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[https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/green-life/spring-awakening by Katie O'Reilly 24/1/17 Sierra] | [https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/green-life/spring-awakening by Katie O'Reilly 24/1/17 Sierra] | ||
When Rachel Carson published her eloquent warning about the long-term dangers of pesticides in 1962, Silent Spring sparked an extraordinary national debate. The slim, chilling book—a true story on how DDT, then a common synthetic insecticide, harms wildlife, agriculture, domestic pets, and humans—made Carson the target of ruthless attacks from the chemical industry. Silent Spring also inspired President John F. Kennedy to launch an investigation into the public health consequences of pesticides, resulting in the first-ever laws designed to protect and preserve the environment. | When Rachel Carson published her eloquent warning about the long-term dangers of pesticides in 1962, Silent Spring sparked an extraordinary national debate. The slim, chilling book—a true story on how DDT, then a common synthetic insecticide, harms wildlife, agriculture, domestic pets, and humans—made Carson the target of ruthless attacks from the chemical industry. Silent Spring also inspired President John F. Kennedy to launch an investigation into the public health consequences of pesticides, resulting in the first-ever laws designed to protect and preserve the environment. | ||
=====Environmental Women===== | |||
[https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/environmental-women-reading-list-syllabus-rachael-carson by Carly Nairn 27/5/18 Sierra] | |||
Today is the birthday of Rachel Carson, a marine biologist and ecologist who became one of the most well-known environmentalists in U.S. history. Her book Silent Spring earned her a well-deserved place on the reading list for many an environmental studies course. But she's not the only woman who deserves to be there. In honor of Carson's birthday, here’s a list of essential reading about her and several other trailblazing environmental thinkers who also happen to be women. | |||
Revision as of 10:15, 30 September 2025
Wilderness Forever: The Wilderness Act 50th Anniversary
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the Sierra Club and the Smithsonian collaborated on a short film primer at the entrance to The Smithsonian Institution Museum’s Wilderness Forever exhibit opening Sept. 3rd
6 Good Things Richard Nixon Did for the Environment
by Shea Gunther 14/8/24 Treehugger
When most people think of President Richard Nixon, the term "environmentalist" isn't the word that immediately leaps to mind. The 37th president, who resigned from office in 1973 after the Watergate scandal, left a surprisingly strong environmental legacy, giving our nation new legislation governing protection of the air, water and wilderness.
Theodore Roosevelt
Despite his unabashed taste for hunting, Theodore Roosevelt was undeniably a lover of nature, and perhaps our first environmentalist president. Throughout his presidency, Roosevelt used executive action like no other president before him to reach his conservationist goals. Roosevelt ensured that Yellowstone National Park could not be exploited for commercial goals and established over 50 national bird refuges through executive action. He would go on to found the U.S. Forest Service and create the
first 18 National Monuments, including Muir Woods, Grand Canyon, and Devils Tower.
Is Environmental Protection Possible?
by Evaggelos Vallianatos 23/8/19 COUNTERPUNCH
I joined the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1979. It happened by accident. A friend in Alexandria, Virginia, was working for the personnel office of EPA. We talked and I expressed interest in EPA. I said to him something to the effect the EPA was a great and necessary institution in late twentieth century America. You could not hide from pollution. Millions of cars harmed our health and defiled the atmosphere daily.
How America solved its first air pollution crisis — and why solving the next one will be harder
The history of American air pollution, explained.
EPA Would Shrink to 1970 Staffing Levels—‘When the Skies Were Dark With Smog’—Under Proposed Plan
by Marianne Lavelle 26/2/25 Inside Climate News
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would slash 65 percent of its workforce under plans that its administrator, Lee Zeldin, has discussed with the White House, President Donald Trump said Wednesday at his first cabinet meeting.
The lost history of what Americans knew about climate change in the 1960s
In 2007, when the court ruled that the Clean Air Act of 1970 gave the Environmental Protection Agency the flexibility to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, former Justice John Paul Stevens wrote, “When Congress enacted these provisions, the study of climate change was in its infancy.” Writing a dissent in a 2022 case looking at similar questions, Justice Elena Kagan argued that back in 1970 when Congress created the act, legislators gave the EPA the flexibility to keep up with the times, tackling problems (i.e., climate change) that couldn’t be anticipated.
