Introduction

Abstract

Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring alerted the general public to the dangers that modern technologies pose to the physical environment, implicating chemical pesticides as a cause of human sickness, withered crops, and the sudden and eerie disappearance of songbirds and other creatures. Since that time, a whole host of environmental threats have been publicized. People have been both frightened and politicized by incidents such as the leaking toxic dump at Love Canal, dioxin contamination at Times Beach, the nuclear power plant accidents at Three Mile Island and Chemobyl, and the chemical disasters at Seveso, Italy, and Bhopal, India.