Rachel Carson’s letter to the Washington Post in response to the Eisenhower administration’s replacement of Interior Department professionals with political appointees ended with:
“It is one of the ironies of our time that, while concentrating on the defense of our country against enemies from without, we should be so heedless of those who would destroy it from within.”
Fifty-three years later, we’re worse off.
I cannot say it better than she did. Here are more excerpts:
“The real wealth of the Nation lies in the resources of the earth - soil, water, forests, minerals and wildlife. To utilize them for present needs while insuring their preservation for future generations requires a delicately balanced and continuing program, based on the most extensive research. Their administration is not properly, and cannot be, a matter of politics. ”
“These actions within the Interior Department fall into place beside the proposed giveaway of our offshore oil reserves and the threatened invasion of national parks, forests and other public lands.
For many years public-spirited citizens throughout the country have been working for the conservation of the natural resources, realizing their vital importance to the Nation. Apparently their hard-won progress is to be wiped out, as a politically minded Administration returns us to the dark ages of unrestrained exploitation and destruction.”
I find it scary that we have no Rachel Carson to give voice the way she did.
But then in the vast scheme of the universe, maybe my little fears don’t really matter.