When I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity a few years back, one of my favorite signs stated "Give me moderation or give me death!" They weren't asking for extremism on any side. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring embodies this sentiment today. Even though it part of the foundation of the environmental movement, she didn't call for mass legislation or radical movements.
To be honest, even though I have been studying environmentalism and how to teach it since college, I had not formally read the book until this month. Each one of my professors would ask "who all have read Silent Spring?" and I would raise my hand, since everyone else was. I knew the gist; Carson was arguing against DDT, but I didn't realize how moderate of a viewpoint this book is in 2017.
