Environmental Movement

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    Minamata Disaster

    A methylmercury poisoning from fish that contained chemical waste. People would be poisoned by this from eating the fish. They never found a cure for the disease, so people took drugs for each symptom.
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    Love Canal

    Hundreds of people had their heath damaged and some even killed because in 1977, it was found out that for decades, toxic chemicals were being dumped in the nearby canal. In the 1920’s the canal became a site for the city of Niagara Falls to dumb municipal refusal.
  • Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" Published

    Carson spent several years researching ecosystems along the east coast of the US after getting a master’s degree in zoology. She became concerned about the effects that the insecticides were having on wildlife, so she decided to write Silent Spring, primarily talking about the effects of DDT.
  • Stockholm Conference

    The first ever conference in the world to discuss major environmental issues. This conference led to creating the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
  • Endangered Spices Act

    A law created with the idea in mind to protect endangered species from extinction and their different ecosystems. The law was also made to recover species to the point where they do not need protection from the law anymore.
  • Bhopal Disaster

    A tragic event where thousands of people died from the gas called methyl isocyanate being leaked from a pesticide plant in India. It immediately killed 3,800 people, and thousands more later on.
  • Chernobyl Meltdown

    One of the reactors within the powerplant had a major design flaw and was being operated by a person who was not trained properly. The explosion causes more than 5% of radioactive material to be released into the environment, contaminating many parts of Europe.
  • Montreal Protocol

    The Montreal Protocol was used on substances and chemicals that when shot into the atmosphere, deplete the Ozone Layer. This was done by slowing down the production of the ODS (Ozone Depleting Substances).
  • Kyoto Protocol

    Created to reduce greenhouse gases from being released. It was signed in 1977 and went into effect in 2005. It later expired in December of 2012, was resigned, and is no longer in effect as of December of 2020.
  • Documentary film An Inconvenient Truth released

    A film about a former vice president wanting to teach people more about global warming. The film talks about his large campaign on global warming and the effects it has on our environment.