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The Agricultural Revolution was an increase in agricultural production in 1600s Britain due to the growth of labor and land productivity. This output of crops is an example of anthropocentrism, meaning that humans benefited from it more than the environment.
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In 1760, the Industrial Revolution transformed economies based on agriculture and manufacturing. This boost in technology is considered technocentric in the way that the only benefiting party was the economy and human societies.
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In the 1930s, the southern plains region of the United States suffered severe dust storms during a drought. It worsened the economic impacts of the great depression and put families searching for work. It killed people, livestock, and crops. It was caused by federal land policies, farm economies, and over-culturally significant factors. Another major reason was over-farming in this area.
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The Bhopal disaster took place in 1984 in Bhopal India, where about 45 tons of toxic gas had escaped an insecticide plant, killing thousands. The plant was owned by the Indian subsidiary of the American firm Union Carbide Corporation. This event killed around 15,000-20,000 people and sent over 10,000 people into panic as they attempted to evacuate the area.
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The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) was established on October 5th, 1948 in Fontainebleau, France. It brought together governments and civil societies with a shared goal to protect nature.
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In 1956, Minamata, Japan, a chemical plant leaked a methyl-mercury compound into Minamata Bay. The chemical contaminated the sea life and caused the people that ate the fish to die. Some lived but with harmful genetic mutations.
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Silent Spring by Rachel Carson brought forth many new ideas regarding the environment. Some ideas were that spraying chemicals to control insects can also kill birds that feed on insects. Similarly, these chemicals also affect the food supply for society. This led to many people advocating for better policies and change towards the use of pesticides
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The Wilderness Act was passed to create a National Wilderness Preservation System to permanently protect the good of the people. This act legally defined wilderness and protected over 9 million acres of land.
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On Jan 29, 1969, an oil rig on the coast of Santa Barbara had a blowout, creating one of the largest oil spills in the country. This spill helped create the modern environmental movement. Due to an overwhelming amount of back pressure, 5 different cracks reopened up, releasing enormous amounts of oil into the open ocean. This led to poor effects on the marine life.
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The clean air act resulted in the governmental role regarding air pollution control being reshaped. This act authorizes the formation of emission limitation regulations from mobile and industrial sources.
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In the late 1970s, heavy rain in New York had caused a site that was being used as a landfill to dump thousands of tons of chemicals contaminating homes, water, and land. The site was originally being built in the 1800s, but the project was abandoned shortly after. In 1942 the Hooker Chemical company began to use it as a landfill. After a long period of rain, the toxic chemicals had dispersed forcing hundreds of people to evacuate their homes.
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The three-mile island accident was a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor which resulted in the release of radioactive gasses in the environment. It is to be considered the worst commercial power plant incident in U.S history. This resulted in an increase of regulations for the nuclear industry
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In 1986, a moratorium was created to stop commercial whaling to help their low populations recover. To this day, Japan, Iceland, and Norway continue to hunt whales to sell on the black market - It was such a big deal for so long, that they may never recover
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Chernobyl is a man-made natural disaster where a reactor exploded sending radioactive material all across Europe. Chernobyl is important in the environmental movement because since then the push for nuclear power to be the main resource has diminished.
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In 1989 the Exxon Valdes was travelling through the Prince William Sound in Alaska. It hit Bligh Reef causing the 11 cargos to rupture on impact, spilling 11 million gallons (about 41639510 L) of oil to spread across the Alaskan shore. This contamination had killed hundreds of thousands of marine animals. Even today about .6 of the oil spilled in this incident remains in the Prince William Sound.
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The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It was adopted on December 11th, 1997. The Kyoto protocol is important today because it established that countries had to monitor their emissions
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The story of Al Gore and his journey to inform others about the human challenge of global warming and climate change. He presents information using graphs, pictures, and other mediums to explain the greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide concentrations, energy use, population growth, and how they all affect global warming.
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The deep water oil spill occurred on April 10th, 2010, which was an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion, which killed 11 men, caused the rig to sink and started a catastrophic oil leak from the well. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident, government programs inside of the Department of the Interior Minerals Management Services underwent reform to separate the Safety Bureau.
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