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Population increases over the ages.
Over the past two centuries the world’s population has drastically increased due to increased industrialization, better medicine and new farming techniques. In 1804, the population of the world is estimated to have reached one billion. In 1927, the population reaches 2 billion. In 1960, population reaches 3 billion. In 1974, population reaches 4 billion. In 1987, population reaches 5 billion. In 1999, population reaches 6 billion. In 2011, population reaches 7 billion. -
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Founding of IUCN
International Union for Conservation of Nature, composed of both government and civil society organisations. Provides non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. -
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Cuyahoga River
The Cuyahoga River incident refers to when a river in Ohio unexpectedly caught fire due to the unwarranted pollution. The river continuously caught fire in the latter half of the 20th century, which raised concerns among citizens living beside the river. In fact, one of these fires caused over 1 million dollars in property damages. -
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Minamata
Minamata is a city -- and also the name of a disease that results from mercury poisoning -- that was the home of the chemical company Chisso. The actual accusation was that Chisso was responsible for the mercury poisoning because it sanctioned the release of unclean water into the Minamata Bay. This caused 2,668 to be diagnosed with the disease. -
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Start of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
The decision was made to establish WWF as an international fundraising organization to work in collaboration with existing conservation groups and bring substantial financial support to the conservation movement on a worldwide scale. In its first year, the Board approves five projects totaling $33,500. Early projects include work with the bald eagle, the Hawaiian sea bird, the giant grebe of Guatemala, the Tule goose in Canada and the red wolf in the southern United States. -
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Creation of LED Lights
Nick Holonyak created the LED lightbulb. Far more efficient than previous bulbs such as incandescent as it emits more light energy and less heat energy. This was an environmental breakthrough as LED would significantly reduce our energy consumption, thus also becoming a preferable economic alternative. -
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‘Silent Springs’ - Rachel Carson
Book published on the harmful use of pesticides (DDT) -
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Gaia Hypothesis
Formulated by James Lovelock, with the holistic view, that everything is a single living organism, contains some level of homeostasis. -
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Stockholm Declaration
The Stockholm Declaration was created in order to form a uniform outlook on how the environment should be treated. An influential result of the declaration was Agenda 21, which dictated what action needed to be taken in particular. The Stockholm Declaration was influential in that it was major UN conference on global environmental problems. -
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Save the Whales
Save the Whales was founded in 1977 by Maris Sidenstecker I and Maris Sidenstecker II. The foundation began when Maris Sidenstecker II, just 14 years old, started designing and selling t-shirts saying “Save The Whales” after watching “The Great whales” on National Geographic. The purpose of the organization is to protect whales around the world from being hunted. -
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Bleaching of the Corals
The first major episode of coral bleaching occurred in 1979 because of elevated seawater temperatures. The associated coral mortality affects reefs in every part of the world. The influences of coral bleaching are due to the lack of zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae helps in replacing dead coral with new growing coral. -
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Bhopal
The “Bhopal disaster,” a gas leak that occurred in 1984, is commonly tied to the Union Carbide Corporation and its release of methyl isocyanate and hydrogen cyanide. The incident is considered the most impactful disaster (industrial), because of the amount of lives it affected. More than 500,000 people were exposed to the chemicals and faced the consequences: death or chronic illness. -
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Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Great Pacific Garbage Patch discovered in the middle of the pacific, just north of Hawaii. International outrage at the sheer amount of garbage being dumped into the pacific ocean. Campaigners are currently trying to clean the patch up. -
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Chernobyl Disaster
The Chernobyl Disaster is one of two nuclear disasters which rank 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the second being the Fukushima Disaster. After this major nuclear accident occurred, stronger regulations were put into place making for a more serious attitude toward nuclear power. -
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Gulf War Oil Spill
The Gulf War Oil Spill was caused by a variety of alleged factors that caused various oil spills, one of which being from two tankers that were hit by ‘US airstrikes” (this is according to presumably biased Baghdad report). The argument on number of barrels of oil that were dumped is controversial because there is no definitive evidence to provide such a statistic; the initial estimate was that 11,000,000 barrels of oil were spilled, however. -
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Kyoto Protocol
“The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its Parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets” (quote from UNFCCC) -
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Greenpeace Nuclear Movement
As Greenpeace is a large organization which advocates for global Environmental legislative reform, their opinions on nuclear power is that it is dirty and must be stopped and regulated in order to ensure safety. -
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Hurricane Katrina
The death toll of Hurricane Katrina as 1,836 people and there was heavy backlash towards FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) as the leader was forced to resign because they were not prepared. The Levee system which divides the water from the city was upgraded as well. -
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An inconvenient Truth - Al gore
American documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming. -
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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
On April the 20th 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Drilling platform exploded of the coast of Louisiana, spilling 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The flora and fauna of the Gulf of Mexico got damaged by the resulting oil spill. Resulting protests lead to BP paying out more than $9.2 billion in civil law suits -
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Fukushima Disaster
The Fukushima Nuclear disaster (along with the Chernobyl Disaster) is ranked with a 7 on the international nuclear event scale. This event had similar backlash that chernobyl but rather being caused by humans, it was caused by a tsunami. -
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Dakota Pipeline (Bakken Pipeline)
The idea was presented in 2014 and it was constructed in 2016. The controversy on its impact to the environment paused the idea of running oil. The Native Americans in Iowa and Dakota opposed the pipeline,because it would upset burial grounds. There was a protest near Standing Rock Indian Reservation that was a frenzy in the media. Despite the major protest that happened throughout the year, the first oil ran on May 14 2017. On June 1st, it was tested and approved for commercial use. -
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COP 21 (United Nations Climate Change Conference)
Conference held in Paris. This convention set out a framework for action aimed at stabilising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. 195 members signed an accord to help sustain the environment and significantly reduce our carbon emissions to prevent severe climate change. -
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Tiajin Chemical Explosion
On August the 12th 2015, a chemical container storage unit in Tianjin China exploded after a fire broke out. 173 people died and more than 700 people where injured. Nobody was evacuated out of Tianjin in the aftermath of the explosion despite chemical debris which has lead to criticism of the Chinese Government.