4 Win Rachel Carson Awards

By Dan Shapley News Editor The accomplishments of four leading ladies of the environmental movement were celebrated Tuesday, as the National Audubon Society handed out its 2007 Rachel Carson Awards in a ceremony at the Metropolitan Club in New York City. Laurie David, Deirdre Imus, Marjora Carter and Frances Beinecke were honored days before the 100th birthday of the late Rachel Carson, the pioneering environmental scientist whose 1962 “Silent Spring” alerted the world to the dangers of chemical pesticides. The Audubon Society was itself founded by a pioneering woman, Harriet Hemenway, who in 1896 started campaigning against the indiscriminate slaughter of birds to gather feathers for fashionable hats of the day. “More than 100 years later, conservation is not a matter of fashion. It''s a matter of fact,” Allison Whipple Rockefeller, the awards chair, said. “It''s the air, the water, the land – for us, for our children, and for their children.” Laurie David was honored for founding the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, and for conceiving of and producing the Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” “The movement to stop global warming is going to be the biggest movement this country has ever seen,” she said. “There is no more crucial time for everyone to be engaged in this issue.” Deirdre Imus founded the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology and created a non-toxic line of cleaning products in her campaign to de-toxify hospitals, schools and other public places. With diseases like autism that have suspected links to environmental contaminants rampant among American children, Imus said people can take the reins and limit exposure to the “chemical cocktail” in the environment with “simple fundamental” choices like buying organic foods. “People know this intellectually, but they become paralyzed because they don''t know what to change in their everyday lives,” She said. “It''s easy.” Marjora Carter, founder and director of Sustainable South Bronx, said environmental movement has to always embrace economic development and human rights, since many of the nation''s and world''s environmental problems disproportionately affect poor and minority communities. “It''s not just polar bears dying 30 years from now,” she said. “It''s the slow death sentence we''ve been handing out.” Frances Beinecke is the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has recently made combating global warming its primary focus. “Join with us and take action,” she said. “We need all voices from all communities to be a part of that.” John Flicker, president of Audubon, said the honorees stood as reminders “that the cumulative power of individual action is unstoppable.” More about the 2007 Rachel Carson Award Winners Laurie David Deirdre Imus Marjora Carter Frances Beinecke