Environmental History

Ancient civilizations→Industrial Revolution→Present Day

Homework:

"Read" the following timeline:

a. Identify 3 of the most important events/laws/people/etc

b. Find 3 new dates and events and describe them to continue the timeline�

Ancient civilizations

• 60,000 years ago-earliest evidence of using fire to clear land.
• 6,000 BC-deforestation collapses communities in Israel/Jordan.
• 2,600 BC-export of timber in Lebanon to Egypt and Sumeria, also occurring in South India.
• 256BC-king of India issues Seven Pillars, with certain animals being protected.
• 500BC-Greece experiences soil erosion due to deforestation.
• 500BC-Roman sewers and aqueducts are constructed.
• 460BC-Hippocrates writes the earliest work on human ecology.
• 80AD-Roman senate passes water protection law during dry periods.
• 100AD-Roman experiments with solar powered pumps.

The experience of nature

• Taoism and Confucianism help people follow patterns of nature.
• Hinduism scriptures named forest books because they were written by sages living in the forest.
• Egyptian and Sumarian civilizations have links between nature and the divine.
• Greek mythology links justice and nature.
• Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam renew their link to the divine by retreating into nature.

1200-1750

• 1347-1350’s Bubonic plague.
• 1560-1600 Industrialization in England leads to heavy deforestation and begin substituting coal for wood.
• 1666- Japan encourages planting of tree seedlings.
• 1720-Hundreds of Hindus die in India trying to protect trees from being cut.

1750-1830

• 1762-1769-Benjamin Franklin attempted to regulate waste disposal and water pollution created a water commission to keep people healthy as population increased and clean water increased.
• 1775: Percival Pott observed that chimney sweeps develop cancer as a result of their contact with soot, the first recognition of environmental factors on cancer. This is the first real recognition of air pollution and its effects on the population.
• 1798-Malthus and discussion of population increases.
• 1800-Modern sewers in London.
• 1818-Massachusetts bans hunting of robins and horned larks as a conservation measure.
• 1819-Britain expresses concern over steam engines and furnaces related to health concerns.
• 1824 Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier-first scientific reference to global warming.

Industrial Revolution

• Populations began to move from rural→urban areas in industrialized countries causing:

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• Increased food, hygiene, sanitation, population, waste, and pollution

Industrial Revolution 1830-1855�start of federal control

• 1831: Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic current, making possible generators and electric engines.
•  1832:George Catlin proposes idea of national parks
•  1839: Idea of lead poisoning and it’s ability to get into water sources is introduced.
• 1835-beginning of Transcendentalism (people use more than senses, and rely on inspiration) writing by Emerson.
• Pure drinking water and sanitation interest is spurred by epidemics of typhoid and cholera. Water pollution carried disease, but no one knew why until the 1880s.
• 1849- The U.S. Department of the Interior is established to manage the public parklands. It is now the nation’s main conservation agency.
• 1850: Petrol (gasoline) refining first used.
• Demands for conservation of wilderness areas accelerate with destruction of a giant redwood in 1851.
• 1854-Henry David Thoreau’s Walden is published.

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Industrial Revolution 1855-1890

• 1855-First comprehensive city sewer plan in Chicago.
• Smog episodes begin killing residents in London.
• 1855-Burning coal became an important source of fuel in the US at this time, with lasting consequences
• 1863-Increase in mass production causes depletion of natural resources in several regions.
• 1864-George Perkins Marsh (father of conservation movement) mentions deforestation in speech and warns against the dangers of future technological innovation.
• 1864-A bill is passed by Congress and signed by President Lincoln that creates the nation’s first state park, setting aside for public recreation 20,000acres in California’s Yosemite Valley.
• 1866-The word ecology is coined by German zoologist Ernst Haeckel to describe the study of the relationship between organisms and where they live.
• 1869-Naturalist John Muir visits Yosemite Valley.
• 1870-Lake Merritt in Oakland, CA becomes the first wildlife refuge in the U.S.
• 1870-First coal mine safety laws passed in Pennsylvania.

