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1804 Population Increase
The population rises to about 1 billion people. -
1927 Population Increase
The population rises to about 2 billion people. -
Founding of the IUCN
The IUCN was established in Fontainebleau, France in 1948. It was the first global environment union and helped to bring many people together through their shared goal of protecting nature and the environment. The union observed humans' activities and their impact on nature. Throughout the years, the IUCN has done much to advocate for nature. Today it has around 1,300 members and is known as the world’s largest and most diverse environmental group. -
Minamata
Minamata disease was originally found in Minamata City, Japan. This disease occurred as a result of mercury being released into industrial wastewater from a chemical factory. The mercury accumulated in nearby fish and shellfish, and the local people had a diet that mainly comprised of these animals. So, many people got severe mercury poisoning. Many people were affected by this, in more severe cases some became paralyzed or even died. -
1959 Population Increase
The population rises to about 3 billion people. -
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring Published
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring addressed the harmful effects that pesticides like DDT had on the environment. In the book she also questioned how much faith people put in technology and most importantly set the stage for the environmental movement. -
Gaia Hypothesis
The Gaia Hypothesis is a model of the earth where both of its living and nonliving systems and parts are viewed as a multiplex interacting system that is one organism. Proposing that Earth’s biosphere has a positive regulatory effect on the environment, it has encouraged the promotion of Earth’s environment as an important system that must be valued. Thus, this helps support the overall concept of the environmental movement by putting an impactful purpose on the environment and its resources. -
1974 Population Increase
The population rises to about 4 billion people. -
The Seveso Disaster
In 1976, as a result of a broken valve at the ICMESA chemical plant in Meda, potent, noxious clouds of TCDD (2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin) were pumped out and carried over to the Italian municipality of Seveso by the wind. Thousands of residents were poisoned and much of the local wildlife had perished, including the vegetation. -
Whaling (Save the Whales Campaign)
Whaling is the hunting and killing of whales for their resources. Trade in the whaling industry usually consists of trading whale meat and blubber. Increased numbers of whales have been killed in the past years and some species are even endangered. On April 27, 1975, Greenpeace launched the world's first anti-whaling campaign. This “Save the Whales” movement helped secure an international ban on commercial whaling. -
Bhopal
The Bhopal disaster was a chemical leak that happened in the city of Bhopal, India. Around 45 tons of methyl isocyanate escaped from an insecticide plant. This gas drifted over many well populated neighborhoods. This gas immediately killed lots of people. The estimated death final toll was between 15,000 to 20,000. -
Chernobyl
On April 26th, 1986, there was a nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl Power Plant in the North of Ukraine. The explosion released at least 5% of radioactive materials throughout Europe, being the largest radioactive release into the environment. Several workers died, and many people died the weeks following the explosion, while others were forced to evacuate. The environment suffered long term effects, as many plants still contain radioactive materials. -
“Our Common Future” Report Published
“Our Common Future”, also referred to as the Brundtland report, was published in 1987 and defined the principle of sustainable development as “ development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. The report essentially emphasized the significance of and brought more attention to the idea of global sustainable development. -
1987 Population Increase
The population rises to about 5 billion people. -
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
On March 24, 1989, 11 million gallons of crude oil were released into the Prince William Sound in Alaska by the Exxon Shipping Company. There were no human casualties, but the environmental toll was grave. 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, 22 killer whales, and billions of salmon and herring eggs were lost. The fishing industry suffered considerably. -
UN Earth (Rio) Summit
In Rio, hundreds of government representatives came together and created guidelines on “green economy policies” that aim to decrease poverty and maintain well-functioning ecosystems. Other rules were adopted for future sustainable development, such as the Statement of Forest Principles, a set of general rules to ensure the sustainable management of forests globally. The summit provided a new outlook on economic growth and conveyed the importance of prioritizing the environment. -
Kyoto
The Kyoto Protocol, established in December of 1997, is an international treaty that targeted global warming. This treaty was put into place in hopes of reducing the production of gases that are detrimental to the earth with their contribution to global warming. With its presence in 41 countries and the EU, this treaty targeted the reduction of six specific greenhouse gases. Its impact was powerful and is considered to be one of the most significant environmental treaties ever established. -
1999 Population Increase
The population rises to about 6 billion people. -
Prudhoe Bay Oil Spill
On March 2, 2006, an oil spill of great magnitude was discovered at Prudhoe Bay. About 267,000 gallons of crude oil had been released into the waters as a result of poor pipeline infrastructure. The aftermath of the disaster caused BP (the massive oil company) to be placed on probation for three years and ordered to pay a twenty-million dollar fine in criminal penalties for the damage they had done. -
Documentary Film An Inconvenient Truth Released.
The documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, had a major influential impact to its audience in which it proposed the intriguing case of global warming being man made and its destructive effects on our environment. Its release helped inform many of what we have done to enforce its destruction and many disturbing facts about its presence. This movie moved many people to encourage new methods and ways of approaching this issue, thus, influencing the continuum of the environmental movement. -
Copenhagen (COP-15)
The 2009 U.N Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark was comprised of various sessions, but the most significant ones are the fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) and the fifth session of the Conference of the Parties (CMP 5). The two assemblies produced the Copenhagen Accord, which encouraged developed countries to markup goals to “fund actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change in developing countries”. -
BP Oil Spill
On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank, spilling four million barrels worth of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over an 87-day period. The United states filed a complaint in District Court against BP and several other alleged suspects responsible for the catastrophic environmental tragedy. -
2011 Population Increase
The population rises to about 7 billion. -
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
On March 11, 2011, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake, commonly referred to as the Great East Japan Earthquake, struck the eastern coast of Honshu, encouraging the development of a massive tsunami that killed countless and left Japan in turmoil. The Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi plant fell victim to the tsunami’s wrath, with three of its reactors exploding and producing ungodly quantities of pollution on the daily. -
Mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef
One of the most notable, drastic cases of coral bleaching was witnessed in 2016 and the following year of 2017, when ocean temperatures had risen dramatically and killed approximately 60% of the corals in the Australian coral reef. Twas the reef’s northern section that fell victim to the grim hands of climate change. The southern segment would be targeted in the years ahead, in the third mass bleaching event of 2020. -
Australian Bush Fires
During the span of June 2019 to March 4th, 2020, an unexpected and destructive group of fires spread throughout Australia, worsening as high temperatures, wind, and drought created the perfect concoction for the fires to thrive. It took 9 months for firefighters, with the help of some rain, to extinguish the fires. These fires caused over 46 million acres of land to be burned, destroying natural habitats and killing wildlife. It also caused a major economic loss of over 2.9 billion dollars! -
2020 Population Increase
The population rises to about 7.8 billion people. We graphed these years because we wanted to check to see if there was an exponential growth trend within these years, and there certainly was. The population is increasing drastically! It took 123 years for the population to double from 1 billion to 2 billion, and now it will only take 61 years before the current population doubles again.
