Review: Earth Days

Those who worry that the eco-movement seems incapable of getting beyond its white upper-middle-class base will be disturbed anew by Robert Stone’s Earth Days, where every talking head is a well-bred Caucasian. Not that those chosen aren’t worthy to tell the bracing story of how America discovered ecology in the 1960s and 1970s — they include The Whole Earth Catalogue’s Stewart Brand, The Population Bomb author Paul Ehrlich, Secretary of the Interior (to JFK and LBJ) Stewart Udall, etc.

• Jimmy Carter
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Their consciousnesses were altered by the 1962 publication of Rachel Carlson’s instant classic, The Silent Spring, a muckraking call to protect the environment from then uncontrolled pesticides. A surprise of Earth Days is seeing Richard Nixon signing progressive eco-legislation and starting the Environmental Protection Agency.

Also, Jimmy Carter in his presidency had part of the White House converted to solar energy. Ronald Reagan came next, and, quickly, the White House was no longer green.