RACHEL CARSON

BIOGRAFY (May 27, 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania / April 14, 1964 in Silver Spring, Maryland)
Rachel Carson, writer, scientist, and ecologist, grew up simply in the rural river town of Springdale,
Pennsylvania. Her mother bequeathed to her a life-long love of nature and the living world that
Rachel expressed first as a writer and later as a student of marine biology. Carson graduated from
Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) in 1929, studied at the Woods Hole
Marine Biological Laboratory, and received her MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in
1932.
She was hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts during the Depression and
supplemented her income writing feature articles on natural history for the Baltimore Sun. She
began a fifteen-year career in the federal service as a scientist and editor in 1936 and rose to
become Editor-in-Chief of all publications for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

She wrote pamphlets on conservation and natural resources and edited scientific articles, but in
her free time turned her government research into lyric prose, first as an article "Undersea" (1937,
for the Atlantic Monthly), and then in a book, Under the Sea-Wind (1941). In 1952 she published
her prize-winning study of the ocean, The Sea Around Us, which was followed by The Edge of the
Sea in 1955. These books constituted a biography of the ocean and made Carson famous as a
naturalist and science writer for the public. Carson resigned from government service in 1952 to
devote herself to her writing.
She wrote several other articles designed to teach people about the wonder and beauty of the
living world, including "Help Your Child to Wonder," (1956) and "Our Ever-Changing Shore" (1957),
and planned another book on the ecology of life. Embedded within all of Carson's writing was the
view that human beings were but one part of nature distinguished primarily by their power to
alter it, in some cases irreversibly.

Disturbed by the profligate use of synthetic chemical pesticides after World War II, Carson
reluctantly changed her focus in order to warn the public about the long-term effects of misusing
pesticides. In Silent Spring (1962) she challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the
government and called for a change in the way humankind viewed the natural world.
Carson was attacked by the chemical industry and some in government as an alarmist, but
courageously spoke out to remind us that we are a vulnerable part of the natural world subject to
the same damage as the rest of the ecosystem. Testifying before Congress in 1963, Carson called
for new policies to protect human health and the environment. Rachel Carson died in 1964 after a
long battle against breast cancer. Her witness for the beauty and integrity of life continues to
inspire new generations to protect the living world and all its creatures.

ALTRE NOTIZIE RIGUARDO RACHEL CARSON

Carson was a student of nature, a born ecologist before that science was defined, and a writer
who found that the natural world gave her something to write about. Born in Springdale,
Pennsylvania, upstream from the industrial behemoth of Pittsburgh, she became a marine scientist
working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington, DC, primarily as a writer and editor.
She was always aware of the impact that humans had on the natural world. Her first book, Under
the Sea-Wind (1941) was a gripping account of the interactions of a sea bird, a fish and an eel –
who shared life in the open seas. A canny scholar working in government during World War II,
Carson took advantage of the latest scientific material for her next book, The Sea Around Us
(1951) which was nothing short of a biography of the sea. It became an international best-seller,
raised the consciousness of a generation, and made Rachel Carson the trusted public voice of
science in America. The Edge of the Sea (1955) brought Carson’s focus on the ecosystems of the
eastern coast from Maine to Florida. All three books were physical explanations of life, all
drenched with miracle of what happens to life in and near the sea.

BOOK ON THE SEA

In her books on the sea Carson wrote about geologic discoveries from submarine technology and
underwater research -- of how islands were formed, how currents change and merge, how
temperature affects sea life, and how erosion impacts not just shore lines but salinity, fish
populations, and tiny micro-organisms. Even in the 1950's, Carson’s ecological vision of the oceans
shows her embrace of a larger environmental ethic which could lead to the sustainability of
nature’s interactive and interdependent systems. Climate change, rising sea-levels, melting Arctic
glaciers, collapsing bird and animal populations, crumbling geological faults -- all are part of
Carson’s work. But how, she wondered, would the educated public be kept informed of these
challenges to life itself? What was the public's "right to know"?

SILENT SPRING
Perhaps the finest nature writer of the Twentieth Century, Rachel Carson (1907-1964) is
remembered more today as the woman who challenged the notion that humans could obtain
mastery over nature by chemicals, bombs and space travel than for her studies of ocean life. Her
sensational book Silent Spring (1962) warned of the dangers to all natural systems from the
misuse of chemical pesticides such as DDT, and questioned the scope and direction of modern
science, initiated the contemporary environmental movement.

