Thomas Merton’s early awakening to ecological destruction is noted in his journal Turning Towards the World (p. 274) in 1962 when he writes:
‘I have been shocked at a notice of a new book by Rachel Carson [Silent Spring], on what is happening to birds as a result of the indiscriminate use of poisons (which do not manage to kill all the insects they intend to kill).
Someone will say: you worry about birds: why not worry about people? I worry about both birds and people. We are in the world and part of it and we are destroying everything because we are destroying ourselves, spiritually, morally and in every way. It is all part of the same sickness, and it all hangs together.’
