A half-century ago, our nation was in the grips of an unpopular war in Vietnam, trying to navigate new social norms and struggling to fulfill the historic promises of the Civil Rights Act. No less momentous was the growing awareness that our nation’s lands, air and water were in sad condition. Rachel Carson’s epic Silent Spring warned that as we poison nature with pesticides, she poisons us back. Off the coast of Santa Barbara, a blow-out in Union Oil’s well field produced what was at
that time the largest release of oil to waters in the nation’s history. Color video of oil-coated seabirds streamed into living rooms across the country. In Ohio, floating oil and woody debris on the Cuyahoga River were ignited by sparks from a nearby railroad. Time Magazine launched its new Environment section with file photos of the river and the wry caption, “If you fall in, you don’t drown—you decay.”