Carson and religion (topic of choice)


Rachel Carson was an important environmentalist that argued against the use of many pesticides, including the highly toxic DDT. Her religious background involved a Presbyterian mother, and apparently believed that spirituality served as a check on humanity's arrogance. A quote by her on this topic shows how important she believed spirituality to be, 
“I am not afraid of being thought a sentimentalist when I stand here tonight and tell you that I believe natural beauty has a necessary place in the spiritual development of any individual or any society. I believe that whenever we destroy beauty, or whenever we substitute something man-made and artificial for a natural feature of the earth, we have retarded some part of man’s spiritual growth.” 
This shows that like Muir, she thought religious language was the best way to reach America, and that using God's glory as a reason to protect nature was a good argument. Likely, this would put her in the preservationist camp, especially considering that she was highly against the use of pesticides, which might have some argument under conservationism but are much harder to see as preservationist.

 “Faith, Science & Action.” Rachel Carson Council, rachelcarsoncouncil.org/faith-science-action/.

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