History of the Environmental Movement

By avawisner1

  • Human Population hits 1 Billion

  • The Conservation Movement (1890-1920)

    During the Progressive Era, the goal shifted towards preserving natural resources and establishing natural parks and other wildlife sanctuaries.

  • Human Population hits 2 Billion

  • Founding of IUCN

    Created in October 5, 1948 in Fontainebleau, France with the goal of encouraging ecological preservation and use of natural resources.

  • Minamata

    An increase in methylmercury contamination in fish and shellfish was caused by toxic chemical pollutants. This caused a neurological disease that affected members of neighboring communities, becoming a social issue of its second rise.

  • Human Population hits 3 Billion

  • Green Environment Movement

    Started in the 1960s and 1970s and is a movement that focuses on the concerns of environmentalists, such as reducing the carbon footprint and having large amounts of clean water. It supports the idea of the world collaborating in order to make the environment a better place.

  • Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

    This book written by Rachel Carson was published on September 27, 1962 with the goal of reminding its readers of the negative consequences humans have had on the world focusing her argument on pesticides and ecology.

  • The Club of Rome

    founded in 1968, Rome, Italy with the goal of promoting a new way of thinking, initiating policies and holistic solutions to climate problems

  • Clean Air Act

    This act required states to follow specific air quality regulations. This was coupled with SIPs to ensure that the states were making an active effort to reduce and prevent air pollution.

  • Gaia Hypothesis

    Formed mainly by James E. Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, the Gaia Hypothesis is the idea that the Earth’s systems work together, and the Earth is one large living organism.

  • The Clean Water Act

    Due to extreme industrial pollution, Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caught on fire, raising public concern for dirty rivers and streams. The Clean Water Act was passed to protect all rivers and similar bodies of water from pollution for human and environmental protection.

  • Chipko Movement

    started in Garhwal/Himalayas in 1973 by women in India that focused on protecting trees and forest from being destroyed by the government

  • Human Population hits 4 Billion

  • Whaling (Save the Whales)

    Founded in 1977, Save the Whales is a non-profit organization with the goal of using education to stop whales from being hunted to extinction.

  • Bhopal

    A pesticide plant had a chemical gas leak of methyl isocyanate which killed between 15,000 and 20,000 people and leaving survivors with severe long-term health problems.

  • Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA)

    EPCRA was formed to ensure that citizens knew what to do in case of a chemical emergency. It also requires industry reports of all use and storage of potentially hazardous chemicals to all levels of government.

  • Chernobyl

    Due to lack of safety regulations, the Chernobyl nuclear powerplant reactor malfunctioned, killing 30 people within the first few weeks due to the initial explosion and radiation poisoning following. A large population has died in years after due to long-term effects like thyroid and other cancers.

  • Human Population hits 5 Billion

  • Agenda 21

    created in June 14, 1992 is a plan of action taken by global and national organizations such as the United Nations to make sure humans make a change substantially that will benefit later on. It occurred as a result from UN earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro

  • UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro

    Conference held by the United Nations in 1992 to make changes and promote environmental protection as well as socio-economic development in the world. As a result Agenda 21 was adapted.

  • Kyoto Protocol

    A treaty originally signed in 1997 in Japan and controlled by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This international treating includes industrialized nations and mandates a limit on the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.

  • Human Population hits 6 Billion

  • Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development

    Thousands of important social and political figures along with normal citizens were brought together in Johannesburg, South Africa, to focus on difficult challenges the world is facing, including conservation and people’s needs.

  • Documentary film An Inconvenient Truth released

    This documentary was released on May 24, 2006, directed by David Guggenheim with the focus of educating people of Vice President Al Gore’s campaign whose goal was to teaching people about global warming and human challenge.

  • Human Population hits 7 Billion

  • Human Population projected to hit 8 Billion