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30,600 BCE
10,000 years ago-Agricultural Revolution
The Agricultural Revolution began approximately ten thousand years ago. It is thought to have begun most prominently in the Middle East, in what is known as the Fertile Crescent. The first crops grown by man are thought to be wheat and barley. -
Industrial revolutionn ~275 years ago
The industrial revolution brought many benefits to society while also introducing the environment to its greatest threats.
People start cutting down trees in mass quantities, using coal in everyday life, and creating the start of modern pollution. -
John Muir was born
Muir became famous thanks to his research in the Sierra mountains on glaciers. His work with Robert Underwood Johnson pushed congress to create Yosemite National Park. This single national park triggered the concervation of thousand s of acres of land across the US and led to the creation of the national park system -
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau wrote the story of Walden, explaining of his experiences moving from the city life into the wilderness and living a life of simplicity and connecting with nature. In Walden, Thoreau depicts the beauty in nature and the wonder of finding oneself and connecting with the natural world with no human contact. Walden has changed the way many people saw nature and sparked a growing desire to conserve it. -
Homestead Act
The Act gave large amounts of land to US citizens who wanted to turn it into farmland for low prices. The act encouraged people of low incomes, and low social status to buy land. As a result, millions of acres of land were destroyed and turned into farmlands and homes. -
Yellowstone National Park Founded
In 1870, explorers gathered around a campfire at the junction of two pristine rivers, overshadowed by the towering cliffs of the Madison Plateau. What they had seen during their exploration, they had realized that this land,fire, ice and wild animals needed to be preserved. Though a myth, the explorers were real and their realization helped save Yellowstone. They promoted a park bill in Washington in late 1871 and early 1872 that drew upon the precedent of the Yosemite Act of 1864. -
American Forestry Association
Established in 1875, the American Forestry Association is the oldest group in North America organized to promote forest conservation. The organization became American Forests in 1992. John Ashton Warder, physician and horticulturalist, was the first person to think about planting trees on the great plains which helped the founding of the AFA. -
Yosemite plus Sequoia National Park Founded
John Muir with the help of Robert Underwood Johnson pushed congress to created Yosemite National Park. The establishment of this park helped trigger the conservation of thousands of acres of land across the United States for the National Park System. -
Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol was an international treaty designed to protect the ozone by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. The Ozone Hole-The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer". Theozonehole.com. 16 September 1987. -
Sierra Club Founded
The club, founded by John Muir, works towards protection of the environment and its animals. The organization has helped pass laws such and the Clean air and Water Act, as well as helped preserve natural lands -
Lacey Act Founded
The act bans illegal trade and sales of resources and products, from unapproved sources, such as trees and paper. The act stops people and companies from destroying large amounts of forest and the natural environment. -
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Golden Age of Conservation (Theodore Roosevelt)
Many Americans, including Roosevelt, saw a need to preserve the nation's natural resources. He wanted to protect animals and land from businesses that he saw as a threat. Roosevelt said, "the rights of the public to the natural resources outweigh private rights, and must be given its first consideration." By the end of his time as president, he had created five national parks, four game refuges, fifty-one national bird reservations as well as the National Forest Service. -
First National Wildlife Refuge established
The system of public lands and water were set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife, and plants. President Roosevelt designated Florida's Pelicans Island National Wildlife Refuge as the first wildlife refuge in 1903. -
US Forest Service Founded
Congress created the office of special agent in the department of agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Gifford Pinchot was the first United States chief forester in the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. -
Gifford Pinchot
He was known for reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and for advocating the conservation of the nations's reserves by planned use and renewal. Pinchot's main contribution was his leadership in prompting scientific forestry and emphasizing the control, profitable use of forests and natural resources so they would be of maximum benefit to humankind. -
Aldo Leopold
An American Author, philosopher, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist who's best known for his book (A Sand County Almanac). He emphasized biodiversity and ecology and was a founder of the science of wildlife management. -
Audubon Society Founded
The Audubon Society is a society that works towards the conservation of bird species in the Northern Hemisphere. They have a large and wide audience and the society is very influential in government and society. -
Antiquities Act
The Antiquities act was signed by President Roosevelt and allowed the president to create National Landmarks and Parks to help conserve natural and cultural antiquities. -
US National Park Service Founded
President Taft sent a special message to Congress on February 2, 1912, in which he said: "I earnestly recommend the establishment of a Bureau of National Parks. Such legislation is essential to the proper management of those wondrous manifestations of nature, so startling and so beautiful that everyone recognizes the obligations of the Government to preserve them for the edification and recreation of the people." -
Civilian Conservation Corps Founded
The CCC was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men as part of the New Deal. In it said, "Young men worked to battle the destruction of the nations natural resources by planting nearly 3 billion trees, constructing trails and lodges in more than 800 national parks. Upgraded most state parks, updating forest fire fighting methods, and building a network of service buildings and public roadways in remote areas. -
Taylor Grazing Act
The TGA was created to stop grazing issues, and the act intended to prevent the soil to degrade and/or overgraze. -
Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act
The Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act requires each waterfowl hunter aged 16 or older to possess a valid Federal hunting stamp. The original price of the stamp which was $1, and is currently $15. -
Fish plus Wildlife Service Founded
The Fish plus Wildlife Service dedicated to the conservation and preservation of fish, wildlife and their habitats, they create laws that protect endangered species and keep from over hunting and over fishing. They work towards recovering wildlife and natural habitats such as wetlands. -
Desert Protection Act
