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Founded Sierra Club in 1982, fought unsuccessfully to prevent the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.
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Prohibits interstate transport of wild animals dead or alive without federal permit
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Wrote A Sand County Almanac published a year after his death in 1948; promoted a "Land Ethic" in which humans are ethically responsible for serving as the protectors of nature.
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Published Silent Spring in 1962; documented the environmental damage done by DDT and other pesticides. Which heightened public awareness at the start of the modern environmental movement.
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Published "The Tragedy of the Commons" in the journal Science in 1968, argued that rational people will exploit shared resources (commons).
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Protects rivers with due or aesthetic, recreational, wildlife, historical or cultural reasons
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Environmental Impact Statements must be done before any project affecting federal lands can be started
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Set emissions standards for cars, and limits for release of air pollutants
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Bans ocean dumping of sewage sludge and industrial waste
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Prohibits taking marine mammals in U.S. waters and by U.S. citizens, and the importing marine mammals and marine mammal products into the U.S.
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Identifies threatened and endangered species in the US, and puts their protection ahead of economic considerations
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Lists species that cannot be commercially traded as live specimens or wildlife products
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Set maximum levels for pollutants that may have had adverse effects on human health
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Controls hazardous waste with a cradle to grave system
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Requires coal strip mines to reclaim the land
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Set maximum permissible amounts of water pollutants that can be discharged into waterways. Aim was to make surface waters fishable and swimmable
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the “Superfund” act, designed to identify and clean up abandoned hazardous waste dumpsites
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Phase out of ozone depleting substances