Environmental Issues & Extinctions
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440-425 Million
The oldest known mass extinction, the Ordovician extinction, occurred
about this time. A long ice age followed, but it is unknown if this was
a cause or an effect. It was later speculated that a supernova within
10,000 light years of Earth may have been the cause.
(SFEC, 8/22/99, Par p.12)(SFC, 1/8/04, p.A4)
365-357 Million A 2nd known mass extinction occurred
near the end of the Devonian.
(SFEC, 8/22/99, Par p.12)(SFC, 3/19/04, p.A5)
c251 Mil BP The worst mass extinction in Earth’s
history occurred about this time. 90% of life in the oceans and 70% of
land animals disappeared within a million years due to a suspected
asteroid impact. This was later called the "Permian-Triassic
Extinction" and "The Great Dying." Scientists later suspected that an
eruption of flood basalt in Russia, the Siberian Traps, caused the
massive extinction. [see 225 and 200 mil]
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/10/02, p.A6)(Econ,
11/8/03, p.78)
198 Million In 2002 scientists presented research
that indicated a cataclysm about this time in the Triassic due to a
comet or asteroid that killed of species competing with dinosaurs.
Iridium deposits and fern spores were cited as evidence.
(SFC, 5/27/02, p.A6)(SFC, 3/19/04, p.A5)
65.3 Million About this time a comet struck the area
of the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula and created a crater, known today as
Chicxulub, about 150-180 miles (200 km) in diameter. The area at this
time was covered by ocean. The asteroid is believed to have been 6-12
miles (10 km) in diameter. Evidence for this was gathered by Luis
Alvarez. In 1997 Walter Alvarez published "T. Rex and the Crater of
Doom," an account of this critical event. The impact was estimated at 5
billion times greater than the atomic bombs of WW II.
(SFC, 2/18/96, p.A3)(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.7)(NH,
9/97, p.85)(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.B1)
The asteroid that struck Earth
wiped out the dinosaurs, about 80% of the world’s plants species and
all animals bigger than a cat. In 2002 it also was estimated to have
wiped out 55-60% of the plant-eating insects. A high oxygen level may
have contributed to a worldwide firestorm.
(SFC, 2/25/02, p.A4)(NH, Jul, p.62)
c50k BP Scientists in 2004 reported that Earth may be
in the middle its 6th big extinction event, which began some 50,000
years ago. A recent survey indicated population extinctions in all the
main ecosystems of Britain.
(SFC, 3/19/04, p.A5)
1450-1890 The period of the Little Ice Age.
Temperatures over this period were a few degrees lower than during the
1900s.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.J6)
1757 Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
helped set up America’s first street cleaning service in Philadelphia.
(Econ, 2/28/09, SR p.5)
1775 Jan 17, 9 old women were
burned as witches for causing bad harvests in Kalisk, Poland.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1821 Ignatz Venetz, Swiss civil
engineer, presented a paper titled “Temperature Variation in the Swiss
Alps” to the Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences, in which he
described retreating ice glaciers and acknowledged Jean-Pierre
Perraudin, a hunter and mountain guide, as the originator of the idea
that a glacier had once occupied the full length of the Val de Bagnes.
In 1833 Jean de Charpentier (1786-1855), a German-Swiss geologist,
arranged to have the paper published.
(ON, 10/08,
p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de_Charpentier)
1851 Jan 27, John James Audubon
(b. 1785), wildlife painter and conservationist (Audubon Society),
died. He was buried in NYC.
(HNQ, 7/15/01)(MC, 1/27/02)
1852-1884 Hydraulic gold-mining in the Sierra
released large amounts of mercury-enriched sediments into the SF Bay.
Hydraulic mining was invented in the Bear River watershed. A report in
2000 was issued on high mercury content in fish in the Bear and Yuba
Rivers.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A19)(SFC, 9/27/00, p.A3)
1855-1926 In Baja, Mexico, an estimated 3,350 gray
whales were harpooned in their spawning grounds in Magdalena Bay.
(SFEM, 5/7/00, p.9)
1866 The word "ecology" was coined
by German zoologist Ernst Haeckel from the Greek oikos, for house, and
logos, for discourse. It meant the study of the relations between
living organisms and their environment.
(NH, 2/97, p.4)
1869 Etienne Leopold Trouvelot
(1827-1895), French artist, amateur entomologist and immigrant to the
US, imported gypsy-moth eggs to set up a silk production project in the
backyard of his Medford, Mass., home. The moth became a national pest.
(WSJ, 5/1/01, p.A24)(SSFC, 5/22/05, Par p.4)
1870 Mar 18, The 1st US National
Wildlife Preserve was Lake Meritt in Oakland, Calif. (Lake Merritt was
named after Samuel Merritt, a physician and one of the 1st mayors of
Oakland).
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A22)(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W31)(SFC,
1/5/01, WBb p.8)(MC, 3/18/02)
1870-1970 In northern California the Selby smelter
near San Pablo Bay released large amounts of lead into the Bay.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A19)
1875 A Nebraskan estimated a
grasshopper swarm to be 1,800 miles long and 110 miles wide. In 2004
Jeffrey A. Lockwood authored “Locust: The Devastating Rise and
Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American
Frontier.”
(SSFC, 5/16/04, p.M3)
1876 Jun 21, The first gorilla
arrived in Britain.
(Camelot, 6/21/99)
1879 Feb 25, Congress passed the
1st Timberland Protection Act.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1880-1920 Over 2 billion board feet of white pine
were shipped out of northern Minnesota to build the towns and cities of
a growing America. In 2004 Jeff Forester authored “The Forest for the
Trees: How Humans shaped the North Woods.”
(NH, 10/1/04, p.70)
1885 Mar 3, California became the
1st US state to establish a permanent forest commission.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1890 Apr 7, Marjory Stoneman
Douglas, environmentalist (1st Lady of Everglades), was born.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1890 Eugene Schieffelin, a German
immigrant, released 40 pairs of European starlings in NYC’s Central
Park. By 1959 the birds reached the Pacific coast. To honor his new
homeland he had attempted to release every species of bird mentioned in
the plays of Shakespeare. In 2002 the starling population in North
America exceeded 200 million.
(HNQ, 5/1/02)(AH, 6/02, p.42)
1895 Etienne Leopold Trouvelot
(b.1827), French artist, amateur entomologist and immigrant to the US,
died. In 1869 he imported gypsy-moth eggs to set up a silk production
project in the backyard of his Medford, Mass., home. The moth became a
national pest.
(WSJ, 5/1/01, p.A24)(SSFC, 5/22/05, Par p.4)
1897 Pres. Grover Cleveland
established a forest reserve in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington
state with sharp restrictions on commercial logging. 3 years later
McKinley remanded a third of the reserve back to open logging.
(NG, 7/04, p.66)
1900 May 1, Andrew Putnam Hill,
artist and photographer, and Stanford Pres. David Starr Jordan convened
a meeting of citizens and academics at Stanford Univ. with the intent
of saving redwood forests. Hill had attempted to photograph the burned
redwoods of the 1899 Santa Cruz fire, but was barred unless he paid a
local landowner for the privilege.
(Ind, 4/24/99, p.5A)(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A13)
1900 May 18, Andrew Putnam Hill,
encamped at Slippery Rock with a Subcommittee in the Big Basin of the
Santa Cruz Mountains, proposed the formation of an organization to save
the Big Basin redwoods. The next day he passed a hat and collected $32.
This was the birth of the Sempervirens Club of California. "Save the
Redwoods" became its official slogan.
(Ind, 4/24/99, p.5A)(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.C1)
1902 The US Newlands Act
established the Reclamation Bureau and began to enact some of the ideas
of John Wesley Powell concerning control of western water resources. It
resulted in the Newlands Irrigation Project in Nevada’s Fallon area and
diverted water from the Carson and Truckee Rivers to new farmland.
(HFA, ‘96, p.128)(SFEC, 7/9/00, DB p.67)(SFC,
12/28/02, p.A20)
1903 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt set
aside the 5 acres of Pelican Island off the east coast of Florida to
protect pelicans and other birds from hunters. This began the wildlife
refuge system that grew to 537 national wildlife refuges in 2001.
(SFC, 2/8/01, p.A2)
1905 Jan 5, Representatives of 35
state Audubon organizations incorporated as the National Association of
Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals.
(T&L, 10/1980, p.12)(MC, 1/5/02)
1905 Mar 3, US Forest Service
formed. President Theodore Roosevelt successfully lobbied Congress to
create the Forest Service and appointed Gifford Pinchot, a fellow
conservationist, to run the agency. Pinchot had studied forestry in
Europe and worked for the U.S. government in various forestry positions
since 1896. He stayed with the Forest Service until 1910 and
contributed greatly to its early development and national attitudes
towards conservation with his enthusiasm. In 1912, he helped former
President Roosevelt found the Bull Moose Party. He later went on to
serve as governor of Pennsylvania. His autobiography "Breaking New
Ground," was published in 1947, a year after his death.
(WSJ, 2/25/97, p.A22)(HNQ, 4/20/01)(SC, 3/3/02)
1905 The federal government built
the Klamath Project, a series of reservoirs and lakes on the
California-Oregon border. The Federal Bureau of Reclamation began
draining the Klamath Basin to help farmers. The Audubon Society lobbied
Pres. Roosevelt to preserve some of the area, a major Pacific flyway
for birds, and in 1908 he agreed.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A8)(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.A15)
1905 Teddy Roosevelt established
the million-acre Siskiyou Forest Reserve in Oregon.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T8)
1907 May 27, Rachel Carson
(d.1964), biologist and writer (Silent Spring, The Sea Around Us), was
born. "If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs
the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering
with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in."
(AP, 12/29/98)(HN, 5/27/01)
1907 The Hague Convention
instituted what some considered the first wartime environmental
protections.
