Chronography of Environment and Conservation
Page last modified 29 May 2023
For
protection of animals see Environment-Animals
For
whale and whaling industry see Environmant -
Whales
See
also Science, Technology and Innovation
See International for global population,
and demography maps
See also Climate/weather
Click here for current,
historic atmospheric CO2 levels, https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2
Click here for UK sea
flood risk levels by amount of sea level rise, 1 metre � 60 metres, http://flood.firetree.net/
UK Environment Agency, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency
UK Environment Agency, flooding and extreme weather, https://www.gov.uk/browse/environment-countryside/flooding-extreme-weather
World Resources
Institute, https://www.wri.org/
�Naturam
expellas furca, tamen usque recurret�, Horace. You can expel nature with a pitchfork, but
she will keep returning.
God will
not seek thy race, nor will he ask thy birth. Alone he will demand of thee
�What hast thou done with the land that I gave thee�,
Persian Proverb
In fighting Nature,
Man can win every battle, except the last, Thor
Heyerdahl
Extinctions � see Appendix
Environmental and
Conservation Organisations � see Appendix a
1 January 2020, Palau became the
first nation to ban the import or sale of sunscreens containing
chemicals toxic to coral. Half of sunscreen brands on sale in 2018 contained
chemicals poisonous to coral even in trace amounts, and the area is a favoured
destination for diving. Hawaii announced a similar ban in 5/2018, to come into
effect in 2021.
1 November 2019, Fracking was banned in England after a
series of earthquakes of up to magnitude 2.5 in the Blackpool area were
attributed to it. Fracking was already banned in the rest of the UK.
Plastics
pollution
5/2019, Maine became the first US
State to ban single-use Styrofoam containers for food and drink. The law was to
come into effect in 2021, giving businesses time to adapt.
2017, The BBC broadcast Blue Planet II,
galvanising the world to the dangers of plastic pollution in the world�s oceans.
2015, 400 million tons of plastic was produced
this year, compared to 2 million tons in 1950. Of this, only 9% was recycled;
12% was incinerated, and 79% ended up in landfill or polluting the environment,
8 million tons of plastic was estimated to enter the oceans annually.
3 January 2016, The United Kingdom designated Ascension Island and its
surrounding waters in the Atlantic Ocean as a Marine protected area. The
reserve was almost as big as the UK with just over half of the protected area
completely closed to fishing.
26 June 2007, The UN declared
the Galapagos Islands an endangered heritage site.
26 February 2008, The Svalbard Global
Seed Vault opened on Spitzbergen, Norway.
19 June 2006, On Spitzbergen,
construction work began on a vault to preserve seeds for future generations in
the event of a catastrophe such as nuclear war.
3 July 2005, Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth
Day, also Governor of Wisconsin, died (born 4 June 1916).
26 July 2004, The Frozen Ark Project was launched, to preserve the DNA
of endangered species.
17 March 2001, The Eden Centre, officially opened. It featured
the world�s largest indoor rainforest.
20 November 2000, The Millenium Seed Bank at Kew Gardens, London,
opened.
Global Warming /Climate
Change
13/11`/2021,
The United Nation Change Conference, COP-26, closed in Glasgow.
Disappointingly, it looked as if the 1.5 C maximum global warming target would
be exceeded, as promises to phase out coal were watered down and delayed.
24
August 2019, Concern grew worldwide after widespread large fires
burnt large areas of the Amazon rainforest. There were also blazes in Siberia
and Alaska, as unusually warm air reached there, and in the African and east
Asian rainforests. President Bolsonaro of Brazil was accused by President
Macron of France, hosting the G7 meeting at this time, of
encouraging farmers to burn large areas for agriculture. There were protests
outside several Brazilian embassies.
22
April 2016, Leaders of 175 countries signed the Paris Agreement,
setting an accord for tackling climate change.
7
July 2007, A series of Live
Earth concerts were held around the world to raise awareness of climate
change.
6
April 2007, The final version of Climate Change 2007, the IPCC�s
Fourth Assessment report, was published.
30
October 2006, The Stern Review was prepared for the British
Goverrnment. CO2e levels were then 430
ppm (i.e. including methane equivalent). The report stated that above 450
ppm CO2e there would be a 50% chance of global temperatures rising 2C, and a 5%
chance of a 3.5C rise. 2006 CO2 levels
were around 387 ppm. In 2023 they were around 424 ppm.
4
November 2006, In London, 22,000 participated in a march to
highlight the risks of climate change.
20
June 2005, Charles Keeling, scientist
who alerted the world about global warming, died (born 20 April 1928).
16 February 2005, The Kyoto
Protocol came into force after its ratification by Russia.. The US had not
signed up, for economic reasons.
28 March 2002,
US President Gorge W Bush withdrew
the USA from the Kyoto protocol on
climate change, which committed signatories to reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
2001, The Third Assessment Report of the IPCC warned that over the 21st
century global sea levels
could rise by between 9cm and 88cm, as global temperature rose by
between 1.4C and 5.8C.
17 April 1998, A satellite detected that a 200 square km piece of the Larsen B ice
shelf had broken off. Global Warming was blamed.
11
December 1997, At the Kyoto Climate Conference, delegates agreed to
reduce CO2 emissions by 5.2% of 1990 levels by 2012.
19
April 1996, The IPCC�s second report on climate change, Climate
Change 1995.
1995, The first United Nation
Climate Change Conference, COP-1, was held.
26
October 1990, The IPCC published its First Assessment Report on climate change.
6
December 1988, The United Nations established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC)
1958, US scientist Charles
Keeling first began regularly
measuring atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa observatory, Hawaii. He found it to
be 317 parts per
million (ppm), noticeably higher than the pre-industrial level of 280 ppm
(known from ancient air trapped in polar ice). There was seasonal cyclicity
with levels declining during the Northern hemisphere Summer then rising in
Autumn, but with s distinct upwards trend over the decades, the Keeling Curve.
In Spring 2020 levels had reached 414 ppm, but the covid19 outbreak had reduced
levels very slightly, as most travel and much industry shut down..
1895, Arrhenius gave a paper to the
Stockholm Physical Society propounding his theory of man-made global warming due to carbon dioxide.
1859, Arrhenius, Swedish scientist who
first proposed that man�s industrial
emissions could cause global warming, was born.
Ozone
Hole
9 September 2000, For the first time, an entire city was exposed by the
growing �ozone hole�; Puntas Arenas, in Chile.
29 September 1998, New Zealand scientists
announced that the Ozone Hole had grown to 28 million square km
23 March 1993. The UN stated
that record low levels of ozone had been registered over large
areas of the Western Hemisphere.
22 March 1989, The
University of Wuppertal, Germany, inaugurated a research programme to monitor
the Earth�s ozone layer. The system
comprised a satellite spectroradiometer to be launched into orbit in 1993.
5 March 1989, As environmental awareness grew worldwide, the Ozone
Layer Conference opened in London.
17 February 1989. Scientists warned of a threat to the ozone layer
over the Arctic.
16 September 1987, 70 countries signed an
agreement in Montreal to save the ozone layer, to freeze CFC production (used
as a refrigeration gas) at current levels and halve it within 12 years. The
hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica had been discovered in 1984. Annual production of chlorofluorocarbons, whose release was
damaging the ozone layer, now stood at 1.1 million tonnes.
14 February 1992, Michael
Heseltine promised that the
UK would phase out CFCs, which were destroying the ozone layer. Earlier on 11
February 1992 President Bush had made a
similar commitment.
1 January 1989, The Montreal Protocol (see 16 September 1987)
came into force. Ozone-Depleting Chemicals were to be phased out by 2000.
16 September 1987, The Montreal Protocol on Substances that
Deplete the Ozone Layer was negotiated and signed by 24 countries. By 2006
over 180 ncountries had signed it. These countries promised to freeze CFC
production (used as a refrigeration gas) at current levels and halve it within
12 years. The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica had been discovered in
1984.
16 May 1985, A hole in the
ozone layer was found over the Antarctic, by the British Antarctic
Expedition.
12/1978,The USA banned the non-essential
use of CFCs in aerosols, followed by a similar ban by Canada and Sweden in
1979.
