Earth Day 1970 was irrefutable evidence that the American people understood the environmental threat and wanted action to resolve it.

• Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law in journalism, literature and art.
• Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law in journalism, literature and art.
• The modern assault on the environment began about 50 years ago, during and immediately after World War II.
• Earth Day 1970 was irrefutable evidence that the American people understood the environmental threat and wanted action to resolve it.
• The environmental crisis arises from a fundamental fault: our systems of production - in industry, agriculture, energy and transportation - essential as they are, make people sick and die.
• The most meaningful engine of change, powerful enough to confront corporate power, may be not so much environmental quality, as the economic development and growth associated with the effort to improve it.
• My entry into the environmental arena was through the issue that so dramatically - and destructively - demonstrates the link between science and social action: nuclear weapons.
• In every case, the environmental hazards were made known only by independent scientists, who were often bitterly opposed by the corporations responsible for the hazards.
• By adopting the control strategy, the nation's environmental program has created a built-in antagonism between environmental quality and economic growth.
• Environmental quality was drastically improved while economic activity grew by the simple expedient of removing lead from gasoline - which prevented it from entering the environment.