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10,000 BCE
Agricultural Revolution
10,000 years ago:Period of transition from the pre-agricultural period characterized by a Paleolithic diet, into a diet of cultivated foods. There was advanced and productive forms of agriculture and social changes. -
275 BCE
Industrial Revolution
A period during which predominantly agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became industrial and urban.Industrialization marked a shift to powered, special-purpose machinery, factories and mass production. -
John Muir was born
A farmer, inventor, sheepherder, naturalist, explorer, writer, and conservationist. He had found living glaciers in he Sierra and had conceived his controversial theory of the glaciation of Yosemite Valley. In 1892, Muir and a number of his supporters founded the Sierra Club to, in Muir's words, "do something for wildness and make the mountains glad." Muir served as the Club's president until his death in 1914. -
Homestead Act
Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862, the Homestead Act encouraged Western migration by providing settlers 160 acres of public land. In exchange, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land. -
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
The text is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance. The experience later inspired Walden, in which Thoreau compresses the time into a single calendar year and uses passages of four seasons to symbolize human development. -
YellowStone National Park Founded
Yellowstone National Park is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho. Early in 1872, Congress moved to set aside 1,221,773 acres of public land straddling the future states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho as America’s first national park. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. -
American Forestry Association founded
In 1875, a time when it seemed that America’s natural resources could never be depleted, a group of forward-thinking citizens met in Chicago with the goal “to protect the existing forests of the country from unnecessary waste.” Led by physician John Aston Warder, who was among the first to propose planting trees on the Great Plains, the American Forestry Association was founded. In 1992, the American Forestry Association expanded its conservation focus and became American Forests. -
American Forestry Association founded
In 1875, a time when it seemed that America’s natural resources could never be depleted, a group of forward-thinking citizens met in Chicago with the goal “to protect the existing forests of the country from unnecessary waste.” Led by physician John Aston Warder, who was among the first to propose planting trees on the Great Plains, the American Forestry Association was founded. In 1992, the American Forestry Association expanded its conservation focus and became American Forests. -
Yosemite plus Sequoia National Park founded
Yosemite National Park was designated by an Act of Congress on October 1, 1890, making it the third national park in the United States, after Yellowstone (1872) and Sequoia (1890). Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias have been preserved since 1864. Congress passed a bill, which was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on June 30, 1864 that set aside Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove, that stated the lands be held. -
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. -
Lacey Act Founded
The Lacey Act is a 1900 United States law that bans trafficking in illegal wildlife. In 2008, the Act was amended to include plants and plant products such as timber and paper. This landmark legislation is the world’s first ban on trade in illegally sourced wood products. -
Golden Age of Conservation (Theodore Roosevelt)
In the early twentieth century, President Theodore Roosevelt was a dynamic force in a relatively new movement known as conservationism. During his presidency, Roosevelt made conservation a major part of his administration. As the new century began, the frontier was disappearing. Once common animals were now threatened. Many Americans, including Roosevelt, saw a need to preserve the nation's natural resources. -
First National Wildlife Refuge established
Established by an executive order of President Theodore Roosevelt on March 14, 1903, Pelican Island was the first national wildlife refuge in the United States. It was created to protect egrets and other birds from extinction through plume hunting. -
US Forest Service founded
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres. In 1881 the Department expanded the office into the Division of Forestry. A decade later Congress passed the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorizing the President to designate public lands in the West into what were then called “forest reserves.” -
Gifford Pinchot
American forester and politician. Pinchot served as the first Chief of the United States Forest Service from 1905. Pinchot is known for reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and advocating the conservation of the nation's reserves. Pinchot's main contribution was his leadership in promoting scientific forestry and emphasizing the controlled, profitable use of forests and other natural resources so they would be of maximum benefit to mankind. -
Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold was a conservationist, forester, philosopher, educator, writer, and outdoor enthusiast.Leopold continued his investigations into ecology and the philosophy of conservation, and in 1933 published the first textbook in the field of wildlife management. -
Audubon Society founded
he National Audubon Society is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. and bird protection. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world and uses science, education and grassroots advocacy to advance its conservation mission. -
Antiquities Act
First law to establish that archaeological sites on public lands are important public resources. It obligates federal agencies that manage the public lands to preserve for present and future generations the historic, scientific, and cultural values of the archaeological and historic sites and structures on these lands. It also authorizes the President to protect landmarks, structures, and objects of historic or scientific interest by designating them as National Monuments. -
US National Park Service founded
On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service, a new federal bureau in the Department of the Interior responsible for protecting the 35 national parks and monuments then managed by the department and those yet to be established. -
Civilian Conservation Corps founded
President Franklin Roosevelt proposed the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to provide jobs in natural resource conservation. Over the next decade, they put more than three million young men to work in the nations forests and parks, planting trees, building flood barriers, fighting fires, and maintaining roads and trails, conserving both private and federal land. -
Taylor Grazing Act
The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, signed by President Roosevelt, was intended to "stop injury to the public grazing lands [excluding Alaska] by preventing overgrazing and soil deterioration; to provide for their orderly use, improvement, and development and to stabilize the livestock industry dependent upon the public range -
Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act
The Federal Duck Stamp, known as the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, is an adhesive stamp required by the United States federal government to hunt migratory waterfowl such as ducks and geese. It is also used to gain entrance to National Wildlife Refuges that normally charge for admission.It is widely seen as a collectable and a means to raise funds for wetland conservation, with 98% of the proceeds of each sale going to the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund. -
Fish plus Wildlife Service founded
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) or (FWS) is an agency of federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior which is dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people." -
Silent Spring published by Rachel Carson
