, and food production[link]

Carson came into her own during a time in America when the majority of the population believed all science was inherently good. Carson came to challenge the idea that it was "man against nature" as explained by historian Thomas Dunlap. "Americans assumed that science was good, that chemicals were necessary, that their use would be governed by experts, that these experts could be trusted, and that the side-effects of chemical use would be negligible." ^[69] An excellent example of this is the widespread use of DDT after World War II. "DDT was hailed as the success story of World War II. During the war, the chemical helped to exterminate lice and insect-borne disease, and saved much-needed food crops.

When the war ended, the United States sought to become the top food supplier and the Department of Agriculture saw DDT as a means to achieve that end." ^[70] It is clear that financial superiority was the top priority after the war. These companies did not want people to start believing her; which would therefore lower or stop their production. The chemical companies, government and many of its scientists believed it would be ok to allow the people of the United States, and therefore the world (since at this time other countries looked to see what the USA was conducting) that the unmitigated use of DDT was not only the safest, but the most prudent way of gaining that superiority. Carson's works challenged these institutions and the assumptions they encouraged.

Rachel Carson believed the modern environmental movement of the time overused pesticides. She deplored the "culture of American abundance" as incurred by the capitalist economy whose expanding nature led to the destruction of many wildlife habitats. ^[71] Carson did not take the use of chemicals such as DDT at face value like most of the public. This is not to say that she did not want to enhance the life of the American people, or humans as a whole, but she did not support the destruction of the environment to attain that goal.

"Because it is more comfortable to believe in pleasant things, most of us continue today to believe that in our country there will always be plenty. . . This is the comfortable dream of the average American. But it is a fallacious dream. It is a dangerous dream. . . Only so long as we are vigilant to cherish and safeguard [our resources] against waste, against over exploitation, and against destruction will our country continue strong and free." ^[72]

This quote exemplifies the mindset of the average American who was looking to attain the "American Dream." This also illustrates why the people allowed the use of DDT without learning what it was doing to their environment as the quotes explains that it is more comfortable to believe in pleasant things as long as we are able to prosper. Carson also disliked the idea that Americans were ok with a "quick fix":

"One great trouble — I suppose it is the fault of the American public as a whole — is this desire for the quick and easy way of doing something, without any consideration of the consequences. Even if the consequences are strongly implied or known, there is still a great temptation to go ahead and get the job done and let the future take care of itself. Maybe we will come up with a pill to take care of it, or something like that!" ^[73]

Carson believed that this idea of the quick fix is what allowed the Americans to get into the Environmental predicament that had found themselves in. By allowing "the future to worry about itself " as Carson said, it freed scientists up to only come up with results as opposed to the best or the safest results. They were reacting after the fact and trying to fix the problem, instead of working to prevent the problem before it starts. Rachel Carson was significant in the history of the contemporary American environmental movement because through her writing and different publications she was able to change the mindset of the everyday American person. Although her job seems like it was simple and a quick fix, it took a lot of struggle on Carson’s part to get her point across. She was able to point out that the quick fix for something was not the only way to accomplish a goal and usually was not the best. In the case of DDT, the quick fix was harming the environment more than it was helping; with the help of Carson’s writing the public was able to see this error in the scientific world.

Criticisms of environmentalism and DDT restrictions[link]

Carson and the environmental movement were—and continue to be—criticized by some conservatives and libertarians as well as chemical industry trade groups, who argue that restrictions placed on pesticides, specifically DDT, have caused tens of millions of needless deaths and hampered agriculture (and, implicitly, that Carson bears responsibility for inciting such restrictions).^[74][75][76] In the 1980s, the policies of the Reagan Administration emphasized economic growth at the expense of environmental regulation, rolling back many of the environmental policies adopted in response to Carson and her work.^[77]

Carson's vocal expressions of concern about the human health effects and environmental impact of DDT has come under the most intense fire. Political scientist Charles Rubin was one of the most vociferous critics in the 1980s and 1990s, though he accused her merely of selective use of source and fanaticism (rather than the more severe criticism Carson received upon Silent Spring's release).