(SFC, 8/11/00, p.A15)
1908 Pres. Teddy Roosevelt
declared parts of the Klamath Basin the first federal wildlife refuge.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.B4)
1908 Chase Lake, about 60 miles
north of Bismarck, ND, was established as a protected area by Pres.
Theodore Roosevelt, to save a dwindling number of pelicans from
hunters. The colony, down to 50 breeding pairs, peaked in 2000 with
some 17,500 pairs on the 4,385-acre site.
(SFC, 7/13/04, p.A2)
1908 Pacific Gas and Electric co.
acquired a gas-making company in Daly City, Ca. Wastes contained
lamp-black, a finely powdered carbon, and thick, sticky tars containing
cancer-causing compounds.
(SFC, 3/2/09, p.B1)
1909 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt
established the Farallon Islands, 28 miles off the coast of San
Francisco, as a wildlife refuge.
(SFC, 2/17/05, p.A1)
1916 Aug 25, The National Park
Service was established within the Department of the Interior by the
Organic Act. Horace Albright and Stephen Mather helped persuade the US
Congress to establish the organization.
(AP,
8/25/97)(www.nps.gov/legacy/organic-act.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/mr6gc)
1918 Jul 3, The Migratory Bird
Treaty Act, the oldest US environmental conservation law, prohibited
killing or harassing birds migrating across international borders.
(SFC, 4/9/99, p.A5)(SFC, 10/23/02,
p.A4)(www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/migtrea.html)
1918 In Northern California the
33-mile Avenue of the Giants, a 52,000-acre area of river and redwoods,
was established by the Save the Redwoods League.
(SFCM, 7/18/04, p.29)
1921 Aug 3, The 1st aerial crop
dusting was in Troy, Ohio, to kill caterpillars.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1926 U.S. Radium stopped
processing radium at its Orange, NJ, facility. In 1983 the EPA put the
2-acre plant site on its Superfund national Priorities List. In2006 the
EPA declared the site clean and that concerns over contaminated
groundwater had been effectively addressed.
(AH, 10/07, p.37)
1930 US Congress passed the first
federal wilderness preservation law and set aside over 1 million acres
in northern Minnesota as the Superior Primitive Area.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, Z1 p.6)
1930s Nutria rodents were
introduced to Louisiana from Argentina. The propagated rapidly and by
1997 were threatening acres of fragile wetlands due to their feeding on
plant roots.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A5)
1930s Millions of mitten crabs
migrated up Germany’s major rivers. They clogged dams and climbed onto
shore where they wandered city streets and entered homes. They
devastated fisheries and destroyed river banks and levies causing
floods and other damage.
(Pac. Disc., summer, ‘96, p.6)
1932-1968 The Chisso Corporation, located in Kumamoto
Japan, dumped an estimated 27 tons of mercury compounds into Minamata
Bay. The name Minamata Disease was coined in 1956 to identify villagers
suffering dizzy spells with troubles walking and speaking. Growing
numbers fell into convulsions, wasted away and died.
(www.american.edu/TED/MINAMATA.HTM)
1935 Monsanto began producing PCB
in Indiana and Anniston, La. PCBs were banned in 1979. Tons of PCBs
were released into the Anniston environment and hidden from the public
for over 40 years.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A7)
1935 Cane toads were introduced
from South America to wipe out beetles that were devastating
Queensland's sugar cane industry. The beetles survived and the toads
became a pest and a threat to the native quolls, small spotted
marsupials.
(Econ, 7/12/03, p.38)
1937-1938 An infestation of Mormon crickets (Anabrus
simplex) in Montana and Wyoming caused nearly $1 million in crop damage.
(SFC, 5/19/01, p.A3)
1938 Jun 29, Mesa Verde National
Park, Colorado, and Olympic National Park, Washington, were founded.
(HN, 6/29/01)
1939 The California state Division
of Fish and Game, concerned about dead fish in the north, launched a
study and found a creek downstream from Iron Mountain getting 2,876
pounds of copper a day. The state told mine operators to reduce metals
and acid drainage.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1940s The Associated Sportsmen of
California repeatedly warned of damage to the salmon population in the
north and urged the government to release water from Shasta Lake to
dilute the poisons from Iron Mountain.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1941-1974 Hunters Point Shipyard in SF was a major
repair and dry-dock facility for destroyers, frigates and other
warships. The work left hazardous materials such as lead, nickel,
cadmium, asbestos and PCBs in the soil, groundwater and structures.
(SFC, 1/15/98, p.A17)
1943 Jan 17, US Tin Can Drive Day.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1944 California state officials
blamed the pollution from Iron Mountain for killing a third of the
salmon run before they could spawn.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1945-1947 The US West Coast sardine industry
plummeted from abundance to empty nets.
(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.2)
1945-1970 Some 47,000 55-gallon drums of radioactive
waste, from US government research programs, was dumped near the
northern California Farallon Islands.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.F2)
1946 Dec 2, The International
Whaling Commission prohibited the hunting of gray whales worldwide when
their numbers were down to the thousands. The IWC was set up to
regulate whaling and promote whale conservation. Scientific studies and
the commercial reality of fewer whales led to the implementation of
bans on hunting many whale species such as the humpback whale in 1963
followed in 1965 by a hunting ban on the blue whale (the largest
creature known to have ever existed). Although the IWC attempted to ban
all commercial whaling in 1986, some countries refused to agree.
(SFEM, 5/7/00,
p.9)(www.iwcoffice.org/commission/convention.htm)(HNQ, 2/20/01)
1946-1970 Some 62,000 steel drums of nuclear waste
were dumped into the oceans from 1946-1970. In 1976 EPA scientists
reported that they had discovered plutonium in the ocean sediment off
the SF coast and radioactive cesium leaking from containers 120 miles
east of Ocean City, Md.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.WB6)
1946-1977 PCBs were released into the Hudson River by
2 General Electric plants and were buried in sediment along 197 miles
that was later declared a Superfund site. The EPA expected GE to dredge
some 35 miles at a cost of some $1 billion. GE fought the cleanup law
and was also involved in Superfund sites at Hoboken NJ and Milford NH.
Cleanup of the Hudson River began in 2009 at an estimated cost of $750
million, to be paid by GE. The sludge was scheduled to be buried in
West Texas.
(SFC, 11/29/00, p.A10)(SFC, 5/16/09, p.A5)(SFC,
6/22/09, p.A9)
1947 California founded a state
forest system with sustained yield as a goal. The Dept. of Forestry and
Fire Protection assumed responsibility for a cutover area near Fort
Bragg that became the Jackson Demonstration Forest.
(SFC, 11/28/02, p.A27)(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.E3)
1947-1971 In southern California Montrose Chemical
Co. manufactured DDT during this period and released about 2,000 tons
of the pesticide into sewers that flowed to the ocean. In 2007 fish
caught off Los Angeles County's coast still contained high levels of
DDT, banned since 1972, decades after a manufacturer dumped tons of the
pesticide into sewers, creating a toxic plume on the ocean bottom.
(AP, 1/28/07)
1948 Oct 31, By this date
some 20 people died and 6,000 were made ill by smog from steel and zinc
plants in Donora, Pennsylvania. Between October 26 and October 31,
1948, an air inversion trapped fluoride effluent from the Zinc Works.
In three days, 18 people died. After the inversion lifted, another 50
died. Hundreds more finished the rest of their lives with damaged lungs
and hearts. Both plants closed in 1966. In 2002, “When Smoke Ran Like
Water” was published by Devra Davis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donora,_Pennsylvania)(SSFC, 11/2/08, p.A6)
1948 The Int’l. Whaling Commission
(IWC) was founded by 7 countries with large whaling fleets. It included
America, Australia, Britain, France, Norway, South Africa and the USSR.
(Econ, 6/17/06, p.15)
1948 The Russian Mayak plant in
the Chelyabinsk region of the southern Urals began processing weapons
grade plutonium. By 1997 it had released more than 5 times the
radioactivity of all above-ground atomic tests put together. Substances
such as strontium-90 and cesium-137 had seeped into waterways and
ground water and traces were detected in the Arctic Ocean over 600
miles away.
(SFC,12/27/97, p.A15)(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A8)
1949-1951 The Mayak nuclear plant in the Chelyabinsk
region of the southern Urals dumped some 228 million cubic feet of
toxic nuclear waste into the Techa River. People in the region started
dying in the early 1950s and dumping stopped.
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A8)
1949-1963 Commercial whaling reduced the number of
Humpback whales from some 12,500 to 400. A ban ended commercial whaling
in the southern hemisphere in 1963 and by 1998 the number of
whales increased to some 2,500.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A8)
1950 The Nature Conservancy was
founded by a handful of biologists and ecologists that included Richard
H. Pough (d.2003 at 99), who served as the 1st president.
(SFC, 6/26/03, p.A20)
1950 Berkeley, Ca., 1st noted smog
damage to vegetation.
(SFC, 2/18/05, p.F4)
1950 An industrial explosion
exacerbated oil leakage into Newtown Creek, which separates Brooklyn
from Queens. The problem was ignored until the coast Guard rediscovered
it in 1978 and determined that oil was leaking from nearby refineries
and storage facilities. In 1990 ExxonMobil signed a consent agreement
with the state of NY to clean up the creek. In 2007 oil still floated
on the water.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.32)
1951-1966 PG&E released chromium into the
environment of Hinkley in San Bernadino Ct., Ca., over this period.
Residents suffered from numerous illnesses and were not informed until
1987. [see Brockovich 1993]
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A17)
1952 May 15, California’s Central
Valley Regional Water Pollution Control Board issued resolution No. 127
barring entry of perchlorate and 8 other chemicals into local
groundwater and the American River. Medical researchers soon published
that perchlorate blocks the uptake of essential iodide into the
thyroid. Aerojet Corp., a rocket fuel manufacturer, objected and
continued untreated discharges.