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Industrial Revolution cont’d

• 1872-First Arbor Day initiated.
• 1872-Congress creates the world’s first national park at the headwaters of Yellowstone River in Montana and Wyoming.
• 1879-US Forest Service established (first the Division of Forestry).
• 1882-World’s first hydroelectric power plant starts operation in Appleton.
• 1886-The Audubon Society, dedicated to the protection of birds and their natural habitats is founded.
• 1886-Henry Ford invented the automobile, increasing use of petroleum and emissions.
• 1887-The Boone and Crockett Club is founded with Teddy Roosevelt to promote ethical hunting laws and wildlife conservation. Among their achievements was the defense of Yellowstone Park against railroad and mining interests.

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The Progressive Era 1890-1920

• Teddy Roosevelt and forester Gifford Pinchot began the era of conservation of large tracts of land and putting other forests to “wise use”. Pinchot was head of the US Division of Forestry with an emphasis on managing, rather than preserving, natural resources.
• 1891-Congress passed Forest Reserve Act. The president can create forest reserves…..the National Forest System. Responsibility of government to protect lands from resource exploitation.
• 1892-John Muir fights against conservation as one of the leading preservationists and unspoiled wilderness; Womens’ clubs and the Sierra Club champion the environment, primarily deforestation.
• 1892: Europe’s last great outbreak of cholera.
• 1896: Svante Arnhenius finds effects of CO2 from fossil fuel use
• 1898-The European-trained forester Gifford Pinchot becomes the head of the U.S. Division of Forestry. His emphasis was on managing, rather than preserving, natural resources.
• 1900-Wild buffalo populations drop from 30 million to 40!
• 1901-1909-Theodore Roosevelt is the “conservation president”. He created more than 225 million acres of land for the Forest Service and approximately 50 wildlife refuges and 150 national forests. Roosevelt visited Yosemite with John Muir in 1903.

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Conservation-wise use of land and resources; led by T. Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot�vs.

Preservation-wilderness/resources on public lands should remain untouched

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Split early in the 20^th century

1901-1909-Theodore Roosevelt Era

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• Newlands Act of 1902 - Theodore Roosevelt created this act that would set aside money from sales of semi - arid public lands for the construction and maintenance of irrigation projects. Leads to eventual damming of nearly every major western river.
• 1903-Panama Canal began construction- It destroyed the river but creates natural energy.
•  1907: President Theodore Roosevelt appointed the Inland Waterways Commission to prepare "a comprehensive plan for the improvement and control" of U.S. river systems.
•  1908: the commission submitted a bulky preliminary report on rivers, lakes, canals, and railroad competition, urging that future plans for navigation improvement take account of water purification, power development, flood control, and land reclamation.
• 1909: The National Conservation Commission was divided into four sections, water, forests, lands, and minerals, with each having a chairman; it prepared the first inventory of the nation's natural resources.

• 1902-Ansel Adams was born. His photos become icons of conservation.
• 1904-Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle which addressed corporation injustices to workers, especially in meat packing industries.
• 1905-Bureau of Forestry becomes the US Forest Service to protect and manage forest reserves; Gifford Pinchot is 1^st chief.
• 1912-First solar irrigation pump built in the Egyptian desert.
• 1913-damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite.
• 1916-The National Parks Service, a branch of the US Dept. of the Interior, is established. With Stephen Mather as president and at its founding, the bureau is responsible for managing 14 national parks and 21 national monuments.

1920-1940

• 1920: U.S Federal Power Act- Government allowed use of hydroelectric power sources and starts construction on projects such as the Hoover Dam.
• 1924: Oil Pollution Act-prohibits discharge of oils into rivers.
• 1931-Dust Bowl storms begin in the Midwest.
• 1935: Soil Conservation Act- This was passed to prevent the over usage of soil, and to help control flooding, and future problems regarding the land.
• 1935-Wilderness society helped protect nature, not conquer it; Aldo Leopold was one of the founders
• 1936-Hoover Dam is completed on the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada.
• 1936-The National Wildlife Federation is established, which is now the nation’s largest grassroots conservation organization.
• 1937- “Greenhouse effect” is coined by Trewartha, a professor of geography at Wisconsin.

