38. Rachel Carson
Industrial pollution was generally not considered a problem in the first half of the twentieth century until a beautiful person named Rachel Carson woke up the conscience of the nation through her book Silent Spring. The book brought to light the negative impacts that pollution was having on nature and humans and the widespread assumption that humans could control nature through chemicals and bombs. It led to the banning of the substance DDT, which was shown to be exceptionally harmful to nature and humans, and to people realizing that protecting nature was a moral issue.