(WSJ, 12/16/02, p.A9)
1952 Dec 5-8, A 4-day London
smog killed 4,703 people. Oxides of sulfur and other irritants from
coal smoke were blamed. [see Dec 4]
(PCh, 1992, p.937)(MC, 12/5/01)
1953 Jul 14, The freighter Jacob
Luckenbach from SF rammed the Matson freighter Hawaiian Pilot near
Point Montara, 17 miles from the Golden Gate. The Luckenbach sank while
the Hawaiian Pilot limped to SF. Oil leaked from the Luckenback later
killed numerous birds. In 2002 a $3.5 million plan for cleanup was
begun. A $19 million cleanup ended in Sep.
(Ind, 3/31/01, 5A)(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A15)(SFC, 5/8/02,
p.A22)(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A13)
1954 Apr 25, Bell labs in NYC
announced the 1st solar battery.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1954 A.J. Liebling, New York
reporter, returned to Pyramid Lake and wrote some stories on mustang
buzzing, the practice of chasing wild mustangs with small planes into
corrals to sell them for pet food.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, BR p.12)
1956 In Japan the term Minamata
Disease was coined to identify villagers suffering dizzy spells with
troubles walking and speaking. Growing numbers fell into convulsions,
wasted away and died. Chisso Corp. had polluted Minamata Bay and the
Shiranui Sea with deadly methylmercury. By 2007 at least 2,000 people
had died from eating tainted fish.
(AP, 9/30/07)
1956-1972 In California large industrial corporations
legally poured some 35 million gallons of industrial waste into the
Stringfellow Acid Pits near Glen Avon. The dumping was halted when it
was noticed that pollutants were leaking into the ground water. In 1978
a large rainfall forced the release of more than a million gallons of
polluted water into the Pyrite Canyon, which drained into a creek bed
that flowed through the community of Glen Avon. In 1982 Stringfellow
was declared a Superfund site.
(WSJ, 4/14/99, p.CA1)
1957 Oct 7, A fire in the
Windscale plutonium production reactor (later called Sellafield) north
of Liverpool, England, spread radioactive iodine and polonium through
the countryside and into the Irish Sea.
(HN, 10/7/98)
1957 A fire at the Colorado Rocky
Flats nuclear weapons plant released some plutonium in the smoke. The
fire was kept secret until 1969 when another fire released more
plutonium.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.A3)
1957 A nuclear waste container
exploded at the Mayak plant in the Chelyabinsk region of the southern
Urals and 20 million curies of deadly strontium and cesium were
released. This was about 40% of the amount later released at Chernobyl.
Some 9,200 square miles were contaminated.
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A8)(SFC, 8/18/01, p.E1)
1958 Feb 19, Hail the size of
baseballs was reported with flash lightning over parts of Minneapolis.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1958 May 18, Chairman Mao Tse Tung
spoke at the Second Session of the Eight Party Congress and called for
schoolchildren to assist in the elimination of the four pests, which
included sparrows, rats, flies and mosquitoes. A massive 3-day campaign
soon began to exterminate sparrows, which were thought harmful because
they ate the peasant's grain. Numerous other birds were killed in the
process and the following year a plague of locusts became a problem. In
2001 Judith Shapiro, Donald Worster and Alfred W. Crosby authored
“Mao's War Against Nature: Politics & the Environment in
Revolutionary China.”
(http://tinyurl.com/8gbhg)(Econ, 12/20/08,
p.65)(http://tinyurl.com/7m9egc)
1958 The virus that causes
hemorrhagic fever was identified. A rare mouse that is both host and
vector of the disease in Argentina rapidly multiplied when rangelands
were converted to maize fields.
(NH, 2/97, p.53)
1958 The Northern California Iron
Mountain mine owner built a small treatment plant to capture copper and
halt the killing of salmon.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1959 The US Fish and Wildlife
Service recommended that Iron Mountain mine owners seal mine tunnels or
collect mine drainage in a reservoir to halt the killing of salmon.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1959 Ecuador turned 97% of the
Galapagos Islands into a national park.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M6)
1960 California ordered smog
control devices on cars. It was the first such law in the country.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
c1960 In Utah the Tooele Army
Depot decided to dispose of its old munitions by blowing them up every
spring and summer. In an uncritical climate Magcorp magnesium refinery
set up shop nearby and split magnesium chloride extracted from the
Great Salt Lake. A hazardous waste zone, incinerators and landfills
followed. In 1999 Chip Ward authored "Canaries on the Rim: Living
Downwind in the West."
(SFEC, 1/9/00, BR p.4)
1960s A walking catfish (Clarias
batrachus), imported from Bangkok, walked away from a fish farm west of
Deerfield Beach. By 2002 it had spread to 20 counties in South Florida.
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A2)
1960-1966 Later studies showed that the worldwide
amphibian population declined 15% per year during this period.
(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A4)
1961 Guy Mountfort (d.2003) and 3
other Britons: zoologist Sir Julian Huxley, broadcaster Peter Scott and
wildlife advocate Max Nicholson, founded the Swiss-based World Wildlife
Fund.
(AP, 5/1/03)
1962 Jan 18, The U.S. sprayed
foliage with pesticide in South Vietnam, in order to reveal the
whereabouts of Vietcong guerrillas.
(HN, 1/18/99)
1962 Rachel Carson (d.1964)
published "Silent Spring" and exposed the pesticide industry and its
effects on the environment: "They should not be called ‘insecticides’,
but ‘biocides.’" Carson entered the Pennsylvania College originally
planning to major in English. Instead, she grew more interested with
the natural world, graduating in 1929 with a bachelor’s degree in
biology. After graduate work at Johns Hopkins University and a teaching
stint, she worked for the U.S. government until the early `50s. She
combined her interests in writing and ecology and reached a wide
audience with the publication of her first book, Under the Sea-Wind
(1941). Her following works were also praised for their scientific
accuracy and readable prose. Her book "Silent Spring," which documented
the contribution of pesticides to declining songbird populations, came
out when DDT and similar insecticides were used in abundance.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.70)(HNQ, 4/18/01)
1962 Boyd Stewart, a Marin, Ca.,
cattleman, helped create the Point Reyes National Seashore on 70,000
acres of grassland.
(SFC, 1/1/05, p.A14)
1962-1971 US military tanker planes and helicopters
sprayed 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other defoliants in
Operation Ranch Hand to deny cover to communist forces. The defoliants
were contaminated with TCDD, the most dangerous form of dioxin. In 2004
Philip Jones Griffith, photojournalist, authored "Agent Orange:
Collateral Damage in Vietnam."
(SFC, 5/17/01, p.A12)(Econ, 1/31/04, p.82)
1962-1973 In Utah the Deseret Test Center conducted
46 chemical warfare exercises at Fort Douglas.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.A3)
1963 Feb-Mar, The US military,
while conducting biological weapons tests, sprayed Bacillus globigii
from aircraft near Fort Sherman Military Reservation in the Canal Zone.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.A3)
1963 Nov 25, Assassinated
President John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. A
bronze casket that was used to transport JFK to Washington was flown
off the Maryland-Delaware coast and dropped into a 9,000 feet deep
military dump site.
(AP, 11/25/97)(HN, 11/25/98)(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A3)
1964 Apr 14, Rachel L. Carson
(56), American biologist, author (Silent spring), died. She raised
public awareness of environmental pollution and ecological issues with
a number of best-selling books--notably Silent Spring (1962). In 1997
Linda Gear wrote the biography: "Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature."
(SFEC, 9/14/97, BR p.3)(HNQ, 4//01)(MC, 4/14/02)
1964 Sep 3, Pres. Johnson signed
the Wilderness Act and designated 9 million acres as an area "where the
Earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man
himself is a visitor who does not remain." It allowed for roadless
federal lands to qualify for wilderness protection. In 1999 the act
sheltered over 100 million acres. Conservationists stopped a dam in
Echo Park in Dinosaur National Monument and persuaded Congress to pass
the Wilderness Act to provide permanent protection to wilderness areas.
(NG, May 1985, p.669)(SFC, 8/6/93, p.C4)(SFEC,
8/29/99, Z1 p.6)
1964-1992 Texaco dumped nearly 20 billion gallons of
toxic waste into open pits, estuaries and rivers and allegedly polluted
some 2.5 million acres of pristine rain forest. Texaco merged with
Chevron in 2001 and a suit over the toxic waste went to trial in
Ecuador in 2003.
(SFC, 5/1/03, A8)
1965 Raymond Dasmann (d.2002 at
83) authored "The Destruction of California." He later authored
"Wildlife Biology" (1981) and "Environmental Conservation" (1984). In
2002 he authored "’The Autobiography of a Conservationist."
(SFC, 11/7/02, p.A26)
1965 Congress established the Land
and Water Conservation Fund. It was to receive $900 million a year from
federal oil and gas revenues for acquisition of sensitive lands and
wetlands, but the money was never dedicated for the intended purpose.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A21)
1965 The Norwegian whaling
stations on St. Georgia Island closed. Some 175,250 whales had been
processed there.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.T11)
1966 Jan 17, Two US Air Force jets
collided in the skies over Spanish coastal village of Palomares. The
mid-air crash of the B-52 bomber and a KC-135 refueling plane killed 8
crew members. The real scare was a missing hydrogen bomb which was
found 2 months later, intact, in nearby waters.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1966 Oct 15, US Congress passed
the Endangered Species Preservation Act. It was expanded in 1973 as the
Endangered Species Act. The Devils Hole Pupfish of Death Valley were
among the first species protected. By 1972 only 124 remained. By 2007
only 42 were left.
