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Timeline
Environmental movements, timeline (an abridged version)
- 1962: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
- 1962: beginning of the end of leaded gasoline
- 1963: nuclear test ban treaty between U.S. and USSR (stops above-ground testing)
- 1964: U.S. Wilderness Act (from 9 to 90 million acres in 37 years)
- 1968: U.S. Congress: Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (map), National Trails Act
- 1968: publications: Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb, Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons, Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
- 1969: U.S. Congress: NEPA (national environmental policy act, establishes EPA, environmental impact statements, forest planning processes to integrate public participation)
- 1969: Cuyahoga River in Cleveland catches fire
- 1970: Earth Day (April 22)
- 1970: U.S. Congress passes Clean Air Act
- 1970: NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) founded
- 1970: OSHA established
- 1970: NOAA created
- 1971: Greenpeace founded
- 1971: First bottle recycling bill passes In Oregon
- Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle
- 1972: U.S. Congress passes:
- Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act)
- Coastal Zone Management Act
- Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (Ocean Dumping Act) of 1972
- Marine Mammal Protection Act
- 1972, 73: publications: Small is Beautiful (Ernst Schumacher), Limits to Growth (Meadows et al)
- 1972: Buffalo Creek disaster (strip mining)
- 1973: U.S. Congress passes Endangered species act
- 1974: Congress passes Safe Drinking Water Act (under EPA control)
- 1976: Congress passes RCRA (Resource conservation and recovery act–precursor to Superfund Act (CERCLA)
- 1977: President Carter creates U.S. Dept. of Energy
- 1979: Three Mile Island Accident
- 1979: EarthFirst! Founded
- 1980: U.S. Congress passes CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act)–Superfund act (to attempt to clean up abandoned toxic waste dumps)
- 1982: UN World Charter for Nature passes 111 in favor 1 against (guess who?)
- 1984: Bhopal disaster in India (Union Carbide)
- 1986: Chernobyl (in Kiev) nuclear plant explodes, releases large doses of radioactivity. Immediate deaths are numbered at 31, mid-term deaths are estimated around 4,200. Various agencies report 10 fold to 200 fold increases in thyroid cancer. Over 2,000 square miles evacuated
- 1987: U.S. GAO and United Church of Christ studies show strong correlation between toxic waste dumps and minority communities
- 1988: International treaty bans all ocean dumping of wastes
- 1988: Ozone hole grows over Antarctica; DuPont announces it will stop making CFCs
- 1988: Montreal Protocol is signed placing limits and eventual bans on ozone-destroying CFCs
- 1989: Exxon Valdez dumps 11 million gallons of oil along Alaskan coastline (Exxon says it paid lots of money)
- 1990: UN Report on climate change suggests global temperatures are on the rise (and sea levels!)
- 1992: Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero
- 1995: Wolves reintroduced into Yellowstone Nat’l Park
- 1997: Kyoto Protocol adopted by US and 121 other nations (but not ratified by Congress)2003: Snowmobiles permitted in Yellowstone, despite research suggesting harmful ecological impacts
- 2001: George W. Bush announces US intentions to pull out of Kyoto Protocols
- 2005: Hurricane Katrina floods much of New Orleans, wreaks havoc on Gulf Coast
- 2005: Energy bill rolls back regulations on oil and gas drilling on public lands, accelerates coal bed methane extraction
- 2007: License permitting to drill for natural gas in shale deposits increases dramatically
- 2010: in worldwide survey, a majority of citizens in only two countries believe that global warming isn’t a serious problem: US & China
- 2010: BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Gulf of Mexico
- 2011: Earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan, cause release of radiation at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant that rivals Chernobyl in scope
- 2011: Gray wolves de-listed from endangered species list in several states
- 2012: US Government approves plan to drill for oil in Arctic Seas
- 2013: IPCC, in its fifth assessment, says climate scientists are 95 percent certain “human influence” is the dominant cause of global warming.
- 2013: Keystone Pipeline debate continues (to transport oil from Canadian tar sands to refineries in Southern US)
- 2013: In December, Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere pass the 400 parts per million mark. The last time the atmosphere had that much carbon, seas were 40 meters higher.
- 2014: Duke Energy Co.’s coal ash pond on the Dan River releases 82,000 tons of coal ash and up to 27 million gallons of water.
- 2014: Greenland’s ice sheets are melting quickly, according to American Geophysical Union. Fully melted, Greenland ice alone would raise world sea level by 20 feet.
- 2015: Pres. Obama rejects TransCanada’s bid to finish construction on Keystone XL Oil Pipeline.
- 2015 was the warmest on record, according to scientists with NASA and NOAA.
- 2016: Warmer than 2015
- 2016: Paris Climate Accord signed by 175 countries.
- 2016: Oklahoma has more than 600 earthquakes of 3.0 or higher on the Richter scale, a decrease from 2015 but hundreds more than pre-fracking rates.
- 2017: Germany is breaking records on development of renewable energy and power production.
- 2017: Less than a week into his presidency, Trump signs orders that will allow completion of Keystone XL and Dakota Access Oil Pipelines.
- 2017: President Trump signs legislation taking away the stream protection rule.
- 2017: Trump withdraws US from Paris Climate agreement.
- 2017: US president Trump announces plans to trim two million acres from Utah national monuments to allow more ranching, mineral and petroleum exploitation.
- 2018: Andrew Wheeler, attorney for the coal industry and opponent of Obama’s environmental policies, is appointed Administrator of the EPA.
- 2018: Research suggests Trump-era environmental policies could lead to 80,000 additional deaths per decade.
- 2019: Trump administration replaced the Obama-era Clean Power Plan with the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which did not cap emissions.
- 2019: Trump administration repealed the Clean Water Rule and rewrote the EPA’s pollution-control policies—including policies on chemicals known to be serious health risks—benefiting the chemicals industry
- 2021: 200 environmental activists are killed globally.
- 2021: Biden Administration halts Keystone XL (oil) pipeline project.
- 2021: Biden administration restores cuts to two national monuments (which Trump administration opened to fossil fuel exploitation)
- 2022: Pres. Biden signs the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes incentives for increasing renewable energy production and use.
- 2023: Scientific organizations report that the ozone layer–which protects the planet from ultraviolent radiation–is in recovery mode after decades of degradation (see 1988);
- 2023: Major insurance companies are adjusting (upwards) policies and deductibles arising from natural disasters, and will stop underwriting policies in some areas.
- 2024: UNEP reports that half of migratory species (migration likely complicating adaption in times of rapid climate change) are in decline, and 1/5 of those face extinction.
- 2024: Biden administration does not stop Dakota Access (oil) Pipeline Project before leaving office.
- 2025: Pres. Trump withdraws US from Paris Climate Accord–for the 2nd time (Biden reinstated US membership after first Trump withdrawal)
- 2025: According to the NASA Earth Observatory, 2024 edged out 2023 as the hottest year on record (and the 15 hottest years on record, since global temperatures have been tracked from the 1880s, are in the last 20 years)
- 2025: Trump administration uses executive orders and cabinet nominations to launch rollback of environmental protections and promotion of fossil fuel exploitation.
