-
John Muir
founded Sierra Club in 1892; fought unsuccessfully to prevent the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park -
Lacey Act
– prohibits interstate transport of wild animals dead or alive without federal permit -
Aldo Leopold
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 -
Rachel Carson
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 -
National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
- protects rivers with due or aesthetic, recreational, wildlife, historical or cultural reasons
-
Garrett Hardin
published "The Tragedy of the Commons" in the journal Science in 1968; argued that rational people will exploit shared resources (commons) -
National Environmental Policy Act
– Environmental Impact Statements must be done before any project affecting federal lands can be started -
Clean Water Act
– set maximum permissible amounts of water pollutants that can be discharged into waterways. Aim was to make surface waters fishable and swimmable -
U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act
– prohibits taking marine mammals in U.S. waters and by U.S. citizens, and the importing marine mammals and marine mammal products into the U.S. -
Endangered Species Act
– identifies threatened and endangered species in the US, and puts their protection ahead of economic considerations -
Safe Water Drinking Act
– set maximum levels for pollutants that may have had adverse effects on human health -
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
– lists species that cannot be commercially traded as live specimens or wildlife products -
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
– controls hazardous waste with a cradle to grave system -
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
– requires coal strip mines to reclaim the land -
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act
– the “Superfund” act, designed to identify and clean up abandoned hazardous waste dumpsites -
Montreal Protocol
– phase out of ozone depleting substances -
Ocean Dumping Ban Act
– bans ocean dumping of sewage sludge and industrial waste -
Clean Air Act
– set emissions standards for cars, and limits for release of air pollutants
