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123 years later
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The Minamata disaster which started in 1932 was a disease outbreak in Japan caused by the runoff from factories emitting dangerous chemicals like methylmercury into their water sources. Then people eating the shellfish and fish that were contaminated with methylmercury led to them getting very sick and dying. This outbreak showed what pollution can cause and helped the creation of the Pollution-related Health Compensation Law, and the consistent monitoring of water sources.
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Starting in 1942 and going all the way to 1953 the Love Canal became a popular dumping site for toxic chemicals. These chemicals would then seep into the soil and got into people’s water causing cancer, blood diseases, and many other problems. This event led to the founding of the superfund program to test and monitor the water to extract the chemicals from the water and prevent more in the future.
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33 years later
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A true book published in 1962 explaining Rachel Carlson’s research on how DDTs damaged the environment and killed the animals around us. The DDTs would runoff the fields and into water sources contaminating the water and fish then the birds that ate the fish and then humans which could kill any of the 3. Her book made people realize how awful DDTs were for the environment and us and led to DDTs being controlled on how much could be used and produced.
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Held in 1972 the Stockholm Conference was had because of the major environment problems happening across the entire world. The conference was a United Nations meeting that was one of the first to make the environment a major problem the world should worry about. The conference came up with more policies that were adopted by all the United Nations around the world.
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The Endangered Species Act which was enacted in 1973 was caused because of the over kill of certain animals and plants. Poachers who would severely overkill animals for certain parts of them and deforestation led to many species of wildlife to not exist anymore. The lack of certain species led to certain environments downfall and the government creating an endangered law to protect the animals and plants from people killing them.
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14 years later
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In 1984 around 40 tons of toxic gas leaked out of a pesticide plant in Bhopal India which killed at least 3,800 people. This disaster led to the development of more regulations for environmental safety and made outlines to enforce them.
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The Chernobyl meltdown in 1986 was caused by a flawed reactor being incorrectly operated. The explosion of steam and harmful chemicals released 5% of the reactor core radiation which killed 31 people in total. The explosion led to improved nuclear safety standards globally and improved the containment of possibly radioactive areas.
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13 years later
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Most factories were using man made chemicals which were killing the ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol heavily reduced the allowance to the use of these mad made chemicals. The protocol was widely accepted across the world dramatically cutting down on the usage which has allowed the ozone to rebuild itself.
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Kyoto protocol was set into motion because of the mass greenhouse gas emissions from factories that were damaging our world in the 70’s and 80’s. The protocol was set into motion in 1997, and it was the framework to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the targeted countries that produce the most gases. The protocol is a group of policies and standards that the selected countries now follow to reduce emissions.
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12 years later
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A film released in 2006 that described the science behind global warming and how the population, carbon dioxide production, and human energy affect global warming. The film is often shown in classes to show the future of the world and how people impact global warming, and it gives a few solutions to cut down how fast it increases.
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12 years later
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12 years later