 If you’re starting to live more eco-friendly, it’s important to know how the environmental movement began and evolved. More than anything else, it’s inspiring to understand how the actions of these individuals shaped our world.
The online resource, the Ecology Hall of Fame, is a well-researched, organized presentation of the heroes of the environmental movement. More information is available about the inductees of the Ecology Hall of Fame, both online and in books. But, if you’re in search of the most essential information about these champions, the Ecology Hall of Fame is the place to go.
Alan Chadwick, the famous advocate of organic farming, was the inspiration for the Ecology Hall of Fame. Chadwick established what is now the University of California, Santa Cruz’s (UCSC) Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS). Chadwick’s efforts, along with the ambitions of the students involved, have enabled CASFS to become a world renowned research center that helps Third World farmers use organic methods to feed their communities and improve their livelihoods.
Henry David Thoreau is another inductee. As Thoreau begged, we must “live deliberately,” and his writing has been an inspirational source for environmentalists for more than a century. Thoreau was an early advocate of conserving natural resources and preserving wilderness. He was also one of the first American believers of Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Rachel Carson is one of the few female inductees into the Ecology Hall of Fame. Many say she is responsible for inspiring the environmental revolution of the 1960’s. Her book, “Silent Spring,” was a modern equivalent of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” in that it disrupted mainstream American views of how things worked.
Another inductee, John Burroughs, is thought to be the predecessor to Thoreau in American nature writing. Burroughs wrote more than thirty books and published hundreds of poems and essays. He was a proponent of Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson, claiming that he stood on the shoulders of such giants.
If you haven’t read any of inductee John Muir’s works, you are missing out. Muir was responsible for saving the redwoods, and his passion practically drips off the pages. He is a very fitting member of the Ecology Hall of Fame.
Other inductees include Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey, Theodore Roosevelt, Lois Gibbs, Julia Butterfly Hill (who is one of the best modern examples of the difference that one person can make), Ruth Patrick, and Pete Seeger.
The Ecology Hall of Fame is inspirational. It’s a beacon of hope, reminding us that we can make a difference. We can, and we will.
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