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Founding of the IUCN
The IUCN's Species Survival Commission allows the IUCN to encourage and assist societies to conserve biodiversity by building knowledge on the status and threats to species. They develop policies and guidelines and provide advice to different societies on their environmental issues. -
Minamata
In the area around the Minamata bay, the intake of shellfish and fish were seen as the cause of the disease. The Kumamoto Prefecture gave guidance to self-restrain fishing and consumption. In the Argano River Basin, after Minamata was discovered there, Niigata Prefecture took measures that are guidance for the concerned fishing cooperative to self-restrain catching fish and shellfish, and for the concerned people to control intake. -
Beginnings of the UN law of the sea
This banned nuclear weapons on the seabed, declaring that all resources that go beyond limits of jurisdiction. -
WWF founded
This is the World Wildlife Fund. It's active in almost 100 countries, has 6 million supporters, and its main goal is to conserve biological diversity in the world. -
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring Published
Silent Spring did not ban DDT (a synthetic man-made chemical used as an insecticide), but argued that it was dangerous to humans and other animals and that overusing them would dramatically disrupt ecosystems. Her book began the establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the passing of numerous laws protecting the environment and human health, including a ban on domestic use of DDT in 1972 due to its widespread overuse and harmful impact on the environment. -
First Earth Day in USA
This was meant to increase awareness of environmental problems. On this day, people created rallies, marches, and programs in honor of earth day! This also boosted the U.S environmental movement. -
Gaia Hypothesis
Gaia Hypothesis states that living organisms on the planet interact with their surrounding inorganic environment to form a synergetic and self-regulating system that created, and now maintains, the climate and biochemical conditions that make life on Earth possible. -
CITES started
Stands for: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. It's a treaty that protects plants and animals who are threatened from international trade. It's one of the most popular agreements of all time. -
Bhopal disaster
This was an industrial incident where a pesticide plant released 40 tons of toxic gas. Half a million suffered from sickness and thousands were dead. -
Chernobyl
Chernobyl caused an increased awareness of the dangers of nuclear power, and a strong activist movement in Eastern Europe to mitigate these dangers through increased security measures and limited use of nuclear energy, as well as conservation efforts to help restore and protect the areas most effected by the Chernobyl incident. -
Montreal Protocol
The goal of this was to regulate the use of chemicals that hurt the ozone layer. The treaty now has 200 signatories when it started off with 46 countries. -
Habitat II Conference
Focused on human settlements and sustainable development in urban areas. Adequate housing for all was also an important goal. -
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol operationalizes the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by committing industrialized countries and economies to limit and reduce greenhouse gases emissions.They only ask those countries to adopt policies and measurements on mitigation and report periodically. -
World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg
This consisted of provisions covering measures in order to progress development into taking account for the environment and respecting nature. Basically everyone agreed with this! -
Documentary film An Inconvenient Truth released
This documentary film about global warming was inspired by the campaigning work of Al Gore, the former United States Vice President, to raise awareness of the issue and encourage action against climate change.