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Founding of IUCN
IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) was established on 5 October 1948 in the French town of Fontainebleau. As the first global environmental union, we brought together governments and civil society with a shared goal to protect nature. -
Minamata
The Minamata event, also known as the Minamata tragedy, was a decades-long mercury poisoning incident in Japan that began in the late 1950s.
The event occurred when the Chisso Corporation, Japan's largest chemical manufacturer, dumped an estimated 27 tons of mercury compounds into Minamata Bay from 1932 to 1968.
Bacteria in the water converted the mercury into methylmercury, which then bioaccumulated in the muscles of fish and shellfish in the bay. -
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring Published
Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of DDT, a pesticide used by soldiers during WW2. -
Earth Day
The first Earth Day in 1970 was the result of grassroots mobilization for environmental protection. The campaign was led by Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson and organized by college students, many of whom had experience in protest campaigns from the 1960s. -
Cuyahoga river fire
Railroad bridges near Republic Steel trapped debris in the river, causing it to pile up. Oil on the water added to its flammability. A flare tossed from an overpassing train likely provided the spark that ignited the debris. The fire lasted for less than a half hour and resulted in minor damage to the railroad bridges. -
Gaia Hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis, also known as the Gaia theory, Gaia paradigm, or the Gaia principle, suggests that living organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth form a complex, self-regulating system that maintains conditions for life on the planet. The hypothesis was proposed in 1972 by James Lovelock and has both scientific and philosophical components. -
Antartic Ozone Hole Discovered
The ozone hole over Antarctica was discovered in 1985 by scientists and the discovery came after scientists began to notice a dramatic thinning of the ozone layer over the South Pole.
The discovery of the ozone hole led to an environmental movement and the eventual ban of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were found to be responsible for destroying the ozone in areas including above Antarctica where the ozone layer is particularly sensitive to them because of the continent's geography. -
Chernobyl
On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine experienced a nuclear accident that destroyed Unit 4 of the plant and released large amounts of radioactive material into the environment. The accident was caused by a flawed reactor design, inadequately trained personnel, and a sudden power surge during a reactor systems test. The explosion and fire that followed released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere. -
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty adopted in 1997 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat global warming. It was the first treaty to set legally binding targets for industrialized countries to reduce their emissions by an average of 5% below 1990 levels. The protocol also established market-based mechanisms to help countries meet their targets, such as allowing countries with surplus units to sell them to countries that are exceeding their targets. -
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank resulting in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations. 4 million barrels of oil flowed out over an 87-day period, before it was finally capped.