Evidence of the widespread misuse of organic chemical pesticides government and industry after
World War II prompted Carson to reluctantly speak out not just about the immediate threat to
humans and non-human nature from unwitting chemical exposure, but also to question
government and private science's assumption that human domination of nature was the correct
course for the future. In Silent Spring Carson asked the hard questions about whether and why
humans had the right to control nature; to decide who lives or dies, to poison or to destroy non-
human life. In showing that all biological systems were dynamic and by urging the public to
question authority, to ask "who speaks, and why"? Rachel Carson became a social revolutionary,
and Silent Spring became the handbook for the future of all life on Earth.
CAPITOLO 1: A FABLE FOR TOMORROW
At the beginning of Silent Spring, Carson proposes a fairy tale of his own invention, but strongly
rooted in reality: "A Fable for Tomorrow". It tells of a small town in the heart of the United States,
where all living things coexisted in harmony and nature was lush. Suddenly a mysterious plague
crept into this earthly paradise and everything changed. An evil spell had immobilized the entire
community: the trees were not fruitful, the cattle died for no apparent reason, the birds were
singing. But there was no enemy to blame, no witchcraft: the culprit was the human being. Of
course this country does not exist, although similar events happened in various parts of the United
States. This fairy tale, however, indicates the moral intention that Carson wanted to instill with his
book. The idea was not to make a boring scientific report on the harmful effects of pesticides, but
to overturn the concept that the environment is at the service of the human being. Nature already
offers us a lot. Forcing its profitability with pesticides is simply counterproductive and, as if that
were not enough, these poisons kill us too. In fact, there are also chapters dedicated to the
diseases that derive from it, including cancer linked to the use of DDT.
CAPITOLO 2: IL DOVERE DI SOPPORTARE
In chapter 2 Rachel begins to talk about the substances that used in the fields, in the gardens, in
the forests, begin to be harmful to humans. They are produced year after year by industries, it is
thought that it can be effective in preserving agricultural production, but we are harming our
body. In this era everyone thinks about his own particular problem, regardless of the framework in
which he is placed. We must go against this situation, but to do so we must know the facts: from
this the phrase "the duty to endure gives us the right to know"

ART 9
The Republic promotes scientific and technical development and research. It protects the
landscape and the historical and artistic heritage of the Nation.What does this mean? Science,
technology, landscape, historical artifacts and works of art are indicated by this article as assets to
be protected. However, although they are all manifestations of culture, this article approaches
them from two different perspectives. Promoting science and technology means granting freedom
of research and dissemination; This part of the article then expresses the need to defend both
what constitutes an achievement of human creativity and freedom of speech. Protecting the
landscape and historical heritage means recognizing and defending the particular Italian artistic
and environmental wealth.
ART 41
Private economic initiative is free. It cannot be carried out in opposition to social utility or in such a
way as to damage security, freedom and human dignity. The law shall determine the appropriate
programmes and controls so that public and private economic activity can be directed and
coordinated for social ends. What does it mean? Art. Article 41 outlines a model of a mixed
economy, in which private initiative coexists with public initiative: the State, that is, does not limit
itself to identifying the limits within which private initiative can move, but also operates as owner
or manager of companies. The indeterminate formulation of art. Article 41 has given rise to
numerous disputes of interpretation, which have concerned the relationship between the
statement of the principle "private economic initiative is free" and the indications contained in the
second and third paragraphs, which are provisions of a limiting nature.

THE AARHUS CONVENTION

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to
Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental
Matters (pdf ~50K) was adopted on 25 June 1998 in the Danish city of Aarhus (Århus) at the Fourth
Ministerial Conference as part of the "Environment for Europe" process. It entered into force on
30 October 2001. (For recent up-dates and the follow-up process please have a look at the UNECE
Convention website). The Aarhus Convention establishes a number of rights of the public
(individuals and their associations) with regard to the environment. The Parties to the Convention
are required to make the necessary provisions so that public authorities (at national, regional or
local level) will contribute to these rights to become effective. The Convention provides for: • the
right of everyone to receive environmental information that is held by public authorities ("access
to environmental information"). This can include information on the state of the environment, but
also on policies or measures taken, or on the state of human health and safety where this can be
affected by the state of the environment. Applicants are entitled to obtain this information within
one month of the request and without having to say why they require it. In addition, public
authorities are obliged, under the Convention, to actively disseminate environmental information
in their possession;
• the right to participate in environmental decision-making. Arrangements are to be made by
public authorities to enable the public affected and environmental non-governmental
organisations to comment on, for example, proposals for projects affecting the environment, or
plans and programmes relating to the environment, these comments to be taken into due account
in decision-making, and information to be provided on the final decisions and the reasons for it
("public participation in environmental decision-making");

• the right to review procedures to challenge public decisions that have been made without
respecting the two aforementioned rights or environmental law in general ("access to justice").

