Millions across the globe will pause this Wednesday to observe Earth Day, an annual event conceived to ignite activism for the preservation of a planet now home to some eight billion humans and countless other organisms.
The origins of Earth Day lie in the escalating environmental concerns of the 1960s. Rachel Carson’s seminal 1962 work, Silent Spring, which exposed the devastating effects of the pesticide DDT on the food chain, became a bestseller and significantly heightened public awareness of nature’s delicate balance.
