Pancakes? I don't need no stinking pancakes.
Posted on 12/05/2005 4:15:08 AM PST by Ditto
Rachel Carson, a driving force behind the modern environmental movement, grew up in a modest homestead in Springdale Borough near the Allegheny River. For the budding marine biologist, the river's waters were an early inspiration.
Now, more than four decades after Ms. Carson's death, her presence may return to those waters.
Allegheny County Council tomorrow will consider renaming the Ninth Street Bridge in her honor. If the resolution is approved, Ms. Carson would join Roberto Clemente and Andy Warhol as namesakes for the three Downtown "Sister Bridges" that cross the Allegheny.
"This is long overdue," said Esther L. Barazzone, president of Chatham College, Ms. Carson's alma mater and home of the Rachel Carson Institute. "People realize that Rachel Carson is truly world class. We need to strengthen our connection to her."
Ms. Carson's 1962 book, "Silent Spring," criticized the harmful effects of pesticides, sparking a prolonged battle with the chemical industry. In 1970, six years after Ms. Carson's death, the federal government founded the Environmental Protection Agency. Two years later, the government banned the use of the pesticide DDT in the United States.
"Silent Spring" also pushed many people to rethink their connection with the natural world.
"It was wonderful. It inspired me," said Ron Meyers, a former visiting assistant professor with Chatham's environmental studies program. "It showed the courage of environmentalists."
"Silent Spring'' has been translated into almost every known language, according to Fiona Fisher, interim executive director of the Rachel Carson Homestead, a national historical landmark on Marion Avenue in Springdale.
"She used science in a way that ordinary people could understand," Ms. Fisher said. "People began to question what was being done."
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
It is just wrong to honor this woman.
There is no limit to the insanity in Pittsburgh.
prisoner6
Ping!
Has the County Council there run out of important work to do? Isnt there a bridge in Springdale to name for her? What a joke!!!!!!!!
How about a memorial to all the blind children who would otherwise have their sight if it weren't for this evil woman.
6 posts and no pancake pics?
Why do you want pankakes? To celebrate the needless deaths of millions of children?
Oops; my mistake. I was thinking Rachel CORRIE.
Pancakes? I don't need no stinking pancakes.
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc.
Tucson, AZ
The following resolution was approved on a nearly unanimous vote during the 2004 AAPS General Assembly in Portland, Oregon, October 13-16, as the official opinion of this national association representing thousands of physicians and surgeons in private practice in the United States.
RESOLUTION 61-02, 2004: Legalizing DDT to Fight Malaria in Tropical Countries
WHEREAS: malaria has killed more people than any other infectious disease in history and is still epidemic in tropical countries – infecting 300,000,000 people and killing more than 1,000,000 every year, most of them pregnant women and children under five in sub-Saharan Africa; and
WHEREAS: more than 50 million people have died from malaria since EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus arbitrarily banned DDT in 1972, contrary to expert testimony and a decision by Judge Edmund Sweeney that the pesticide was not harmful to humans, animals or the environment – a position subsequently affirmed by the World Health Organization and many other experts; and
WHEREAS: the WHO-UN-World Bank “Roll Back Malaria” campaign to cut malaria rates in half by 2010 has relied entirely on bed nets and drug therapies, and refused to consider the use of pesticides, even as the rate of malaria increased by more than 15% during the program’s six-year existence, killing millions, leaving others too sick to work, and perpetuating poverty in many nations; and
WHEREAS: mosquitoes are much less likely to develop resistance to DDT because it is no longer used in agriculture, and spraying tiny amounts of this pesticide on the walls of traditional huts repels mosquitoes and kills them on contact for six months or more, without contaminating the environment; and
WHEREAS: South Africa successfully used DDT to reduce malaria by more than 90% in three years, by using DDT to spray huts and in combination with artemisinin-based drugs and other strategies – a program that many poor countries want to emulate, but are prevented from doing so by threats from donor agencies and activist groups that continue to oppose the use of DDT under any circumstances;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT:the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons supports efforts to insist or require that agencies of the United States and United Nations permit, encourage, and fund the use of DDT in tropical countries where malaria is prevalent and health ministries wish to use it to save lives.
Because of Rachel Carson, more people have died than from Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot combined
When I've contacted the Sierra Club and other organizations and asked them to provide hard scientific evidence of the damage that DDT does, they either send me some emotional junk with no hard scinece studiesm or they ignore me.
I'm waiting to see if Silent Spring is still on the school's reading list this year. If it is, I'm going to start a one woman campaign to get it removed!!
What DID cause the silent spring?
This is nothing more than doublespeak for the democrats taxing the city into the ground. They need the donations (i.e. naming rights) and PR in the worst way.
But the Bald Eagles are thriving!
/envirowhacko mode>.
Ya wanna know how nuts it is? The Steelers' special teams coach still has a job this morning.
Hi, Ditto -- thanks for posting that info. Isn't there a cemetary that can be dedicated to her?
Best to you all, 'burghers. Stay warm! (hehe!)
I live in Pittsburgh and if it is renamed for this "woman" they should then paint the damn bridge BLACK, instead of the yellow that it is now!
I think they should rename it for Fat Albert. Anyone besides me remember that comedy skit?
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