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Population: 1 billion
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Walden, written by Henry D. Thoreau, published
The novel explores Henry’s perspective on nature through a first-person account of his earlier life spent by Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. He moved there to experience the deliberate life he dreamed of, living free and living wild, after graduating from Harvard at the age of 27. He relied on the land for food and only visited town occasionally to entertain people, sell his produce, and visit his mother.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/henry-david-thoreau-walden-published -
The Sierra Club
The Sierra Club consists of over 3.5 million members who have taken their stance in protecting the natural environment. They have supporters throughout the United States who’ve helped to secured protection for over 439 parks, put over 281 coal plants on the path to using clean energy instead, and even helped to pass the Endangered Species Acts. The organization is still going strong today. https://www.sierraclub.org/about-sierra-club -
The Bureau of Forestry
The Bureau of Forestry, a public service agency assembled by president Theodore Roosevelt, for the purpose of managing and ensuring that the health of the commonwealth’s forests lasts. The goals of the bureau include protecting all the forest in the Commonwealth from problems such as fungi, insects, and fires, educate the public on forestry, advise as well as assist landowners to plant more trees, assist in local forestry events, and so on. https://definitions.uslegal.com/b/bureau-of-forestry/ -
Population: 2 billion
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Period: to
Minamata
Minamata disease started because of an outbreak in Japan of methylmercury from consuming fish and shellfish, this lasted from 1932-1968. This disease caused many deaths for over 30 years and many fisheries to become infected with mercury in Japan. Deaths mostly included humans, dogs and cats and this disease caused a lot of pollution in the environment.
https://www.bu.edu/sustainability/minamata-disease/ -
Founding of IUCN
The ICUN is the International Union for Conservation of Nature which was created in 1948 and has become the world largest global environmental network, this organization runs many conservation projects which help to keep nature at its best. The IUCN has helped shape the environment movement by raising awareness on the subject and influencing different communities to help save the environment.
https://www.iucn.org/content/what-iucn -
Population: 3 billion
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Whaling
Three countries like Japan, Norway and Iceland kill thousands of whales which they then sell their meat to the black market. In the United States, the North Atlantic right whale has a lonely population of about 350. The Government is trying to persuade many other countries like Japan to overturn this horrific event and save these beautiful species.
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/oceans/save-the-whales/) -
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring Published
The book Silent Spring was published in 1962 and contributed to the environmental movement as it documented the effects of the increased used of pesticides on plants and animals in our environment, such as DDT. Eventually, the publication of her book allowed for a change in the United States’ pesticide policy and a ban of DDT for agricultural uses.
http://www.rachelcarson.org/SilentSpring.aspx -
The Club of Rome
A group of businessmen and scientists all from different backgrounds came to meet in Rome. There discussion was about a desire to a better future with an economy. Since the publication of “Limits to Growth”, the club of Rome has supported more than 30 books covering issues such as our common oceans, the role of knowledge and the future of work and employment. http://richardsandbrooksplace.org/ian-johnson/development-club-rome -
Gaia Hypothesis
The theory was first formulated by the British Scientist, James Lovelock in 1970 when he believed in sustainability and tree-planting. However, a couple years later he started to support nuclear power as an energy solution. Less accepted versions of the hypothesis claim that changes in the biosphere are brought about through the coordination of living organisms and maintain those conditions through homeostasis.
https://gaia-movement-usa.org/about-us/gaia-thoery -
The Clean Water Act
It established the basic structure for regulating pollutant discharges into the water of the United States. It also made it unlawful for any person to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters, unless a permit was obtained under its provisions
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/history-clean-water-act -
Population: 4 billion
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Our Common Wealth
The Report of the WCED (World Commission on Enviromint and Development), otherwise known as Our Common Future, is a report crafted by the United Nations on the 19th of December, 1983, that lists the problems affecting our environment from the year 2000 and up as well as potential strategies and solutions to get rid of these problems in the coming years. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/milestones/wced -
Bhopal
It happened in the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, when massive clouds of deadly methyl iscyocante gas smothered the city after an accident at a Union Carbide pesticide plant. The leak occurred when water seeped into the tank of methyl iscyocante and the temperature of the mixture increased. This lead to several lawsuits filed against the company, but awareness increased.
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/photos/8-moments-that-shaped-the-environmental-movement/bhopal-disaste -
Chernobyl Accident
The disaster happened in 1986 when a flawed reactor design failed in the hands of a team of inadequately trained operators. It's reported that at least 5% of the reactive content leaked into the surrounding community and caused two deaths on the night of the accident, plus 28 more throughout the week due to radioactive poisoning. This also impacted the local plant and animal life.
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx -
Population: 5 billion
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The Oil Pollution Act
The act greatly enhanced the EPA’s or Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to respond and resolve huge scale oil spills through a trust fund financed by taxes on oil. The organization can act accordingly when the company responsible for the spill is either incapable or unwilling to clean up after themselves.
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-oil-pollution-act -
The Pollution Prevention Act
The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 of the United States was enacted to increase interest in reducing pollution. The act states we should first reduce, if unable to prevent, pollution at the source. If neither of those actions could be executed, then the second option is to recycle the materials. The pollution should be treated in the most environmentally safe manner if none of the above resolutions are possible.
https://environmentallaw.uslegal.com/federal-laws/pollution-prevention-act/ -
Earth Summit
Otherwise known as the Conference on Environment and Development, the United Nations addressed the more current problems interfering with development and the problems that may harm the environment. The members involved discussed solutions to these types of problems amongst other things. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/milestones/unced -
The Kyoto Protocol
Negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, and soon ratified by 140 nations, the protocol a mean to combat against carbon dioxide emissions, which is to blame for the rising world temperature that has caused glaciers to melt and ocean levels to rise. The UK agreed to limit its emissions down by 12.5% below what was recorded in 1990 by the year 2012, while the EU cuts by 8%. The USA by 7% and Japan by 6%.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/feb/16/sciencenews.environment -
Population: 6 billion
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Stockholm Conference
The Stockholm project is about keeping persistent organic pollutants that will aim to help our environment by limiting the amount of chemicals. These chemicals can hurt human's health and could result in cancers, birth defects, and much more. The Stockholm conference was brought up in 2001 and began in 2004 in Stockholm, Sweden.
http://chm.pops.int/TheConvention/Overview/tabid/3351/Default.aspx -
Documentary film An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary created by the vice president of the USA in 2006, Al Gore, to raise educate the public about global warming and climate change. He used graphs, pictures, and more to teach people about the greenhouse effect and its harmful effects in hopes of reducing pollution. He also showed us the projected statistics of our future if we continue to release pollution at this rate.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/An-Inconvenient-Truth -
Population: 7 billion