From Rocket Men, by Craig Nelson (pg 313):
"Project Apollo and the first Moon landing would have a profound effect on another aspect of science, in a very unexpected way. The speaker at a NASA scientific banquet was British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, who had predicted in 1948 that, once a photograph of the Earth had been taken from space, a whole new way of thinking about the planet would result. As he told the attendees: 'You have noticed how, quite suddenly, everybody has become seriously concerned to protect the natural environment. It happened almost overnight, and one can understand how one can ask the question, 'Where did this idea come from?' You could say, of course, from biologists, from conservationists, from ecologists, but after all, they've really been saying these things for many years past, and previously they've never even got on base. Something new has happened to create a worldwide awareness of our planet as a unique and precious place. It seems to me more than a coincidence that this awareness should have happened at exactly the moment man took his first step into space."
The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970.
Picture is a scan of an Apollo 11 image, July 20, 1969.
well, I suppose one thing i'm reminded of with this great post is that a change in perspective (physical or psychological) can dramatically alter the effect of rhetoric.
ReplyDeletevisual rhetoric is so important - thank you for the reminder.