Davidson and the Legacy of Rachel Carson

Davidson College, founded in 1837, is among the most selective and historic liberal arts colleges in the nation, but one that emphasizes not just excellence, but purpose and commitment to the greater good and to the dignity and equality of all people. That commitment includes a deep concern for the environment that is reflected in the college’s strong and interdisciplinary Department of Environmental Studies, an ambitious Climate Action Plan, and student and faculty engagement in environmental justice and health projects, programs, and research from the town of Davidson and the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains to global issues from the Americas to Asia.

This fall, it was the growing environmental threats to North Carolina and what can be done about them that brought Rachel Carson Council President and CEO, Dr. Bob Musil, to Davidson at the invitation of the Chairman of the Environmental Studies Department and Professor of Biology, Dr. Chris Paradise. Musil’s campus lecture, “Rachel Carson’s Environmental Legacy in North Carolina” filled the Hance Auditorium in the dome atop the iconic Chambers Building, central to Davidson and visible from much of the 665 acre wooded campus.

Scomber the Mackerel (left) and Anguilla the Eel (right)

Musil noted that Rachel Carson loved North Carolina, visited often, sought solace on the Outer Banks while recovering from breast cancer surgery, and found inspiration for her earliest writing along the beaches and small islands near Beaufort, North Carolina. From that experience and her senses of awe and wonder at the natural world, Carson wrote her favorite book, Under the Sea-Wind, the first of a trilogy of best-selling books about the ocean. Under the Sea-Wind features two main heroes, Musil explained, a mackerel named Scomber, and an eel called Anguilla. As we enter the world of living creatures beneath the waves and follow the lives and harrowing adventures of these unlikely protagonists, we develop a sense of empathy for these sentient beings and care deeply about their survival and well-being. As Musil put it, “if you can feel empathy for a mackerel and an eel, these two exemplars of the “other,” it is easy to see the importance of empathy for Carson, and for us, of all living creatures that who are different than we are. That includes, of course, people of different races, nations, incomes. It is the core value for Rachel Carson and for the Rachel Carson Council that carries on Carson’s work.”

Image credit: USFWS

Carson also loved forests and the woods of Maine around her house there and would have loved the Davidson campus with its historic buildings surrounded by the shade of stately trees like the more than 100-year old majestic Willow Oak standing across from Chambers.

Musil talked about his own sense of awe and wonder at first seeing Davidson, an Arboretum Campus with over 3,000 labelled trees and woody shrubs. He then urged his audience to look afresh at the forest of trees that they walk through every day and to heed the words of Rachel Carson as she was dying of breast cancer:

“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, ‘What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?”

It is why, Musil added, Rachel Carson would have been appalled at the current destruction of some 10,000 acres a year of North Carolina hardwood forests from clear-cutting by the Drax and Enviva Corporations who then produce hundreds of thousands of industrial scale wood pellets in factories across the state. They then ship the pellets overseas to be burned in former coal-fired power plants to create electricity. Musil then asked his audience to imagine how they would feel and react if Davidson’s thousands of trees (and perhaps their own favorite) were cut down, loaded on to huge trucks, and then hauled to a wood pellet factory where they would be turned into pellets and shipped off to Europe to be burned.

Musil urged Davidson students to join the Rachel Carson Council and its campaign working to end wood pellet production in North Carolina, along the Gulf Coast, and now moving out to the Pacific Northwest and beyond. He also encouraged students engaged in environmental projects or campaigns to apply for a Rachel Carson Council National Environment Leadership Fellowship (NELF) which would connect them to active students nationwide and receive a $2,00 stipend.

During his visit to Davidson, Dr. Musil also taught classes on “Communicating Environmental Science to Diverse Audiences” with Dr. LeeAnna Chapman and “Environment, Economics and Culture” with Dr. Matt Samson. Musil also met and talked with the Davidson Sustainability Office and its head, Yancy Fouché, its Sustainability Coordinator, Cameron Clark, and students working for sustainability. Throughout three days, Musil also met with the Senior Associate Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Anthropology, Dr. Fuji Lozan, and various faculty, students, and staff at lively breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

At every turn, students and faculty by the scores eagerly joined the Rachel Carson Council to carry on Rachel Carson’s legacy. And, at the conclusion of Dr. Musil’s visit, Davidson College became the 87^th member of the Rachel Carson Council Campus Network.