(www.fws.gov/endangered/1966listing.html)
1966-1997 Later studies showed that the worldwide
amphibian population declined 2% per year during this period.
(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A4)
1967 Apr-May, The US military
conducted chemical warfare tests, Red Oak, Phase 1, in the Upper
Waiakea Forest Reserve of Hawaii using shells and rockets filled with
sarin gas.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.A3)
1967 Nov 21, President Lyndon B.
Johnson signed the Air Quality Act, allotting $428 million for the
fight against pollution.
(HN, 11/21/98)(AP, 11/21/07)
1967 Dennis Pulestin (d.2001 at
95) helped found the Environmental Defense Fund to fight DDT spraying
and to campaign for better environmental protection.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.A27)
1967 The US declared the eagle an
endangered species.
(SFC, 6/18/99, p.A3)
1967 In Livermore, Ca., a small
amount of plutonium accidentally leaked out of the Lawrence Livermore
Lab. and into the sewer system. The sewer sludge was sold to Tri-Valley
residents as a soil conditioner for gardens and lawns. The 4.2-acre Big
Trees Park later tested higher than background for plutonium but
experts assured residents that there was no real danger.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A22)
1968 Oct 2, The 2,650-mile Pacific
Crest Trail, spanning Mexico to Canada, was designated a National
Scenic Trail as part of the US National Trails System Act.
(SFC, 7/16/08,
p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Crest_Trail)
1968 Open air testing of chemical
weapons at the US Army Dugway Proving Grounds in the Utah desert caused
the deaths of some 3,600 [6,400] sheep in an adjacent valley.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 6/1/98, p.A1)
1968 A US B-52 bomber with 4
nuclear bombs cashed 12 miles from Greenland’s Thule air base. Caner
reports began to surface later and in 1955 the Danish government paid a
$15.5 million settlement to some 1,700 exposed workers.
(SFC, 11/3/01, p.C3)
1968 Washington state’s North
Cascades National Park was dedicated.
(SSFC, 7/18/04, p.D7)
c1968-1969 James F. Phillips (d.2001 at 70) began
engaging in environmental activism in the Fox Valley area of Illinois
after he found dead ducks in the Fox River. He was later described as
the 1st notorious eco-saboteur.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A25)
1969 Jan 29, An undersea oil well
off Santa Barbara, Ca., suffered a blowout and over the next 11 days
released some 200,000 gallons of oil that spread over 800 square miles
of ocean and soiled 35 miles of coastline.
(www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/sb_69oilspill/69oilspill_articles2.html)
1969 Feb 5, US population reached
200 million.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1969 Nov 20, The Nixon
administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT
as part of a total phase-out.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1969 Pres. Nixon signed a National
Environmental Policy Act. It required the government to review
environmental implications of its projects. In 2002 the Bush
administration held that the act does not extend beyond a few miles of
territorial waters.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A3)
1969 Marjory Stoneman Douglas
(1890-1998), American journalist and environmentalist, helped found
Friends of the Everglades, a Florida-based conservation organization.
(SFC, 5/15/98,
p.D7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjory_Stoneman_Douglas)
1969 Patrick Moore helped to start
Greenpeace with a "Save the Whales" theme and served as a leader for
the next 15 years.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A9)
1969 Ben Metcalfe (d.2003 at 83)
coordinated the initial campaigns of the Winnipeg-based Don't
Make a Wave Committee (later Greenpeace) against planned nuclear tests
in the Aleutian Islands.
(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A31)
1969 In northern California after
a heavy rain some 1,600 fish, mostly adult and yearling salmon, died of
copper poisoning below the Kewick Dam.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1970 Jan 1, Pres. Nixon signed the
National Environmental Policy Act into law.
(WSJ, 2/25/97,
p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Environmental_Policy_Act)
1970 Apr 22, The first Earth Day
and Earth Week was celebrated and millions protested pollution on Earth
and their concern for the environment. The event was organized by a
33-member committee in Philadelphia. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson
suggested Earth Day as a means to focus national attention on
ecological issues. Gaylord selected Pete McCloskey as co-chairman.
Organizers later identified 12 anti-environment members of the US House
and Senate, 7 of whom son lost their seats.
(TMC, 1994, p.1970)(WSJ, 4/22/96, p.A22)(AP,
4/22/97)(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A23)(HNQ, 6/2/99)(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.E3)
1970 Dec 2, The Environmental
Protection Agency began operating under director William Ruckelshaus.
Pres. Nixon appointed a 3-member Council on Environmental Quality that
included journalist Robert Cahn (d.1997 at 80). It was the first
centralized White House office to advise the president on environmental
matters. Cahn served to 1972. President Nixon created the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA took over certain functions previously
handled by the departments of the Interior, Agriculture and Health,
Education and Welfare in an effort to set and enforce national
pollution-control standards. The first task it was given was the
administration of the Clean Air Act, passed that same year. Currently,
the EPA enforces 12 federal statutes ranging from safe drinking water
to pesticide use.
(SFC,11/1/97, p.A17)(AP, 12/2/97)(HNQ, 4/16/01)
1970 The Don't Make a Wave
Committee of Winnipeg, Canada, was renamed Greenpeace and Ben Metcalfe
became the 1st chairman.
(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A31)
1970 The Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC) was founded in the US to protect public health and the
environment.
(www.nrdc.org/about/)(Econ, 2/18/06, p.32)
1970 The Clean Air Act was
designed to control smog but not global warning. Catalytic converters
designed to reduce smog were produced by the automobile companies. In
1998 it was reported that the nitrous oxide comprised 7.2% of the gases
in global warming. Catalytic converters produced nearly half of this
nitrous oxide.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A2)
1970 The California Environmental
Quality Act was passed. It required developers to produce an
environmental impact report on any new project.
(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.13)
1970 RCA Corp. opened its Taiwan
1st semiconductor factory. GE bought RCA in 1986 and sold it to Thomson
in 1987. Its northern facilities were shut down in 1991 and the area
was declared a toxic site. In 2002 it was reported that a 1000 former
plant employees suffered from cancer and that 200 had died.
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.B5)
1970-1985 A 2002 study said pollution from industrial
nations was one of the possible causes of the African famine that
stretched from Senegal to Ethiopia and left 1.2 million people dead. A
group of scientists in Australia and Canada say the drought may have
been triggered by tiny particles of sulfur dioxide from factories and
power plants thousands of miles away in North America, Europe and Asia.
Researchers said the short-lived pollution particles, known as
aerosols, didn't have to travel to Africa to harm the environment
there. The particles were able to alter the physics of cloud formation
miles away and reduce rainfall in Africa by as much as 50 percent, say
the researchers, who used a computer to simulate the atmospheric
conditions. The process, known as teleconnection, continues in the
atmosphere today.
(AP, 7/22/02)
1971 Jan 8, 29 pilot whales
beached themselves and died at San Clemente Island, off Calif.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1971 Jan 18, Two Standard Oil
tankers collided in the fog a quarter mile west of the Golden Gate
Bridge. The Arizona Standard ripped into the Oregon Standard and caused
the spill of some 1.9 million gallons of heavy bunker oil. 800,000
gallons of oil was dumped into the Bay. The spill spread over 50 miles
along the California coast.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, z-1 p.5)(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W39)(SFEC,
6/27/99, p.A14)
1971 Feb 2, The Ramsar Convention,
officially titled “The Convention on Wetlands of International
Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat,” was developed and adopted
by participating nations at a meeting in Ramsar, Iran. It came into
force on December 21, 1975. The US ratified the Ramsar agreement in
1986.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsar_Convention)(NH,
5/01, p.35)
1971 May 9, Friends of Earth
returned 1500 non-returnable bottles to Schweppes. Friends of Earth
became an international network this year with a meeting of
representatives from the US, Sweden, the UK and France.
(http://tinyurl.com/6yqzul)(http://tinyurl.com/5zmwfa)
1971 May 18, The documentary
"Powers That Be" aired for one time and went under litigation from
PG&E. Don Widener (d.2003 at 72) produced the work about
environmental and nuclear dangers.
(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A26)
1971 Sep 15, A group of activists
set sail on the Phyllis Cormack for Alaska from Vancouver, Canada, to
stop a US nuclear weapons test in the Aleutian Islands. Panels reading
Green and Peace dangled from the bridge. Bob Hunter (d.2005), one of
the activists, became the 1st president of Greenpeace (1973-1977).
(HFA, '96, p.38)(GQ, summer ‘96, p.18)(SFC, 4/30/97,
p.A9)(Econ, 5/14/05, p.89)
1971 Harold S. Johnston was the
first scientist to warn that trace amounts of nitrogen emitted to the
upper atmosphere could profoundly damage the ozone layer. He earned a
national Medal of Science in 1997. His discovery led Congress to
initiate the CIAP.
(SFC,12/16/97, p.A20)
1971 The US government initiated a
$21 million study called the Climactic Impact Assessment Program
(CIAP). Its purpose was to study the impact of high-flying airplanes on
the upper atmosphere, i.e. the stratosphere.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.138)
1971 Denmark became the first
European country to create a Cabinet-level ministry dealing exclusively
with the environment.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.AA6)
1972 Mar 12, “The Limits to
Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of
Mankind." was presented publicly at the Smithsonian Institute in
Washington. It was translated into 30 languages and 10 million copies
of the book were sold, helping the Club of Rome gain the world stage.
Donella Meadows (1941-2001) Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and
William W. Behrens III co-authored the report.
(SFC, 2/21/01,
p.A22)(www.clubofrome.at/peccei/limits.html)
1972 Apr 4, The 1st electric power
plant fueled by garbage began operating.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1972 Apr 15, Canada’s PM Pierre
Trudeau and President Richard Nixon met in Ottawa to sign the Great
Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The agreement followed measurements that
showed that high concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen led to the
lakes being choked to death from vegetation and algae. Methods for
quantifying eutrophication had been developed by Swiss scientist
Richard Vollenweider (1922-2007).
