The "Initiative" is intended to help you and your community adopt environmentally-friendly (green) practices. The RCC publication "Get Some Green Back" provides suggestions in 12 areas with 3 action levels. The 3 levels of progressive action are: Basic, Plus, and Super. The Plus and Super levels include all actions described in the lower levels.
In Silent Spring Rachel Carson wrote, "Water, soil and the earth's green mantle of plants make up the world that supports the animal life of the earth."
The Green Mantle is a program designed to provide guidance and incentives to encourage ecological living. It is intended to include people and institutions.
The Council sponsors a variety of Green Mantle workshops. Upcoming workshops are listed on the front page of this website.
Green Mantle™ is a registered Rachel Carson Council trademark.
Get Some Green Back - 12 Steps to greener living and saving money
More information and tips related to Climate Change
Happy Birthday, Rachel...
Help Make Rachel Carson's Birthday Pesticide-Free!
Pesticide-Free Day - May 27
Over 40 years ago Rachel Carson's landmark book, Silent Spring, alerted America and the world to the hazards of pesticides. Despite the clarity of this warning, today the quantity of pesticides used in our country is greater than it was in Carson's time, and many of these products are harmful to the environment and to our health. For example, cancer and asthma have increased in our children over the past 25 years; both have been associated with pesticide exposure. Pets and wildlife also suffer from pesticide exposure. Wildlife losses from pesticides in the U.S. alone are estimated in excess of 2 billion dollars annually.
While we may not be able to decrease other chemical contaminants through personal actions, we can significantly reduce pesticides indoors, in our yards and in our food. We can do this through adopting low-risk pest management at home, at school, at work and by choosing organic products when we shop.
To honor Rachel Carson's prophetic work and to focus worldwide attention on the serious hazards still associated with chemical pesticides, we ask that Rachel Carson's birthday, May 27th, be set aside as a day free of chemical pesticide use.
Please take the time to learn about low-risk and integrated pest management in order to make a permanent reduction in pesticide use throughout the year. Educate yourself, your family and organizations about effective, alternative methods of pest management.
Please inform yourself and others about pesticide hazards to human health. Of special concern are cancer, neurological problems such as Parkinson's Disease, abnormal immune functions, respiratory problems (asthma), digestive problems, endocrine problems and developmental problems. Learn also about pesticides' serious short and long term hazards to wildlife, particularly birds and aquatic organisms.
By making May 27th pesticide-free, you can help reduce the suffering of workers, children, pets and wildlife and help make the world a safer place for yourself and your family.
Make this Top Ten List your guide to pesticide reduction activities:
- Educate yourself about serious adverse effects associated with pesticides, such as cancer, neurological damage, endocrine disruption; have your children research the negative impacts of pesticides on wildlife
- Learn about alternative, low risk ways to manage pests
- Where possible, purchase organically-produced food and fiber products
- Contact your local newspaper, explaining the need for a Pesticide-Free Day
- Plan an organic picnic, tea, dinner, brunch or luncheon
- Have a reading of selections from Silent Spring or selections of other Carson writings
- Investigate ways to have beauty without toxicity in your garden, to make it a safer place for people, pets and wildlife
- Contact your local government and request use of low-risk pest control methods on public lands
- Establish a mini-Rachel Carson environmental film festival or a Rachel Carson environmental book club
- Pledge to reduce your reliance on high-risk chemical pesticides (see below)
Pesticide Free-Day Pledge
"The Choice, after all, is ours to make." ~ Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Take this pledge to help establish Rachel Carson's birthday, May 27, as a day where possible, free of chemical pesticide use -- in your town, county or state. By making May 27th pesticide-free, you can help reduce the suffering of workers, children, pets and wildlife and help make the world a safer place for yourself and your family.
I support the concept of a day free of chemical pesticides and urge the reduction in use of chemical pesticides, due to the hazards they present to the health of people, pets, wildlife and the ecosystem. And I pledge my efforts to help create such a day in my community on Rachel Carson's birthday, May 27th.
Send the Council an e-mail with your name, date, city, and state to let us know you have taken the pledge and what steps you are taking to make May 27th pesticide-free!