Let’s dive into a complete environmental history timeline lesson perfect for your students!
This environmental history timeline not only goes over important dates in the United States, but also environmental issues, laws in the federal government, and important milestones in our environmental history.
While we have made a lot of progress in our modern environmental movement, we have to remember that this is an ongoing global movement. This research was done using environmental groups, environmental historians, and environmental activists.
This blog post is about an environmental history timeline you need to know!
Late 1700s – 1800s
The Industrial Revolution included the invention of new technologies, increased use of factories/machinery, burning coal, and creating environmental harm (source).
1804
The human population reaches 1 billion (source).
1824
Mathematician and physicist Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier first describes the greenhouse effect. He showed how atmospheric gases might increase the Earth’s surface temperature (source).
1836
Ralph Waldo Emerson published “Nature,” an essay that reflects on the beauty and power of nature (source).
1856
Eunice Newton Foote demonstrated the greenhouse effect by placing a glass cylinder full of carbon dioxide in sunlight. She found that it heated up more than a cylinder of regular air. She concluded that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere results in a warmer planet (source).
1872
Yellowstone was designated the first national park in the United States by President Ulysses S. Grant (source).
1892
John Muir founded the Sierra Club to “do something for wildness and make the mountains glad” (source).
1895
Svante Arrhenius presented a paper that argued that variations in trace elements, like carbon dioxide, could greatly influence the heat of the Earth (source).
Late 1800s
Industrialization led to polluted waterways and air, particularly in urban areas.
1900
The Lacey Act is enacted. The Act combats trafficking in illegally taken wildlife, fish, or plants (source).
1903
President Theodore Roosevelt established the National Bird Preserve (source).
1905
The U.S. Forest Service is established.
1916
The National Park Service is established to manage and protect national parks and monuments
1930s
The Dust Bowl devastates agricultural lands in the Great Plains because of soil erosion and poor land management practices (source).
1940s – 1970s
The modern environmental movement has gained momentum.
1962
Rachel Carson published Silent Spring which focused on the the environmental impact of the use of pesticides (source).
1969
A slick caught fire on the Cuyahoga River in Cleaveland, Ohio (source).
April 22, 1970
The first Earth Day had about 20 million people nationwide (source).
President Richard Nixon established the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to protect public health and the environment (source).
1972
The Clean Water Act is enacted to regulate pollutant discharges into waterways (source).
1973
The Endangered Species Act was passed to protect species threatened with extinction (source).
1973
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement, signed by 184 parties in 1973, designed to ensure that international trade in animals and plants does not threaten their survival in the wild (source).
1974
Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina warn that human-generated CFCs are harming the ozone layer (source).
1974
Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act to set the standards for drinking water quality and monitor states, local authorities, and water suppliers who enforce those standards.
1976
The Resources Conservation and Recovery Act was passed. This is the primary federal law about the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste which sets standards, mandates, and permitting procedures, and requires hazardous waste to be tracked from “cradle to grave” as it is generated, transported, and disposed of (source).
Toxic Substances Control Act was passed which directs the EPA to monitor thousands of industrial chemicals manufactured or imported into the United States and gives the EPA power to ban them if they are found to pose too much risk. However, the number of chemicals is increasing too fast for adequate testing (source).
1977
Tbilisi Declaration noted the unanimous accord in the important role of environmental education in the preservation and improvement of the world’s environment (source).
EPA began investigating the groundwater, air, and sump water contamination in nearby homes adjacent to the Love Canal landfill where drums of hazardous chemicals were disposed of between 1940 and 1950s (source).
The Soil and Water Conservation Act was passed which directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to survey and assess soil and water conditions across the nation periodically and prepare national conservation plans (source).
1979
Three Miles Island Unit 2 reactor partially melted. It was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history (source).
1980
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, is enacted to address abandoned hazardous waste sites (source).
1987
The Montreal Protocol, finalized in 1987, is a global agreement to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances (ODS). ODS are substances that were commonly used in products such as refrigerators, air conditioners, fire extinguishers, and aerosols (source).
1988
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is established to provide policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change (source).
1989
The Oil Tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska causing oil spills; spilling 11 million gallons of oil. One of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history (source).
1990
The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 aim to reduce air pollution and address acid rain, urban air quality, and ozone depletion (source).
The National Environmental Education Act of 1990 requires EPA to provide national leadership to increase environmental literacy (source).
1992
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, marking the beginning of international efforts to combat climate change (source).
1997
An international treaty in Kyoto Japan which mandated signatory nations, by the period 2008-2012 to reduce the emission of six greenhouse gases to levels below those of 1990. The U.S. was the only developed nation not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol (source).
2004
Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was the first Black African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize (source).
2005
Hurricane Katrina exposes issues in infrastructure and the impacts of climate change on coastal areas.
2009
The American Clean Energy and Security Act passes the House of Representatives but fails to pass the Senate, making a significant attempt at federal climate legislation (source).
Late 2000s – 2010s
The techniques of horizontal drilling, microseismic mapping, and slickwater fracking began to combine signaling the beginning of the 21st century fracking that we know today – raises concerns about its environmental impacts (source).
2015
The Paris Agreement was adopted. This is a legally binding international treaty, committing countries to take action to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (source).
2018
The Trump administration rolls back numerous environmental regulations (source).
2019
The Trump administration formally notified the United Nations of its intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement (source).
2020
The COVID-19 pandemic led to drastic reductions in greenhouse gases emissions due to decreased economic activity and travel (source).
2021
The Biden administration rejoins the Paris Agreement (source).
2023
IPCC finds there is more than a 50% chance that global temperature rise will reach or surpass 1.5 degrees (2.7 degrees F) between 2021 and 2040, or sooner (source).
Activity Extension:
- Have students add to the timeline! Are there any significant events not included in this environment timeline they would like to include? This can include significant occurrences that impacted the natural environment as well as any personal contributions they may want to add.
- Critical thinking: how can we make this current year different than previous years?
- Critical thinking: how do scientific research and regulations impact the environment?
- Consider the environmental laws throughout this timeline. Choose a law and create further research on it.
- What is the background of the law (history, issues, or concerns that promoted the law, etc.)
- What are the objectives of the law?
- When was the law created?
- Who spearheaded the law?
- How will the law be implemented?
- Does the law work? Is it achieving what it is supposed to? Give evidence.
- What are some of the drawbacks/complications of the law
- Include a case study or a real-world scenario involving the law.
I hope this environmental history timeline was helpful for you and included the major environmental milestones you needed.
From greenhouse gas emissions and laws created by President Nixon to toxic waste and the history of our natural world, we have a complicated and substantial relationship with our environment. Be sure to click on the source links for official websites, gov website, and more information.
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