A look at EPA administrators since the agency’s founding
by Jonathan Hiskes & Sara Barz 20/12/08 Grist
As government titles go, “administrator” doesn’t have the same ring as “secretary,” “czar,” or “ambassador.” But it’s an accurate moniker for the top job at the Environmental Protection Agency, where the president’s appointee is charged with running an agency of 17,000 employees organized around 10 regional offices, with an overall annual budget of more than $7 billion.
This landmark law saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars
by Beth Gardiner 29/12/20 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Fifty years ago, a group of Democratic and Republican senators spent months working together in Washington, D.C. to tackle a danger they all agreed was harming Americans’ health and lives. Huddled in committee rooms for hours on end, they listened to one another’s ideas, traded jokes across party lines and, in the end, produced a bill that won unanimous Senate approval and passed the House of Representatives with just one “no” vote.
Better days ahead for flagship regulator.
If John Wayne were to stroll down certain Main Streets at noon today, he would not just risk being arrested for jay-walking and carrying an exposed weapon; he might also face charges for smoking tobacco in the saloon the previous evening, or lighting a bonfire in his own back garden. And quite right, too. Sensible regulation has become an integral part of the American way of life.
The History of Environmental Justice in the United States
by Sharmon Lebby 12/10/21 Treehugger
A web search of Robert Bullard brings up photos of a perpetually smiling man. His appearance is avuncular or perhaps that of a distant relative that you can picture handing out sweets when the parents aren’t looking. However, behind his jovial smile is the author of 18 books and over 13 dozen articles. All of the published works cover a topic for which he has received multiple awards and is considered "the father" of—that is, environmental justice.
Unheralded Environmentalist: Jimmy Carter’s Green Legacy
by Kai Bird 29/3/23 YaleEnvironment360
The angry Alaskans gathered in Fairbanks to burn the president’s effigy. It was early December 1978 and President Jimmy Carter was that unpopular in Alaska. A few days earlier Carter had issued an unusual executive order, designating 56 million acres of Alaskan wilderness as a national monument. He did so unilaterally, using a little known 1906 Antiquities Act that ostensibly gave the president the executive power to designate buildings or small plots of historical sites on federal land as national monuments. No previous president had ever used the obscure act to create a vast wilderness area. But Congress was refusing to pass the necessary legislation, so Carter decided to act alone.
Lessons for the Next Resistance
by Ruth Greenspan Bell DEMOCRACY
A week or so after the brutal shock of the 2016 election, I ran into someone I will call Frank. It was a chance meeting in the lively Washington plaza shared by the EPA headquarters, where Frank was a career employee, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where I work on climate issues. I knew Frank from my stint at EPA years before. It wasn’t long before we began commiserating about the election.
No Comment
by Rachel Ramirez 9/3/20 Grist
Yvette Arellano has fought for years against the oil, gas, and petrochemical infrastructure that has inundated her home state of Texas. For her, the fight is personal.
The Clean Water Act at 50: Big Successes, More to Be Done
by Andrew S. Lewis 13/10/22 YaleEnvironment360
When Steve Meserve’s great-grandfather, Bill Lewis, started the Lewis Fishery in 1888, it was one of dozens of commercial outfits scattered up and down the Delaware River that seined for American shad during the spring spawn. At the time, the Delaware’s shad fishery hauled 3 to 4 million of the hard-fighting fish from the river and its tributaries every year. But, soon enough, Lewis discovered that he had gotten into the business just as the river — along with the species it supported — was entering a period of catastrophic decline.
CEQA Anyone?
On a sunny Saturday morning earlier in March, members of the Angeles Chapter gathered to learn about CEQA. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was passed in 1970, with the purpose of requiring state and local agencies to identify the environmental impacts their projects may cause, and what they’ll do to mitigate those impacts. It was meant to buffer the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), passed the year prior, as NEPA only applies to projects that receive federal funding, while CEQA applies to projects receiving state or local approval.
Trump Administration Is the Greatest Threat the EPA Has Ever Faced
by Heather Smith 26/6/17 Sierra
The Trump administration is the greatest threat the EPA has ever faced. That’s the conclusion of a report compiled by the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), an international network of academics and nonprofits best known for spearheading the movement to archive public environmental data before Trump took office.
