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   drdind (drdind@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 02-Jun-2024 03:57:19 JST drdind

   This #PrideMonth, I want to honor the many contributions of LGBTQ+ scientists to our world.

   I will start with one of my personal heroes, Rachel Carson.

   In 1962, Silent Spring was published, which rocked the world and ignited the modern environmental movement. Carson argued eloquently and convincingly that pesticides, DDT especially, were being magnified up the food chain and taking song birds and raptors, including the Bald Eagle.

   • Bill repeated this.
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     drdind (drdind@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 02-Jun-2024 03:57:18 JST drdind

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     Thinning egg shells caused by the pesticides made raptor eggs especially vulnerable.

     Carson was vilified by chemical companies, but ultimately, her courage prevailed as DDT was banned in the US and any countries. Pres. Carter awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1980.

     This quiet marine biologist lived by the sea the last twelve years of her life, where she met a neighbor, Dorothy Freeman and her husband.

     Bill repeated this.
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     drdind (drdind@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 02-Jun-2024 03:57:31 JST drdind

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     Carson and Freeman fell in love in what appears to have been a romantically charged yet platonic relationship, evidenced in surviving beautiful letters from Carson to Freeman.

     Carson died from breast cancer in 1964. Her work is among the most important in world history.