December 1997 1-10 An international conference on climatic change is held in Kyoto, Japan and
concludes with commitments by industrialised countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
2020 IS THE DEADLINE OF THE KYOTO AGREEMENT ( THE USA , CHINA, RUSSIA do not sign )

IN 2015 A COP IS HELD IN PARIS ( the USA, China, Russia do not sign

IN 2020 during Covid : announcements are made by EU, new US President J Biden and China’s
leader Xi Jin Ping about a respective pledge towards reduction of carbon emissions but UNO
Director Antonio Guterres is skeptical and worried that the world countries are not doing enough,
not on the right path yet One of the first three acts by the new US President Joe Biden is about
more cooperation on environmental issues. Glasgow will host the next COP meeting next
November 2021: Italy and UK are the organisers ( despite Brexit, European and world
collaboration on environmental issues will not stop )
COP 27
The COP (Conference of the Parties) is the most important global meeting of world nations to
address the issue of climate change. The first Conference on the Environment was held in June
1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On that occasion, the United Nations called on the leaders present
to sign a climate convention that would commit each country to reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. The approved agreement, called UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change) or United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, entered into force
on March 21, 1994, has been ratified over the years by 195 countries (referred to as "Parties to the
Convention"). The UNFCCC is a key step in international negotiations aimed at combating climate
change, as it has contributed to the recognition of the problem of climate change and the negative
influences of anthropogenic activities on climate. Since then, a Conference of the Parties (COP) has
been held every year, stages that have marked the path that gradually set the objectives for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions, establishing that it was the developed countries that had to
deal with them. Another important objective of the Convention is to financially support developing
countries in the fight against climate change, as well as to monitor the emissions of developed
countries annually. Among the most significant COPs, that of Kyoto in 1997 and that of Paris in
2015 in which an agreement was reached to keep global warming well below 2ºC above pre-
industrial levels and to continue efforts to limit it to 1.5ºC.

There are five main themes:

• Nature: It is not possible to maintain the goal of increasing global temperature to 1.5 degrees
without action to limit deforestation, without transforming food and land use systems and without
protecting ocean ecosystems. With respect to this issue, it is very relevant to mention the United
Nations Conference on Biodiversity COP15, where the participating countries have made
commitments to build a global framework to protect biodiversity;
• Food: this is an extremely important issue, since global systems of use of food, land and oceans
represent more than 12% of global GDP and over 40% of the world's jobs;

• Water: Climate change is having a major impact on extreme water-related events, such as floods
and droughts. For this reason, it is necessary to act as soon as possible to protect the most
important resource for life (human and otherwise);

• Decarbonization: the reduction of emissions is one of the main themes of the COPs that have
taken place over the years and is extremely important for the achievement of climate objectives;•
Climate adaptation: never been so necessary, given the increase in the disastrous impacts of
climate change that are increasing in intensity and frequency (think of the floods of the Pakistan
of late August 2022).

The four objectives of COP27

The main objectives that the participating countries intend to achieve at COP27 are four:

• Mitigation: all parties, especially those able to "do it and lead by example", are urged to jointly
take "bold and immediate action" and reduce emissions to limit global warming to well below 2°C;

• Adaptation: extreme weather events (heat waves, floods and fires) have become a daily reality.
For this, the countries involved will have to ensure that COP27 makes the "absolutely necessary
progress" towards improving resilience to climate change. The global adaptation target was one of
the significant outcomes of COP26, but COP27 must be an opportunity to make the crucial
progress needed and urge all parties to demonstrate the political will needed for progress towards
strengthening resilience and assisting the most vulnerable communities

• Finance: Significant progress should be made at COP27 on the crucial issue of climate finance,
including the $100 billion a year promised by industrialized countries to developing countries.
Existing commitments and promises, announced from Copenhagen and Cancun, via Paris and up
to Glasgow, need follow-up to clarify the steps forward

• Collaboration: Strengthening and facilitating agreement in the negotiations is of utmost

importance for the COP27 Presidency to achieve tangible results in a balanced way. Advancing
partnership and collaboration will help achieve the four goals and ensure that the world adopts a
more resilient and sustainable economic model, where humans are at the heart of climate talks.
Since UN negotiations are based on consensus, reaching an agreement requires "inclusive and
active participation of all stakeholders".