(http://tinyurl.com/ygrc3p)(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.A8)
1972 Aug 9, The pesticide Compound
1080, or sodium fluoroacetate, was banned as of this day by the EPA. It
had been used against coyotes but other animals were dying from its
use. It was reinstated in 1985 for use in livestock protection collars.
DDT was banned.
{Chemistry, Environment, USA, Animals}
(http://fluoridealert.org/pesticides/sodium.fluoroacetate.epa.90.htm)(SFC,
5/17/97, p.A17)(SFC, 6/18/99, p.A3)
1972 Oct 12, House Resolution
16444, establishing the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA),
was passed by Congress and was signed by President Richard Nixon 15
days later. The island of Alcatraz was incorporated into this park.
California Congressman Phillip Burton pushed through legislation
preserving thousands of acres of forested hills, valleys and rugged
shoreline. The park was expanded from 870 acres in 1948 to 6,300 acres
by 1972.
(www.sftravel.com/Alcatraz1950on.html)(SFEC,
6/27/99, Z1 p.1,4)(SFCM, 4/25/04, p.18)
1972 Oct 18, The Federal Water
Pollution Control Act Amendments, sponsored by Senator Ed Muskie of
Maine, was passed. It was amended in 1977 and became known as the Clean
Water Act. It gave EPA the authority to implement pollution control
programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry.
(SFC, 6/2/96,
p.T-12)(http://www.osha.gov/dep/oia/whistleblower/acts/fwpca.html)
1972 The US government outlawed
the pesticide DDT. It followed the suit filed by Ralph Abascal (d.1997
at 63) of California Rural Legal Assistance on behalf of six
farmworkers. The federal law prevented California’s Montrose Chemical
Co. from dumping DDT into the ocean off the Palos Verdes peninsula.
(SFC, 1/18/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 3/18/97, p.A22)(Pac.
Disc., summer, ‘96, p.5)
1972 California Congressman
Phillip Burton pushed through legislation preserving thousands of acres
of forested hills, valleys and rugged shoreline. This led to the
formation of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). The park
was expanded from 870 acres in 1948 to 6,300 acres by 1972.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, Z1 p.1,4)(SFCM, 4/25/04, p.18)
1972 Monsanto ceased producing
PCBs in Anniston, Alabama. In 2001 Monsanto agreed to a $40 million
settlement for toxic pollution.
(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A5)
1972 Owens Corning, Ohio-based
maker of insulation and other building products, stopped selling
asbestos products. In 1998 it offered $1.2 billion to settle its
asbestos related lawsuits, which numbered about 176,000 cases.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/6glsle)
1972 A coal sludge spill killed
125 people and swallowed 500 homes in Buffalo Creek, W. Va.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A20)
1972 Chen Yifei (b.1946), Shanghai
born artist, painted "Eulogy of the Yellow River," as China’s Yellow
River dried up for the 1st time in history before reaching the Yellow
Sea. From 1980 to 1996 he worked in the US and became known as the
Norman Rockwell of China.
(WSJ, 1/6/97, p.A10)(SFC, 3/4/02, p.A3)
1972 Costa Rica created the
1,680-acre Manuel Antonio National Park.
(SSFC, 6/1/03, p.C5)
1972 Jose Kahn, a Chilean-born US
citizen, opened Metales & Derividos in Tijuana, Mexico. The plant
smelted old US car and boat batteries. In 1987 it was told to clean up
its waste. In 1994 it was closed following years of ineffective
warnings.
(WSJ, 1/16/02, p.A12)
1972 David McTaggart (d.2001), one
of the founders of Greenpeace Int’l., sailed his small boat into the
French nuclear-testing site at Mururoa atoll in the South Pacific.
(SFC, 3/24/01, p.A22)(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A31)
1972 India enacted a Wildlife
Protection Act. It banned the hunting of tigers, the capture and sale
of bears (dancing bears) as well as the catching of snakes. In 2001
animal performances on the streets were banned. Snake charmers felt
their livelihood threatened.
(SFC, 7/8/02, p.A3)(SFC, 12/4/04, p.B10)(Econ,
6/25/05, p.41)
1973 Oct 15, Russell E. Train, the
US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, announced final
transportation control measures to lower air pollution levels in
several of the nation's largest cities. The action marked a final step
in developing the transportation controls required under the Clean Air
Act of 1972, although several urban plans were yet to be finalized.
(www.epa.gov/history/topics/caa70/10.htm)
1973 Dec 28, Pres. Nixon signed
into law the Endangered Species Act. The first list of endangered
species contained Gray whales. The Gray whale was removed from the list
in 1994 when the population climbed back to about 22,000.
(PacDis, Fall/’96, p.24)(SFC, 10/2/98, p.A6)(SFC,
12/28/98, p.A1)
1974 Jun 28, Mario J. Molina and
F. Sherwood Rowland of UCLA, Irvine, proposed an alarming hypothesis in
Nature that the use of chlorofluorocarbons added chlorine to the
environment in steadily increasing amounts.
(www.ciesin.org/docs/011-464/011-464.html)
1974 Sep 25, Scientists warned
that continued use of aerosol sprays will cause ozone depletion, which
will lead to an increased risk of skin cancer and global weather
changes.
{Environment, USA, Cancer}
(HN, 9/25/98)(www.todayinsci.com/9/9_25.htm)
1974 Sep 26, The NYT published a
front page article on the impact of the chlorofluorocarbon, used in
aerosols, on the ozone.
(www.ciesin.org/docs/011-464/011-464.html)
1974 Dec 16, The US Safe Drinking
Water Act was passed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Drinking_Water_Act)
1974 Dec 24, An oil spill polluted
1,600 square miles of scenic Inland Sea in Japan.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1974 Deaths from cancer began to
escalate in the village of Dragon Range in the mountains of Central
China. Tests in 2000 showed high levels of lead and arsenic from 4
factories in a nearby valley.
(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.F5)
1975 Jan 2, US Dept of Interior
designated the grizzly bear a threatened species.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1975 The New Almaden mine south of
San Jose, Ca., was closed. It had mined mercury for over 120 years. In
the 1980s it was placed on the state’s list of Superfund cleanup sites.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A26)
1975 In Pennsylvania a company
called McAdoo Associates began operating to extract and recycle metals
from chemical wastes. The company accepted hundred of thousands of
gallons of paint sludge, waste oils, used solvents, PCBs, cyanide,
pesticides and many other known or suspected carcinogens. In 1979, when
the EPA stepped in, McAdoo Associates had stockpiled enough chemicals
to nearly fill an Olympic-size swimming pool. The EPA placed it on the
Superfund list and began a cleanup. The US Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Registry began looking into polycythemia vera (PCV) in
August 2006 after 97 cases in Schuylkill, Carbon and Luzerne counties
were reported to the state cancer registry between 2001 and 2005.
(AP, 10/23/07)
1976 Jul 10, There was an
explosion at a factory in Seveso, Lombardy, Italy, owned by ICMESA with
a Swiss parent company. It produced a cloud of Dioxin which settled
over several adjacent communities. The people exposed became
nauseated, experienced eye and throat irritations, developed burn-like
sores on exposed skin, headaches, dizziness and diarrhea -- the same
symptoms recorded by exposed Vietnamese and Cambodian
populations. In the next two days, small animals in the area
began to die. The contamination led to a high incidence of birth
defects.
(www.theveteranscoalition.org/educational_material/agent_orange.htm)(WSJ,2/12/97,
p.A8)
1976 Jul 13, The Green Peace
500-ton James Bay, a converted Canadian minesweeper, set out from the
SF Bay to thwart Japanese and Russian whale hunters in Hawaiian water.
(SFC, 7/13/01, WBb p.6)
1976 Aug 22, EPA scientists
reported that they had discovered plutonium in the ocean sediment off
the SF coast and radioactive cesium leaking from containers 120 miles
east of Ocean City, Md. Some 62,000 steel drums of nuclear waste were
dumped into the oceans from 1946-1970.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.WB6)
1976 Sep 14, EPA scientists
discovered a new species of sponge growing on steel cans containing
low-level radioactive waste that were dumped near the Farallones
Islands from 1946-1970.
(SFC, 9/14/01, WB p.6)
1976 Oct 11, The US Toxic
Substances Control Act became law with an effective date of January 1,
1977.
(www.epa.gov/compliance/civil/tsca/tscaenfstatreq.html)
1976 Dec 21, The
Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant ran aground near Nantucket
Island, spilling millions of gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.
(AP, 12/21/97)
1976 US Congress passed the
Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act. It extended US
territorial waters to 200 miles offshore.
(GQ, Summer ‘96, p.22)(WSJ, 11/25/97, p.A1)
1976 The US Congress asked the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to find land that might qualify for
wilderness protection. It found 3.2 million eligible acres in Utah.
(Econ, 8/23/03, p.26)
1976 A movement against climate
modification culminated in an international convention that foreswore
hostile use of "environmental modification techniques. The int’l.
community banned the use of environmental modification techniques such
as cloud seeding and Agent Orange.
(SFC, 8/11/00,
p.A15)(www.aip.org/history/climate/RainMake.htm)
1976 San Mateo County, Ca.,
rebuilt the military housing by the PG&E plant east of Cow Palace
in Daly City with a housing complex of 150 units called Midway Village.
The units stood over toxic soil from PG&E that was used by the
military during WW II as land fill. Dirt and groundwater in the area
contained polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PNAs), a known carcinogen.
No soil tests were conducted.