Silent Spring is a 1962 environmental science book by Rachel Carson.[1] The book documented the detrimental effects on the environment—particularly on birds—of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims unquestioningly. -
Wilderness Act
The Wilderness Act of 1964 was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected 9.1 million acres of federal land. The result of a long effort to protect federal wilderness and to create a formal mechanism for designating wilderness, the Wilderness Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964 after over sixty drafts and eight years of work. -
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by Congress in 1968 (Public Law 90-542; 16 U.S.C. 1271 et seq.) to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present and future generations. -
Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire
The Cuyahoga River is a river in the United States, located in Northeast Ohio, that feeds into Lake Erie. The river is famous for having been so polluted that it "caught fire" in 1969. The event helped to spur the environmental movement in the US. -
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was one of the first laws ever written that establishes the broad national framework for protecting our environment. NEPA's basic policy is to assure that all branches of government give proper consideration to the environment prior to undertaking any major federal action that significantly affects the environment. -
Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act is a United States federal law designed to control air pollution on a national level. It is one of the United States' first and most influential modern environmental laws, and one of the most comprehensive air quality laws in the world. -
First Earth Day
Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which day events worldwide are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in 1970, and is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network and celebrated in more than 193 countries each year. -
Environmental Protection Agency founded
The United States Environmental Protection Agenc is an agency of the Federal government of the United States which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress.The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. -
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) was signed on December 28, 1973, and provides for the conservation of species that are endangered or threatened throughout all or a significant portion of their range, and the conservation of the ecosystems on which they depend.We have jurisdiction over 147 endangered and threatened marine species, including 54 foreign species. We work with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to manage ESA-listed species. -
FIFRA: Federal, Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Control Act
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) provides for federal regulation of pesticide distribution, sale, and use. All pesticides distributed or sold in the United States must be registered (licensed) by EPA. Before EPA may register a pesticide under FIFRA, the applicant must show, among other things, that using the pesticide according to specifications "will not generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.'' -
OPEC and Oil Embargo
The 1973 Oil Embargo acutely strained a U.S. economy that had grown increasingly dependent on foreign oil. The efforts of President Richard M. Nixon’s administration to end the embargo signaled a complex shift in the global financial balance of power to oil-producing states.By 1973, OPEC had demanded that foreign oil corporations increase prices and cede greater shares of revenue to their local subsidiaries. -
Roland and Molina announce that CFC’s are depleting the Ozone Layer
They received the Noble Peace Prize and caused a controversy and eventually led to the ban of CFC's in aerosols.They warned that CRC's had the potential to deplete the ozone layer. -
RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act)
This Act governs the disposal of solid and hazardous waste. It was enacted because the country was facing a growing amount of municipal and industrial waste. -
Clean Water Act
It sets standards for clean water and tries to eliminate pollution in the waters. It doesn't address ground water but has been amended various times. -
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
Regulates environment effects of coal mining.Created the office of Surface Mining, This act focus on standards, bonding, permitting, inspection, and enforcement, -
Love Canal, NY
It is the site of a Superfund disaster that extensively affected the health of hundreds of its residents.Love Canal grew and then slowly declined before being bought out in the 1940s by the Hooker Company, which dumped industrial waste in the never completed canal. Numerous families were displaced from their houses, which had been contaminated with chemicals and toxic waste. Many of the families suffered several health issues. -
Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident
In 1979 at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in USA a cooling malfunction caused part of the core to melt in the #2 reactor. The TMI-2 reactor was destroyed.
Some radioactive gas was released a couple of days after the accident, but not enough to cause any dose above background levels to local residents.
There were no injuries or adverse health effects from the Three Mile Island accident. -
Bhopal Island
The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak incident in India, considered the world's worst industrial disaster.Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate. -
Chernobyl
A catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Pripyat.An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe. The Chernobyl disaster was the worst nuclear power plant accident in history in terms of cost and casualties -
CERCLA (Superfund)
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, was enacted by Congress on December 11, 1980. This law created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and provided broad Federal authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment. -
Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer) is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. -
Exxon Valdez Disaster
n oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef at 12:04 am.It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters. -
Energy Policy Act
The Energy Policy Act (EPA) addresses energy production in the United States, including: (1) energy efficiency; (2) renewable energy; (3) oil and gas; (4) coal; (5) Tribal energy; (6) nuclear matters and security; (7) vehicles and motor fuels, including ethanol; (8) hydrogen; (9) electricity; (10) energy tax incentives; (11) hydropower and geothermal energy; and (12) climate change technology. -
Desert Protection Act
The Act establishes the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks and the Mojave National Preserve in the California desert.
Congress found that: federally owned desert lands of southern California constitute a public wildland resource of extraordinary and inestimable value for current and future generations -
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the premise that (a) global warming exists and (b) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it. -
World Population hits 6 Billion people
It is estimated that the population of the world reached one billion for the first time in 1804. Thereafter, the global population reached four billion in 1974, five billion in 1987, six billion in 1999 and, by some estimates, seven billion in October 2011 with other estimates being in March 2012. It is projected to reach eight billion by 2024–2030. -
IPCC Report on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations,[1][2] set up at the request of member governments, dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective, scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts. -
BP oil spill in the Gulf
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. Following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a sea-floor oil gusher flowed for 87 days, until it was capped on July 15, 2010. Eleven people went missing and were never found and it is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry
