-
William Penn Saves the Trees
William Penn Saves the TreesPennsylvania colony governor William Penn ordered colonists to conserve one tree for every five cut down. What William Penn did hundreds of years ago helped to preserve thousands of trees over the years. -
President Roosevelt Protects Bison
President Roosevelt Protects BisonIn his annual message to Congress, President Roosevelt suggested, “provisions should be made for preservation of the bison,” calling it a “real misfortune” should the species become extinct. The American bison population, once 70 million, had dwindled to fewer than 300. President Rooselvelt's actions are things that should be applied to all of the species. Many species have become extinct due to human hunting and such. -
Georgia v. Tennessee Copper Company and Ducktown Sulphur
Georgia v. Tennessee Copper Company and Ducktown Sulphur: Georgia filed suit against the Tennessee Copper Company and Ducktown Sulphur because fumes from the companies were coming across the state border and polluting communities, killing forests, and making Georgians ill. Pollution is an issue that has become very important because of all of the factories and things that people do. -
National Parks
National ParksCongress established the National Park Service. Today there are approximately 400 national parks across America, comprising approximately 4% of the entire U.S., or 84.6 billion acres of preserved land. National parks are incredibly vital in order to preserve the environment and all of its components. -
New York v. New Jersey and Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners
New York v. New Jersey and Passaic Valley Sewerage CommissionersNew York sued New Jersey commissioners to stop dumping sewage in the New York harbor. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of New Jersey, and the dumping continued. The dumping should have been stopped by the Supreme Court and its shocking and sad that it didn't. -
Survey of Air Pollution
Survey of Air PollutionSalt Lake City was the first U.S. city to conduct a large scale survey of air pollution. The effects of air pollution result in thousands of negative alterations to plants, animals, and people every year. -
Emergency Conservation Work Act
President FranklinPresident Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress pass the Emergency Conservation Work Act. Under the Act, thousands of unemployed young men were recruited into a “peacetime army” called the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), also known as “Roosevelt’s tree army.” The Emergency Conservation Act was important because it encouraged many young men to have paid labor while conserving the environment. It led to more employment and a great example for other citizens to follow. -
Bald Eagle Preservation act
Bald EagleCongress passed the Bald Eagle Preservation Act to prevent the extinction of the national symbol. The bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list in 2007.The Bald Eagle Preservation Act is important because it kept our national animal alive. The government did this by stopping the use of DDT pesticides as well as making an effort to protect their natural habitat. -
Rachel Carson Publishes Silent Spring
Rachel CarlsonRachel Carson published Silent Spring, which warned about the dangers of pesticides, especially DDT, to water supplies and wildlife.The importance of Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, is that it was the first environmental book that caught the attention of people from all over the United States and inspired them to make a change. Kennedy published an article and agreed with Carson stating her observations were correct. -
The Clean Air Act
Clean AirCongress passed the first Clean Air Act, which regulated air pollution and emissions. The Clean Air Act was important because it cut back the pollution in our environment. It set certain quotas for factories and businesses and reduced air pollution by about thirty percent in the span of thirty years. -
The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
Wild and ScenicThe Wild and Scenic Rivers Act passed by Congress and President Johnson to protect waterways from pollution, commercialization, and development.The significance of the passing of The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was that the people of America could see that President Johnson was supporting the conservation movement. This act helped to preserve natural beauties for people to see today and in the future. -
NASA released the "Blue Marble" photo
Blue MarbleNASA released the “Blue Marble” photo of earth from space, giving Americans a first ‘outside’ look at their planet. The photo helped raise awareness of environmental issues. The “Blue Marble” picture release was significant because it provided us with the first picture of the Earth from the Moon. Many people began to realize how precious the Earth was. -
National Enviromental Policy Act
NEPAThe National Environmental Policy Act was one of the first laws to establish the broad national framework for protecting the environment. The Act demanded that all braches of government give proper consideration to the environment prior to building airports, buildings, military complexes, highways, parks, and other activities. This is important because this is one of the first laws that brings the nation together to protect the enviroment. Now the nation has an agency for the enviroment. -