(SFC, 3/10/98, p.A14)(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A12)(SFC,
1/19/00, p.A4)
1977 May 23, Pres. Jimmy Carter
presented an environmental message to Congress: "I am directing to make
a one-year study of the probable changes in the world’s population,
natural resources and environment through the end of the century. This
study will serve as the foundation of our longer-term planning. The
Global 2000 Report sold 1.5 million copies and pronounced a world that
would be more crowded, more polluted, less stable ecologically and more
vulnerable to disruption than the world of 1980.
(SFC, 12/31/00, WB p.1)
1977 The US Congress passed the
surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act to help solve problems with
abandoned mines.
(WSJ, 6/4/03, p.A1)
1977 The manufacture of
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) became prohibited in the US, because
of evidence they build up in the environment and can cause harmful
health effects.
(www.epa.gov/glnpo/bnsdocs/stakeholder98/pcbinus.htm)
1977 The Endangered Species Act
(1973) listed the California sea otter as threatened. Their numbers
increased slowly until 1995 and then dropped again.
(PacDis, Fall/’96, p.23)(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.C1)
1977 Protocols I and II were added
to the Geneva Conventions. They prohibited environmental damage during
int’l. and internal armed conflict. Protocol I prohibited "widespread,
long-term and severe damage to the environment."
(SFC, 8/11/00, p.A15)
1977 France banned frog fishing to
protect the local green and red varieties. Poaching remained a problem.
(WSJ, 4/2/02, p.A1)
1978 Jan 24, Cosmos, a 4-month-old
nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and
disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern
Canada.
(CFA, '96,Vol 179, p.38)(AP, 1/24/98)(SSFC,
3/18/01, p.A1)
1978 Mar 16, The Amoco-Cadiz oil
tanker spilled a record 1.6 million barrels of crude oil off the coast
of France.
(WSJ, 9/13/99,
p.R4)(www.cedre.fr/uk/spill/amoco/amoco.htm)
1978 Dec 1, Pres. Jimmy Carter
proclaimed 15 new national monuments, eleven under NPS jurisdiction and
two each for the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
(www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/rothman/chap11a.htm)
1978 In Northern California
hundreds of fish near Iron Mountain died from mine pollutants.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1978 The Chinese Academy of
Sciences set up the River Dolphin Research Group in Wuhan. The baiji, a
white river dolphin, was declared a "rare and precious aquatic animal"
the following year.
(SFC, 3/23/98, p.a8)
1979 Feb 18, Snow fell in the
Sahara Desert.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1979 Apr 13, A barge with 4.3
million gallons of gasoline rammed into an abutment of the Richmond-San
Rafael Bridge and spilled 42,000 gallons into the SF Bay.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
1979 Jun 3, Ixtoc 1, an
exploratory oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, blew and spilled an
estimated 140 gallons of crude oil.
(SFC, 11/20/02, p.A14)
1979 Jul 19, Two supertankers
collided off Tobago and spilled 260,000 tons of oil. It was the worst
oil spill to date with 88 million gallons spewed.
(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R49)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_spills)
1979 Nov 1, The tanker Burmah
Agate, spilled 10.7 million gallons of oil off Galveston Bay, Texas, in
US's worst oil spill disaster.
(http://tinyurl.com/2jwxd3)
1979 The US EPA approved the use
of MTBE as a 2-5% blend in gasoline to boost octane.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.A17)
1979 The Japanese oil ship Takeo
Maru sank in a storm off the coast of Sakhalin Island with its tanks
full. The rusty tanks later began leaking and in 2000 a huge slick hit
the port city of Shakhtyorsk.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.D8)
1979 Elephant hunting was banned
in Kenya with the herd down to 1.3 million.
(SFC, 4/11/00, p.D2)
1979 Nigeria outlawed gas flaring,
to be phased out over 5 years. The law was not enforced and in 2008
some 20 billion cubic meters of year were flared, out of a global total
of 150 billion.
(Econ, 4/5/08, p.50)
1979 In Sverdlovsk, Russia, there
was an explosion at a biological weapons lab. 96 people were stricken
from the release of anthrax bacterium and 66 died. The name of the town
was later changed to Yekaterinburg.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A9)
1979 Two tankers collided off the
coast of Trinidad and Tobago in the worst oil spill to date and 88
million gallons were spewed.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1980 Feb 23, Oil tanker explosion
off Pilos, Greece, caused a 37-mil-gallon spill.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1980 Apr 11, Mother Jones magazine
won the 1980 national Magazine Award for Reporting Excellence for a
Nov. 1979 article by Mark Dowie on the export of hazardous products
banned from the US.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.F2)
1980 May 22, In response to a
request from the Governor of NY, President Carter declared a second
federal emergency at Love Canal, paving the way for federal aid to
relocate the more than 700 families who still lived near the former
toxic waste dump.
(www.health.state.ny.us/environmental/investigations/love_canal/lcreport.htm)
1980 Nov 22, Georgia tanker at
Pilottown La, spilled 1.3 million gallons of oil after an anchor chain
caused the ship to leak.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1980 Pres. Carter signed a law
that renamed the Arctic National Wildlife Range to the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge and more than doubled its size. The law directed the
Interior Dept. to assess oil potential in 1.5 million acres of the
coastal plain. A ban was put on drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. In 2002 Pres. Bush pushed to overturn the ban.
Estimates on oil there ranged from 3.2 to at least 5.7 billion barrels.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A9)(SSFC, 8/28/05, p.A13)
1980 Congress passed the Alaska
National Interest Lands Conservation Act and protected 104 million
acres of wilderness. The size of Denali National Park was tripled to
6.2 million acres. Motorized access to the land was given for
traditional activities such as hunting, fishing and camping. Peggy
Wayburn’s book: "Alaska the Great Land" was credited with helping
persuade Congress.
(WSJ, 5/13/99, p.B1)(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A24)(SSFC,
3/28/04, p.D9)
1980 Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias
National Park was established.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.38)
1980 August Cinquegrana (d.1999 at
78) directed "Toxic Time Bomb," an HBO documentary on the threats of
toxic waste in America.
(SFC, 9/8/99, p.B2)
1980 In Brazil the TAMAR project
to protect sea turtles was begun by Maria and Guy Marcovaldi.
(SFC, 11/2/98, p.A12)
1980 The huge British Steel plant
at Corby, central England, closed and the site was redeveloped. In 2009
a British court ruled in favor of a group of young people who said
pollution from the former steelworks contributed to their birth
defects, which included missing fingers and deformed hands and feet.
(AP, 7/29/09)
1981 An amendment to the
Endangered Species Act allowed property owners to destroy some habitat
provided that they come up with an acceptable plan to preserve
equivalent habitat elsewhere.
(WSJ, 4/14/99, p.CA1)
1981 Employees informed Shell,
Exxon and Texaco that the gasoline additive, methyl tertiary butyl
ether (MTBE), was leaking from their gas stations and had contaminated
ground water in 3 towns in New Jersey and Maryland.
(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A13)
1981 In San Jose, Ca., water
supply wells were found to be contaminated due to leaks from Fairchild
and IBM storage tanks used for toxic solvents.
(SFC, 1/30/04, p.E6)
1982 Jan 24, A draft of Air Force
history reported that the U.S. secretly sprayed herbicides on Laos
during the Vietnam War.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1982 Jul 23, The Intl. Whaling
Commission voted for a total ban on commercial whaling starting in 1985.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1982 Sep 1, Congress created a
110,000 acre Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A15)
1982 Dec 10, The UN Law of the Sea
treaty opened for signature. It extended internationally recognized
territorial waters to 200 miles offshore. The convention came into
force on November 16, 1994, one year after the sixtieth state, Guyana,
signed it. The treaty gave countries the power to restrict fishing
within 231 miles of their coasts. The convention created the
International Seabed authority and the International Tribunal for the
Law of the Sea.
(http://tinyurl.com/2wsq9p)(WSJ, 1/18/07,
p.A13)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.51)
1982 Dec 16, Anne M. Gorsuch, head
of the Environmental Protection Agency, became the first Cabinet-level
officer to be cited for contempt of US Congress for refusing to submit
documents requested by a congressional committee.
(AP, 12/16/02)
1982 The jellyfish-like creature,
Mnemiopsis leidyi, arrived in Black Sea, probably in the ballast water
of a cargo ship, and began to devastate the ecology of the almost
closed ecosystem.
(SFEC,12/797, p.A22)
1982 In Monaco an aquarium was
emptied that contained the exotic seaweed Caulerpa taxifolia. It
mutated and thrived in the Mediterranean Sea and by 1997 occupied 8,000
acres and eliminated everything else. Its growth has tripled annually
over the last three years.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.E4)
1983 Jan 23, Russian radioactive
satellite fell into the Indian Ocean.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1983 In Ringwood, New Jersey, a
500-acre site once used by Ford Motor Co. as a dump site was declared a
Superfund site. Ford paid for a $2.5 million cleanup in 1994.
Complaints in 2004 led to calls for a re-testing of the site.
(USAT, 3/23/04, p.11A)
1983 Felix Smith, biologist for
the US Fish and Wildlife Service, discovered the first selenium
deformed birds at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in Merced
County, Ca.
(WSJ, 11/18/98, p.CA3)
1983 The Bear River Migratory Bird
Refuge was flooded. In 1991 Terry Tempest Williams authored "Refuge: An
Unnatural History of Family and Place."
(SSFC, 12/2/01, p.M3)
1984 Feb 3, The Environmental
Protection Agency ordered a ban on the pesticide EDB for grain
products.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1984 Mar 19, Mobil oil tanker
spilled 200,000 gallons into the Columbia River.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1984 Oct 31, The Puerto Rican
tanker San Francisco exploded spilling 2 million gallons of oil as the
ship caught fire. The ship Puerto Rican exploded and sank 15 miles off
Montara. It spilled a million gallons of oil.
