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John Muir
John Muir was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. He founded Sierra Club in 1982, fought unsuccessfully to prevent the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. -
Aldo Leopold
Leopold was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He wrote A Sand County Almanac published a year after his death in 1948; promoted a "Land Ethic" in which humans are ethically responsible for serving as the protectors of nature. -
Lacey Act
A conversation law introduced to the United States by Republican John F. Lacey that prohibits interstate transport of wild animals dead or alive without federal permit. -
Rachel Carson
She was an American marine biologist and conservationist. She published Silent Spring in 1962; documented the environmental damage done by DDT and other pesticides which heightened public awareness at the start of the modern environmental movement. -
Garrett Hardin
Hardin was an American ecologist who warned of the dangers of overpopulation. He published "The Tragedy of the Commons" in the journal Science in 1968, argued that rational people will exploit shared resources (commons). -
Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act is a United States federal law designed to control air pollution on a national level. It requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and enforce regulations to protect the public from airborne contaminants known to be hazardous to human health. It
set emissions standards for cars, and limits for release of air pollutants. -
National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
National Wild and Scenic River is a designation for certain protected areas in the United States. President Lyndon Johnson signed passed this law in order to protect rivers with due to aesthetic, recreational, wildlife, historical, or cultural reasons. -
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. It set maximum permissible amounts of water pollutants that can be discharged into waterways. Aim was to make surface waters fishable and swimmable -
National Environmental Policy Act
It is a United States environmental law that established a U.S. national policy promoting the enhancement of the environment and also established the President's Council on Environmental Quality. The Act establishes national environmental policy and goals for the protection, maintenance, and enhancement of the environment and provides a process for implementing these goals within the federal agencies. -
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation." -
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted in 1976, is the principal federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste. It controls hazardous waste with a cradle to grave system -
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
It is is the primary federal law that regulates the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States. This act requires coal strip mines to reclaim the land. This law also establishes the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE). -
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act
r 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 as well as broadly defined "pollutants or contaminants. -
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. -
Ocean Dumping Ban Act
This act bans ocean dumping of sewage sludge and industrial waste. It prohibits all municipal sewage sludge and industrial waste dumping into the ocean after December 31, 1991. -
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international treaty that sets binding obligations on industrialized countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. It controls global warming by setting greenhouse gas emissions targets for developed countries. It is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. -
Safe Water Drinking Act
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the principal federal law in the United States intended to ensure safe drinking water for the public. It set maximum levels for pollutants that may have had adverse effects on human health -
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
It is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals. It provided a list of animals that are no longer able to be traded on the market due to their likelihood of extinction.
