Earth Day
By the early 1960s Americans were becoming aware of the effects of
pollution on the environment.
Rachel Carson s 1962 bestseller "Silent Spring"
raised the specter of the dangerous effects of pestisides on America s countrysides.
Later in...
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Earth Day
By the early 1960s Americans were becoming aware of the effects of
pollution on the environment.
Rachel Carson s 1962 bestseller "Silent Spring"
raised the specter of the dangerous effects of pestisides on America s countrysides.
Later in the decade, a 1969 fire on Cleveland s Cuyahoga River shed light on the
problem of chemical waste disposal.
Until that time, protecting the planet s natural
resources was not part of the national political agenda, and the number of activists
devoted to large-scale issues such as industrial pollution was minimal.
Factories
pumped pollutants into the air, lakes and rivers with few legal consequences.
Big,
gas-guzzling cars were considered a sign of prosperity.
Only a small portion of the
American population was familiar with–let alone practiced–recycling.
Elected to the U.
S.
Senate in 1962, Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat
fromWisconsin, was determined to convince the federal government that the planet
was at r
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