(MC, 10/31/01)(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A27)
1984 Bills covering national
forests in 20 states added 8.3 million acres to the Federal Wilderness
System.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, Z1 p.6)
1984 US Congress established the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to distribute funds for wildlife
and environmental projects.
(SFC, 11/20/99, p.A8)
1984 In California cancer cases
began popping up in McFarland in the Central Valley. 21 people over 20
years were struck in the town of 8,000. A state study from 1985-1991
ended inconclusively and the EPA was petitioned to study the problem.
Residents suspected airborne pesticides.
(SFC, 1/17/98, p.A5)
1994 Rene Ngongo of Congo DRC
founded the OCEAN environmental group, exposing the impact of
deforestation and monitoring the plunder of minerals by warring
factions during Congo's 1996-2002 civil wars.
(AP, 10/13/09)
1985 Jul 10, French security
forces sank the Rainbow Warrior, a ship operated by Greenpeace near NZ.
Fernando Pereira, a Dutch photographer, was killed in the sinking.
(SFC, 5/7/99,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Warrior)
1985 Sep 22, In France the premier
confessed to the June 10 attack of Green Peace's Rainbow Warrior.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1985 Nov 6, An exploratory oil
well at Ranger, Tx., exploded and spilled 150,000 barrels of oil.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980-1989_world_oil_market_chronology)
1985 Randy Hayes founded the
Rainforest Action Network, a non-profit group in SF.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.B1)
1985 Marcelo Carvalho de Andrade,
Brazilian mountain climber, former model and surgeon, came up with a
plan to help protect the rain forest while waiting out a storm on the
north face of Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.A8)
1985 The Mexican environmental
organization Group of 100 was founded.
(SFC, 3/13/99, p.A14)
1985-1997 In Niger some 60 million trees were planted
over this period to stave off the encroaching Sahara Desert that
expands by 500,000 acres each year. About half the trees have survived.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A12)
1985-1999 Swiss glaciers lost at least 18% of their
surface area during this period.
(NH, 2/05, p.17)
1986 Apr 26, The world's worst
nuclear accident occurred in Pripyat, Ukraine, north of Kiev, at 1:23
a.m. as the Chernobyl atomic power plant exploded. A
300-hundred-square-mile area was evacuated and 31 people died as
unknown thousands were exposed to radioactive material that spread in
the atmosphere throughout the world. An exploded at Chernobyl, Ukraine,
and burned for 10 days. About 70% of the fallout fell in Belarus.
Damage was estimated to be up to $130 billion. By 1998 10,000 Russian
"liquidators" involved in the cleanup had died and thousands more
became invalids. It was later estimated that the released radioactivity
was 200 times the combined bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
(WSJ, 11/8/95, p.A-1)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.A14)(SFC,
12/18/99, p.C4)(AP, 4/26/05)
1986 Nov 1, A fire in a Sandoz
factory in Basel left 30 tons of chemicals in the Rhine.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1986 Daniel B. Luten (d.2003)
published "Progress Against Growth: Essays on the American Landscape."
(SFEC, 4/27/97, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 1/24/03, p.A25)
1986 Richard Vollenweider
(1922-2007), Swiss scientist, was awarded the Tyler Prize for
Environmental Achievement for helping save Lake Erie. Procter &
Gamble, the USA’s biggest detergent manufacturer, had nominated him for
the prize. Vollenweider had developed methods for quantifying the
eutrophication of freshwater. His methods also helped form the basis of
the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Act.
(http://tinyurl.com/ygrc3p)(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.A8)
1986 Nevada’s 77,000-acre Great
Basin National Park was dedicated.
(SSFC, 7/18/04, p.D7)
1986 Residents of south San Jose
settled a suit with IBM and Fairchild over toxic chemical leaks. The
terms were sealed.
(SFC, 1/30/04, p.B1)
1986 The Potamocorbula clam, or
Asian clam, was introduced to the SF Bay. It was highly prolific and
proceeded to devour all the plankton in the northern part of the Bay,
causing the shrimp population to drop and the striped bass to decline.
The clams accumulate selenium more than other shellfish causing
increases in selenium levels in sturgeon, striped bass and ducks.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A24)
1986 The zebra mussel was
introduced to the Great lakes by Russian freighters in 1986. [see 1988]
(WSJ, 9/27/00, p.A1)
1986 The pine pitch canker was
first noticed in California. Wilted needles and browned branch tips
preceded the formation of resin-oozing cankers which then attract
beetles. It was believed that beetles carried the disease.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A17)
1986 The EPA reported that 35% of
all underground gas tanks were leaking an average of 2,800 gallons of
gasoline annually.
(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A13)
1986 The Apex Houston oil spill
off the California coast killed an estimated 6,500 common murre
seabirds.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A27)
1986 In Brazil Marcelo Carvalho de
Andrade formed Pro-Natura, a non-governmental organization dedicated to
saving the rain forests through sustainable development. The first
program was set up in Desengano State Park to prevent clandestine
logging.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.A8)
1987 Feb 4, Congress overrode Pres
Reagan's veto of Clean Water Act. Changes in the 1972 Act phased out
the construction grants program, replacing it with the State Water
Pollution Control Revolving Fund, more commonly known as the Clean
Water State Revolving Fund.
(www.epa.gov/r5water/cwa.htm)(www.agiweb.org/legis105/cwupdate.html)
1987 Mar 13, The president of
Ecuador announced his country had suspended payments on its foreign
debt after earthquakes killed hundreds of people and ruptured the
country's main oil pipeline. The quake destroyed nearly 25 miles of oil
pipeline.
(AP, 3/13/97)(SFC, 5/1/03, A8)
1987 Apr, An internal EPA memo
warned that the gasoline additive MTBE had a tendency to separate from
gasoline and leak into groundwater.
(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A1)
1987 Sep 16, Two-dozen countries
signed the Montreal Protocol, a treaty designed to save the Earth's
ozone layer by calling on nations to reduce emissions of harmful
chemicals by the year 2000. It was amended in 1990 and 1992. The
international convention met in Montreal and negotiators from 23 of the
world’s major industrial nations signed a treaty to slow down global
chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) production to restore atmospheric ozone. By
1997 156 nations had signed the Montreal Protocol.
(NOHY, W3/90, p.47)(SFC, 5/31/96, A1,17)(SFEC,
6/15/97, BR p.4)(AP, 9/16/97)
1987 Geochemist Wallace Broecker
of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory 1st suggested that a greenhouse
induced shutdown of a current in the Atlantic Ocean (the thermohaline
circulation) could trigger abrupt climate change and plunge much of
Europe into a mini-ice age.
(WSJ, 5/14/04, p.B1)
1987 The Lebanese Free Forces, a
right-wing Christian militia, arranged to accept and store 15,800
barrels and 20 large containers of toxic chemicals from the Italian
firm Jelly Wax in exchange for cash. Later German, Canadian and Belgium
firms shipped in toxic chemicals for storage. By 1998 70% of the
country’s drinking water sources was contaminated.
(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A10)(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A10)
1988 Apr 23, A drain valve was
left open at the Shell Marsh in Martinez and 10,000 barrels of oil
poured in the marsh adjoining Peyton Slough. Shell cleaned the mess and
paid $20 million in penalties. The marsh was purchased with part of the
funds and turned into a regional park.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A19-20)
1988 Spring, Soviet germ
scientists transferred hundreds of tons of anthrax bacteria into
canisters with bleach and sent them for storage to Vorrozhdeniye Island
(Renaissance Island) in the Aral Sea, shared by Kazakstan and
Uzbekistan.
(SFC, 6/2/99, p.A10,11)
1988 The zebra mussel first
appeared in the US. It is capable of laying up to 5 million eggs per
year. The European freshwater mussel was introduced into the Great
Lakes. It proceeded to spread to 18 states and 3 Canadian provinces
clogging water intake pipes at power plants and water facilities. [see
1986]
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A3)(SFC,12/11/97, p.A24)
1988 Climatologist James Hansen
brought the greenhouse effect to the attention of the American public
when he told Congress that worldwide temperature increases were
probably a sign of human alteration of the atmosphere.
(SFC,12/12/97, p.A13)
1988 Beal Mountain mine opened
near Butte, Mont. Its owner promoted open-pit cyanide leaching for
extracting gold from ore as modern and environmentally friendly.
Pegasus Gold Corp., a Canadian company, extracted nearly 460,000 ounces
of gold over a decade before closing the mine and declaring bankruptcy
in 1998. It left behind a 70-acre, cyanide-contaminated leach pond with
a leaky liner and tons of rubble that sends selenium-laced runoff into
streams, threatening cutthroat trout and other fish. The 2009 economic
stimulus included some funds for cleaning up this and other similar
sites.
(AP, 2/15/09)
1988 The world’s seafood supply
peaked at 34 pounds a person per year. In 2001 the supply fell to 25
pounds per person per year.
(SFC, 11/30/01, p.E1)
1989 Mar 2, Exxon Houston ran
aground in Hawaii and spilled 117,000 gallons of oil.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1989 Mar 24, Good Friday. The
nation's worst oil spill occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran
aground on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and began leaking 11
million gallons of crude. The Exxon Valdez struck ground in Alaska’s
Prince William Sound and spilled 10.6 million gallons of oil. It was
later renamed the Mediterranean and operated between Europe and the
Middle East. Exxon then spent some $2.5 billion to clean up the spill
and filed suit against Lloyd’s of London for reimbursement under a $210
million insurance policy. In 1996 a jury in Houston voted that Lloyd’s
and some 250 other underwriters should compensate Exxon $250 million.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill fouled approximately 1,000 miles of Alaska
shoreline. The oil tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, spilling
some 11 million gallons of crude oil. An estimated 250,000 seabirds
were killed. The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels of oil in
Alaska's Prince William Sound.
