Rachel Carson Sculpture Unveiling
Raleigh, North Carolina
May 9, 2002
Fruzsina M. Harsanyi
Vice President, Corporate Communications and Government Affairs
ABB Inc.
Good morning.
I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t feel proud and something that transcends pride – humility.
I’m proud that I work for a company that is so committed to the concepts that Rachel Carson embraced that it underwrote a monument to Rachel’s life and work.
But Rachel’s passion, vision and accomplishments humble me. In a decade that would later be defined by our willingness to speak out on issues ranging from civil rights to Viet Nam, Rachel was a pioneer. Her book, Silent Spring was the beginning of the modern environmental movement. The only problem was that in 1962 America wasn’t ready for an environmental movement, much less an environmental movement with an outspoken woman as its leader. Companies that had a vested interested in maintaining the environmental status quo ridiculed Rachel. They called her hysterical and a “priestess of nature.” When CBS scheduled an hour-long program about Silent Spring, two corporate sponsors withdrew their support of the program.
In a way, America learned to appreciate Rachel Carson the same way Mark Twain learned to appreciate his father. Twain said, “When I was a boy of 14 my father was so ignorant I could barely stand to have to old man around. But when I got to be 21 I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.”
Once Silent Spring was published, it took America about seven years to establish the Environmental Protection Agency. We started celebrating Earth Day one year later. By 1992 a panel of distinguished Americans selected Silent Spring as the most influential book of the last 50 years.
I did a little research on Rachel before I came down here. I discovered we share something in common. She lived in Silver Spring Maryland, not far from my home in Chevy Chase. I started thinking about how much that area has changed in the 40 years since Rachel lived there. Then I thought, “Forget Maryland. Look how much our attitudes about the environment have changed in the last 40 years.” Today companies proudly demonstrate their commitment to their communities and sustainability through words and actions. When Rachel wrote, “Only within the moment of time… has one species – man – acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world,” she just as easily could have been writing about negatively altering the world as positively altering it. Today, when a company like ABB pioneers the concept of environmental declarations for its products, we demonstrate that we can use our power to positively alter the nature of the world. We as a business community finally understand what Rachael Carson told us so long ago – there is a fundamental interconnection of human beings and the natural environment.
I’d like to leave you with one final thought.
We’re not here today merely as spectators to the unveiling of a sculpture. This sculpture is art. And art is essentially a form of expression – a type of communication. This statue communicates what Rachel called our “obligation to endure” through the right to know how mankind is affecting the environment. As individuals, business people and community leaders, we must pass on Rachel’s “obligation to endure” to our children and grandchildren. Winston Churchill said, “It is no use saying we are doing our best. We have to succeed in doing what is necessary.” Forty years ago we didn’t do our best applying Rachel’s vision to our work and lives. Today we’re better at it. Let’s make sure forty years from now our children can apply Rachel’s vision to their lives and succeed at doing what is necessary.