23 January 1978, Sweden became the first country to ban
aerosol sprays, because of the damage they cause to the ozone layer.
11 May 1977. The USA said CFCs� would be banned as propellants in aerosol
cans within two years, after worries about ozone depletion.
16 June 1975, Oregon,
USA, became the first place to ban the sale of aerosols containing CFC gases..
1974, US
scientists M Molina and FS Rowland first warned the world about the damage
being caused to the ozone layer by chlorofluorocarbons. Production of these
chemicals had been negligible before 1940 but by 1974 over 700,000 tons of them
were reaching the atmosphere annually.
16
May 1931, Paul Brodeur, science writer, was born in the USA. He
wrote about environmental hazards including asbestos, household chemicals and
the danger to the ozone layer.
1930, CFCs (chloro-fluoro-carbons) were invented by Thomas Midgley.
Brent
Spar
29 January 1998, Shell announced that Brent Spar would be disposed of on shore, and
used as the foundations for a new ferry terminal.
18 October 1995, DNV presented the results of their audit on Brent Spar; it did
not contain anything like 5,500 tons of crude oil.
5 September 1995, Greenpeace admitted their claim that Brent Spar contained 5,500
tonnes of crude oil was inaccurate and apologised to Shell.
12 July 1995, Shell commissioned an independent Norwegian
consultancy, Det Norske Veritas (DNV), to conduct an audit of the materials
contained in the Brent Spar, to check Greanpeace�s allegations.
7 July 1995, Norway granted permission to moor the Brent Spar in Erfjord
whilt options for its disposal were considered.
30 June 1995, Eleven states called for a moratorium on sea
disposal of decommissioned offshore installations; the motion was opposed by
Britain and Norway.
20 June 1995, Shell Oil Company caved in to international pressure and agreed not to
dump the Brent Spar oil platform in the Atlantic.
15 June 1995, German Chancellor Helmut
Kohl protested to the British Prime Minister John Major at the G7 Summit about the planned
sinking of the Brent Spar.
14 June 1995, A week of protests across Germany began against Shell petrol stations;
protestors threatened to firebomb 200 Shell filling stations. 50 were actually
damaged, two fire-bombed, and one raked with bullets.
11 June 1995, Shell began to tow the Brent Spar out to the disposal site.
9 May 1995, The German Ministry of the Environment protested about the plans to
sink the Brent Spar.
5 May 1995, The UK Government granted a disposal licence ti Shell to sink the Brent
Spar.
30 April 1995, Greenpeace
asserted that Brent Spar still contained 5,500 tonnes of crude oil.
4/1995, Greenpeace occupied the Brent Spar oil platform to
prevent it�s being sunk in the North Sea.
12/1994, The UK Government approved Shell�s
plans to sink the Brent Spar.
1993, Shell decided to sink the Brent
Spar oil platform in the North Sea, at the North Feni Ridge.
9/1991. The Brent Spar oil platform
ceased operations.
1976, The Brent Spar oil platform
entered service in the North Sea.
1997, Salmon returned to the
River Rhine, after a major pollution incident on 1 November 1986, when a
chemical factory fire caused the river to run red. Fireman�s water had bene
contained but the containment wall gave way and a mix of agricultural chemicals
and heavy metals was released.
3 April 1993, Animal Rights
activists disrupted the Grand National at Aintree, Liverpool.
3 June 1992, The United NationsEarth
Summit began in Rio de Janeiro. Delegates agreed to protect biodiversity and
combat global warming. This led to the UN Framework Convention oin Climate Change, which came
into force in 1994. This Framework called for developed countries to reduce CO2
emissions to 1990, and provided for technological assistance to developing
countries. These measures were strengthened by the Kyoto Protocol, 1997. �The USA, however, refused to sign the
agreement on biodiversity, seeing it as a threat to its economic growth.
15 December 1991. Wildlife
investigators uncovered an illegal plot to sell 15,000 elephant tusks for �6
million, in defiance of the international ban on the ivory trade. The 83 tons
of ivory had been bought from the Government of Burundi by 2 South African
businessmen, to sell in the Far East. 80% of Africa�s elephants had been slaughtered for their tusks in the
previous 10 years.
