|
Welcome to the Timeline of Environmental History. The concept came to me in a dream in 1999 and became a class project in webpage design. The history of humans and their relationship with nature goes back to the dawn of civilization. I chose 1830 as the beginning of this timeline because it shows how long it took us to reach the first billion people on earth. The span between each successive billion gets shorter and shorter each time. Follow the links on the right for more info on each subject. Any comments can be emailed to me at sher<at>kipukagraphics.com if you change the <at> symbol to the correct character. You can also visit my website at www.kipukagraphics.com.
|
|||
|
1830
|
 |
World Population reaches
1 Billion It took us millions of years to get here. |
|
|
1869
|
 |
The term "ecology" is coined by German zoologist Haeckel
|
|
|
1872
|
Yellowstone, the First National Park Created
|
In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a law declaring that Yellowstone would forever be "dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people."
|
|
|
1892
|
Sierra Club Founded
|
Sierra Club founded on May 28 with 182 charter members. John Muir elected first President. In its first conservation campaign, Club leads effort to defeat a proposed reduction in the boundaries of Yosemite National Park.
|
|
|
1905
|
National Audubon Society Founded
|
Audubon's mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity.
|
|
| 1916 |
National Park Service Founded
|
"There is created in the Department of the Interior a service to be called the National Park Service, which shall be under the charge of a director....The service thus established shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations. | |
|
1914
|
Passenger Pigeon Becomes Extinct
|
Martha, the last living specimen, died in the Cincinnati Zoological Garden, September 1, 1914.
|
|
|
1930
|
 |
World Population Reaches
2 Billion 100 years since |
|
|
1935
|
The Wilderness Society Founded
|
Spirited people protecting America's Wilderness since 1935 through the potent combination of science, advocacy and education.
|
|
|
1936
|
National Wildlife
Federation Founded
|
The mission of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is to educate, inspire, and assist individuals and organizations of diverse cultures in conserving wildlife and other natural resources and to protect Earth’s environment in order to achieve a peaceful, equitable and sustainable future. |
|
| 1947 |
Defenders of Wildlife Founded
|
Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities.
|
|
|
1951
|
The Nature Conservancy Founded
|
The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.
|
|
|
1960
|
 |
World Population Reaches
3 Billion Only 30 years since |
|
|
1961
|
World Wildlife
Fund Founded
|
WWF's mission is the conservation of nature. Using the best available scientific knowledge and advancing that knowledge where we can, we work to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth and the health of ecological systems. |
|
|
1962
|
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
is Published
|
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which in 1962 exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT, eloquently questioned humanity's faith in technological progress and helped set the stage for the environmental movement.
|
|
|
1963
|
 |
Limited Test Ban Treaty Signed by US, USSR and UK
|
|
|
1964
|
Wilderness Act
September 3, 1964
|
To establish a National Wilderness Preservation System for the permanent good of the whole people, and for other purposes.
|
|
|
1965
|
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Established
|
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) leads the Nation in research on linkages of land and water ecosystems in the coastal zone, and provides society with knowledge to meet critical environmental challenges in the 21st century. |
|
|
1965
|
Environmental Groups Gain
Legal Ground in Court
For the first time, a conservation group had been permitted to sue to protect the public interest. |
It began with the announcement in 1963 by New York's utility company, Consolidated Edison, of plans to build a power plant on Storm King Mountain near the Hudson River...
|
|
|
1966
|
Endagered Species Act
Inspired by the plight of the whooping crane, Congress passes the Endangered Species Preservation Act. |
The law authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to make a list of endangered domestic fish and wildlife and allows the Fish & Wildlife Service to spend up to $15 million per year to buy habitat for listed species. |
|
|
1967
|
Evironmental Defense
Fund Founded
Environmental Defense is a leading national nonprofit organization representing more than 400,000 members. |
Since 1967, we have linked science, economics and law to create innovative, equitable and cost-effective solutions to society's most urgent environmental problems.
|
|
|
1968
|
 |
The Population Bomb by
Paul R. Ehrlich is Published The Population Bomb sold many copies and raised the general awareness of population and environmental issues. |
|
|
1968
|
 |
Population Connection Founded as ZPG
|
|
 |
On the afternoon of January 29, 1969, an environmental nightmare began in Santa Barbara, California. | ||
|
1969
|
Friends of the Earth
Founded
|
Friends of the Earth defends the environment and champions a healthy and just world. |
|
|
1969
|
Cuyahoga River Fire
On June 23, 1969, Cleveland's oily, contaminated Cuyahoga River caught fire. Flames climbed as high as five stories until fireboats brought it under control. |
The fire was attributed to wastes dumped into the river by the waterfront industries. The publicity embarrassed local government mightily; the increasingly mocked Cuyahoga river, under the "burn on" spotlight, was poster-child for federal clean water legislation which followed.
|
|
|
1970
|
First Earth Day
Celebrated on April 22, 1970
|
Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin was disturbed that an issue as important as our environment was not addressed in politics or by the media, so he created the first Earth Day. An estimated 20 million people nationwide attended festivities that day.
