Most environmental activism in that era, however, focused on the insidious effects of man-made pollutants, poisonous chemicals and emissions on the air, water and land. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), established in an executive order by President Richard Nixon. Highlights include the 1962 publication of naturalist Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, the work of pioneering ecologist Barry Commoner, and the 1970 creation of the U.S. Environmentalism has been around for as long as civilization itself, but in the United States, the 1960s and early 1970s could be called the Golden Age of the environmental movement.