This act was a federal law, signed by Bill clinton, which established the eDeath Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks and the Mojave National Preserver in the desert.This bill was enacted after being signed by the President on October 31, 1994. -
Silent Spring published by Rachel Carson
An environmental science book that 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 created the National Wilderness Perseveration System and recognized wilderness as an area where man is a visitor who does not remain. -
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
An outgrown of a commission that recommended that the nation protect wild rivers and scenic rivers from development that would substantially change their wild or scenic nature. -
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." https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-national-environmental-policy-act -
Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire
On June 22, 1969, around 12pm, floating pieces of oil slicked debris were ignited on the river by sparks caused by a passing train. Specifically, following an investigation, the cause was determined to be the oily debris trapped beneath two wooden trestles, rigid support frames, located around the Campbell Rd. hill in Southeast Cleveland. -
First Earth Day
Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in. Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Earth Day 1970 gave voice to that emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns on the front page. -
Clean Air Act
The enactment of the Clean Air Act of 1970 (1970 CAA) resulted in a major shift in the federal government's role in air pollution control. This legislation authorized the development of comprehensive federal and state regulations to limit emissions from both stationary (industrial) sources and mobile sources. -
Environmental Protection Agency Founded
Born in the wake of elevated concern about environmental pollution, EPA was established on December 2, 1970 to consolidate in one agency a variety of federal research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement activities to ensure environmental protection. Since its inception, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people. -
Endangered Species Act
"Congress passed the Endangered Species Preservation Act in 1966, providing a means for listing native animal species as endangered and giving them limited protection. The Departments of Interior, Agriculture, and Defense were to seek to protect listed species, and, insofar as consistent with their primary purposes, preserve the habitats of such species." -
FIFRA: Federal Insecticide and rodenticide control Act
The FIFRA act set up the system of pesticide regulations to protect applicators, consumers, and the environment. The responsibility of controlling pesticides was transferred to the Environmental Protection agency and shifted emphasis to protection of the environment and public health. -
OPEC and the Oil embargo
Arab Oil producers declared an embargo that drastically limited the shipment of oil to the United States in response to the Yom Kippur War between Egypt and Israel. -
Roland and Molina announce that CFC's are depleting the Ozone Layer
Sherwood Roland and Marion Molina explained in 1974 that CFCs do threaten the ozone layer. Roland and Molina, with he help of Paul Crutzen, shared the 1995 nobel prize in Chemistry for their work on the formation and decomposition of the ozone. -
RCRA (resource conservation and Recovery Act)
The resource conservation and Recovery Act is the principal federal law in the Untied States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste. -
Clean Water Act
The clean water Act was a federal Law in the United States. in 1977 when initiated started helping to decrease and eliminate water pollution. -
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was a Federal law that regulated the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States. It created two programs: one regulating active coal mines and the second for reclaiming abandoned coal mines. -
Love Canal, NY
Starting in the 1940s, companies were allowed to dump toxic waste into the Love Canal. As the city grew around the Canal and more and more waste was dumped the city became infected with toxic waste. Finally in the late 70s people realized that all of the birth defects and deformities that they had experienced were because of the toxic waste being dumped. The love Canal is still leaking today. -
Three Mile island Nuclear Accident
The Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor, near Middletown, Pa., partially melted down on March 28, 1979. This was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history.
The accident began about 4 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, when the plant experienced a failure in the secondary, non-nuclear section of the plant (one of two reactors on the site). -
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. Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259. The government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. -
CERCLA (Superfund)
Superfund is a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. Superfund or Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) is a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. -
Chernobyl
The Chernobyl disaster, also referred to as the Chernobyl accident or simply Chernobyl, was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Pripyat, then located in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union (USSR).The Chernobyl disaster was the worst nuclear power plant accident in history in terms of cost and casualties. -
Exxon Valdez Disaster
A tanker ay Exxon Valdez grounded on Bligh Reed in Alaska's Prince William Sound, rupturing its hull and spilling nearly 11 million gallons of Prudhoe Bay crude oil into a remote scenic and biologically productive body of water. In the weeks after the oil spread over a large area in Prince William Sound and beyond which resulted in an unprecedented response cleanup. -
Energy Policy Act
"The Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct) sought to comprehensively address U.S. energy needs, including an energy efficiency title that included several energy efficiency provisions. ACEEE estimated that these provisions had the potential to save about 2-6 Quads of energy per year between 2000 and 2010, which would be equivalent to about 2- 6% energy savings per year." -
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Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its Parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997. -
The World Population hits 6 Billion People.
The United Nations Population Fund designated 12 October 1999 as the approximate day on which the world population reached six billion. -
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IPCC Report on climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the international body for assessing
the science related to climate change. The IPCC was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide policymakers
with regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and
options for adaptation and mitigation. -
BP oil spill in the Gulf
On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank resulting in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations. 4 million barrels of oil flowed from the damaged Macondo well over an 87-day period On December 15, 2010, the United States filed a complaint in District Court against BP Exploration & Production.
