Timeline According to a Summary of Pages 1115-1117

Some major current issues in the environment include:
Chemical waste
Rapid energy and food consumption
Massive global deforestation
Environmental degradation from big cities
Threats to wildlife
1962 Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring (many people mark this as the beginning of the modern environmentalist movement)--> this book said that each year, new chemicals are emitted into the environment, and they are responsible for contaminating the environment and possilby even altering genes. She was particularly wary of the pesticide DDT, which was being used to get rid of malaria. Since then, DDT has been banned, but malaria has also become much more common.
By the 1970s, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth were formed, and were trying to "preserve, restore, and enhance" the environment.
Conservation movement: protects biodiverstiy and emphasizes spiritual and aesthetic qualities of nature (ex. Carson, Sierra Club, Audubon Society)
Ecology movement: different groups with similar agendas (Greenpeace, Green Party) united to discuss issues including: global warming, toxic chemicals, nuclear energy and weapons, genetically modified food, recycling, saving the whales, sustainable agriculture, protecting ancient forests.
1980s: US starts a campaign for environmental justice:
Love Canal tragedy--in 1978, residents of this neighbohood in NY discovered that their houses and school had been constructed on a chemical dumping site that had been covered up by the Hooker CHemical Company in 1953. this land had then been sold to the city of NY for $1. the toxic chemicals eventually seeped through the earth and into the houses and school.
Union Carbide Factory (India): in 1984, poison gas leaked from this factory in the middle of the night, and, as the safety systems were not functioning, thousands of people died from breathing the gas. HOWEVER, even after this, chemicals that were left abandoned at the factory continued to poison the drinking water in this area. it was not until 2004 that it was cleaned up.
1986: Chernobyl-->this nuclear power plant exploded in the Ukraine, causing an unknown number of deaths and spraying nuclear fallout throughout several states in Europe.
Global Warming:
1990s were the warmest decade in history
fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) have greenhouse effect
Greenland could melt-->water goes into Atlantic, gulf stream that warms Europe and N.E. America shuts down, causing an ice age in the North Atlantic.
Rise in sea levels (cities and islands submerged)
Ecosystem changes (threatens species)
Extreme and abnormal weather
Destroyed ozone (no shield left from solar radiation)
DEcline in agriculture
1997: Kyoto Protocol added to UN. member countries try to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and 5 other greenhouse gases. they have an emission limit but these limits can be traded among the countries. 128 countries involved, not including US or Australia.