1940-1950s

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• 1940: The Bald Eagle Preservation Act- Prohibited the selling, killing or possession of the species.
• 1944-Soil Conservation Society formed by Hugh Benett
• 1946-US Bureau of Land Management is established.
• 1947-Everglades National Park is established.
• 1947-Los Angles Air Pollution Control District formed (first in the nation).
• 1948- A Sand County Almanac was published by naturalist and former Forest Service employee Aldo Leopold describes the complex relationships within nature. This marks the beginning of a shift from a conservation movement dominated by wilderness lovers to the emerging environmental movement, which brings together scientists from different fields.
• 1950: Dr. Arie Haagen-Smit identifies causes of smog in LA as interaction of hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen from auto exhaust
• 1952-David Brower is Executive Director of Sierra Club.
• Deadly smog in London (killing thousands), NY and LA create the perception that an air pollution crisis is underway.
• 1956-Britain passes Clean Air Act.
• 1959-Auto Emissions Standards established in California to solve the problem of

severely polluted air

1960-1969

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• 1960s-Green Revolution-led by Norman Borlaug-crossed seeds to see highest wheat yields; no patents; free seeds; Nobel Peace Prize
• 1961: US President John. F. Kennedy tells the United Nations: “Every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable . The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.”
• 1961-World Wildlife Fund founded.
• 1962- Silent Spring by aquatic biologist Rachel Carson exposes the harm caused by insecticides such as DDT. The book leads to the safer development of insecticides and to a ban on the sale of DDT within the US. The book by some is listed as the spark that started the environmental movement.
• 1964-The Wilderness Act, inspired by John Muir, establishes the National Wilderness Preservation System to grant wilderness areas as protected status that excludes them from mining, timber cutting and other operations.
• 1966- The Endangered Species Preservation Act, the nation’s first law to protect endangered species, permits the government to take land into federal custody in order to protect “selected species of native fish and wildlife”.
• 1967-The Environmental Defense Fund is established to see legal solutions to environmental problems.
• 1968- Grand Canyon dam plan killed.
• 1968-Hardin publishes his article Tragedy of the Commons about population and land controls.
• 1969-National Environmental Policy Act passed.
• 1969-June 22^nd-Cuyahoga River caught on fire in Cleveland, Ohio due to an oil slick on the river.
• 1969-Santa Barbara Oil Spill.

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1970-1979

• *1970-National Environmental Policy Act-established the Environmental Impact Statements for all major federal actions, including road and dam building.
• 1970-April 22^nd-First Earth Day celebration nationwide, created by Governor Nelson of Wisconsin, started from Rachel Carson's book silver spring which gave insight on the issues of the environment.
• 1970-Dec. 2^nd-President Nixon forms the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enforce laws that protect the environment and public health. EPA is 15 different agencies put in charge of research, setting standards, monitoring and enforcing regulations for environmental protection.
• *1970-The Clean Air Act is passed, regulating air emissions and granting the EPA the power to set air quality standards. It has four major components. First, it put into place National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Targeted at major polluting chemicals. These standards were to be developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Second, the EPA was to establish New Source Performance Standards to determine how much pollution should be allowed by different industries in different regions. Third, the Act specified standards for controlling auto emissions. Finally, the law encouraged states to develop plans to achieve these standards and then required that state plans be approved by the EPA. If a state chose not to form such a plan or did not complete it by a specified date, the EPA would take over the administration of the law for that state. The states were also required to enforce the Clean Air Act.
• 1970-General Motors promises “pollution free” cars by 1980 and urges the elimination of lead additives from gasoline in order to allow the use of catalytic converters.
• *1970-Occupational Safety and Health Act-prevent occupational injury, illness, death from work-related exposure to physical and chemical harm
• National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) established to monitor ocean ecosystem quality
• 1971-The international organization Greenpeace is founded. The club uses media to raise awareness about industrial pollution, endangered species protection and other environmentalist concerns.
• 1971-Congress restricted use of lead-based paint in homes

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• 1972-Water Pollution Control Act passed over Nixon’s veto.
• *1972-The Clean Water Act is passed by Congress, placing a limit on the flow of raw sewage into surface waters.
• 1972-DDT banned in US.
• 1973-US Congress approves Alaska Oil pipeline.
• *1973-The Endangered Species Act is passed to protect wildlife by protecting habitat for plants and animals. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation."
• 1973-EPA starts lead gasoline phase out.
• 1974-The Safe Drinking Water Act outlaws pollutants to ensure that people drink safe water.
• 1974-EPA demonstrates pollution control benefits.
• 1975-Edward Abbey writes The Monkey Wrench Gang about environmental activism.
• 1975-Congress set national tailpipe emissions standards to prevent automotive air pollution
• 1975-Eastern Wilderness Act protected over 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of forest

