1 gen 1970 anni - Earth Day first observed

Descrizione:

Silent Spring:Book published in 1962 by biologist Rachel Carson. Its analysis of the pesticide DDT’s toxic impact on the human and natural food chains galvanized environmental activists.
Earth Day: An annual event honoring the environment that was first celebrated on April 22, 1970, when 20 million citizens gathered in communities across the country to express their support for a cleaner, healthier planet.


The oil embargo and energy crisis contributed to a growing awareness of the limits of natural resources. This idea was central to the 1970s revival of environmentalism. The environmental movement was an offshoot of sixties activism, but it had deeper historical precedents: the preservationist, conservationist, and wilderness movements of the late nineteenth century; the conservationist ethos of the New Deal; and anxiety about nuclear weapons and overpopulation in the years following World War II. The Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, and Natural Resources Council — three leading environmental organizations — were founded in 1892, 1935, and 1942, respectively. Environmental activists in the 1970s drew on these traditions in seeking to change how humans interacted with nature


On June 22, 1969, a large section of the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland on the southern shore of Lake Erie caught fire and burned for hours. Accumulated oil and other chemicals from nearby factories and refineries produced this “burning river,” which received national attention and sparked renewed scrutiny of pollution and environmental degradation. Pictured here are firefighters battling an earlier fire on the same river in 1952. Between 1968 and the June 1969 blaze, there were a total of nine fires on the Cuyahoga. Together, the fires were among a series of environmental catastrophes that helped spur grassroots activism in support of new federal legislation devoted to clean air, clean water, and natural resource protection.


The movement had received a boost back in 1962 when biologist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a stunning revelation of how human-produced pesticides poisoned flora and fauna. The book shocked Americans and jump-started the resurgence of environmentalism. Further momentum built in the late 1960s. The Sierra Club successfully fought two dams in 1966 that would have flooded the Grand Canyon. And in 1969, three major events spurred the movement: an offshore drilling rig spilled millions of gallons of oil off the coast of Santa Barbara; the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland burst into flames because of the accumulation of flammable chemicals on its surface; and the Friends of the Everglades group successfully stopped plans for an airport that threatened plants and wildlife in Florida. Environmentalism became a certifiable mass movement on the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, when 20 million people gathered in communities across the country to express their support for a cleaner, healthier planet.

Aggiunto al nastro di tempo:

Data: