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The article opens on Silent Spring, then shifts to Silent Running, without ever explaining the connection between the two. Neither one's wikipedia article make

• themadturk 3y ago
  It was a not-too-successful attempt by the author to create an equivalency, I think. Silent Spring was the gateway text to environmental concerns in the early 60s. Silent Running was an environmental science fiction film that had a similar theme and might have had aspirations to have a similar impact.
• fractallyte 3y ago
  The third- and second-from-last paragraphs reference a book found beside Lowell’s bunk: a copy of the “Conservation Pledge” from 1946 "when the magazine Outdoor Life held a contest to encourage outdoors enthusiasts to dedicate themselves to the preservation of the America’s natural resources. The winning entry, the one that adorns Lowell’s wall aboard Valley Forge, was submitted by L.L. Foreman, a former ranch hand turned author of pulpy adventure Westerns. "The second-place winner of that 1946 contest? Rachel Carson." So there's a hint that the protagonist of Silent Running had actually read Carson's Silent Spring!