Editing Earth Day (section)

===Growing eco-activism before Earth Day 1970===
In 1968, [[Morton Hilbert]] and the U.S. Public Health Service organized the Human Ecology Symposium, an environmental conference for students to hear from scientists about the effects of [[environmental degradation]] on human health.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 18, 1976 |title=Bentley Historical Library Finding Aids |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=bhlead;cc=bhlead;view=text;rgn=main;didno=umich-bhl-07183 |access-date=April 22, 2011 |publisher=Quod.lib.umich.edu}}</ref> This was the beginning of Earth Day. For the next two years, Hilbert and students worked to plan the first Earth Day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Historical Timeline – About UM SPH |url=http://www.sph.umich.edu/about/timeline.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20011109091133/http://www.sph.umich.edu/about/timeline.html |archive-date=November 9, 2001 |access-date=April 22, 2011 |publisher=Sph.umich.edu}}</ref> In April 1970{{snd}}along with a federal proclamation from U.S. Sen. [[Gaylord Nelson]]{{snd}}the first Earth Day was held.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 5, 1999 |title=Earth Day co-founder Morton S. Hilbert dies |url=http://ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=2535 |access-date=April 22, 2011 |publisher=Ns.umich.edu}}</ref>

[[Project Survival]], an early environmentalism-awareness education event, was held at [[Northwestern University]] on January 23, 1970. This was the first of several events held at university campuses across the United States in the lead-up to the first Earth Day. Also, [[Ralph Nader]] began talking about the importance of ecology in 1970.

The 1960s had been a very dynamic period for ecology in the US. Pre-1960 grassroots activism against [[DDT]] in [[Nassau County, New York|Nassau County]], New York, and widespread opposition to open-air [[nuclear weapons testing|nuclear weapons tests]] with their global [[nuclear fallout]], had inspired [[Rachel Carson]] to write her influential bestseller, ''[[Silent Spring]]'' (1962).