In the 2000s, however, criticism of the real and alleged ban(s) of DDT her work prompted became much more intense.^[78][79] The conservative magazine Human Events gave Silent Spring an honorable mention for the "Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries".^[80] In 2009 the libertarian think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute set up a website Rachelwaswrong.org, asserting "Millions of people around the world suffer the painful and often deadly effects of malaria because one person sounded a false alarm. That person is Rachel Carson."^[79]

Biographer Mark Hamilton Lytle believes these estimates unrealistic, even assuming that Carson can be "blamed" for worldwide DDT policies.^[81] John Quiggin and Tim Lambert have written that "the most striking feature of the claim against Carson is the ease with which it can be refuted." DDT was never banned for anti-malarial use,^[82] (its ban for agricultural use in the United States in 1972 did not apply outside the US or to anti-malaria spraying;^[83] the international treaty that banned most uses of DDT and other organochlorine pesticides — the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants — included an exemption for DDT for the use of malaria control until affordable substitutes could be found.^[78]) Mass outdoor spraying of DDT was abandoned in poor countries subject to malaria, such as Sri Lanka, in the 1970s and 1980s, not because of government prohibitions, but because the DDT had lost its ability to kill the mosquitoes.^[78] (Because of insects very short breeding cycle and large number of offspring, the most resistant insects that survive and pass on their genetic traits to their offspring replace the pesticide-slain insects relatively rapidly. Agricultural spraying of pesticides produces resistance to the pesticide in seven to ten years.^[84])

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:

No responsible person contends that insect-borne disease should be ignored. The question that has now urgently presented itself is whether it is either wise or responsible to attack the problem by methods that are rapidly making it worse. The world has heard much of the triumphant war against disease through the control of insect vectors of infection, but it has heard little of the other side of the story—the defeats, the short-lived triumphs that now strongly support the alarming view that the insect enemy has been made actually stronger by our efforts. Even worse, we may have destroyed our very means of fighting.^[85]

Carson further noted that "Malaria programmes are threatened by resistance among mosquitoes"^[86] 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." ^[87]

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."^[88] 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."^[89]

Posthumous honors[link]

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^[90] 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.^[91]

The Rachel Carson Bridge in Pittsburgh

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.^[92] Her home in Colesville, Maryland where she wrote Silent Spring was named a National Historic Landmark in 1991.^[93] Near Pittsburgh, a 35.7 miles (57 km) hiking trail, maintained by the Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy, was dedicated to Carson in 1975.^[94] A Pittsburgh bridge was also renamed in Carson's honor as the Rachel Carson Bridge.^[95] The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection State Office Building in Harrisburg is named in her honor. An elementary school in Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, Maryland, was named in her honor,^[96] as was a Rachel Carson Middle School in Herndon, Virginia,^[97] and another elementary school in Sammamish, Washington.^[98]

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.^[99]

A number of conservation areas have been named for Carson as well. Between 1964 and 1990, 650 acres (3 km²) 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.^[100] 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 9,125 acres (37 km²).^[101] In 1985, North Carolina renamed one of its estuarine reserves in honor of Carson, in Beaufort.^[102]

Carson is also a frequent namesake for prizes awarded by philanthropic, educational and scholarly institutions. The Rachel Carson Prize, founded in Stavanger, Norway in 1991, is awarded to women who have made a contribution in the field of environmental protection.^[103] The American Society for Environmental History has awarded the Rachel Carson Prize for Best Dissertation since 1993.^[104] Since 1998, the Society for Social Studies of Science has awarded an annual Rachel Carson Book Prize for "a book length work of social or political relevance in the area of science and technology studies."^[105]

Centennial events[link]

The celebration of the 100th anniversary of Carson's birth in Springdale, Pennsylvania

2007 was the centennial of Carson's birth. On Earth Day (April 22, 2007), Courage for the Earth: Writers, Scientists, and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson was released as "a centennial appreciation of Rachel Carson's brave life and transformative writing", thirteen essays by prominent environmental writers and scientists.^[106] Democratic Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland had intended to submit a resolution celebrating Carson for her "legacy of scientific rigor coupled with poetic sensibility" on the 100th anniversary of her birth. The resolution was blocked by Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma,^[107] who said that "The junk science and stigma surrounding DDT—the cheapest and most effective insecticide on the planet—have finally been jettisoned."^[108] The Rachel Carson Homestead Association held a May 27 birthday party and sustainable feast at her birthplace and home in Springdale, Pennsylvania, and the first Rachel Carson Legacy Conference in Pittsburgh with E.O. Wilson as keynote speaker. Both Rachel's Sustainable Feast and the conference continue as annual events.