1990, The
Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) was formed at the second World Climate
Change Conference.
16 October 1989, At a committee of the Convention in
International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), at Lausanne, Switzerland,
a ban on the international ivory trade
was passed by 76 votes to 11. This caused the price of ivory to plummet from
US$100 per lb to under 2$. Previously, poachers had reduced the African
elephant population from 1.3 million in 1979 to 610,000 in 1989.
18 November 1988, Two years after a serious pollution
incident damaged the Rhine River, the first warning station in a chain of
sensors was installed at Huningue, France, to monitor the river for pollutants.
1987, The Brundtland Report
was published.
1986, The UK emitted 1,937,000
tonnes of nitrous oxides to the
atmosphere this year, 40% from power stations and 40% from road vehicles.
Oxides of nitrogen and sulphur create acid rain and kill forests and lake life.
1986, Walter
G Rosen reportedly first proposed the term biodiversity.
1 November 1986, A spill of toxic
chemicals turned the River Rhine red.
1985, In response to concerns about the sustainability of tropical wood
harvesting, and related matters such as soil erosion in deforested areas, some
countries signed the International
Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA). However some countries did ont sign up.
29 December 1985, Dian Fossey,
US zoologist and conservationist, died.
1984,
The pesticide DDT was banned in Britain.
31 August 1983, Russell Doig of Surrey won a special prize for catching a salmon in
the Thames, the first salmon caught there for 150 years. The fish weighed 6 lb.
1982, Dutch Elm Disease killed
20 million elm trees in Britain, 66% of the total population.
12
August 1980, The
first Giant Panda born in captivity was successfully delivered at a zoo in Mexico.
3
January 1980, British naturalist Joy Adamson,
author of the book Born Free, was
murdered in a Kenyan game park.
4
October 1979, British biologist James Lovelock
published his book Gaia: A New Look at
Life on Earth.
1978, US Congress banned the manufacture of
PCBs (Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls) after they had been shown to persist in the
environment and build up in higher food chain animals. PCBs, once used as
coolant and insulators for industrial equipment,� could cause liver damage and impede
reproduction.
1976, Pooper Scoopers were introduced so dog powners could clear up their
pet�s faeces.
10 July 1976. After an explosion at a chemical plant at Seveso, Italy, a 7 km radius was contaminated with
dioxin, a weed killer. Crops and 40,000 animals died, and the number of
abnormal births rose dramatically.
12 November 1974. A salmon was
caught in the Thames, the first since around 1840. It was retrieved from the
filters of West Thurrock power station.
28 December 1973, US President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act, providing further
environmental protection.
2 November 1973, The IMCO Conference for Marine Pollution
attended by 665 delegates from 79 countries, ended in London.
29 June 1973,� President Nixon
warned US Congress that the US, with just 6% of the world population, consumed
one third of the world�s energy supply, and that energy supplies were not
infinite.
1972, Blueprint for Survival
was published by the editors of The
Ecologist magazine.
1972, The USA restricted the
use of the weedkiller DDT after it was found to cause thinning of bird�s egg
shells, reducing their reproductive success.
1972, The Club of Rome published �The Limits to Growth�,
highlighting the dangers of natural resource depletion.
1972, The
USA passed the Clean water Act and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments.
This followed spectacular incidents in 1969 when the Cuyahoga River,
Ohio, caught fire, and in the same year a record fish die off of 26 million fish
was recorded in Florida�s Lake Thomnotosassa, blamed on pollution from food
processing plants.
16 November 1972, UNESCOs
World Heritage Convention was adopted. This seeks to preserve sites of
major cultural or biological significance around the world.
28 October 1972, The USA signed the Federal
Noise Control Act, limiting noise emissions by trucks, buses, trains
and construction equipment.
23 July 1972, The US launched Landsat I, a satellite that could
monitor Earth�s natural resources and their depletion from space.
22 April 1970, The first Earth Day was held in the USA, sponsored
by Senator Gaylord Nelson.
1969, Muskoxen,
which became extinct from Alaska in the 19c, were
reintroduced there.