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• 1976-Toxic Substances Control Act set controls on PCBs and other toxins
• *1976-Resource Conservation and Recovery Act gave EPA power to manage all toxic wastes
• 1977-Department of Energy-long range energy strategies
• 1977-EPA promotes scrubbers for coal-fired power plants.
• 1977-Congress passes: Soil and Water Conservation Act for controlling erosion and water waste
• 1977-Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act passed by Congress.
• 1978-EPA and DOT combat transportation pollution.
• 1978-Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement passed.
• 1978-Federal ban on chlorofluorocarbons (ozone-depleting chemicals) enacted
• 1978- Lois Gibbs and neighbors form the Love Canal Homeowners Association after finding they were living on a major toxic waste dump in Niagara Falls, NY that was polluting the soil and groundwater. Her efforts helped to create the Superfund, which is to clean up toxic sites.
• 1979-Three mile nuclear power plant almost had breakdown.
• *1980-Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, CERCLA, or Superfund, was created by President Carter and Congress to protect people, families, communities and others from heavily contaminated toxic waste sites that have been abandoned, such as Love Canal, NY, and holding polluters responsible.

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*Major US legislation for promoting sustainability

No major new environmental laws have been passed since the 1970s, although some existing laws have been amended.

1980-1989�Environmental Backlash

1980- Dian Fossey wrote Gorillas in the Mist.

• 1982-Attempt to build a PCB landfill in an African American neighborhood in NC results in a nationwide movement for environmental justice.
• 1984-Brophal, India-carbaryl insecticide plant exploded, killed 18,000
• 1985-British scientist Joe Farman published discovery of ozone hole over Antarctica, confirmed by NASA satellite monitoring.
• 1986-Chernobyl reactor explodes in Ukraine, causing radiation across 2,000 square miles of land and around Eastern Europe.
• 1986-Dian Fossey is murdered in her cabin in Rwanda.
• Ozone depletion is finally taken seriously by conservatives like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher of Britain, and signs the Montreal Protocol in 1987 to eliminate chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) which reduce stratospheric ozone
• Global climate change warnings become more convincing.
• 1988-International treaty bans all ocean dumping of wastes.
• 1988-Assasination of Chico Mendez-leader of the movement to save the rainforest.
• 1989-Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska spilling 11 million gallons.

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1990-1999�Opposition to environmental laws and regulations strengthen

• 1990: The Clean Air Act is amended for tighter restrictions on air pollution emissions, and the Pollution Prevention Act provides incentives to corporations to reduce pollutants to reduce acid rain
• 1990: EPA administrator William Reilly establishes Environmental Equity Workgroup to deal with environmental justice issues.
• Persian Gulf War creates environmental disaster with thousands of burning oil wells.
• 1992-The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro brings 150 nations together to set global standards for protecting the Earth against global warming and other environmental threats.
• 1993-Clinton signs order restricting logging in old growth forests.
• 1994-5-Wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the US.
• 1996-Food Quality Protection Act- enforces safe pesticide levels in food
• 1997-38 industrialized nations sign the Kyoto Protocol, agreeing to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5% over 15 years to help lessen climate change. Went into effect in 2005 in industrialized countries with 137 countries ratifying.
• 1999-Earth’s population exceeds 6 billion.

2000-2002

• 2000 — Jan 1: European Union bans leaded gasoline as a public health hazard.
• 2000-The Senate overwhelmingly approves a $7.8 billion aid plan to restore the Everglades ecosystem in Florida.
• 2000-Rain forest logging banned in New Zealand following a 30 year campaign by environmentalists.
• Clinton sets aside 58 million acres of forest and wilderness with the US Forest Service by the end of his presidency beating T. Roosevelt’s record, after receiving 1.6 million comments from concerned citizens.
• 2001-G8 Summit in Italy sees massive protests over the lack of environmental and labor standards in the push for international free trade.
• 2001-In January, the head of Clinton’s Forest Service halts harvesting of old-growth timber on public lands.
• 2001-In April, President Bush refuses to sign an international environmental treaty called the Kyoto Protocol, as well as, Australia.
• 2002- World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa (a continuation of other summits).