List of works[link]

• Under the Sea Wind, 1941, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group, 1996, ISBN 0-14-025380-7
• "Fishes of the Middle West" (PDF). United States Government Printing Office. 1943. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usfwspubs/6/. 
• "Fish and Shellfish of the Middle Atlantic Coast" (PDF). United States Government Printing Office. 1945. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usfwspubs/3/. 
• "Chincoteague: A National Wildlife Refuge" (PDF). United States Government Printing Office. 1947. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usfwspubs/1/. 
• "Mattamuskeet: A National Wildlife Refuge" (PDF). United States Government Printing Office. 1947. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usfwspubs/5/. 
• "Parker River: A National Wildlife Refuge" (PDF). United States Government Printing Office. 1947. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usfwspubs/4/. 
• "Bear River: A National Wildlife Refuge" (PDF). United States Government Printing Office. 1950. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usfwspubs/2/.  (with Vanez T. Wilson)
• The Sea Around Us, Oxford University Press, 1951; Oxford University Press, 1991, ISBN 0-19-506997-8
• The Edge of the Sea, Houghton Mifflin 1955; Mariner Books, 1998, ISBN 0-395-92496-0
• Silent Spring, Houghton Mifflin, 1962; Mariner Books, 2002, ISBN 0-618-24906-0
  • Silent Spring initially appeared serialized in three parts in the June 16, June 23, and June 30, 1962 issues of The New Yorker magazine
• The Sense of Wonder, 1965, HarperCollins, 1998: ISBN 0-06-757520-X published posthumously
• Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman 1952–1964 An Intimate Portrait of a Remarkable Friendship, Beacon Press, 1995, ISBN 0-8070-7010-6 edited by Martha Freeman (granddaughter of Dorothy Freeman)
• Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson, Beacon Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8070-8547-2
• Bedrock: Writers on the Wonders of Geology, edited by Lauret E. Savoy, Eldridge M. Moores, and Judith E. Moores, Trinity University Press, 2006, ISBN 1-59534-022-X

See also[link]

• Rachel Carson House (Colesville, Maryland)
• Rachel Carson Homestead
• Environmentalism
• Rachel Carson Greenway (three trails in Central Maryland)
• Women and the environment through history
• Environmental toxicology

References[link]

Citations[link]

• Hynes, H. Patricia (1989). The Recurring Silent Spring. Athene series. New York: Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-037117-5. http://books.google.com/?id=MNjaAAAAMAAJ. 
• Lear, Linda (1997). Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-3428-5. http://books.google.com/?id=2kDGQgAACAAJ. 
• Lytle, Mark Hamilton (2007). The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517246-9. http://books.google.com/?id=SOSD4PFchmsC. 
• Murphy, Priscilla Coit (2005). What a Book Can Do: The Publication and Reception of Silent Spring. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-582-1. http://books.google.com/?id=MFWFjvY90PgC. 
• Kline, B. First Along the River. Maryland. Rowma & Littlefield. 
• Lutts, R (1985). Chemical fallout: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Radioactive Fallout, and the Environmental Movement.. Environmental Review. 
• gottlieb, R. Forging the Spring.. Washington D.C.: Island Press. 

Further reading[link]

• Brooks, Paul (1972). The House of Life: Rachel Carson at Work. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-13517-6. http://books.google.com/?id=VIkcZTSh7skC.  This book is a personal memoir by Carson's Houghton Mifflin editor and close friend Paul Brooks.
• Jezer, Marty (1988). Rachel Carson: Biologist and Author. American women of achievement. Chelsea House Publications. ISBN 1-55546-646-X. http://books.google.com/?id=pBwVPwAACAAJ. 
• Matthiessen, Peter, ed. (2007). Courage for the Earth: Writers, Scientists, and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson. Mariner Books. ISBN 0-618-87276-0. http://books.google.com/?id=VNXapJVwbC0C. 
• Moore, Kathleen Dean; Sideris, Lisa H. (2008). Rachel Carson: Legacy and Challenge. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-7471-2. http://books.google.com/?id=awR4kJrhQK0C. 
• Quaratiello, Arlene (2010). Rachel Carson: A Biography. Amherst, New York: Prometheus. ISBN 978-1-61614-187-5. http://www.amazon.com/Rachel-Carson-Biography-Arlene-Quaratiello/dp/1616141875/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278211359&sr=8-3. 
• Sideris, Lisa H. (Fall–Winter 2009). "Fact and Fiction, Fear and Wonder: The Legacy of Rachel Carson". Soundings 91 (3-4): 335–69. JSTOR 41179228. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Rachel Carson

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rachel Carson

• Rachel Carson Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
• New York Times obituary
• RachelCarson.org—website by Carson biographer Linda Lear
• Time, Mar. 29, 1999, Environmentalist RACHEL CARSON
• Revisiting Rachel Carson—Bill Moyer's Journal, PBS.org, 9-21-2007
• "A Sense of Wonder" – two-act play about Carson, written and performed by Kaiulani Lee, based on posthumous work of the same name
• YouTube Clip of Bill Moyers television on Lee's one woman show
• The Rachel Carson Greenway Trail in Montgomery County, Maryland
• "Why Are Winters Are Getting Warmer" , November 1951, Popular Science early article by Rachel Carson about how the ocean currents affected climate. It is an extract from her 1951 book, The Sea Around Us.
• (Rachel L. Carson as Interpreted by Irwin Allen – TCM Movie Morlocks on THE SEA AROUND US)

Carson-related organizations

• The Rachel Carson Homestead
• Silent Spring Institute
• Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy
• Rachel Carson Institute

Michael Douglas
Douglas at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	Michael Kirk Douglas (1944-09-25) September 25, 1944 (age 67) New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
Occupation	Actor, producer
Years active	1966–present
Spouse	Diandra Luker (1977–2000) Catherine Zeta-Jones (2000–present)
Children	Cameron Douglas (with Diandra Luker) Dylan Michael Douglas (with Catherine Zeta-Jones) Carys Zeta Douglas (with Catherine Zeta-Jones)
Parents	Kirk Douglas, Diana Dill
Relatives	Joel Douglas (brother) Peter Douglas (half-brother) Eric Douglas (half-brother, deceased) Anne Buydens (stepmother)

Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2009.^[1] He is the eldest of actor Kirk Douglas's four sons.

Early life and education[link]

Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the first child of actor Kirk Douglas and Bermudian-born actress Diana Dill. His paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Gomel in Belarus (at that time a part of the Russian Empire).^[2] His mother was from Devonshire Parish, Bermuda; Douglas's maternal grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Melville Dill, served as Attorney General of Bermuda and was commanding officer of the Bermuda Militia Artillery.^[3] Douglas has a younger brother, Joel Douglas (born 1947), and two paternal half-brothers, Peter Douglas (born 1955) and Eric Douglas (1958–2004), from stepmother Anne Buydens.

Douglas attended The Allen-Stevenson School in New York City, The Choate Preparatory School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut. He received his B.A. in drama from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1968, where he was also the Honorary President of the UCSB Alumni Association. He studied acting with Wynn Handman at The American Place Theatre in New York City.^[4]

Career[link]

Early years[link]

Douglas started his film career in the late 1960s and early 1970s, appearing in little known films like Hail, Hero! and Summertree. His first significant role came in the TV series The Streets of San Francisco from 1972 to 1976, where he starred alongside Karl Malden. Douglas later said that Malden became a "mentor" and someone he "admired and loved deeply".^[5] After Douglas left the show, he had a long association with his mentor until Malden's death on July 1, 2009. In 2004, Douglas presented Malden with the Monte Cristo Award of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, for the Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1975, Douglas received from his father, Kirk Douglas, the rights to the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Michael went on to produce the film of the same name with Saul Zaentz.^[6] Kirk Douglas considered playing the starring role himself, having starred in an earlier stage version, but chose against it, considering himself too old. The lead role went instead to a young Jack Nicholson, who would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Douglas won the Award for Best Picture for producing the film.

