Did This Photo Start The Environmental Movement?

Treehugger.com:

It has been said that the pictures taken on Christmas Eve forty years ago created the environmental movement, that for the first time people really could see that we really were all together on one little boat floating in space. This was the first, the black and white shot. Historian Christopher Riley writes in the BBC that Frank Borman saw it: "Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there!" Then they ran for the colour film.

Read the whole story: Treehugger.com

Comments

[Wilburrr]

Let's see.... Sierra Club established 1892.... Borman photo of earthrise from the moon -- Dec, 1968.

YUP! The photo HAD to start the environmental movement.

What kind of a lame a$$ statement is this? Increased awareness for environmen­talism?...­. yes. Starting the movement?.... hardly.

[wm1066]

Nasa just had an interview with the astronaunts of the Apollo 8 mission and they said that bringing a camera on board was kind of an after thought and Mission Control didn't understand how important it was to bring a camera. Lucky that the astronauts were thinking of posterity

[MissingAmerica]

How can look at a picture like this and not see that we need to work together to protect the planet and each other, not battle each other. It was once said that when the earth dies, man will die; when man dies, the earth will live again. Sad but true.

[hortonhearsawho2]

The moon is made of American Cheese, brought that to mind.

[LapsedPacifist]

Before Rachel Carson there were Audubon, Muir, Teddy Roosevelt and others. I would credit Carson with the birth of the modern environmental movement but we all owe a tremendous amount to those earlier conservationists. For just one example, how much less aware of our natural heritage would the American public have been without the National Park System?

[motoGpifupleez]

HoraceOvidson is right on. Rachel Carson was vilified by the Chemical industry using the tactic of "her way of thinking will cost people jobs and hurt the American economy". Sound familiar? "Earth Rising" is the most significant photograph ever taken. It speaks volumes about the petty selfishness of human nature that this picture had absolutely no impact in our treatment of this, our one and only world. May I also recommend John Christopher's "No Blade of Grass" (also made into a movie in 1970). Like "Soylent Green", it is a fictional story about a bleak future awaiting mankind as punishment for our hubris. Whether it is fiction like Mr. Carpenter, or analytical study like Ms. Carson, it never ceases to amaze me that anyone who threatens the Corporate dollar is attacked because they want to save something trivial like, I don't know, the only planet we are able to survive on. Oh, thats right, the rapture will take care of everything.

[Kassandra]

Actually, I did, in1964, with a high school civics paper.....­..........­..........­..........­...

[HoraceOvidson]

The environmental movement was officially launched in 1962 with the publication of Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, showing the destruction of the environment caused by our use of pesticides.

[Deli]

Correct. And it should be required reading for all. I just found a copy of the book in an off-beat used bookstore (Armadillo's Pillow) in Chicago. Absolutely amazing work. I first read it in the 5th grade. If only the world had listened. It is too late now. Green. Mankind's last fad.