Trained as a zoologist, Rachel Carson began her career as a contract government science writer at a time when… “wildlife agencies still handed out recipes for the animals they were studying.†(An Environmental Icon’s Unseen Fortitude [1], Washington Post 5.18.07) She is best known for her still controversial book Silent Spring and its crusade against the widespread use of DDT, but her legacy extends well beyond that. She is widely acknowledged to have been the inspiration for the environmental movement, with the creation of the EPA being only one of the results. “The earth itself needs an advocate,†she said. If she were still alive, I wonder what she would be advocating? What do you think? She was apparently incapable of remaining silent. Would that the same were true for the rest of us.