After leaving Streets of San Francisco in 1976, Douglas played a hospital doctor in the medical thriller Coma (1978), and in 1979 he played the role of a troubled marathon runner in Running. In 1979, he both produced and starred in The China Syndrome, a dramatic film co-starring Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon about a nuclear power plant accident (the Three Mile Island accident took place 12 days after the film's release). The film was considered "one of the most intelligent Hollywood films of the 1970s."^[4]

Success in Hollywood[link]

Douglas at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.

Douglas' acting career was propelled to fame when he produced and starred in the 1984 romantic adventure comedy Romancing the Stone. It also helped launch Kathleen Turner to stardom, reintroduced Douglas as a capable leading man, and gave director Robert Zemeckis his first box-office success. The film also starred Danny DeVito, a personal friend of Douglas' since they had shared an apartment in the 1960s. ^[7] It was followed a year later by a sequel, The Jewel of the Nile, which he also produced.

The year 1987 saw Douglas star in the horror thriller Fatal Attraction with Glenn Close. That same year he played tycoon Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's Wall Street for which he received an Academy Award as Best Actor. He reprised his role as Gekko in the sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in 2010, also directed by Stone.^[8]

Douglas again teamed with Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito for the 1989 film The War of the Roses. In 1989, he starred in Ridley Scott's international police crime drama Black Rain opposite Andy García and Kate Capshaw. The film was shot in Osaka, Japan.^[9]

In 1992, Douglas had another successful starring role when he appeared alongside Sharon Stone in the film Basic Instinct. The movie was a box office hit, and sparked controversy over its depictions of bisexuality and lesbianism. In 1994, Douglas and Demi Moore starred in the hit movie Disclosure focusing on the topic of sexual harassment with Douglas playing a man harassed by his new female boss. Other popular films he starred during these decade were Falling Down, The American President, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Game (directed by David Fincher), and a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic – Dial M for Murder – titled A Perfect Murder. In 1998, Douglas received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.^[10]

In 2000, Douglas starred in Steven Soderbergh's critically acclaimed film Traffic, opposite Benicio del Toro and future wife Catherine Zeta-Jones. That same year, he also received critical acclaim for his role in Wonder Boys as a professor and novelist suffering from writer's block. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama as well as several other awards from critics.

Types of roles[link]

According to film historian and critic David Thomson, Douglas was capable of playing characters who were "weak, culpable, morally indolent, compromised, and greedy for illicit sensation without losing that basic probity or potential for ethical character that we require of a hero."^[11] Critic and author Rob Edelman points out similarities in many of Douglas's roles, writing that in some of his leading films, he personified the "contemporary, Caucasian middle-to-upper-class American male who finds himself the brunt of female anger because of real or imagined sexual slights."^[4]

These themes of male victimization are seen in films such as Fatal Attraction (1987), with Glenn Close, War of the Roses (1989), with Kathleen Turner, Basic Instinct (1992), Sharon Stone, Falling Down (1993), and Disclosure (1994), with Demi Moore. For his characters in films such as these, "any kind of sexual contact with someone other than his mate and the mother of his children is destined to come at a costly price."^[4] Edelman describes his characters as the "Everyman who must contend with, and be victimized by, these women and their raging, psychotic sexuality."^[4]

Conversely, Douglas also played powerful characters with dominating personalities equally well: as Gordon Gekko, in the Wall Street franchise, he acted the role of a "greedy yuppie personification of the Me generation," convinced that "greed is good;" in Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile, he played an idealistic soldier of fortune; in The Star Chamber (1983), he was a court judge fed up with an inadequate legal system, leading him to become involved with a vigilante group; and in Black Rain (1989), he proved he could also play a Stallone-like action hero as a New York City cop.^[4]

Actor and producer[link]

Having become recognized as both a successful producer and actor, he describes himself as "an actor first and a producer second." He has explained why he enjoys both functions:

"I love the fact that on one side, with acting, you can be a child — acting is wonderful for its innocence and the fun. . . On the other side, producing is fun for all the adult kinds of things you do. You deal in business, you deal with the creative forces. As an adult who continues to get older, you like the adult risks. It's flying without a net, taking chances and learning. I was never good in economics or business — had no business background, you know, and I like it."^[12]

He has also offered reasons why he has become successful in both acting and producing:

"I think I'm a chameleon. I think it's something that I possibly inherited early on as a child going back and forth between two families. I know that whether it's right or wrong, I have an ability to sort of fit into a lot of different situations and make people feel relatively comfortable in a wide range without giving up all my moral values. I think that same chameleonlike quality can transfer into films. I think if you can remember the reason you got involved with it in the first place and try to keep that impulsive, instinctive feeling even when you're being beaten down or exhausted or waylaid, you'll be successful."^[12]

Recent years[link]

Douglas in June 2004

In 2003, Douglas starred in It Runs in the Family, which featured three generations of his family (his parents, Kirk and Diana, as well as his own son, Cameron). The film, although a labor of love, was not successful, critically or at the box office. Douglas starred in the solid commercial action flick Don't Say a Word, then the poorly received action-thriller The Sentinel in 2006. During that time, he also guest-appeared on the episode, "Fagel Attraction", of the popular television sitcom Will and Grace, as a gay cop attracted to Will Truman (Eric McCormack); the performance earned Douglas an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Show.

Douglas was approached for Basic Instinct 2, but he declined to participate in the project. He said:

"Yes, they asked me to do it a while ago, I thought we had done it very effectively; [Paul] Verhoeven is a pretty good director. I haven't seen the sequel. I've only done one sequel in my life, The Jewel of the Nile, from Romancing The Stone. Besides, there were age issues, you know? Sharon still looks fabulous. The script was pretty good. Good for her, she's in her late-40s, and there are not a lot of parts around. The first one was probably the best picture of her career—it certainly made her career and she was great in it".^[13]

Future engagements[link]

Douglas is rumored to appear in Tragic Indifference, a courtroom thriller based on a landmark liability case against Ford Motor Company, according to Variety. Douglas will play the attorney who took Ford to court on behalf of a single mother from Texas who was paralyzed and nearly died after an accident. The trial exposed the automaker's indifference to flaws in its Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV). The movie will be based on Adam Penenberg's 2003 book of the same name. Douglas will play Attorney Tab Turner, who represented Donna Bailey after the Ford Explorer SUV she was riding in rolled over following a Firestone tire failure.^[14]

On December 17, 2007 it was announced that Douglas would announce the introduction to NBC Nightly News, some two years after Howard Reig, the previous announcer, retired.^[15]

Personal life[link]

Family[link]

Douglas in 2012 at a Vanity Fair party with his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones

After filming Summertree (1971), he began dating actress Brenda Vaccaro. The relationship lasted for about six years.^[16]

In March 1977,^[17] 33 year old Douglas married 19 year old Diandra Luker, the daughter of an Austrian diplomat.^[18] They had one son, Cameron, born in 1978. In 1995 Diandra filed for divorce^[18] and was awarded $45 million as her settlement.^[19]

Dating since March 1999, Douglas married Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones on November 18, 2000. They were both born on September 25, though 25 years apart. Zeta-Jones says that when they met in Deauville, France, Douglas used the line "I want to father your children."^[20] They have two children, Dylan Michael (born August 8, 2000) and Carys Zeta (born April 20, 2003).^[21]

They planned on renewing their wedding vows in 2010 as part of their 10th wedding anniversary. The idea was hers, and came after Douglas was found to have advanced stages of cancer. One report notes that "Michael was in tears when she suggested it to him," and he sees it as a “wonderful expression of love.”^[22]

Douglas, the son of a Jewish father and an Anglican mother, has declared no religious affiliation.^[23]

Citizenship[link]

Douglas is a U.S. citizen by birth in the United States and has Bermudian Status^[24] through his mother's birth in Bermuda.