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2003-2005

• 2003-Bush administration compiles the most anti-environmental record of any president in history (many acts and laws are relaxed in expectations and demands)/
• 2003- HFI– Healthy Forests Initiative-law to help prevent damaging forest fires by mandatory thinning of trees and clearing of understory
• 2004-Rapid climate change occurring in Arctic.
• 2004-The Environmental Protection Agency informs the governors of 31 states that the air pollution in their states does not meet federal health standards. These states must develop new pollution controls to clean up the air.
• December 26, 2004-Sumatran tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
• Feb. 2005-Kyoto Protocol officially goes into force-without the US.
• March 2005-Alaska National Wildlife Refuge is voted to allow drilling by Congress, but stalling occurred due to public outcry.
• August 2005-Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Louisiana.
• August 2005- The Energy Policy Act was signed. This act takes acts from all different areas. One specific act would be creating new energy efficient appliances and decreasing the amount of electricity the government uses and providing big tax incentives for research and use of alternative energies

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2006-2008

• 2006- Al Gore’s book “An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency on Global Warming and what we can do About It” was published
• April 2007- Greenhouse Gas Regulation. The Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 ruling, says the E.P.A. has legal authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.
• October 12, 2007- Al Gore and the IPCC win the Nobel Peace Prize. Gore and the United Nations- sponsored Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) were both honored for “their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change.”
• December 2008- US President George W. Bush prepares to leave office with the lowest level of attention to environmental protection of any president in US history. Along with ordering the subversion of hundreds of laws and existing regulations, and dismantling regulatory institutions and demoralizing government agency employees, the Bush administration frequently rewrote scientific reports to suit political ends.

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2009-2013

• March 30, 2009- President Obama signs the largest wilderness protection bill in 15 years, protecting two million acres in nine states.
• January 2010- France put carbon tax of 17 Euros per ton on all fossil fuels. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland all did the same.
• 2010: Explosion and fire on the BP licensed Transocean drilling rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven people are reported missing and approximately 17 injured
• January 2011- Obama sets target for power plants to produce mostly clean electricity by 2035
• 2011, March 11^th-earthquake off the coast of Japan created tsunami waves that created the leak of radiation from the nuclear reactors to leak into soil, water, and air
• 2011, October 31^st-world population hits 7 billion
• 2012-Obama admin finalizes the historic 54.5mpg fuel efficiency standards to improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• 2012, October 31^st-Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of US damaging

the land and soaking the soil with saltwater

• 2013, September, Average fuel economy of cars and trucks sold in August 2013 was 24.9miles/gallon; nearly

5 miles/gallon better than the 20.1mpg in 10/2007. Gov’t wants 35.5 mpg by 2016 and 54.5 by 2025.

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• 2013-Atmospheric carbon dioxide tops 400ppm for the first time
• :US domestic oil production surpasses foreign oil imports
• :Fracking opponents begin to get loud against the drilling procedures and wastewater issues and methane leaks

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• 2014, June-Obama’s EPA announced draft rules to slash carbon pollution from power plants, the largest source of US greenhouse gas emissions. China pledged that their emissions would peak sometime around 2030, and also that they would generate at least 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by that year.
• 2014, September -The World Wildlife Fund released a report concluding that in the 40 years between 1970 and 2010, the populations of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish fell by 52 percent.
• 2014- The drought in California — now in its fourth year, and not even close to being resolved by some recent rains — is big news since the Golden State grows nearly half of the US’s fruits, nuts, and vegetables, and is also the number one dairy state. What happens to California agriculture affects the whole country

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2015-

• Paris Agreement was drafted in France to keep average global temperatures from rising above 2C.
• President Obama establishes the basin and range monument in Nevada, marine sanctuaries, and a new 9875 square mile area in Wi's Lake Michigan.
• Banned offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic ocean and the Atlantic.
• President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline
• China bans ivory imports

