ESS Timeline

  • Population: 1 billion

  • Population: 2 billion

  • Flood control act of 1928

    Hurricane Katrina caused 125 billion dollars in debt from damaging flooding, was the biggest issue since the army corps engineers designed the levees decades earlier and they didn’t work. They were going to be held responsible, but the flood act prevented them from being held liable
  • Founding of IUCN

    Its aim was to encourage international cooperation and guide conservation action by providing scientific knowledge and tools.
  • The Great London Smog

    Killing 12,000 people and sparking an environmental movement, the smog that engulfed London in 1952 shut down the city. It was a mixture of fog and smoke that was created from people burning too much coal to keep warm during the freezing months.
  • Minimata

    An environmental agreement that addresses specific human activities which contribute to widespread mercury pollution. By implementing this agreement, we can help to reduce global mercury pollution in the future.
  • Population: 3 billion

  • Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring Published

    Silent Spring tells the story of how bird populations across the country are suffering because of DDT, which was widely being used to control mosquitoes and other insects.
  • Cuyahoga River Catches Fire

    Becoming heavily filled with pollution from a nearby manufacturing center, it was one of the most polluted rivers in the US. 13 fires had been reported on the river.
  • Gaia Hypothesis

    The hypothesis proposes that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a self-regulating, complex system that help to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet.
  • Population: 4 billion

  • Whaling (save the whale)

    On April 27, 1975, Greenpeace launched the world's first anti-whaling campaign from Vancouver. This spread awareness around the world and eventually sparked a “Save the Whales” movement which helped secure an international ban on commercial whaling.
  • Love Canal

    In the 1970s, the Love Canal became a landfill for the city of Niagra Falls. It was used to dump toxic waste, which resulted in many people moving from the area. It was such an environmental disaster that it became one of the most known landfill related movements in the area.
  • World Climate Conference

    It was one of the first international meetings on climate change. It is attended by many scientists discussing climate research, forecasting, and mainly global warming. It is organized by the World Meteorological Organization.
  • Bhopal

    On December 3, 1984, about 45 tons of harmful gas methyl isocyanate got out from an insecticide plant that was owned by the Indian subsidiary of the American firm Union Carbide Corporation. 
  • Chernobyl

    The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. The exposed radiation threatened many humans lives.
  • Population: 5 billion

  • Persian Gulf Oil Spill

    It was one of the largest oil spills in history. It was a result of the Gulf War. Iraqi forces started pouring oil into the water to stop the U.S. from landing on their shores. After lots of cleanup it was claimed that the spill is responsible for extreme environmental damage to the coastline.
  • Rio Earth Summit

    Was a huge United Nations conference that took place in Rio de Janeiro between June 3 and June 14, 1992. It was created for member states to come together and collaborate on sustainability and development issues after the Cold War.
  • Kyoto

    The Kyoto Protocol treaty was negotiated in December 1997 at the city of Kyoto, Japan the Kyoto Protocol was implemented to limit greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with agreed individual targets. The Convention only asked those countries to adopt the policies and report back periodically.
  • Population: 6 billion

  • Documentary film An Inconvenient Truth released

    It was released in 2006, featuring the multimedia presentation of former U.S. vice president Al Gore that formed the basis for his traveling lecture tour on the emerging human challenge of global warming and climate change.
  • Great Pacific Garbage Patch discovered

    It is a huge gyre of plastic and floating trash. It's located in the North Pacific Ocean and originated from the Pacific Rim. It's in summary a large "patch" of floating garbage.
  • Deepwater Horizon Oil

    Known as one of the largest oil spills in the petroleum industry. There were many adverse effects from the oil spill and even though there were efforts to clean the site, it was still leaking. It was one of the largest environmental disasters ever.
  • Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

    The event was mainly caused by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. It was classified as Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale and was the most severe nuclear accident since the Chernobyl Disaster.
  • Population: 7 billion