NATURE VOL 227 AUGUST 15 1970
but more what company chairmen invariably describe
to stockholders as "cautious optimism"-in other words, a feeling that matters do not necessarily have to progress from bad to worse. What the Council's recommendations boil down to is first and foremost that
Breaking: The Republican attack on clean air isn’t popular
Make no mistake about it: The Clean Air Act is under attack from Congress. Indeed, in the U.S. Senate voting is imminent on several amendments to a non-related small business bill that would ditch, delay, or dilute the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to update and enforce air pollution standards.
Historical Accomplishments
Note: We are revising this section of our website, which presents the Sierra Club's history in an insensitive and exclusionary way. We are committed to engaging more critically with our past and reckoning with the ways racism, sexism, and other systems of oppression have shaped our organization. Please check back soon for an updated page.
History
The Sierra Club was founded by John Muir, in California in 1892. The stated goals were to explore, enjoy, and render accessible the mountain regions of the Pacific Coast; to publish authentic information concerning them; and to enlist the support and cooperation of the people and government in preserving the forest and other natural resources of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Sierra Club Founders
For the first part of its existence, the Sierra Club was an exclusive social outings club established to explore, enjoy, and protect the Sierra Nevadas. Membership was often denied to people of color. The Sierra Club acknowledges the harm such discrimination created.
History & Archives
Founded in 1892, the Sierra Club has grown and evolved dramatically during its more than 125 years of existence. During that time, many gifted and dedicated men and women have helped to shape the organization's direction, while the Sierra Club itself has played an important role in influencing conservation policy and environmental history. Although the Sierra Club's official archives have been housed at the University of California's Bancroft Library since the latter part of the 20th century, the William E. Colby Memorial Library continues to serve as a resource for those who are interested in the Sierra Club's history.
History of the Yosemite Conservation Heritage Center
The Sierra Club has had a long and intimate history with Yosemite National Park, of which the Yosemite Conservation Heritage Center (formerly LeConte Memorial Lodge) is one important part.
The Sierra Club's 125-Year History Has Been a Story of Evolution
by Rebecca Solnit 17/4/17 Sierra
A writer and longtime Club member reflects on the organization's history
Key Figures in Sierra Club History
by William E. Colby SIERRA CLUB
Pulling Down Our Monuments
by Michael Brune 22/7/20 SIERRA CLUB
The Sierra Club is a 128-year-old organization with a complex history, some of which has caused significant and immeasurable harm. As defenders of Black life pull down Confederate monuments across the country, we must also take this moment to reexamine our past and our substantial role in perpetuating white supremacy.
History of The Sierra Club in the Pacific Northwest
The Sierra Club and John Muir’s relationship with the Pacific Northwest (PNW) is longstanding. Muir (1838 – 1914) founded the Sierra Club and was America’s pioneer conservationist and outspoken advocate for the protection of forests, parks and wilderness. His interest in the forests and glaciers of the PNW Cascades began in 1879 with a brief stopover in Port Townsend on his way to Alaska. Upon his return, he gave three public lectures in Portland. Speaking to standing room only crowds about his Alaskan trip, he “talked of the youth of the world, the present morning of creation and the beginning of the work of the infinite.”
Chapter History Intro
The Angeles Chapter was founded in 1911, starting first as the Southern California Section of the Sierra Club, then as the Southern California Chapter, and finally, as the Angeles Chapter. Our members have explored almost every nook and cranny of our region, both on their own and in tens of thousands of chapter-sponsored outings. Through these pages we recognize some of the achievements of our members and share the glorious past of the Angeles Chapter.
Sierra Club Presidents
Addressing Racism in the Sierra Club Past and Present
In acknowledgment of the recent blog (en español) penned by Sierra Club Executive Director, Michael Brune, and subsequent stories from the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times on racism in the history of the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations, the Angeles Chapter reaffirms its commitment to examine and learn from our past and our substantial role in perpetuating white supremacy.
Oral Histories
Oral history is a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. These first-person accounts are by some of the many outstanding people associated with the Sierra Club.
The History of Earth Day
by Jenn Savedge 20/4/23 Treehugger
Every year, people all around the world come together to celebrate Earth Day. This annual event is marked by lots of different activities, from parades to festivals to film festivals to running races. Earth Day events typically have one theme in common: the desire to show support for environmental issues and teach future generations about the need to protect our planet.
