Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was an American author, marine biologist and conservationist whose poetic book The Sea Around Us was a best seller and launched her into the public eye.
Silent Spring, her best known book, brought her most critical acclaim.
The book discusses the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment. By the 1960s, this was already a documented issue. Her skills in combining poetry and science helped her reach a much broader audience, and she is credited for helping to launch the modern environmental movement.
Looking at these four historical figures, it can be daunting to realise that the environmental issues they highlighted are still something to this day that we are tackling - in one form or another - throughout the world.
Though we may have come a long way from the time of Hippocrates, we still have a very long way to go to restore a more sustainable way of life not just for our own benefit but for that of the earth and all living species.
By Marijke Everts, Europeana Foundation
Feature image: The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man, Peter Paul Rubens & Jan Brueghel the Elder, Mauritshuis, Public Domain