1965, The annual cisco fish
catch in Lake Erie collapsed to 1,000 lbs. From 1885 to 1925 it had averaged 25
million lbs annually, but then abruptly fell to 6,000,000 lbs in 1926,
declining more thereafter. Industrial pollution, sewage, eutrophication and
lack of oxygen in the Great Lakes caused a collapse in many fish species, and a
replacement by species less valued siuch as carp and sheepshead fish. Algal
blooms have also occurred.
17 December 1963, The USA passed the Clean Air Act,
forerunner to the 1970 Clean Air Act which required major cuts in car
emissions.
27 September 1962, Rachel Carson published �Silent Spring�.
She was very concerned about the issue of pesticides in the environment. By
December, half a million copies had been printed, and even US President John F
Kennedy was influenced.
22 February 1962, Steve Irwin, environmentalist, was born.
1958, A
plague of locusts in Somalia was so large it covered 1,000 square kilometres.
22 December 1938. The coelacanth, a
fish though to have been extinct for 65 million years, was caught off the coast
of South Africa.
13 April 1938, Grey Owl, conservationist, died. He had styled
himself as an indigenous Canadian, but was in fact English.
1935, The term �ecosystem� was first used by AG Tansley,
to describe the entire interdendent system of organisms and the environment.
The word was slow to gain popular usage.
1901, The term �biota� was first used to describe the
animal and plant life of a region.
1866, Ernst Hackel, biologist, coined the
term ecology (oecologie in German)
24 March 1936, David Suzuki, environmentalist, was born.
1935, In the US, President Roosevelt signed the
Soil Conservation Act, nominating Hugh Hammond, 54, to head the new Soil Conservation Service. Hammond
had estimated that in terms of diminished agricultural productivity alone, soil
erosion was costing around US$ 400 million a year; dust storms were turning day
into night and halting traffic.
1934, First known use of the
term �biomass�, as in the total
weight of all organisms in a certain area.
3 April 1934, Jane Goodall, British
zoologist who studied gorillas in Tanzania in the 1960s, was born.
18 January 1933, Botanist and
conservationist David Bellamy was born.
16 December 1932, Dian Fossey, US zoologist and conservationist
was born.
7 March 1927,� Betty Leslie-Melville, wildlife
conservationist, was born (died 23 September 2005)
1926, The corgi dog, a short legged animal whose name means �dwarf dog� in
Welsh, was introduced as a pet breed. It became popular amongst the British
Royal Family.
September 1919, Dutch Elm Disease was
first observed in The Netehrlands. By the 1930s it was spreading across the
rest of Europe, including Britain, and had also reached the USA.
1915, In
Britain, so-called �nature reserves� were set up; areas of land managed so as
to preserve the natural flora and fauna.
8 June 1908, US President Roosevelt appointed Gifford Pinchot
as head of the National Conservation Commission. This was the start of� US Government involvement in the nation�s
environment.
27 May 1907, Rachel Louise Carson, marine
biologist and US author, author of Silent Spring, was born.
1903, President Theodore
Roosevelt established the USA�s first national wildlife refuge, at
Pelican Island, off the east coast of Florida, 87 square miles.
1895, The
buffalo, which had once numbered millions across America, was now down to just
400 in the entire USA.
1876, In the UK the Cruelty to Animals Act was
passed, to curb the use of live animals in scientific experiments.
1858, A few dozen English
rabbits were released on the Australian estate of
landowner Thomas Austin, to provide shooting sport. Over the
next six years, Austin shot 200,000 rabbits, but this was barely half the total
population. Five of the fast-breeding animals could eat more grass than one
sheep, so causing major problems for sheep farmers.
21 April 1838, John Muir, US environmentalist who called for
the preservation of wilderness areas, was born.
1281, King Edward I commissioned Peter Corbet,
�The Mighty Hunter�, to clear all
wolves from England�s forests.
1220, The
first giraffes were exhibited in Europe.
Botanical
Gardens
18
April 1891, New York
Botanical Gardens was founded.
1848, The Palm House at Kew
Gardens opened. This promoted a fashion for palms amongst Victorian Britons.
