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The word "ecology" emerges
The word ecology was coined by German biologist Ernst Haeckel -
Period: to
History of Sustainability
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Sierra Club Emerges
The Sierra Club is an environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who became its first president. Traditionally associated with the progressive movement, the club was one of the first large-scale environmental preservation organizations in the world, and currently engages in lobbying politicians to promote green policies. -
Air Polution Control Act
An atomospheric inversion in Donara help the town under a cloud of gas from the Donora Zinc Works. Twenty people died. Public outcry from the incident forced the federal goverment to start studying ar pollultion, its causes, effects, and how to control it.This led to the Air Pollution Control act of 1955, the ancestor of the Clean Air Act of 1970. -
Silent Spring
A book by Rachel Carson, that brings together research on toxicology, ecology and epidemiology to suggest that agricultural pesticides are building to catastrophic levels,
linked to damage to animal species and human health -
The Population Bomb
Paul Ehrlich publishes The Population Bomb, on the connection
between human population, resource exploitation and the environment. -
National Environmental Policy Act
National Environmental Policy Act is passed in the United States, making it one of the first countries to establish a national legislative framework to protect the environment. The law sets the basis for
environmental impact assessment in the world. -
First Earth Day
First Earth Day held as a national teach-in on the environment. An estimated 20 million people participate in peaceful demonstrations across the United States. -
Endangered Spieces Act Passed
When Congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, it recognized that our rich natural heritage is of “esthetic, ecological, educational, recreational, and scientific value to our Nation and its people.” It further expressed concern that many of our nation’s native plants and animals were in danger of becoming extinct. -
OPEC oil crisis
Fuels argument to growth debate -
Worldwatch Institute
Environmentalist Lester Brown founds the Worldwatch Institute, an
independent research organization that works for an environmentally
sustainable and socially just society. -
Brundtland Report published - "Sustainable Development" defined
The report weaves together consideration of social, economic, cultural, and environmental issues. For the first time it gives some direction for comprehensive global solutions. It also popularizes the term "sustainable development" defining it as: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". -
E.O Wilson Publishes " Biodiversity"
Biologist E.O. Wilson publishes Biodiversity, a collection of reports from the National Forum on Biodiversity in the United States. The book details how humans are rapidly undermining the Earth's ability to support its diversity of species. -
Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Establishment of an Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) because of the need of broad and balanced information about climate change that the organization was created back in 1989.
It was set up by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as an effort by the United Nations to provide the governments of the world with a clear scientific view of what is happening to the world’s climate. -
The Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit focussed on sustainability issues.
An important achievement of the summit was an agreement on the Climate Change Convention which in turn led to the Kyoto Protocol. Another agreement was to "not to carry out any activities on the lands of indigenous peoples that would cause environmental degradation or that would be culturally inappropriate". -
John Elkington coins the term Triple Bottom Line
In practical terms, triple bottom line accounting means expanding the traditional reporting framework to take into account ecological and social performance in addition to financial performance.
The phrase was coined by John Elkington in 1994. It was later expanded and articulated in his 1998 book Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. -
The International Fairtrade Certification Mark is launched
The organization develops and reviews fair trade standards, assists producers in gaining and maintaining fair trade certification and capitalizing on market opportunities. -
Kyoto Protocol
an international treaty, which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gases emissions, based on the premise that (a) global warming exists and (b) man-made CO2 emissions have caused it.