Timeline of the Environmental Movement

By skyylind

  • Earth Reaches 1 Billion

  • How to Build Up Worn Out Soils

    George Washington Carver created a research book about how to increase soil fertility (an increase in nitrogen level) while still planting crops for profit. This was one of the earliest papers published to urge farmers to take care of their soil, as it is good for both the farmer and the environment. Crop rotations were started so that different fields were planted with different plants, this process is still used today to keep soil healthy since it is a limited and necessary resource.

  • Earth Reaches 2 Billion

  • Founding of IUCN

    Founded in 1948 on October 5th in Fontainebleau, France. It was the world's first environmental union. The idea was to bring international governments and societies together to preserve and support Earth. First founded to protect and research human actions on the environment. Today, IUCN has over 13,000 members and is the biggest environmental group in the world.

  • Minamata Discovered

    Minamata is a disease that was first discovered in 1956 in Minamata City, Japan. The chemical factory at Chisso Corporation had been releasing methyl mercury into wastewater that got into the shellfish and fish on the coast. These fish were eaten by locals and they got mercury poisoning. The mercury affected the nerves, giving victims symptoms of numb hands; speech, hearing, and vision impairments; and muscle weakness. In the most extreme cases, people became paralyzed, went insane, and died.

  • Earth Reaches 3 Billion

  • Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

    Makes a case against the detrimental use of chemical pollution and pesticides, which negatively affect food chains all the way up to the top predators. This information spread and incited widespread concern

  • Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

    The United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed a treat to prohibit the testing of nuclear weapons in space, underwater, and in the atmosphere. The treaty was initially thought of in the 1950s when both the US and USSR feared the arms race was going too far. This was one of the small steps undertaken to avoid nuclear war, which would destroy environments all throughout the world. Banning nuclear tests in these areas would also reduce radiation poisoning the surrounding environment.

  • Apollo 8 Mission Photograph of Earth is Released

    This photo of the Earth was released to the public to receive quite a concerned reaction. It made people realize the finality of the Earth's resources and that nothing can last forever, and it brought along the idea of sustainability and it pushed the environmental movement way forward.

  • Earth Day is Founded

    Created and established by U.S. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson in order to encourage people to participate in environmental campaigns.

  • Founding of Greenpeace

    Greenpeace is an environmental group founded in the early 1970s that is concerned with conserving natural resources because we all affect the environment and it’s our job to take care of the world, our generation, and the future generations. Greenpeace is most well known for their anti-whaling campaign, which they started in 1975. They actively protested whalers in the Pacific and coined the phrase “save the whales”, which became very popular with the media.

  • Earth Reaches 4 Billion

  • Reduce Reuse Recycle becomes a thing

    This popular slogan was first developed in the 1970s, sometime after the first Earth Day was celebrated. The world was becoming more aware of the environmental issues at hand, especially all the waste and trash that was sitting around. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act was passed in 1976 by congress and it spurred on recycling and around this time the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” was put into action.

  • Whaling (save the whale)

    Founded in 1977, the focus of this organization is to educate the public and children about the fragile ocean environment and marine animals. They believe children are the future and can be educated to know that their actions can create change in ensuring the safety of whales. The program Save The Whales BWET program has been taking students out in the natural environment to observe human activities and how pollution can eventually find its way to the ocean.

  • Gaia Hypothesis Proposed by James Lovelock

    introduces the idea that the Earth is a living organism with mechanisms to use to maintain climatic and biological conditions, and that humanity's existence upsets this balance with calamitous outcomes.

  • Union Carbide plant in Bhopal India

    The Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal India released 42 Tones of gas to densely populated neighborhoods, 15 to 20 thousand were killed in the end. The disaster was caused by not following operating and safety procedures in the understaffed plant. The Indian government nor the Dow Chemical Company (who bought Union Carbide) cleaned up the remaining 400 tons of waste. The waste infected the soil and water in the area, causing birth defects and chronic health issues.

  • Chernobyl

    The nuclear powerplant in Chernobyl in the Soviot Union had an explosion in reactor 4. The top of the reactor was blown off, releasing particles of radioactive material which spread to Ukraine, Russia, France, Italy, and Belarus, and the core had a partial meltdown. Hundreds of thousands were evacuated, and millions of acres contaminated, many still living in exposed areas. This catastrophe increased existing worries about the dangers on nuclear power.

  • Earth Reaches 5 Billion

  • Agenda 21

    This is a result of the Rio Summit in 1992 with President Bush. It wasn't fully put into affect until President Clinton created Sustainable America and is part of all of the environmental federal programs.

  • UN Rio Earth Summit

    Also known as the United Conference on Environment and Development. It was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from June 3-14, 1992. Most of the world’s nations that signed the treaties and documents nominally committed to the pursuit of economic development in ways that would protect the environment and nonrenewable source. The Convention on Biological Diversity is a binding treaty that required nations to take inventories with their plants and wild animals and protect their endangered species.

  • Kyoto

    The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and was adopted in Kyoto, Japan on December 11, 1997. The protocol takes a heavier burden on developed nations on the issue of the high current levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere due to the century and a half of industrial activities.

  • Earth Reaches 6 Billion

  • An Inconvenient Truth is Released

    An Inconvenient Truth is documentary that raised awareness for the well-being of the environment. The film specifically focused on climate change and how greenhouse gases were causing global warming by heating up the atmosphere. Later a book came out with even more hard evidence to prove the science. These two combined helped educate the public on what was going on environmentally.

  • Earth Reaches 7 Billion

  • Rio + 20

    Also known as The UN Conference on Sustainable Development, was a conference that set up a plan of current issues and plans on environmental issues of all kinds. These included the Sustainable Development Goals, Green Economic Policies, and even strengthening the already in place UNEP.

  • Break Free From Plastic

    The movement was launched on September 2016 and demand reductions in single use plastics and a solution to the plastic pollution crisis. They work with other organization in order to be able to have the most efficient plastic free movement. They have reached out into many Asian countries as well as European countries and spread awareness of plastic pollution.