Usual suspects make the list — environmentalists of all time
Dr. C.S. Prakash alerted me to yesterday’s list in The Guardian of the top environmental campaigners of all time. Not surprisingly, Rachel Carson tops the list, and one of her chief achievements was the eventual banning of DDT. Readers might be interested in John Berlau’s DDT article today, which puts that “achievement” in a human context.
Here’s the list of the top twenty. One who really accomplished something that helped save the earth — the people on it — was number 19, Joseph Bazelgette, who realized that “foul water” not foul air was responsible for the cholera epidemics. He devised the London sewer system, advised others on sewers, and saved countless people from dying of cholera.
Some politicians made the list. Most notable in the U.S. are Al Gore, Number 9, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Number 29. ‘Nuff said.
1 Rachel Carson, Author of Silent Spring
2 EF Schumacher, Green economist, author of Small is Beautiful
3 Jonathan Porritt, Government adviser, Green party, FoE
4 David Attenborough, TV naturalist
5 James Lovelock, Biologist, Gaia theorist
6 Wangari Maathai, Conservationist, Africa’s “tree woman”
8 William Morris, Craftsman and writer
9 Al Gore, US politician
10 Gro Harlem Brundtland, Former Norwegian PM, sustainable development
11 Richard Sandbrook, Campaigner
13 Vandana Shiva, Campaigner, India
14 Ansel Adams, Wilderness photographer
15 Fritjof Capra, Austrian physicist (now in CA), Eastern mysticism
16 Aldo Leopold, US ecologist
18 David Bellamy, TV botanist
19 Joseph Bazalgette, Victorian engineer, architect of London’s sewer system
20 John James Audubon, US naturalist and artist