|
|
|
1970
|
Environmental Protection Agency and NOAA
Created by President Richard Nixon
|
July 9, 1970
Special Message from the President to the Congress About Reorganization Plans to Establish the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
|
|
1970
|
Clean Air Act
|
Establishing National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The law requires that EPA identify and set standards for pollutants identified as harmful to human health and the environment.
|
|
|
1971
|
Greenpeace Founded
Greenpeace is a non-profit organisation, with a presence in 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. |
As a global organisation, Greenpeace focuses on the most crucial worldwide threats to our planet's biodiversity and environment. |
|
|
1972
|
Clean Water Act established the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States. |
It gave EPA the authority to implement pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry.
|
|
|
1972
|
Negative Population Group Founded
|
NPG is a national membership organization founded in 1972 to educate the American public and political leaders about the detrimental effects of overpopulation on our environment, resources and quality of life.
|
|
|
1973
|
Green Party Founded in the U.S.
|
A U.S. group has existed since 1973; the Green party of the United States was officially formed in 2001 from the Association of State Green Parties.
|
|
|
1973
|
Cousteau Society is Founded
|
Educating people to understand, to love and to protect the water systems of the planet, marine and fresh water, for the well-being of future generations.
|
|
|
1973-
1974 |
Oil Embargo in the U.S.
President Nixon, as part of his ill-fated price control program, had slapped controls on oil in March 1973. The U.S., which had been self-sufficient in energy as recently as 1950, was now importing some 35% of its energy needs. |
U.S. petroleum reserves were nearly gone. Governments, corporations and individuals were entirely unprepared for what would happen next.
|
|
|
1974
|
 |
World Population Reaches
4 Billion Only 14 years since |
|
|
1976
|
Earthtrust Founded
|
Earthtrust is a conservation-advocacy group, dedicated to protecting wild species.
|
|
|
1978
|
Residents Evacuated from their homes at Love Canal, NY
|
On August 7, 1978, United States President Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency at the Love Canal a former chemical landfill which became a 15-acre neighborhood of the City of Niagara Falls, New York.
|
|
|
1979
|
Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant Accident
|
On March 28, 1979 Reactor 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant suffered a partial meltdown.
|
|
|
1982
|
International Whaling Commission Moratorium on Commercial Whaling
|
In 1982, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) passed a worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling in response to declining whale populations. The moratorium took effect in 1985/86.
|
|
|
1984
|
Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal, India Leaks Toxic Fumes
On the night of Dec. 2nd and 3rd, 1984, a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, began leaking 27 tons of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate. |
Half a million people were exposed to the gas and 20,000 have died to date as a result of their exposure.
|
|
|
1985
|
Hole in Ozone Layer
Discovered over Antarctica
In 1985, Joseph Farman, Brian Gardiner, and Jonathan Shanklin discovered in the ozone hole over Antarctica. |
In the following two years, scientists confirmed that human-produced chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons, used in refrigeration and propellant devices, were causing the hole.
|
|
|
1986
|
Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Meltdown, Ukraine
|
On April 25th -26th, 1986 the World's worst nuclear power accident occurred at Chernobyl in the former USSR (now Ukraine).
|
|
|
1986
|
Rails to Trails Founded
|
Creating a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors to build healthier places for healthier people.
|
|
|
1987
|
 |
World Population Reaches
5 Billion Only 13 years since |
|
|
1989
|
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Prince William Sound, Alaska, March 24, 1989
The Exxon Valdez oil spill was the most devastating environmental disaster to occur at sea in U.S. history. |
Its remote location (accessible only by helicopter and boat) made government and industry response efforts difficult, and severely taxed existing plans for response. The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals, and sea birds.
|
|
|
1991
|
Captain Planet Foundation Created
|
The mission of the Captain Planet Foundation is to fund and support hands-on environmental projects for children and youths.
|
|
|
1991
|
The National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence Created
|
The National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence (NDCEE) was established in 1991, with the directive to serve as a national leadership organization to address high priority environmental problems for the Department of Defense (DOD), other government organizations, and the industrial community.
|
|
|
1991
|
Kuwait Oil Fires
Persian Gulf Disaster |
In the waning days of the Persian Gulf War, as Iraqi forces retreated to Baghdad, Saddam Hussein sent a team of engineers into the Kuwaiti oil fields and blew up hundreds of wells.
Unignited oil from the wells formed about 300 oil lakes that contaminated around 40 million tons of sand and earth. |
|
|
1992
|
First Earth Summit
|
The two-week Earth Summit was the climax of a process, begun in December 1989, of planning, education and negotiations among all Member States of the United Nations, leading to the adoption of Agenda 21, a wide-ranging blueprint for action to achieve sustainable development worldwide.
|
|
|
1997
|
American Kenaf Society Formed
Conservative estimates indicate that at least one out of every three trees harvested today ends up as pulp. Ancient forests are often the victims. |
The American Kenaf Society (AKS) was founded in 1997 as a non-profit organization and is international in scope. Members include individuals and organizations working directly or indirectly with kenaf and kenaf-based products, plus those with environmental concerns.
|
|
|
1999
|
 |
World Population Reaches
6 Billion Only 12 years since |
|
|
2002
|
 |
Earth Summit
Johannesburg |
|
|
2010
|
 |
Projected World Population Will
Reach 7 Billion |
|