How Earth Day gave birth to environmental movement
by Christina Pazzanese 22/4/20 EHN
Denis Hayes was a 25-year-old student at Harvard Kennedy School in 1969 but dropped out after a semester to become a principal organizer of a grass-roots nonprofit that planned a nationwide rally on April 22, 1970, an event they would call Earth Day.
50 Years Ago - Earth Day 1970 at the Angeles Chapter
The first Earth Day was celebrated in Washington D.C., 50 years ago, on April 22, 1970. But by then the Angeles Chapter had already been working to preserve the Earth and its wild places for decades.
Let's Return Earth Day to Its Revolutionary Past
by Jamie Margolin 2/3/20 Sierra
It was as if one day a year everyone said, "Let's do the absolute bare minimum for the planet" and then went on with business as usual, feeling good about themselves, when I knew that what needed to happen to save my future was revolutionary, systematic change.
Greenpeace talks with Denis Hayes: 50 years of Earth Day, and where we go from here
by Katherine Myer 22/4/20 GREENPEACE
Denis Hayes organized the first Earth Day in 1970 and is board chair of the international Earth Day Network. Last week, he and Greenpeace USA Digital Content Strategist, Katie Myer, discussed the origins of Earth Day, how the landscape has changed since then, and why the environmental movement is fundamentally one of social and economic justice. This is an edited version of that conversation.
Love it or hate it, Earth Day’s just not what it used to be. What happened?
In the beginning, it was a policy-shaking event that awakened a new generation of activists. But now even environmentalists have misgivings about it. Sure, they can get behind planting trees and clearing trash out of rivers, but they have issues with Earth Day itself.
Earth Day Used to Be Rad. What Happened?
It’s no exaggeration to say that the first Earth Day was unlike anything else in U.S. history. The day was sui generis: Originally concocted by U.S. Senate backbencher Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, it was picked up by a handful of young organizers worried about pollution. Then, unexpectedly, tens of millions joined in. On April 22, 1970, an estimated 20 million people participated in Earth Day activities. The U.S. population at the time was just over 200 million. Do the math: Around one in 10 Americans took part, making the inaugural Earth Day very likely the biggest single day of political activism in the history of the republic.
Q&A: Denis Hayes, Planner of the First Earth Day, Discusses the ‘Virtual’ 50th
by Evelyn Nieves 17/4/20 Inside Climate News
Hayes hightailed it to Washington, D.C., hoping to convince Nelson to let him organize a teach-in at Harvard, and maybe other colleges in and around Boston. Two days later, Hayes dropped out of the John F. Kennedy School of Government to coordinate a national event, “Earth Day.”
Earth Day: Meet the original eco warriors protecting the planet
They are often the most vulnerable to climate change, but have developed systems built on thousands of years of land management, sustainability, and climate adaption.
Dr Koko Warner from the United Nations climate change secretariat says their participation in fighting global warming is vital.
The secret history of Earth Day
by Jonathan Hiskes & Russ Walker 22/4/09 Grist
If 40 years of Earth Days have taught us anything, um … While the Earth Day movement has had undeniable successes, critics charge that, uh … Whatever, screw it. Here’s the “real” story (with jokes!):
10 Earth Day Facts You Didn't Know
by Jenn Savedge 19/4/19 Treehugger
In 1970, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson was looking for a way to promote the environmental movement. He proposed the idea of "Earth Day." His plan included classes and projects that would help the public understand what they could do to protect the environment.
Earth Day
Denis Hayes organized the first Earth Day in 1970 and is board chair of the international Earth Day Network. Last week, he and Greenpeace USA Digital Content Strategist, Katie Myer,…
Earth Day and Our Sanctuaries
On January 28, 1969, a blowout on an oil drilling platform six miles off the coast of Santa
Barbara, California, spilled an estimated 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean. The massive spill shut down commercial fishing, fouled beaches, and killed a great number of dolphins, sea lions, seals, and more than 3,600 seabirds
A cynic's field guide to Earth Day. Weekend Reader for Sunday, April 22.
This is true even on Earth Day, when 15 teams are scheduled to host games, most with some token commemoration of the day. So stand up, baseball fans, kick those cups and shells out of the way, and give Mother Earth the same level of respect we gave to the meteorologically bankrupt ground hog a couple of months ago. It's only fair.
