Читать книгу Natural Environments and Human Health - Alan W Ewert - Страница 41

Ecology has become a household word because Ellen Swallow Richards (1842–1911) was a visionary environmental leader who coined the word in about 1892. Swallow Richards understood the connection between the natural environment and human health. As a sickly child growing up on a farm, she experienced firsthand that being in the clean outdoor air made her healthier and stronger. She connected people to their environment and educated many people at venues such as the 1893 World Fair exhibit, Rumford Kitchen, where she concentrated on preparing nutritious meals from natural foods, published Air, Water, and Food from a Sanitary Standpoint (1900), and helped to start Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. It was at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory that Rachel Carson later studied and had experiences that profoundly changed her, leading to her environmental work. Swallow Richards graduated and worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, making headway in sanitation and in teaching children environmental education. She symbolizes a culture’s coming to terms with the healthful interface between humans and our environment even as we industrialize.