An Evolving Environmental Story: The Highs and Lows in Earth Day’s 45-Year Existence

April 22, 2015, will mark the 45^th anniversary of Earth Day’s founding. Rachel Carson’s 1962 work Silent Spring, which exposed the harmful effects of chemical pesticides on the environment, fueled a growing momentum of environmental rights activists and preservationists concerned about the plight of Earth’s natural resources.[27]

In 1969, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson brought voice and vision to a grassroots environmental awareness movement that would become Earth Day. “Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation’s campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam,” noted a November 30, …read more