El Día de la Tierra / Earth Day
by Fabián Capecchi 5/4/21 SIERRA CLUB
Hace 51 años nadie, o muy pocas personas estaban conscientes del profundo daño que le estábamos causando al medio ambiente y mucho menos al planeta. Las chimeneas botando humo tóxico, las fábricas trabajando a todo vapor, los autos, neveras y aerosoles se sumaban al coro de agentes contaminantes, descargando toneladas de desechos químicos en los mismos ríos donde se tomaba el agua para beber.
Labor and environmentalists have been teaming up since the first Earth Day
A billion people participate in Earth Day events, making it the largest secular civic event in the world. But when it was founded in 1970, according to Earth Day’s first national coordinator Denis Hayes, “Without the UAW, the first Earth Day would have likely flopped!”
Why Earth Day doesn’t matter anymore
For most Americans, Earth Day is probably something you vaguely remember from elementary school. You may have sat through a lesson on reducing, reusing, and recycling, or made a poster with a frowny-faced Earth in art class. If your school was really ambitious, you might have had a bake sale and donated the proceeds to Save the Whales or Save the Rainforests. (My school was not particularly ambitious, so we’d usually watch Free Willy and call it a day.)
Walking in Rachel Carson's Footsteps
by The Nature Conservancy 30/6/23
Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist and nature writer whose work is credited with advancing the global environmental movement.
Gifts for the Future
High tide daily replenishes the salt pond on Maine’s Boothbay Harbor where Rachel Carson spent many summer days gathering material for her classic 1955 book, The Edge of the Sea.
The Legacy of Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson was an American marine biologist, author, and conservationist. She is best known for her pioneering work in environmental science and her influential book "Silent Spring," published in 1962. Her book sold more than two million copies in just two years, inspiring one of the most powerful conservation movements in our history. She shined a glaring light on the need for conservation in a time when environmental consequences were largely misunderstood - or worse - ignored. She argued that humanity is not separate from the natural world, and should be an active participant in protecting it.
For an Antidote to Climate Despair, Look to the Impact of Rachel Carson’s "Silent Spring"
Did you hear the birds singing outside this morning? A lot of us take that common sound of nature for granted. Most people these days do not realize how close we came to living in a much quieter world, to the widespread destruction of entire ecosystems and some of our most iconic species.
In ‘Silent Spring,’ Rachel Carson Described a Fictional, Bucolic Hamlet, Much Like Her Hometown. Now, There’s a Plastics Plant Under Construction 30 Miles Away
by Kiley Bense 10/5/22 Inside Climate News
SPRINGDALE, Pa.—If you stand in the sloping yard of the Rachel Carson Homestead and look southwest, down toward the Allegheny River, you can see the towers of the Cheswick Generating Station. Through the bare trees and thick green bramble that surround the house, the smokestacks emerge in the distance, twin pillars striped against a steel-silver sky.
Rachel's War
by David Gessner 15/3/16 Sierra
In the spring of 1962, the New Yorker published Rachel Carson’s anti-pesticide manifesto, Silent Spring, in three installments. Carson’s message quickly transcended the magazine’s readership, eliciting a national response that would eventually lead to a federal ban on DDT for agricultural use and the creation of the EPA. In honor of Carson’s legacy and Women’s History Month, cartoonist David Gessner illustrates the pioneering writer’s final years as she fought for the environment and for her life. (Based on Linda Lear’s biography, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature.)
Spring Awakening
by Katie O'Reilly 24/1/17 Sierra
When Rachel Carson published her eloquent warning about the long-term dangers of pesticides in 1962, Silent Spring sparked an extraordinary national debate. The slim, chilling book—a true story on how DDT, then a common synthetic insecticide, harms wildlife, agriculture, domestic pets, and humans—made Carson the target of ruthless attacks from the chemical industry. Silent Spring also inspired President John F. Kennedy to launch an investigation into the public health consequences of pesticides, resulting in the first-ever laws designed to protect and preserve the environment.
Environmental Women
Today is the birthday of Rachel Carson, a marine biologist and ecologist who became one of the most well-known environmentalists in U.S. history. Her book Silent Spring earned her a well-deserved place on the reading list for many an environmental studies course. But she's not the only woman who deserves to be there. In honor of Carson's birthday, here’s a list of essential reading about her and several other trailblazing environmental thinkers who also happen to be women.
