The United States - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 26

The Sierra Club's success was modest, however, in view of the total
threats to parks and wilderness areas. Moreover, air and water pollu-
tion was increasing. At this juncture, in 1962 Rachel Carson published
Silent Spring , a topic describing how DDT was poisoning birds. he title
refers to the danger that so many songbirds would die that none would
remain to sing in mornings in the spring. Carson was an employee of the
Department of the Interior, working in the Biological Survey, and writing
in her spare time. She described the manner in which rampant use had
spread the insecticide everywhere. When the birds ate insects, the DDT
accumulated in their little bodies, causing death. Eagles were particularly
vulnerable because the fish they ate accumulated the poison, and when
the hen laid her eggs, the shells were too thin, so that when she incubated
them, she crushed them. The insecticide also caused a birth defect of the
beak becoming crossed so that the chick could not eat. Carson' s topic was
an instant best seller, spreading the alarm widely.
During the 1960s, the national government took small steps to address
environmental problems. President John F. Kennedy convened a White
House Conservation Conference (still using the old terminology). In 1963
he signed a treaty with the Soviet Union and Great Britain to outlaw testing
nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, ending the damage from fallout. The
following year Congress created the National Wilderness Preservation
System, fulfilling the dream of Aldo Leopold. Initially, the system con-
tained nine million acres, and eventually expanded to 90 million acres.
In 1968 Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act protecting
free-flowing rivers for their “scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wild-
life, historic, cultural or other similar values.” Dams no longer automati-
cally had top priority.
Congress began to tackle the much tougher issue of air pollution at
this time. Leadership fell to Democratic Senator Edmund Muskie, who
chaired the new Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution upon its
establishment in 1963. Muskie had no background in science or technol-
ogy, being an attorney, and took the chair as a favor to Senate leaders.
At that time attention focused on Los Angeles, where the many automo-
biles combined with the bright sun and stagnant circulation generated
smog. Although southern California had the most dramatic crisis, other
cities like Houston, Denver and New York suffered too. At this time it was
viewed as a health problem. The terms environment and ecology had not
come into popular use. Taking a medical approach, the early legislation
directed the US Public Health Service to develop air quality criteria for