Today, Rachel Carson would have turned 104 years old – we honor her memory and all that she accomplished in the name of conservation.

Golden Globe award winning actress and activist Sigourney Weaver and artist Maya Lin were named winners of the 2011 Rachel Carson Awards at the recent The National Audubon Society’s Women in Conservation event at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. A key speaker at the ceremony, Weaver praised Rachel Carson, drawing inspiration from the legacy of the great biologist and author. Noting that women play a central role in the environment, the alien-hunting actress urged that all women “kick some ass” for Mother Earth.

The Audubon Society praised Weaver for her role as Primatologist Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist, her narration of the Planet Earth series, as well the environmental documentary, Acid Test. She is also a noted activist on many issues, ranging from the Gulf oil spill and Amazon rainforest exploitation, to global reproductive health and birth control for all women.

Maya Lin, the artist and designer of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., has also directed her considerable energies towards environmental causes. Lin’s project, What is Missing? considers the troubling reality that many birds, fish, and mammals are currently threatened with extinction due to human expansion and ecosystem exploitation. Lin admonishes that we as humans are the only species that can choose to either save other species, or destroy them.