Earth Day
Earth DayThe first Earth Day was celebrated by 20 million people across the country. Earth Day was first organized by Gaylord Nelson, a former Wisconsin senator, and Denis Hayes, a Harvard graduate student. Today, Earth Day is celebrated annually around the world. Earth day was a huge change in the nation. People actually came together depsite their differences for one cause; to help the enviroment. This showed the government that the people of America was serious about the enviroment. -
Enviromental Protection Agnecy Established
EPAThe Environmental Protection Agency was established to “create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony.” This is a government program that is still functioning in full force today. It creates new laws and handles all the enviromental issues our nation is going through. -
Endangered Species Act
Endagered SpeciesCongress passed the Endangered Species Act to protect what are now known as Endangered Species from possible extinction. This act helped save animal species from extinction and preserved their natural habitat. Because of this, we still have animals today that may not have been here if this act never passed. -
Safe Drinking Water Act
Safe Drinking WaterCongress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act to be administered by the EPA, protecting Americans from contaminated drinking water. The EPA still regulates public drinking water as a result of the act. Americans no longer need to worry about the quality and health of their water they are drinking or their families are drinking.Water around the world is unsafe for drinking but not in the US because of this act. -
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act
Wildlife of AlaskaCongress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, designating over 100 million acres of parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas throughout the state. This saved millions of wildlife that would not be here today if this act was not passed. This lead to many other conservation acts of land in other states and raised awarness of the need to preserve the wildlife. -
Global Warming
Global Warming FactsNASA warned Congress of the effects of global warming. This is one of the first times the term "global warming" has come up and actually become something people need to be aware about. Today, global warming is a huge issue and this is the first time global warming has ever been talked about nationally. -
Oil Pollution Act
More Information on the Oil Pollution Act (how it came about)
The Oil Pollution Act streamlined the EPA’s ability to prevent and clean up catastrophic oil spills. It was signed into law in August 1990, largely in response to rising public concern following the Exxon Valdez incident.
We chose it because the OPA improved the nation's ability to prevent and respond to oil spills by establishing provisions that expand the fed. gov's ability. -
Convention on Climate Change and the Earth Center
Framework of Convention
The Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, resulting in the signing of the Convention on Climate Change and the Earth Charter, a global pledge to control global warming.
We chose this because it was an important step 172 government participated in. An important achievement was an agreement on the Climate Change Convention which in turn led to the Kyoto Protocol, protocol aimed to keep the focus of doc. -
Califorina Coast Redwood Tree
Julia Hill Documentary This award-winning documentary reveals the extraordinary journey of a Julia Hill. Julia Butterfly Hill, age 23, lived for 735 days in the top of a 180-feet tall California Coast Redwood tree and successfully blocked its destruction. We chose Julia's story because it is a rare but amazing story. She went to extremes in order to save the tree, living in it for over two years without ever coming down. -
David Chain
Shocking News from Earth First! Media
David Chain was killed by a tree felled by foresters while protesting in a forest to protect the destruction of old-growth redwood trees.
We chose this one because it clearly showed that the destruction of old-growth redwood trees was valued more than a human's life who desperatly wanted to save his environment. -
An Inconvient Truth
click to load official website and film
An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming. We chose this because it has been credited for raising international public awareness of climate change and reenergizing the environmental movement. -
Great Lakes Compact
Details of the CompactGreat Lakes Compact signed by all eight Great Lakes states in an attempt to prevent distribution and sale of water to nonregions. The compact details how the states manage the use of the lakes.
We chose this because the Great Lakes are very important to the United States, and an agreement to prevent distribution and sale these waters to non-regions is a good way of protecting our natural resources. These lakes were not man-made and deserve to be preserved and protected for as long as possible.
