Gaylord Nelson, Father of Earth Day - MINDS@UW Home

Robert Gottlieb agrees with Merchant, refining her argument by noting that
Carson‟s book was at times controversial, saying
The publication of Silent Spring in 1962 and the ensuing
controversy that made it an epochal event in the history of
environmentalism can also be seen as helping launch a new era of
environmental protest in which the idea of Nature under stress can
also be seen as a question of the quality of life. 58
Neimark and Mott also contend that Carson was probably the one
individual most responsible for calling public attention to pollution and
environmental issues. 59 However, as shown above, there were other instances
that differentiated public concern and brought conservation and environmental
issues to the forefront. In fact, there had been active interest in the conservation
of natural resources in America as far back as 1864.
Thus the selection of Carson‟s book as a moment of sea change seems a
bit arbitrary. Instead, one can read the environmental history of the United
States as an evolutionary progression that included but was not necessarily
defined by notable events such as the publication of Silent Spring. 60
* * * * *
According to Char Miller, one of the early debates that delineated the
difference between conservationists and environmentalists was the conflict over
the Colorado River Storage Act Project in 1956. 61 The federal government
58 Robert Gottlieb, “Reconstructing Environmentalism: Complex Movements,
Diverse Roots, Environmental History Review 17, no. 4 (Winter 1993): 11.
59 Peninah Neimark and Peter Rhodes Mott, 189.
60 Peter Adams McCord, “Green Ideas, Green Vietnam: Environmentalism in the
Sixties.” PhD diss., University of California – Davis, 1996.
61 Char Miller, ed., The Atlas of US and Canadian Environmental History (New
York: Routledge, 2003), 146.
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