1840, Kew Botanical Gardens, London, opened.
8 May 1820. The United States Botanic Garden was
established in Washington, DC.
1593, The first botanical gardens in France were established by the University of
Montpellier.
26 June 1545. A botanical garden was established in Padua. This, or the garden in
Pisa, is the oldest such garden in Europe. This was just after Europeans
first saw the Aztec Gardens of Montezuma I at Huaxtepec, Mexico.
1400
BCE, Queen Hatshepshut
of Egypt kept a cpollection of exotic plants and animals, including
frankincense and other specimens froim what is now Somalia. Her successor, Pharaoh
Thutmose III, extended this collection with plants from Palestine
and Syria.
Zoological
Gardens
1972,
Blackpool Tower Zoo, UK, closed down and a new zoo opened on the site of
Stanley Park Aerodrome, 3km inland/
26 March 1959, Jersey Zoological Park opened.
2 June 1938. Robert and Edward Kennedy, youngest sons of
the American Ambassador to London, opened the Children�s Zoo at Regents Park.
Children were charged 6d to watch the chimp�s tea party.
18/5.1934, Dudley
Zoo, Birmingham, opened.
1931, London Zoo began a breeding programme of endangered animals at
Whipsnade.
1926, A zoo was established in
Mexico City,
28 July 1931, Chessington Zoo opened.
22 July 1913, Edinburgh Zoo opened.
19 July 1913, Paignton Zoo (Primley Zoological Gardens) opened.
20 April 1906, An Australian wombat, the
oldest known marsupial, died in London
Zoo aged 26.
1896, Denver Zoo was established in City Park, for the purpose of
displaying only indigenous Colorado wildlife. In 1898 it acquired a herd of
buffalo, a few months before the last
wild herd in the State was killed.
1889, The world�s first insect �house opened at Regents Park Zoo, London
1874, The first zoo in the USA was established, at Philadelphia.
25 May 1850, The first hippopotamus to be kept in
Britain arrived at London Zoo.
1849, The world�s first reptile
house opened at Regents Park Zoo, London
1841, Berlin zoo opened.
11 July 1836, Bristol Zoo opened.
27 April 1828. London Zoological Gardens opened in
Regents Park.
1793, In the aftermath of the French Revolution, a zoo
was established at the Museum of Natural History, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris.
French Revolutionaries had taken over various royal collections of animals, and
these animals were used for biological research as well as for public
exhibition.
31 July 1752. The oldest zoo in Europe opened, in Vienna.
4 September 1733, The first lioness to be
kept in Britain died of old age.
1641, Nicolaas Tulp described the
first living gorilla brought to Holland.
1569, Emperor Maximilian II of Austria
kept a large collection of animals in Vienna.
1519, The Spanish invading the
Inca Empire, Mexico, discovered, and destroyed, a large ;animal garden� at
Technochtitlan.
1200, Three leopards given by Frederick II
of Sicily to his brother-in-law Henry III of England became the first
residents of the menagerie at the Tower of London. In 1828 the animals of this
menagerie were transferred to the new Zoological Gardens at Regents Park,
London.
1100, King Henry I of England kept a
collection of foreign animals presented to him by other monarchs at Woodstock,
Oxfordshire. This included lions, leopards, lynxes and camels. He also has an
African porcupoine, a gift of William of Montpellier.
300
BCE, Alexander the
Great of Greece kept a collection of some 300 animals
1000
BCE, Kong Solomon
of Israel kept a menagerie.
1490
BCE, Queen
Hatshepshut of Egypt organised an animal-collecting expedition,
which travelled south along thye Red Sea to what is now Somalia.
1975
BCE, The world�s first zoo was established; the
Park of Intelligence, in China.
Appensix � Air Quality
4 March 1985, In the USA, the Environmental Protection Agency banned
the use of leaded fuel for motor vehicles.
1971, It was announced that 250,000 tons of lead were being discharged from
vehicle exhaust pipes every year in the US alone (see road transport technology). Lead pollution, first discovered in the
animals at Staten Island Zoo, was also found inside humans living in New York.
5 July 1956, Britain
passed the Clean Air Act. This gave
industry seven years to stop emitting �dark smoke�. This was in the aftermath
of the infamous 1952 London Smog, which
kicked 4,000 people.
1951, Britain�s first smokeless zone was set up, in Coventry.
In 1955 London
was declared a smokeless zone. In
1956 Britain passed the Clean Air Act.
1935, Manchester first proposed the idea of smokeless zones in urban areas.
1929,
In Britain,
the National Smoke Abatement Society was
set up.
29 November 1921, London suffered a severe smog, with pollution so bad that inside
cinemas on Stoke Newington the projector lamp could not illuminate the screen.
1905,
The term �smog� was coined for a
combination of fog and smoke that affected London and other British cities,
causing many deaths.
1 January 1864, In the US, the Alkali Act was passed. It was the first
legislation of modern times concerning the environment. The Leblanc process of
producing sodium carbonate released large amounts of hydrochloric acid into the
atmosphere.
1856,
In Britain, between 1853 and 1856, a series of Smoke Abatement Acts were passed in order to improve the quality of
air in urban areas.
Appendix ��
Extinctions
6
January 2000, The Pyrenean Ibex became the first extinction of
the new millennium when a tree fell on the last individual, killing it. A
cloned kid was born in 2009 but only survived seven minutes.
14
December 1994, In Australia the Wollemi pine, a relic from
the age of the dinosaurs, was discovered growing in
the Blue Mountains.
17 June 1987, The Dusky Seaside Sparrow became
extinct as the last individual died. It had lived in the wetlands of
Florida but much of its habitat was destroyed to make way for the Kennedy Space
Centre and for new highways. Its food, mosquitoes, had been destroyed by DDT
spraying, which then entered the birds themselves and caused their eggshells to
thin, so their breeding was unviable. A captive breeding programme was begun at
Disneyworld in the 1970s, but only 5 birds could be recovered, all male.� Attempts were made to cross-breed them with
similar sparrows to preserve some of the species characteristics but this failed,
and by 3/1986 only one of the sparrows was still alive.
1952, The cheetah was declared extinct in India. Hunting by the British, diminishing
habitat, and killing by farmers as the animal threateed livestock, were to
blame. In 2022 African cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa were reintroduced to a National park in Madhya Pradesh, India.
20
November 1948, The New Zealand flightless Takahe
bird had only been sighted 4x between 1800 and 1900 and was presumed extinct. However this day Dr Geoffrey Orbell located the first individual of what was found to be a
colony of 250 individuals in the Murchison Mountains, South Island.
1944, The last ivory-billed woodpecker
died when its last habitat, a wood in Louisiana,USA, was felled by the Chicago Mill and
Lumber Company.
23
March 1943, The Xerces Blue butterfly (Glaucopsyche xerces) was seen for the last time, and is presumed to
have become extinct, its habitat in the sand dunes near San Francisco Bay
having been destroyed by the growth of the California city.
1938, The Coelocanth fish was believed extinct
until one was caught this year near the Comoros Islands.
6
September 1936,
The last thylacine
(Tasmanian marsupial tiger) died in
a zoo in Hobart, Tasmania
1933, The last known Tasmanian
Wolf died in a zoo; however there were later unverified
reports of this animal in the wild.
1918, Death
of the last California
Parakeet, in captivity, The last confirmed sighting in the
wild was in 1914, though there were alleged sightings for some decades
afterwards.
1 September 1914, The last passenger
pigeon, a bird which once dominated the skies of America, became
extinct as the last individual died in Cincinnati Zoo.
12 August 1883, The last quagga
(a sub-species of the zebra) died, at Amsterdam Zoo.
1875,
Last sighting of the Falkland Islands wolf.
3 July 1844, The Great Auk became extinct when
fishermen killed the last breeding pair of the flightless birds in Iceland.
1786,
The last wolf
was killed in Ireland,
by John
Watson of Ballydarton, Leighlinbridge, a master of foxhounds.
1768,
Steller�s
Sea Cow was hunted to extinction, just 27 years after the species
after the species was discovered on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
1743,
The last wolf
was killed in Scotland.