Skiing accident and rehab[link]

In 1980, Douglas was involved in a serious skiing accident which sidelined his acting career for three years. In September 1992, the same year Basic Instinct came out, he underwent treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction at Sierra Tucson Center.

Legal problems[link]

In 1997, New York caddy James Parker sued Douglas for $25 million.^[25] Parker accused Douglas of hitting him in the groin with an errant golf ball, causing Parker to lose a testicle and his job. The case was later settled out of court.^[26]

Stalking[link]

In 2004, Douglas and Zeta-Jones took legal action against stalker Dawnette Knight, who was accused of sending violent letters to the couple that contained graphic threats on Zeta-Jones' life. Testifying, Zeta-Jones said the threats left her so shaken she feared a nervous breakdown.^[27] Knight claimed she had been in love with Douglas and admitted to the offences, which took place between October 2003 and May 2004. She was sentenced to three years in prison.

Health problems[link]

It was announced on August 16, 2010, that Douglas was suffering from throat cancer and will undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment.^[28] On August 31, 2010 Douglas appeared on Late Show with David Letterman and confirmed that the cancer was at stage IV, the most advanced stage.^[29] Douglas attributed the cancer to a combination of stress, his previous alcohol abuse, and years of heavy smoking.^[30]

In November 2010, Douglas was put on a special weight gain diet by his doctors due to the excessive weight loss leaving him weak.^[31] On January 11, 2011, he said in an interview that the tumor was gone. He admitted that the illness and aggressive treatment had caused him to lose 32 lbs in weight.^[32] He will have to have monthly screenings because there is a very high chance that the cancer could return over the course of the next two to three years.^[33] Although Douglas has described the cancer as throat cancer, many doctors believe he was actually diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer.^[34][35]

Activism[link]

Opening of an exhibition by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization entitled "Putting an End to Nuclear Explosions". From left to right: Michael Douglas, Marty Natalegawa, Ban Ki-moon, Taib Fassi Fihri and Sergio de Queiroz Duarte.

Political activities[link]

Douglas and Zeta-Jones hosted the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway, on December 11, 2003. They acted as co-masters of ceremony in the concert celebrating the award given to Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi. In 2006, Douglas was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

He is an advocate of nuclear disarmament, a supporter of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and sits on the Board of Directors of the anti-war grantmaking foundation Ploughshares Fund. In 1998, he was appointed UN Messenger of Peace by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.^[36] He is a notable Democrat and has donated money to Barack Obama, Christopher Dodd, and Al Franken.^[37] He has been a major supporter of gun control since John Lennon was murdered in 1980.^[38]

In 2006 he was a featured speaker in a public service campaign sponsored by a UN conference to focus attention on trade of illicit arms, especially of small arms and light weapons. Douglas made several appearances and offered his opinions:

"The conference is an opportunity for UN member states to build on the Program of Action and to encourage countries to strengthen their laws on the illicit trade, . . . an issue that affects us all . . .[and] while owning guns is a legal right in most countries, the illegal trade in guns continues to fuel conflict, crime and violence."^[39]

A few years earlier, in 2003, Douglas hosted a "powerful film" on child soldiers and the impact of combat on children in countries such as Sierra Leone. During the documentary film, Douglas interviewed children, and estimated that they were among 300,000 other children worldwide who have been conscripted or kidnapped and forced to fight. Of one such child he interviewed, Douglas stated, "After being kidnapped by a rebel group, he was tortured, drugged, and forced to commit atrocities."^[39] Douglas discussed his role as a Messenger Peace for the UN:

"I'm in an enviable position . . . When I talk about movies I can talk about messages of peace, and infuse them into the entertainment pages."^[39]

Humanitarian initiatives[link]

In 2009 Douglas joined the project Soldiers of Peace, a movie against all wars and for global peace.^[40][41]

Douglas lent his support for the campaign to release Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman, who after having been convicted of committing adultery, was given a sentence of death by stoning.^[42]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Douglas

• Michael Douglas at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Michael Douglas at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Douglas at the TCM Movie Database
• "The Films of Michael Douglas", video compilation of film clips, 5 minutes
• Michael Douglas at Yahoo! Movies