Environmental Timeline

By lovegarrisona
  • 100

    Agricultual Revoolution

  • Industrial Revolution

  • John Muir was born

    He was an early advocate for wildlife conservation.

  • Walden by Henry David Thoreau

    A book written about the importance of living one with nature.

  • Homestead Act

  • Yellowstone National Park created

  • American Forestry Association founded

  • Yosemite plus Sequoia National Park founded

  • Sierra Club founded

    One of the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organizations in the United States.

  • Lacey Act founded

    A conservation law in the United States that prohibits trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold.
  • Period: to

    Golden Age of Conservation (Theodore Roosevelt)

  • First National Wilflife Refuge established

    The system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants

  • US Forest Service founded

    Administers harvesting and development of the nation's forests.

  • Aldo Leopold

  • Audubon Society founded

    National Audubon Society's mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds and other wildlife.

  • Antiquities Act

    An act for the preservation of American antiquities, such as Native American lands and artifiacts.

  • US National Park Service founded

  • Civilain Conservation Corps founded

  • Taylor Grazing Act

    Provides for the regulation of grazing on the public lands to improve rangeland conditions and regulate their use.

  • Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act

    A stamp required by the United States federal government to hunt migratory waterfowl.

  • Fish plus Wildlife Service founded

    The mission of the agency reads as "working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people."

  • Silent Spring published by Rachel Carson

    This book documented the detrimental effects on the environment of the indiscriminate use of pesticides.

  • WIlderness Act

    Created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States.

  • WIld and Scenic Rivers Act

    It protects wild rivers and scenic rivers from development that would substantially change their wild or scenic nature.

  • Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire

    The river is famous for being "the river that caught fire," helping to spur the environmental movement in the late 1960s.

  • National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

    Established a U.S. national policy promoting the enhancement of the environment.

  • First Earth Day

  • Clean Air Act established

    Federal law designed to control air pollution on a national level.

  • Endangered Species Act

    Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction.

  • Federal, Insectiside, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act

    Provide federal control of pesticide distribution, sale, and use.

  • OPEC and Oil Embargo

  • Roland and Molina (UCI) announce that CFC's are depleting the oxone layer

    CFCs and other contributory substances are referred to as ozone-depleting substances.

  • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

    Protect human health and the environment from the potential hazards of waste disposal.

  • Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act

    Primary federal law that regulates the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States.

  • Clean Water Act

    Restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters.

  • Love canal, NY

    The subject of national and international attention after it was revealed in the press that the site had formerly been used to bury 21,000 tons of toxic waste.

  • Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident

    Nuclear power plant overheated causing major uproar in Pennsylvania.

  • Bhopal Island

    Gas leak accident in India.

  • Chernobyl

    A nuclear explosion in Russia.

  • CERCLA (Superfund)

    Federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances.

  • Montreal Protocol

    An international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer.

  • Exxon Valdez

    An oil tanker that spilled barrells of oil near Alaska.

  • Energy Policy Act

    Set goals, created mandates, and amended utility laws to increase clean energy use.

  • Desert Protection Act

    Established the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks and the Mojave National Preserve in the California desert.
  • Period: to

    Kyoto Protocol

  • World population hits 6 billion

  • Period: to

    IPCC Report on climate change

  • Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill