Each year, Earth Day -- April 22 -- marks the anniversary of what many consider the
birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
The height of hippie and flower-child culture in the United States, 1970 brought
the death of Jimi Hendrix, the last...
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Each year, Earth Day -- April 22 -- marks the anniversary of what many consider the
birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
The height of hippie and flower-child culture in the United States, 1970 brought
the death of Jimi Hendrix, the last Beatles album, and Simon & Garfunkel?s ?Bridge
Over Troubled Water?.
Protest was the order of the day, but saving the planet was
not the cause.
War raged in Vietnam, and students nationwide increasingly opposed
it.
At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans.
Industry
belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press.
Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity.
?Environment? was a
word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.
Although
mainstream America remained oblivious to environmental concerns, the stage had been
set for change by the publication of Rachel Carson s New York Times bestseller
Silent Spring in 1962.
The b
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