Namesakes for Earth Day – John, Mario, Rachel, Carson

Happy Earth Day!

I was originally going to compile a list of “green” names (e.g., River, Cedar, Autumn, Sage, Sky) for today. But then I changed my mind — I wanted to offer you something a bit more out-of-the-box than that.

So instead, here are a few green namesakes. They may not evoke images of forests and lakes and whatnot, but they are arguably a lot “greener” than simple nature names like Hazel, Amber and Storm.

• Some of the founders and original organizers of Earth Day include activists John McConnell and Denis Hayes, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson and San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.
• Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring (1962) warned of the impact of DDT. Thanks to the book, the agricultural use of the pesticide was banned in the US a decade later by the newly created EPA. (The name Carson has also been used recently for both genders.)
• Mario Molina (from Mexico), F. Sherwood Rowland (from Ohio) and Paul Crutzen (from the Netherlands) shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering that CFCs were a threat to the ozone layer.