The Green MovementIRrecently, medical attention was sought for a 23-month-old child due to anorexia, weight loss, irritability, profuse sweating, scaling and redness of the fingers and toes and miliary rash. The diagnosis was mercury poisoning, and an investigation of his environment revealed that he had been exposed to mercury from broken fluorescent light bulbs. (Tunnessen 786) Fluorescent light bulbs pose a serious danger to our health and a significant risk of contaminating our environment. Poisoning from mercury and other heavy metals, as well as contamination and habitat destruction, could become commonplace if we do not carefully implement Green solutions. To understand the problems with many of the green solutions, how we got to this point, and what we can do to fix it, we need to understand what the “Green Movement” is. Today's Green Movement has its beginnings in the Transcendentalist writings of the 1830s, 1840s, and later. In 1835 Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the essay Nature, beginning the writing period of American Transcendentalism. Several Transcendentalist writings from this era contributed greatly to the formation and foundation of what became the modern Green Movement, such as Henry David Thoreau's Walden, published in 1854, and Maine Woods, published in 1864. In Maine Woods, Thoreau called for conservation of the federal nature and forest conservation. The most influential writing of this period was former Congressman George Perkins Marsh's Man and Nature, published in 1864. Clark University states: “He is considered America's first environmentalist. More than a hundred years ago he warned of our destructive ways” (np). This book had a great influence leading to the laws that...... middle of paper ......de Heinz Sell. Revolution in Lamps: A Chronicle of 50 Years of Progress (2nd ed.). Lilburn, GA: The Fairmont Press, Inc., 2001. Print.Lamptech. www.lamptech.co.uk. November 26, 2011. Web. November 26, 2011. .Tunnessen, Walter W., Keven J. McMahon, and Michael Baser. "Acrodynia: Mercury Exposure from Fluorescent Light Bulbs." Pediatrics 79.5 (1987): 786. Print.UNFCCC, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Ratification status. November 26, 2011. Web. November 26, 2011. .University, Clark. Clark University | Marsh Institute. November 22, 2011. Web. November 22, 2011. .Wikipedia. Silent Spring – Wikipedia. 03 November 2011. Web. 15 November. 2011. .