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The Yellowstone Act
This act made Yellowstone the first national park. It was set apart as an area for people to enjoy and to conserve the environment. The yellowstone act is important for people to know about because it was the first time such a large area of land had been set aside for conservation and public use. -
President Roosevelt's annual message to congree
Roosevelt addressed the congress and told them about how the bison population was decreasing. This led to conservation movements and helped the bison population grow again. If it weren't for this address, we may not even have bison today. -
The Burton Act
Congress passed this act in order to keep niagra falls from being used to harvest hydroelectric power. The factories needed to produce this energy would have ruined the intrinsic value of the beautiful Niagra Falls. -
National Park Service
This led to all the National Parks we have today. With out this act we would not have the 400 parks we have now. All of these parks add up to about 84.6 billion acres that are preserved. -
Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act
This act was made to try to conserve the prairie lands that were affected by the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl caused a lot of damage to the land and caused a massive amount of people to migrate away from the area. With out this act the prairie lands would not have been conserved or protected. -
Bald Eagle Preservation Act
The bald eagle was getting close to extinction so, this act was put in place. The bald eagle population grew thanks to this act and were taken off the endangered species list in 2007. -
Silent Spring
In 1962 Rachel Carson wrote and published Silent Spring, a book that warned and talked about how bad pesticides are for the nevironment. Her book led to the government outlawing DDT and a large decrease in the use of other pesticides. -
National Environmental Policy Act
This was the first act established by the U.S. goveernment meant to protect the environment. It set framework for the government to start looking at the environment when making decisions to develop things. This affects us now because we still have to take in to consideration the environment before we build things. -
The first Earth Day
On this day in 1970, 20 million people came together to celebrate our environment and to appreciate it. This impacts us today because peole still celebrate this holiday around the world. -
The Environmental Protection Agency
This agency was made to protect our environment and to use the environment for the triple bottom line. SInce it has been made the agency has revitalized ecosystems, improves the way money is spent, and protects the health of the U.S. people. -
Blue Marble photo released
This photo released by NASA led to a wave of environmentalism. The photo was the first picture of Earth from an outside point of view. -
Endangered Species Act
This act protects species that have a dwindling population and are at risk of extinction. This is important because it has saved many animal species from possible extinction. -
Safe Drinking Water Act
The EPA started regulating the drinking water in the United States. It kept people from contaminating drinking water and also kept people safe and healthy. The EPA still makes sure that our drinking water is clean. -
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
This act provides money for people to clean and take care of areas full of hazardous waste. This fund is important because it keeps hazardous materials from being left out and infecting other areas. -
The Montreal Protocol
This international treaty was put in to act to decrease ozone depleting hydrocarbons. This treaty is very important because many countries have put it in to use, and it has decreased the amount of hydrocarbons released. -
NASA's warning
On this date NASA warned the government about global warming and how it would become a major issue. This has been shown to be true now. -
OIl Pollution Act
After the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the EPA wanted to be able to protect this from happening again and to be able to clean it up. This has helped us recently with other oil spills that have happened like the one in the gulf of Mexico a couple years ago. -
The Earth Summit
This conference led to two big steps towards battling global warming. From this conference, we had the Convention on Climate Change and the Earth Charter. -
Julia Butterfly Hill
Julia Hill, in an effort to protest the destruction of a redwood tree, sat at the top of it for 735 days. This led and inspired other people to protest too because she was successful. -
David Chain's Death
David Chain was an environmental activist and was protesting the cutting down of the redwood tress, when he was killed by a tree that was cut down by a forester. This led to many protests. -
An Inconvenient Truth
This book written by Al Gore raised awareness for global warming and brought te everyone's attention the affects of it. He let people know that it is a growing problem and that it needed to be fixed. He later won a Nobel Prize for raising awareness to this issue. -
The EPA's New Air Quallity Standards
The EPA released this to control the amount of pollution from small particles in the air. This includes matter from car exhaust, smoke stacks, and coal. -
Live Earth Concerts
Concerts from big name artists were help to spread awareness for climate change. These artists gave the issue more publicity and made more people want to help.