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2016

• According to the World Meteorological Organization, it will become the hottest year in history, breaking the world record that was set just a year prior.
• President Obama took major steps to protect millions of acres of land and water all possible because of the Antiquities Act. With that, he also established three new monuments in California.
• The Obama administration withdrew millions of acres of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans from consideration for future offshore gas exploration
• The Flint, Michigan water massacre destroyed 41% of the residents water source by the contamination of lead.
• Elwha Dam removal and Glines Canyon Dam removal

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2017

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• Trump administration approves Keystone Pipeline XL on US land
• President Trump signs legislation taking away the stream protection rule, which prevented mining companies dumping their waste into streams.
• Trump withdraws US from Paris Climate agreement
• August Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas, leaving 108 deaths and $125 billion in damages in its wake, which would then lead to over 25,000 gallons of sewage water flooding into streets and waterways.
• September Hurricane Maria hits Puerto Rico, killing between 112 and 1,113 people and causing over $93 billion in damage.

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2018

• Carbon emissions rose 3.4%, 2nd largest increase in 2 decades
• March- lethal levels of radiation have been detected outside Fukushima power plant
• Last male white rhino died, only 2 females left.
• November- California wildfires destroy 18,000 structures

2019

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• 3rd World Congress of Environmental History: The conference was held in Florianopolis, Brazil from July 22–26, 2019.

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• United Nations Climate Change Conference: The conference was held in Madrid, Spain from December 2–13, 2019.

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• Wildfires: California and Australia experienced wildfires in 2019, with the California wildfires causing over $25 billion in damage.

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2020

Fires burned through Colorado, eastern Washington, and Oregon; Fires burned more than 4 million acres, breaking another record for the state

Heat waves : Japan: 100 people died and 18,000 were hospitalized; France: 1,462 people died from heat-related causes

• The Milne Ice Shelf in Nunavut, Canada collapsed in July
• There was a record number of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic
• Arctic sea ice coverage was at its second-lowest annual level
• There was mass coral bleaching

Environmental policy

• The French National Assembly passed a bill that included a new crime of "ecocide"
• The US considered strengthening air quality standards to WHO guidelines
• The US saw an acceleration in offshore wind power development

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2021

• The United States experienced 20 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters
• The third most-active Atlantic hurricane season on record
• A historic cold wave and winter storm in February
• A record-breaking number of tornadoes in December
• Wildfires in the western United States, including the Dixie Fire, California's second-largest fire on record
• Floods and landslides in Japan, Turkey, Colombia, and Tennessee
• Rain fell on the highest point of the Greenland ice sheet for the first time on record

Climate change

• 2021 was the sixth-warmest year on record globally
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that some impacts of climate change are now irreversible

Positive developments

• The world added 290 gigawatts of renewable power production capacity
• Ecuador expanded the marine-protected area around the Galapagos Islands by 60,000 square kilometers
• Panama declared a marine reserve the same size as its entire land area
• China upgraded the status of the giant panda from endangered to vulnerable

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2022

January: World Future Energy Summit: This event in Abu Dhabi focused on creating a more sustainable future through future energy, energy efficiencies, and clean technology

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Drought in the Western US:

Reached a peak coverage of 91.3% of the region on May 3rd, causing water stress in many locations

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US Inflation Reduction Act:

Passed in August, included significant climate provisions

The eventual peak, plateau, and decline of global fossil fuel use may be on the horizon—but it’s not here yet. The world’s economies remain shackled to dirty energy sources, and perhaps nothing makes that clearer than the fact that global coal use increased in 2022.

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2022 was also deadly, in that the 18 events of 2022 caused at least 474 direct or indirect fatalities—the 8th most disaster-related fatalities for the contiguous U.S. since 1980

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2023

Study of air pollution in south Asia cuts life expectancy by 5 years

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June-High seas treaty-large scale protected areas in international waters, conduct impact assessments (60 countries)

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August 8th-wildfire in Lahina, HA kills at least 100 people due to a summer long drought and intense wildfire season

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Sept-word population reaches 8 billion

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Oct-war between Hamas and Israel begins

In class discussion:

Choose one of your 3 events, and describe the economic, environmental, or societal significance.

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Discuss with row partners.

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Evaluate the options, and pick one to discuss with the class.