1683,
Wild boars
became extinct in Britain.
1630,
The last dodo
was killed. Native to Mauritius, it was a flightless bird about the size of a
turkey, prized by saillors for food. Meanwhile, rats, pigs and monkeys
introduced to Mauritius ate the dodo�s eggs.
1627,
The last auroch
(ancestor of domestic cattle) died in Poland.
1297,
The Giant
Moas Bird was now extinct in what is now New Zealand.
1290,
The last wolf
in England was killed, by Peter Corbet, exterminator to King Edward I.
This made it much safer to graze sheep. In turn this reinforced England�s leading
position in the lucrative wool trade.
Appendix a - Environmental and Conservation Organisations
(see also Morals � Animal Welfare)
1992, The
British Green Party failed to match
its success of 1989, winning just 1.3% of the vote in the General Election.
1989, The
British Green Party, founded by Sara
Parkin (born 1946) and Jonathan Porritt (born 1950) came from nowhere to take
2.3 million votes, a 15% share, in elections for the European Parliament.
1983, 28
�Greens� were elected to the German Bundestag.
1981, 9
�Green� MPs were elected to the Belgian Parliament.
1979, The
first �Green� member of the Swiss parliament was elected.
1977, Sustrans was
founded, in Bristol, to campaign for environmentally-sustainable transport
and combat the problems of traffic congestion and pollution.
1976, Greenpeace was founded in Britain
(see15 September 1971)
1973, In Britain
the Ecological Party was founded � known since 1985 as the Green Party
15
September 1971, Greenpeace was founded, as a result of
protests against a
US nuclear
test on Amchitka Island, Alaska. On this day Jim Bohlen, Paul Cote and Irving
Stowe set sail in the boat Phyllis
Cormack for the test site in the Quaker tradition of �proetsting by
observing the misdeed�. The three protestors named their initiative
�Greenpeace�. In the event ferocious storms both forced the boat to shelter in
the Aleutian Islands and caused the nuclear test to be postponed. The test
eventually took place on 6 November 1971; Greenpeace did succeed in mobilising
public protests so that President Nixon cancelled the nuclear tests scheduled
for 1971. In 1983 it had 1,500,000 members. By 1991 it had 6,750,000 members.
9 May 1971, In
Britain, Friends
of the Earth was founded. On this day its first action was to dump
thousands of non-returnable Schweppes bottles on the doorstep of the company�s
headquarters as part of a campaign for recyclable bottles.
29 April 1961, The World Wildlife Fund was founded in Switzerland.
In 1983 it had 100,000 members. By 1991 it had 1,000,000 members.
1926, In Britain, the Council for the Protection of Rural England
(CPRE) was set up by Patrick Abercrombie.
1924, The League
Against Cruel Sports was formed to campaign against hunting, also hare
coursing and badger baiting.
1919, The Save The Redwoods League was
formed in the USA. It helped create national parks in California where the huge
tress wouldnot be felled by loggers.
20 September 1917. The first RSPCA
animal clinic was opened in Liverpool.
5/1909, The Wildlife Preservation Society of
Australia
(WPSA) was founded in Sydney, Australia to encourage
the protection of, and to cultivate interest in, the Australian flora and
fauna.
11
December 1903, The first wildlife preservation society was formed in
Britain.� It was called The Society for
the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire.
1899, In Britain, the Coal Smoke Abatement Society was
formed.
1897, The Blue Cross was founded, originally known as Our Dumb Friends� League. It changed its name to parallel the Red
Cross. It opened an animal hospital in 1906 near Victoria Station, London.
1895, In Britain, the National Trust
was founded.
10 April 1866, The American Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Aniamls (ASPCA) was founded by New York shipbuilder�s son Henry Bergh,
43, who served as the first president of the ASPCA. It�s main objective was
preventing the abuse of horses.
1860, Battersea Dogs Home was
founded, initially sited in Holloway. By 1869 around 200 dogs were housed there
and neighbours complained about the noise, and in 1871 the Home was moved to
Battersea. Stray cats have also been taken in since 1882.
15 June 1824. The RSPCA
was founded in London.