A Timeline of Significant Environmental Events

1977--

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act is a national treaty that established standards for mining, so that the practice wouldn't harshly impact fish, wildlife, and the environment. It prohibits mining in certain areas, and states that permits must be obtained before mining is commenced.

It is regulated by the Department of the Interior.

1978--

The Love Canal toxic waste leak was one of the largest pollution scandals in the country.

Kids near the area had contracted Leukemia and other diseases as a result of exposure to hazardous chemicals, which were being left behind at a dumping site in Love Canal, NY, by a company called Hooker Chemicals.

Lois Gibbs, who protested against Hooker Chemicals and their actions, ended up winning and her efforts got people evacuated from Love Canal. Also, because of her work, the Love Canal Homeowners Association was created.

December 7th, 1972

December 21st, 1972

In 1975, James Lovelock published a book that featured his Gaia Hypothesis, which says that living matter on Earth collectively defines and regulates the material conditions necessary for the continuance of life. He likens the planet to a large, vast, self-regulating organism.

December 23rd, 1982 was the day that the Missouri Department of Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) informed citizens of Times Beach, Missouri, that their town was contaminated when a chemical called dioxin (a harmful carcinogen) was sprayed on their unpaved roads, and that their town needed to be evacuated and demolished. The city was officially disincorporated in 1985.

Pictures below is a bus that was left behind in Times Beach.

was the day that the crew of the Apollo 17 mission took one of the world's most famous and most distributed photographs--a picture of the Earth from the moon, entitled "The Blue Marble."

It was taken from a distance of about 45,000 kilometers (or 28,000 miles).

It stands as a potent reminder of the fragile balance that living things enjoy here on Earth.

The Sea Mammal Protection Act was designed with the goal of preventing the depletion of marine mammal populations as the result of human activities, and to restore the already depleted populations.

This act affords protection to a single specific group of organisms, and is enforced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A partial nuclear meltdown occurred on March 28th, 1979, in Dauphin County, PA.

It was the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history.

There were no remaining effects, but some radioactive gases did manage to escape.

This event led to the development of the Federal Radiological Emergency Plan, which was later replaced by the National Response Framework.

CERCLA--The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act--is a U.S. national treaty that imposes a tax on petroleum indutries. It provides an authority that can respond to the release of hazardous substances.

This act is enforced by the EPA.

It was signed into law December 11th, 1980 and is commonly referred to as Superfund.

The Clean Water Act of October 18th, 1972

The Montreal Protocol

December 2nd, 1984, was the day when methyl isocyanate--a highly toxic and irritating material--was accidentally released by the Union Carbide Pesticide Plant, resulting in a toxic cloud that killed between 6,000 and 20,000 people in Bhopal, India.

established a basic structure for regulating the discharges of pollutants into the waters of the U.S.

It also makes sure that the surface waters are safe for both fishing and swimming.

This act includes pollution control programs, such as setting wastewater standards for different industries.

It is enforced by the EPA.

In the month of May, in the year 1985, scientists Joe Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin became the first to discover the annual depletion of the ozone layer above the Antarctic .

Satellite measurements confirmed their data, which they had previously gathered with a ground-based instrument.

Farman, Gardiner, and Shanklin.

The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by reducing or ending the production of numerous substances responsible for ozone depletion.

It is enforced by the EPA in the U.S.

It was created on January 1st, 1989.

On April 26th, 1986, a system test was being carried out on reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. A sudden and unexpected power surge caused a series of steam explosions--which ultimately led to fallout.

The government remained silent until it was too late to really help the people living in that area. To this day, Chernobyl remains a contaminated area.

"The Population Bomb"

In 1968, Paul Ehrlich and his wife, Anne, published a book that warned of the mass starvation of humans in the 70's and 80's due to overpopulation. It was criticized for its tone and inaccurate predictions, but the idea of overpopulation was brought to a wider audience.

"Tragedy of the Commons"

An article by ecologist Garret Hardin, which was published in the journal "Science," discussed problems that can't be solved by any technical means which humans are used to. Issues such as population growth and the use of the Earth's resources have to be solved by other, social, means.

This article was first published in 1968.

Mario Molina and Frank Rowland published a report in 1974 about CFC's--chlorofluorocarbons--and the dangers they pose to the environment.

300 Deaths in NY

1963 also saw the occurrence of a terrible incident in NY--pollution inversion (when, for example, smog gets trapped close to the ground and people are forced to breathe it) caused thousands to become ill and killed about 300 people.

(Rowland is on the left, and Molina is on the right.)

The pair used the scientific method to learn about the CFC's in the atmosphere and upon their findings they formed this hypothesis: that CFC's break down in the atmosphere due to interactions with ultraviolet light. They thought that these interactions produced a certain chemical that could break down the ozone layer.

They later concluded this chemical to be chlorine.

At first, the scientific community didn't really react to their report, so they hosted a press conference in September of that same year.

Cuyahoga River --the river that caught fire

The Environmental Defense Fund

At times during the 20th century, the Cuyahoga River was one of the most polluted rivers in the U.S.

The reach from the Akron to Cleveland was devoid of fish, and at least 13 fires that happened on the river had been reported river. The first occured in 1968.

The cause was the large quantities of black, heavy oil floating atop the river.

The RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act was first passed in the year 1976. It is a national act, encouraging states to come up with plants that can manage nonhazardous industrial solid waste and set criteria for municipal solid waste landfills and other waste disposal facilities.

No open dumping of solid waste is permitted.

This act is enforced by the EPA, with the goals of protecting humans from the dangers of hazardous waste.

