Corroded chemical drums from WR Grace and Company were discovered leaking trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene into the town’s water supply, causing childhood leukemia in several cases.
The multinational, agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto developed the first widely used genetically modified crop with the introduction of the “Roundup Ready” soybean.
Love Canal was placed on EPA’s National Priorities List in 1981 to receive federal cleanup aid. The Niagara Falls School District built communities on soil contaminated by long-term toxic waste from the Hooker Chemical Company, causing miscarriages of children and birth defects decades after the dumpsite was closed.
Silent Spring describes the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment, and is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement.
Carson’s Silent Spring: A Reader’s Guide provides an in-depth analysis and contextualization of Silent Spring. It also surveys the lasting impact the text has had on the environmentalist movement in the last fifty years.
Child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation—he calls it nature-deficit—to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as the rises in obesity, attention disorders, and depression.
Bill Bryson introduces the history and ecology of the Appalachian Trail.
The Monkey Wrench Gang fueled a new generation of angry young environmentalists (such as Earth First!) who practice monkey-wrenching, or sabotage for the sake of protecting the wilderness.
State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future examines changes in the ways cities are managed, built, and lived in that could tip the balance towards a healthier and more peaceful urban future.
First published in 1854, Walden details Thoreau’s experiences over the course of two years in a cabin amidst woodland near Walden Pond.
