This timeline is primarily based on the one available at www.ecotopia.org/ehof/timeline.html. Other sources include: www.wikipedia.org, http://www.nps.gov/, and the websites of individual foundations and organizations such as the SIerra Club, Appalachian Mountain Club, etc.
Created by phoenixslayersx on Jun 12, 2008
Last updated: 03/11/10 at 07:53 PM
The key objective of the Kyoto Protocol is to reduce greenhouse gases that cause climate change. As of June 2008, 182 parties have ratified the protocol. The U.S. is NOT among one of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocal
Hill spent 738 days living in the 600-year-old tree, nicknamed Luna, in order to prevent loggers of the Pacific Lumber Company from cutting it down.
A resolution was finally reached in 1999 when the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to preserve Luna and all trees within a 3-acre buffer zone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Butterfly_Hill
Mono Lake is an alkaline and hypersaline lake in California, United States that is a critical nesting habitat for several bird species and is an unusually productive ecosystem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_lake
The disaster has been recorded as one of the largest spills in U.S. history and one of the largest ecological disasters in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_valdez
Thirty people are killed in the accident but thousands more die due to exposure to radiation. The Chernobyl incident is the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and it is arguable that the nuclear power industry has never fully recovered from the negative publicity generated by the incident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
The law provides for the creation or revision of 15 National Park Service properties, and sets aside other public lands for the United States Forest Service and United States Fish and Wildlife Service. In all, the act provides for the designation of 79.54 million acres (124,281 square miles; 321,900 km²) of public lands, fully a third of which is set aside as wilderness area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_National_Interest_Lands_Conservation_Act
An accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania ultimately results in a partial core meltdown in Unit 2 of the nuclear power plant.
The event is considered the most significant accident in the history of the American commercial nuclear power generating industry. It resulted in the release of a significant amount of radioactivity, an estimated maximum of 13 million curies of noble gases (480 PBq), but under 20 curies (740 GBq) of the particularly hazardous iodine-131, to the environment. However, there were no immediate deaths or injuries to plant workers or members of the nearby community which can be attributed to the accident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident
The neighborhood becomes a subject of national attention and controversy following the discovery of toxic waste buried beneath the ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal
In 1975, Law professor Zygmunt Plater and student Hiram Hill filed the first petition under the Endangered Species Act. They called on the Department of the Interior to list the snail darter as an endangered species. The snail darter is a small fish that lives in the Little Tennessee River below the Tellico Dam site.
In 1976, zoologist David Etnier, who discovered the snail darter, joined Platner, Hill and others in filing a lawsuit to stop construction of the dam.
On May 25, 1976, a judge ruled that it was too late to stop the project. The government had already spent $80 million and the dam was almost finished. However, the plaintiffs appealed and on June 15, 1977, in the case of Tennessee Valley Authority vs. Hill et al., the Supreme Court ruled to suspend construction. Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote in his opinion, "It is clear that Congress intended to halt and reverse the trend toward species extinction whatever the cost."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tellico_Dam
The stated purpose of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is to protect species and also "the ecosystems upon which they depend." The ESA is administered by two federal agencies, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). To this day, it is still one of the most important pieces of legislation governing the actions of both individuals and corporations with respect to the environment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endangered_Species_Act
The Amendments significantly expand on previous legislation and become the basis for the Clean Water Act of 1977 and the Water Quality Act of 1987.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Pollution_Control_Act
The EPA is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and with safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land. It is mainly responsible for the environmental policy of the United States.
The current Administrator of the EPA is Stephen L. Johnson, and the current Deputy Administrator is Marcus Peacock. The agency has approximately 18,000 full-time employees.
http://epa.gov/
The law requires the EPA to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to airborne contaminants that are known to be hazardous to human health. This law is an amendment to the Clean Air Act originally passed in 1963.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_%281970%29
Over a 10-day period, an estimated 3 million gallons of crude oil spill into the channel and onto the beaches of Santa Barbara County in Southern California.
The next day, the IRS hand-delivers a suspension of the Club's tax-exempt status. The action boosts the Club's prestige and membership and eventually helps in the fight to save the Canyon.
The case establishes a precedent, allowing the Club to stand for a non-economic interest in the case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_King_Mountain#History
The Act, written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society, created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected some 9 million acres (36,000 km²) of federal land.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness_Act
The book alerts the general public to the dangers of pesticides such as DDT on the environment, and has since been credited with helping launch the modern environmental movement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring
The act recognizes air pollution as a serious problem and suggests additional research and education on the issue. Although the act does not put into effect any restrictions on polluters, it eventually leads to the Clear Air Act of 1970.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Pollution_Control_Act
Under his leadership, the Club becomes America's foremost environmental protection organization.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brower
The book describes the land around Leopold's home in Sauk County, Wisconsin and his thoughts on developing a "land ethic."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sand_County_Almanac
18 people die in three days and 50 more die after the inversion lifts. Hundreds of others finish the rest of their lives with damaged lungs and hearts.
Later, public outcry over the incident forces the federal government to begin studying air pollution, its causes, effects, and how to control it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donora#History
In the first issue of their magazine "Living Wilderness," editor Robert Sterling Yard writes, "The Wilderness Society is born of an emergency in conservation which admits of no delay. The craze is to build all the highways possible everywhere while billions may yet be borrowed from the unlucky future."
http://www.wilderness.org/
Stephen Mather is named first director (May 16, 1917 - January 8, 1929).
The National Park Service (NPS) is the United States federal agency that manages all National Parks, many National Monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations.
The current director of NPS is Mary A. Bomar, who was sworn into office on October 17, 2006.
http://www.nps.gov/
Oil shoots into the air at an estimated 125,000 barrels a day from a column of oil and sand 20 feet in diameter and 200 feet high (6 meters by 60 meters). The gushing continues at a reduced rate for 18 months and releases approximately 9.4 million barrels. According to the San Joaquin Geological Society website, "Preachers and their flocks prayed that oil might not cover the earth and bring about its flaming destruction." Half the oil is captured and processed but the rest flows into local rivers, agricultural land, the air and the water table.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeview_Gusher
The Division of Forestry is now known as the United States Forest Service.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifford_Pinchot
John Muir serves as first president.
http://www.sierraclub.org
The act empowers the President to create "forest reserves." This created the legislative foundation for what became the National Forest system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Reserve_Act_of_1891
General Grant National Park is now known as Kings Canyon National Park. It is contiguous with Sequoia National Park and the two are maintained by the National Park Service as one unit.
http://www.nps.gov/seki/
Under the law, companies and individuals may buy the mining rights for public land thought to contain minerals for $5 per acre or less.
In his book, Thoreau calls for the establishment of "national preserves" of virgin forest.
The book is reprinted many times afterwards.
He calls attention to the destruction impact of human activity on the land, especially through deforestation. Furthermore, he advocates a conservationist approach to the management of forested lands. The speech is published later that year and becomes the basis for his book "Man and Nature or The Earth as Modified by Human Action," first published in 1864.
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