The spill resulted in a mass mortality of benthic invertebrates (animals who have no backbone and live on the bottom of a body of water), seabirds, seals and other animals. The exposure to the oil caused long-term effects, such as a compromised health, growth and reproduction of species. In 1990, the Oil Protection Act was born to prevent similar events.

A U.S.-based, non-profit advacy group with the mission to preserve the natural systems on which all life depends. It works with businesses, the government, and communities to forward their cause. It was established in 1967.

The First Ever Earth Day

At a 1969 UNESCO conference in the city of San Francisco (UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), peace activist John McConnell proposed a day in honor of the Earth and the concept of peace. He wanted this day to be on March 21st, 1970.

A month later another Earth Day was founded by U.S. senator Gaylord Nelson. This second Earth Day was April 22nd, 1970.

(For some reason, Nelson, and not McConnell, was given an award for his work creating this other Earth Day.)

The Torrey Canyon Shipwreck

That same year, in the month of March, a supertanker with crude oil shipwrecked off the Western coast of England and caused an environmental disaster--this event led to the creation of the CLC (the Civil Liability Convention) and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships.

Effective April 28th, 1971, the Occupational Health and Safety Act imposed a duty on employers to provide their workers a workplace that if free of recognized hazards (such as toxic chemicals and unsanitary conditions).

"Silent Spring" was published on September 27th, 1962, by Rachel Carson. In it, she documented the detrimental effects of pesticides on the natural environment. She accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of unquestioningly accepting claims. She came under heavy fire, and her book was criticized by many.

The Exxon Valdez was a single-hulled oil tanker which ran aground on March 24th, 1989, after hitting Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef at 12:04 a.m. and spilled about 10.9 million gallons of crude oil within 6 hours.

The Clean Air Act Amendment of 1970

The amendment included the very important NAAQS--the National Ambient Air Quality Standards--which were established by the EPA.

The primary standards were designed to protect human health with an adequate margin of safety, and the secondary standards were set up to defend the public welfare from any known or anticipated harmful effects of a pollutant.

This act is enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The Clean Air Act, passed on December 17th, 1963, set the standard for modern air quality regulation. It set limits on the amount of air pollution in the air and worked to make car manufacturers find ways of lessening emissions.

CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) also occurred in 1963. It created a system of laws and controls over the international trade of endangered plants and wildlife.

The International Convention on Biological Diversity is a multilateral treaty that was enacted on June 5th, 1992.

It's three main goals are:

conservation of biological diversity;

maintaining a sustainable use of its components;

and a fair sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources

It is often cited as a key document in relation to the topic of sustainable development--the process of meeting human development goals while keeping natural systems and their resources safe from harm or overuse.

Mercury Poisoning in Minamata Bay, Japan

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From 1932 to 1968, the Chisso Corp. had been releasing methylmercury in its industrial wastewater. This highly toxic chemical found its way into fish and shellfish, and soon made the people sick too. Dr. Hajime Hosokawa reported on May 1st, 1956, that "an unclarified disease of the central nervous system has broken out." The neurological syndrome that the citizens were afflicted with had destructive symptoms and also caused death.

by

Alex Russell

The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that has the goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. It also has the intention of reducing the amount of fossil fuels that are released.

It is enforced by the EPA.

It was signed December 11th, 1997.

The Kyoto Protocol extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that has as its goal the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Price Anderson Act of 1957

This act governs liability-related issues for all non-military nuclear facilities in the U.S. built before the year 2026. The main goal of the act is to partially indemnify (compensate) the nuclear industry against liability claims arising from nuclear incidents while still ensuring compensation coverage for the general public.

"Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv was published on April 15th, 2005.

"Sand County Almanac"

Published in 1949, this non-fiction book by U.S. ecologist, forester, and environmentalist Aldo Leopold describes the land around his home in Wisconsin. It advocates the idea of a "land ethic"--a responsible relationship between people and the land where they live.

It is a documentation of decreased exposure of children to nature in U.S. society and how this is a harmful thing. In his book, Mr. Louv makes the point that exposure to nature is a very beneficial and important occurrence.

Everglades National Park

Established on May 30th, 1934, Everglades National Park is located in the state of Florida and it provides protection for the largest tropical wilderness in the U.S. It is visited on average by one million people a year. This park was the first to be created in order to preserve a fragile ecosystem.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster occurred on April 20th, 2010.

An explosion caused a fireball which could not be extinguished. The oil well seeped and gushed oil onto the seabed. This was the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

It left thousands of animals covered in oil, and the explosion killed 11 workers and injured 16 others.

The Atomic Energy Act

Signed on August 1st, 1946, with the intention of determining how the U.S. government would control and manage nuclear technology, this act ruled that nuclear weapon development would be under civilian, not government, control.

The Atomic Energy Act simultaneously established the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

The Mining Act:

signed into law on May 10th, 1872,

is a U.S. federal law that "authorizes and governs prospecting and mining for economic minerals, such as gold, platinum, and silver, on federal public lands." It was signed into law by President Grant.

FIFRA (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act)

"Life in the Woods"

is published

FIFRA, first effective on April 12th, 1910, was enacted with the intention of registering pesticides, so that the nation would become aware of them and their harmful effects. The act also stated that pesticides must be properly labeled and that the given pesticide must not cause unreasonable harm.

Also known as "Walden," this 1854 memoir by Henry David Thoreau is a mix of things; a work of satire, a social experiment, and a reflection on "simple living" in nature.

It is a lasting work of transcendentalism and is highly focused on the positive side of nature, containing a lot of descriptions of Ralph Waldo Emerson's scenic property.

The Sierra Club--founded on May 28th, 1892, by John Muir, the Scottish-American preservationist--is on of the first large-scale environmental preservation ogranizations in the world. It began in the city of San Francisco, California.

A Timeline of Significant Environmental Events