AP Environmental Science Timeline

Agricultural Revolution

7984 BCE

This was the time where farming because huge and ran out the hunting and gathering era. This gave people a stationary position instead of having to move around alot.

Industrial Revolution

Nov 29, 1741

This is about people getting mass numbers of stuff and big factories came around, creating air pollution.

John Muir

Nov 29, 1838

A naturalist, author, environment philosopher, and advocate of wilderness in the United States.

Walden by Henry Thoreau

Nov 29, 1854

This is a book about living simple in the natural environment. It is also a spiritual finding and sort of a social experiment.

Homestead Act

Nov 29, 1862

Encouraged western migration to give them 160 acres of land in turn of living 5 years on the land.

Yellowstone National Park founded

Nov 30, 1872

Park located primarily in Wyoming that was created by Ulysses S. Grant to preserve the land and the beautiful geysers on the land.

American Forestry Association founded

Nov 30, 1875

This is an organization that was created to save the forests of american and its beautiful redwoods and trees.

Yosemite plus Sequoia National Park founded

Nov 30, 1890

Second national park created and was created to save the giant sequoia trees for logging.

General Revision Act

Nov 30, 1891

This was to ensure that land wasn't freely available to anyone so that if you wanted land, you had to pay for it.

Sierra Club founded

Nov 30, 1892

Created by John Muir to encourage green policies, opposing coal, green energy, and stopping global warming.

Lacey Act

Nov 30, 1900

Banned trafficking of illegal animals and later to also help out plants too.

Golden Age of Conservation

Nov 30, 1901

Time that highlighted the first U.S. forest service and that land should be used for human benefit and nothing else. This was headlined by Theodore Roosevelt.

First national wildlife refuge established.

Nov 30, 1903

This was a safe "hiding place" for any wildlife.

U.S. forest Service

Nov 30, 1905

Thing that gave the U.S. permanent 154 national forests and 20 grasslands that all add up to 193 million acres.

Gifford Pinchot

Nov 30, 1905

Reformed the management and development of forests in the U.S. and advocated the conservation of reserves by planned use and renewal.

Aldo Leopold

Nov 30, 1905

Author of "The Sand County Almanac" about conserving and using the land properly and appreciating it.

Audubon Society founded

Nov 30, 1905

Created by John Audubon to encourage conservation of wildlife and birds.

Antiquities Act

Nov 30, 1906

Gives the president the right to create national monuments on public land to save and display characteristics.

Congress became upset with Rooselvelt.

Nov 30, 1907

Congress was angry with roosevelt because he waved too much forest land so they banned future withdrawals.

U.S. National Park service founded

Nov 30, 1912

Dust Bowl

Dec 1, 1930

Overplowing of the land in the midwest and high wind speed all along with a huge drought caused huge dust storms all across america and destroyed the farm land.

Civilian Conservation Corps founded

Dec 1, 1933

During Roosevelt's presidency and the great depression, this was created for young men without jobs to make money and work to save natural resources in America.

Soil Conservation Service founded

Dec 1, 1933

Group of 11,000 employees that work to improve, protect, and conserve natural resources on private land.

Taylor Grazing Act

Dec 1, 1934

Act enforced to reduce the grazing of animals on public land so that it will improve the rangeland conditions.

Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act

Dec 1, 1934

They give stamps out to the duck hunters every year so they don't over hunt and then become endangered.

Fish Plus Wildlife Service founded

Dec 1, 1940

A service to protect and enhance the fishes wildlife habitat so they can live healthy and stay healthy.

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Control Act (FIFRA)

Dec 1, 1947

Silent Spring published by Rachael Carson

Dec 1, 1962

This was a book about using pesticides and how it very badly hurts our environment and the animals in it.

Wilderness Act

Dec 1, 1963

This is for the preservation of the wilderness and how men are not to touch it and are very sensitive visitors to it.

Clean Air Act

Dec 1, 1963

Wild and Scenic Rivers Act

Dec 1, 1968

The preservation of certain rivers for future generations use.

Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio caught fire

Dec 1, 1969

An oil leak on the river created an oil slick which caught fire and burned down railroad bridges.

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

Dec 1, 1969

Law enforced to enhance the environment and this is also known as the environmental magna carta.

Environmental Protection Agency established

Dec 1, 1970

First Earth Day

Dec 1, 1970

Endangered Species Act

Dec 1, 1973

OPEC oil embargo

Dec 1, 1973

Arab oil producers slowed the process of shipping oil to the U.S. way down and this made the prices higher.

Roland and Molina (UNI) announce that CFC's are depleting the Ozone

Dec 1, 1974

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

Dec 1, 1976

Gave the EPA the ability to treat, transport, store, and manage the hazardous waste. This also set up the groundwork for non-hazardous waste treatment.

Clean Water Act

Dec 1, 1977

Federal act that regulates the discharge of of pollutants into the nations surface fresh water.

Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act

Dec 1, 1977

This regulates the environmental effects of coal mining. They regulate coal mines and reclaim abandoned ones.

Love Canal, NY

Dec 1, 1978

22,000 barrels of toxic waste was leaked into the canal and forced people out of their houses.

3 Mile Island Nuclear Accident

Dec 1, 1979

This was a nuclear meltdown that was the biggest in history and caused lots of air pollution and health problems.

Alaskan Lands Act

Dec 3, 1980

This act provided varying degrees of protection over 157,000,000 acres of land in national parks, wildlife refuges, national monuments, ect..

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

Dec 3, 1980

Chemical toxic cloud kills 2,000

Dec 3, 1984

This was a potential sabotage act where routine pipe checks were stopped and very many deadly chemicals released and killed over 2,000 and injured 558,125.

Chernobyl

Dec 3, 1986

This was when a deliberate power outage caused nuclear reactors to catch fire and release radioactive isotopes.

Montreal Protocal

Dec 3, 1987

Global agreement to protect the ozone layer by not creating or using ozone delpeting rsources.

Exxon Valdez

Dec 4, 1989

This was an oil tanker headed to Long Beach, California that struck a reef and spilled 11-38 million gallons of crude oil.

Energy Policy Act of 1992

Dec 4, 1992

This act was passed by congress to set goals and amend utility laws to increase clean energy and improve overall energy efficiency.

Desert Protection Act

Dec 4, 1994

This established the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National parks and also the mojave national preserve. These arw to protect and save giant deserts.

Kyoto Oil Spill

Period: Dec 4, 1997 to Dec 5, 2005

This was an oil spill that brought the Kyoto Protocol which is to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations.

World population hits 5 billion

Dec 4, 1999

BP Oil spill

Dec 4, 2010

This was when the deepwater horizon oil rig exploded into the Gulf of Mexico, spilling 5 million barrels of oil.

COP21

Dec 4, 2015

Conference of the Parties (COP) had a conference in Paris to discuss climate change.