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10,000 BCE
Neolithic Agricultural Revolution
The beginning of farming in humans, began the foundations for civilizations as people starting living together to form communities based on farms. -
European Industrial Revolution
Period is European history where various technological advances, such as the steam engine and the combustion engine, allowed the ability to mass produce goods. With this process began the rise of large industries and cities began forming as more people began to move to the same area. -
Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon
Hundreds of years of extermination in large numbers, since the settlement of the first European colonists in the 14-- and 1500's, caused the passenger pigeon to go extinct. Previously one of the most common birds in the New World, the last bird died in the Cincinnati Zoological Garden in September 1st, 1914. -
Dust Bowl across the US
Large amounts of soil erosion and drought struck a large area of central United States, causing huge dust storms in the area, and infertile land with crops unable to grow in them. This was primarily caused by years of cows grazing over the land, eroding the topsoil. To make matters worse, wheat farmers began growing huge tracts of farmland, causing all of the soil to lose its fertility. What came was the Dust Bowl, a period of huge dust storms and droughts. -
Publication of Silent Spring
The publication of Silent Spring brought attention to how persistent pollutants such as certain pesticides is extremely damaging to the environment. Before publication, DDT was a common pesticide used across the US, in farms, urban areas, and households. After studying the effects of the chemical, and realizing it affects the entire ecosystem, especially birds and fish, Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, telling of the dangers of persistent Pesticides. -
First Earth Summit
The UN General Assembly held a conference in Stockholm from the 5-16 of June in 1972. The conference resulted in a Declaration with 26 principles concerning the environment and development, an Action Plan with 109 actions to be taken, and a final Resolution. This conference became the basis for environmental protection acts headed by the UN, as well as various Earth Summits in the following thirty years. -
Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis is Unveiled
The Gaia Hypothesis was developed by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in 1979. The theory states that multicellular life on Earth self regulates the conditions that make life on Earth possible. Evidence for this theory includes that despite the sun's radiation increasing by 30% since life started, the levels reaching the surface are the same since the ozone levels rose to keep the radiation level the same, allowing life to continue to exist. -
Bhopal Disaster
On December 2, 1984, a gas leak occurred at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant, killing at least 3,000 people. The gas, methyl isocyanate, spread to the surrounding shanty towns, killing thousands the first night, and permanently disabling many dozens of thousands more. -
Chernobyl Disaster
The Chernobyl reactor was a nuclear reactor with a massive design flaw: instead of using water as a coolant, which reduces the reactivity, graphite was used, which made the reactivity worse. After a test run was conducted, the positive feedback caused by the graphite caused an explosion at the plant, killing two workers immediately. The radiation spread to the surrounding area, including the towns of Pripyat and Chornobyl. The area will be unfit for human residence for 20,000 years. -
IPCC Formed by UNEP
The United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization formed the IPCC in 1988. The IPCC assesses meteorological and climatology related research to inform national policy and negotiations.
