APES Timeline
Rachel Carson – 1962 Rachel Carson was a marine biologist who spent the 1950s writing books about ocean life. However, her most famous book Silent Spring was published in 1962, which exposed the environmental impact of pesticide use in the United States.
Paul R. Ehrlich – 1968 Paul R. Ehrlich was a Stanford University professor who alerted people to the consequences of human population growth in his novel The Population Bomb, which was published in 1968.
Garrett Hardin – 1968 Garrett Hardin was an ecologist who recognized the damage that humans have caused to communal resources, such as ocean waters and the atmosphere, in his 1968 essay The Tragedy of the Commons.
Aldo Leopold – 1949 Aldo Leopold was an environmentalist,
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Accident at Chernobyl – April 26, 1986 On April 26, 1986, a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant experienced a catastrophic meltdown that emitted radioactive material into the atmosphere, killing 31 people. Dust Bowl in the Midwest – 1930s The Dust Bowl was a region in the Midwest that experienced a series of droughts in the 1930s that caused major ecological damage. Deep plowing had destroyed native grasses of the region, so topsoil became dust during the droughts and was consequently blown across the country by severe dust storms.
Yellowstone National Park – March 1, 1872 Yellowstone National Park was established as the country's first national park in 1872. Its nearly 3,500 square miles of area contain massive amounts of geothermal activity and is home to a variety of wildlife.
Cuyahoga River Burns – June 22, 1969 The Cuyahoga River was one of the United States' most polluted rivers and has caught on fire at least thirteen times. The event on June 22, 1969, caught the attention of Time magazine, which helped create much environmental legislation in the next
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Over 500,000 people were exposed to toxic gas from a pesticide plant, leading to thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries.
Love Canal, New York – August 2, 1978 The Hooker Chemical Company had dumped over 21,000 tons of toxic material into the Love Canal site near Niagara Falls and later sold the property to the local school board for one dollar in 1953. It wasn't until August 2, 1978, that this information became fully exposed to the public, but the toxins had already caused an unnaturally high number of birth defects, miscarriages, and other tragedies to the residents in the city.
Accident at Three Mile Island –
March 28,
Rachel Carson is considered one of America's finest science and nature writers. She is best known for her 1962 book, Silent Spring, which is often credited with beginning the environmental movement in the United States. The book focussed on the uncontrolled and often indiscriminate use of pesticides, especially dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (commonly known as DDT), and the irreparable environmental damage caused by these chemicals. The public outcry Carson generated by the book motivated the U.S. Senate to form a committee to
The Midwest suffered a terrible drought from 1934 to 1937. The terrible drought left the soil so dry that it turned into dust. Because the soil was now dust, farmers were unable to plant and grow crops. This was called The Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was located in many states including Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico.
The Dust Bowl occurred during The Great Depression in the 1930's. Which was an especially dreadful time for it to happen. Many people were impoverished or were on the brink of poverty. Making the man-made natural disaster all the more devastating.
The prevalence of environmental issues in the public awareness reached a point where government was forced to take action in 1979. When Henry Love abandoned construction of a canal in New York in 1920, the site was bought by Hooker Chemical and used as a toxic chemical waste dumping site for the next 33 years (Schons 2011). Then in 1953 Hooker Chemical sold the Love Canal to the school board, and construction of a school began. In the mid to late 1970s, when children’s shoes began melting to the ground and children got sick the residents organized and protested. Media coverage increased and showed toxic black sludge oozing into people’s basements (Schons 2011). The lack of awareness of environmental and health consequences of chemical dumping
This entire backlash used to be made, additionally, despite increasingly worrisome findings related to the water first-class coming from scientists. Handiest after months and months of complaints, of the grievous nature already once described, that the state officers began to conduct the logistical and technical response appropriate to the severity and vulnerability of the atmosphere and population in demand. Roughly a year after the residents of Flint had been contending with their suspect water supply that the state declared the general public health emergency proper to the crisis at hand (Bosman, Davey, & Smith). The nearby and state authorities shortly thereafter moved the water give again to Lake Huron by means of Detroit however this still could now not restrict or reverse the damage
Yellowstone is the worlds first national park. It was origanally home to Native Americans who lived in the Yellowstone area for at least 11,000 years.The U.S. Army was first commissioned to oversee the park just after its establishment in late 1960. In 1917, administration of the park was transferred to the National Park Service. Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 km2), mostly comprising lakes, rivers canyons and mountain ranges. The national park is located primarily in the state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congressand signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872.
The Flint water crisis began with the city officials’ decision to change their water source in an attempt to save a significant amount of money. This switch from using Lake Huron as a water source, to using the Flint River cascaded into a failure to adhere to federal environmental laws and regulations and eventually the government’s manipulation to hide the problem and inaction to fix it. The city’s largest technical and engineering related failures was their corruption of science by not using corrosion control in the water and skewing testing data and procedures to ignore the problem.
The Dust Bowl was the name given to the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States which suffered severe dry storms during a period in the 1930s. The Dust Bowl intensified the crushing economic impacts of the Great Depression and drove many farming families on a desperate migration in search of work and better living conditions (History.com). Economic depression coupled with extended drought, unusually high temperatures, poor agricultural practices and the resulting wind erosion all contributed to making the Dust Bowl. The cause of the Dust Bowl is in 1930, weather patterns shifted over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The dust bowl is another name for the southern plains of the United States which suffered from severe dust storm during the 1930s. As high winds stormed through Texas, Nebraska, and other states many people died and millions of dollars were suffered in damage. During this period of time, the United States was suffering the effects of the Great Depression and this dust storms worsened the actual economic status of the United States. Many people were forced to leave their homes and move to other states in search of a better way of living. The dust bowl was caused by many reasons but the biggest reason is the excessive use of land
However, despite his remarkable leadership, Welch failed to fulfill GE’s duty of social responsibility. In his tenure, he failed to protect societal assets or avoid harm to the environment. GE contributed to environmental degradation in areas where the company manufactured its products. Under Welch’s reign, the company polluted the Hudson River with one of the most toxic and persistent substance known as the Polychlorinated biphenyl’s (PCBs). This substance is very harmful to the environment and known to cause cancer in humans. GE is accused of dumping approximately 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River in the period 1947-1977. This led to an entire 197-mile stretch of Hudson River turning into a superfund site in the nation. GE
The Niagara are in the 1970’s experienced unusual wet winters, with it not being as cold and things were more wet the water table below the surface raised. The raised water table caused the chemicals that were capped with clay to start leaching into the sewer systems that drained into the creeks nearby people’s homes. This problem caused the chemicals to get into people’s front and backyards and it got into basements of people’s homes. It also got into the elementary school area where the school was built right over the top of the
The article chosen is about Love Canal; a canal placed four miles south of Niagara Falls that was cancelled mid-way through construction. Between the years 1942 to 1953 the Hooker Chemical Company used the ditch as a hazardous waste dump and filled it with twenty-one thousand tons of hazardous waste, some of which are known to cause cancer. Shortly following, a small town, by the name of Love Canal, was built over Love Canal. In Love Canal, many illnesses occurred, including nephrosis and other diseases, for unknown causes. Later it was revealed the chemicals lying under the ground was the reason for the illnesses. The chemicals had seeped into the sewage system after precipitation levels rose. Subsequently, two hundred thirty-nine families
Love Canal was a devastating disaster that affected many people in the 1990’s. To find my facts and information I used CNN and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). The Love Canal was made by William T. Love on the eastern edge of the Niagara Falls in New York. Love dug a short canal over and under the Niagara Rivers, to get power for the homes and industry in the town. When Nikola Tesla figured out how to move energy safely, Love quit, leaving a ditch where his unfinished project remained. Later on, a company called the Hooker Chemical Company wanted to buy the land. Love cover the ditch in dirt and just months after the company bought it, the canal exploded due to heavy rainfall. After it exploded, eighty-two different oils and dangerous
In 1890 a massive environmental pollution struck a neighborhood within Niagara falls, New York, called The Love Canal. The love canal was originally intended to e a model plan community, the love canal was a residential area before being purchased by the Hooker chemical company. The problem began after its sale to the local school district project. The toxic waste dumped under grounds affected the health conditions that lasted a lifetime to numerous families. The neighborhood demolished and according to the New York state health department was considered a “ national symbol of a failure to exercise a sense of concern for future generations.” But the worse is that the Love Canal tragedy can happen again anywhere in the country unless serious matters are taken to prevent it.
This was very evident in the report by Henry B Ward where he had highlighted that the conditions of the Hudson River in New York had deteriorated so poorly throughout his life that the banks of the river resembled an open sewer or the stretches of a septic tank [3]. Mr. Ward also stated that the conditions along the Hudson River did not require any chemical testing to confirm the volume of pollution that it was blatantly obvious by the form debris on the bottom as well as with materials floating in the water. Unfortunately this was not a remote situation but was discovered in multiple locations along the Hudson River [4]. These cases initially started out in small isolated areas but due to the increase in population as well as expanding industrial complexes nearly waterways the location and magnitude of pollution grew rapidly.