Famous ecologist and science writer Rachel Carson (1907-1964), born on a Pennsylvania farm on this day, learned to love nature from her mother.

"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth," she once said, "are never alone or weary of life."

Carson dedicated her life to teaching others about the sacredness of the earth and how humans are just a few brush strokes on the canvas of life.

"The discipline of the writer," she explained, "is to learn to be still and listen to what his subject has to tell him."

Her Silent Spring (1962) was a thoroughly researched crusade against DDT and other pesticides which were poisoning the environment.

"A silent spring" was coming, she warned, where no bird would be heard. The book caused a sensation and launched the world's environmental movement. Chemical companies and other industries were forced to become accountable and responsible.

"The beauty of the living world I was trying to save has always been uppermost in my mind - that, and anger at the senseless, brutish things that were being done," she said. "Now I can believe I have at least helped a little."

Diagnosed with cancer while writing Silent Spring, she weathered the subsequent controversy of her research while fighting for her life; undergoing a radical mastectomy, then radiation treatment.

Eight years after her death, the United States finally banned DDT. In 1999, Time magazine called Silent Spring "the cornerstone of the new environmentalism."

Because of fearless Rachel Carson's fight to preserve earth's beauty, a walk in the woods on a rainy day is possible for this generation and the next. Her words inspired Greenpeace and other environmental advocates.

"If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in."

Discover and share the wonders of the earth.