-
The worlds population is estimated to have reach 1 billion
-
-
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier proposes that the sun’s heat is partially trapped in the earth’s atmosphere, which acts like a giant glass jar, the first scientific reference to the greenhouse effect.
-
Chemist Robert Angus Smith writes of acid rain in and around Manchester, noting that sulphuric acid in city air damages fabrics and metals.
-
Canada creates a reserve that later became Banff National Park, Canada’s first national park.
-
Svante Arrhenius notes that carbon dioxide permits passage of short wavelength radiant heat from the sun, and traps reflected longer wave radiant heat emitted by Earth. This leads to an understanding of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.
-
Canada’s federal and provincial governments hold the first cooperative session on wildlife and wilderness preservation.
-
The first atomic explosions begin, and over the next couple of decades they will release nuclear fallout, including radioactive iodine and strontium 90, over huge regions of the planet. The fallout will turn up in milk thousands of kilometres from nuclear test sites.
-
Canada’s Commission on Conservation writes about the need to live within natural cycles saying: “Each generation is entitled to the interest on the natural capital, but the principal should be handed on unimpaired.” This presages the concept of sustainable development.
-
Creation of the World Wildlife Fund to protect animals and plants threatened with extinction.
-
Pollution Probe is created by a small group of University of Toronto students assisted by some faculty. It draws widespread support by acting as a focal point for growing public concern about the environment.
-
Canada creates a Department of the Environment, combining a series of other federal organizations with environmental responsibilities.
-
Ontario passes the Environmental Assessment Act, the first province to make such assessments legally required in the planning and approval of certain projects.
-
Canadian residents protest against chemical waste dumping into the Niagara River.
-
The United Nations, with the backing of Canada and a handful of other nations, votes to create a commission on the future of the environment.
-
The world population hits 5 billion, doubling in less than 40 years.