(AP, 3/23/97)(TMC, 1994, p.1989)(SFC, 5/5/96,
p.A-11)(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A10)(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T5)(HNQ, 8/14/99)
1989 Jul 1, The 1987 Montreal
Protocol, an international treaty dealing with ozone-destroying
pollutants, went into effect. The treaty sought to cut in half
production of chemicals posing the greatest risk to ozone.
(HNQ, 8/11/99)(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A16)
1989 Jul 16, Leaders of the seven
major industrial democracies called at their economic summit in Paris
for "decisive action" against global pollution.
(AP, 7/16/99)
1989 Sep 29, In California The
Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 was signed into law. Republican
Gov. George Deukmejian and Democratic lawmakers in control of the
Legislature had negotiated the creation of the Integrated Waste
Management Board to oversee the reduction of waste going to landfills.
(SSFC, 6/14/09, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/l9wx7d)
1989 The UN Convention on Int’l.
Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) imposed a total ban on the trade of
ivory and elephant hide.
(WSJ, 1/7/97, p.A1)(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A20)(SFC,
4/18/00, p.A9)
1989 The Louisiana legislature
established the Louisiana Wetlands Conservation Authority.
(NH, 2/05, p.46)
1989 The Fresno, Ca., Municipal
Sanitary Landfill, opened in 1937 as the nation’s 1st true sanitary
landfill, was named a Superfund toxic site by the EPA.
(SFC, 8/29/01, p.A3)
1989 The city of Berkeley Ca.,
passed a ban on Styrofoam.
(SFC, 4/29/08, p.A1)
1989 The Russian wheat aphid
arrived from Mexico and began to damage US wheat fields.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A2)
1989 The village of Copsa Mica,
Romania, was exposed as one of the most polluted places in Europe.
Despite cleanup efforts heavy contamination persisted in 2002.
(WSJ, 1/9/02, p.A1)
1989 A tanker ran aground near
Claymont, Del., spilling 300,000 gallons of heating oil into the
Delaware River.
(AP, 11/28/04)
1990 Feb 7, An 811-foot tanker,
the American Trader, spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of
Alaskan crude oil off the coast of Huntington Beach, Calif.
(AP, 2/7/00)
1990 Mar 12, Exxon pleaded guilty
to criminal charges and agreed to pay $100 million fine in a $1.1
billion settlement of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1990 Apr 22, Millions of Americans
joined in a worldwide 20th anniversary celebration of the first Earth
Day.
(AP, 4/22/00)
1990 May 24, Darryl Cherney and
Judi Bari (11/7/49-3/2/97), environmental activists in the Earth First!
movement, were injured after a pipe bomb exploded in their car as they
drove through Oakland, Ca. They were arrested while in the hospital on
charges of transporting a bomb but the charges were never filed. They
later filed a suit against the FBI and Oakland police for false arrest,
illegal search and seizure and conspiracy to violate free-speech
rights. Bari died of liver cancer in 1997. In 2002 a jury awarded $2.9
million to Bari’s estate and $1.5 million to Cherney saying the FBI had
framed them as eco-terrorists. In 2004 the government settled civil
suits for $2 million.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.C2)(SFC,10/21/97, p.A20)(SFC,
6/12/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/23/04, p.B1)
1990 Jun 11, The UN appoints
Olivia Newton-John as its 1st Goodwill Ambassador to the Environment.
(http://hometown.aol.com/author31/discov.htm)
1990 Nov 15, Pres. Bush signed the
Clear Air Act of 1990.
(www.epa.gov/history/topics/caa90/02.htm)
1990 An int’l. agreement set
limits on human harvesting of krill at 9 million tons a year. By 1997,
the krill population were markedly depleted and new limits were
considered,
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A3)
1990 US Congress passed the
Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act of 1990
(CWPPRA).
(NH, 2/05, p.46)
1990 A US law allowed a
dolphin-safe label for cans of tuna not netted with dolphins. A 1997
amendment allowed the label for tuna harvested with encircling nets if
observers witnessed no dolphins harmed.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.C14)
1990 A law suit began against
Montrose Chemical Corp. and 2 other companies for a 100 ton DDT deposit
in the ocean off Los Angeles. A settlement was reached in 2000.
(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A5)
1990 The killing and selling of
dolphins became illegal in Peru, and the market went underground.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.36)
1990 Richard and Rhoda Goldman, SF
philanthropists, founded the Goldman Prize to provide cash awards for
grass-roots environmentalist activity in 7 major geographic regions.
(SFC, 4/22/02, p.A3)
1990 Doug Tompkins founded the
Foundation for Deep Ecology in SF after his wife eased him out of the
fashion firm, Esprit Corp.
(SFC, 7/15/02, p.E1)
1990 A study by the US EPA found
that leaf-blowers were responsible for about 5% of the nation’s harmful
airborne pollutants.
(SFC, 8/5/05, p.B1)
1990 The Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its 1st report on global warming. Its
3rd report in 2001 noted that global temperatures could rise 2.5 to
10.4 degrees during the 21st century.
(NH, 4/1/04, p.61)
1990s In the early 1990s
truckloads of foreign waste computer equipment began to be trucked in
to Guiyu, China. Salvaging operations soon caused fish to disappear and
the drinking water to go foul.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.B3)
1990-2009 In Kenya the forests shrank during this
period by a at least 60%.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.22)
1991 Jan 25, During the Gulf War
Iraq sabotaged Kuwait’s main supertanker loading pier, dumping an
estimated 460 million gallons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 1/25/01)(SFC, 11/20/02, p.A14)
1991 Jul 14, In California a
Southern Pacific tanker car derailed near Dunsmuir and spilled 18,000
gallons of pesticides (19k gallons of metam sodium) into the Sacramento
River. This killed every living thing in the river for 40 miles
downstream including 250,000 trout.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T7)(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A22)
1991 William L. Dwyer, Wash. state
federal district judge, ordered the government to stop permitting
logging on up to 60,000 acres of ancient forests a year on public land
because it endangered the habitat of the Northern spotted owl.
(SFC, 2/18/02, p.B6)
1991 In Alberta, Canada, a gas
leak forced Wiebo Ludwig to evacuate his 320-acre Trickle Creek
"community." Ludwig blamed the Alberta oil and gas industry for the
death of 60 of his livestock and a succession of human health problems.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.C2)
1991 Norway became one of the
first countries to adopt a carbon tax in an attempt to slow global
warming.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.28)
1992 Apr 21, Mobil Oil tug with
12,000 gallons of oil ran aground in Arthur Kill.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1992 May 5, The Basel Convention,
which curbed the trade of toxic materials, came into force after being
ratified by 20 nations. By 2008 170 nations had signed the convention.
(www.ec.gc.ca/wmd-dgd/default.asp?lang=En&n=AE05D309-1)(SSFC,
7/6/08, p.A2)
1992 Jun 12, President Bush,
addressing the Earth Summit in Brazil, declared America's environmental
record "second to none."
(AP, 6/12/97)
1992 Jun 14, The Earth Summit
concluded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The world’s industrial nations
reached an agreement to reduce CO2 emissions, the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). By 1996 it was clear that the
goals were not being met.
(TMC, 1994, p.1992)(SFC, 7/11/96, p.A10)(AP,
6/14/97)(Econ, 12/5/09, SR p.3)
1992 Sep, San Francisco bicycle
riders began to ride in a group called "Commute Clot." It grew to
become the last Friday of the month Critical Mass bike ride.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.A13)(SFC, 9/26/02, p.A25)
1992 Dec 3, The Greek tanker
Aegean Sea spilled 21.5 million gallons of crude oil when it ran
aground at La Coruna, Spain.
(AP, 12/3/97)
1992 Dec, Vice-Pres. elect Al Gore
issued a press release to review plans of hazardous waste incinerator
in East Livermore. The plant, located on the Ohio River and 1,100 feet
from an elementary school, went into operation.
(SFEC, 9/17/00, p.A14)
1992 William Kittredge of Oregon
authored "Hole in the Sky." It was a memoir on the destruction of
habitat.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, BR p.12)
1992 Federal law outlawed the
commercial fishing of Coho salmon off the Pacific coast.
(SFC, 1/27/98, p.A15)
1992 The depletion of the ozone
layer made headlines.
(TMC, 1994, p.1992)
1992 Methyl bromide was added to
the list chemicals in the 1987 Montreal Protocol, an international
treaty dealing with ozone-destroying pollutants.
(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A16)
1992 MTBE was blended into
gasoline at a 10-15% level for use in winter to reduce carbon monoxide
in air.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.A17)
1992 Waste Reduction Partners was
founded in North Carolina to tap skilled retirees to assist on
environmental issues.
(SSFC, 10/31/04, Par p.16)
1992 The National Marine Park of
Alonissos, Greece, was established to protect the endangered
Mediterranean monk seal.
(SSFC, 3/14/04, p.D6)
1992 The Asahi Glass Foundation of
Japan began sponsoring the Blue Planet Prize, an award for
environmental work.
(SFC, 6/15/99, p.A20)
1992-2000 Environmental groups say wealthy landowners
and power brokers, profiting from logging Mexico’s Petatlan Sierra,
destroyed 40 percent of 558,000 acres of woodland, some of the worst
deforestation on the planet. In 2005 after a month-long blockade by
peasants, Boise Cascade canceled contracts for massive cutting
operations in the Petatlan mountains, citing supply problems, and 15
logging permits were revoked. Since then at least a dozen peasant
leaders have been targeted. Some have been arrested and jailed on what
are widely seen as bogus charges engineered by political and economic
interests profiting from logging. Others have gone into hiding and some
have been killed.
(Reuters, 7/21/05)
1993 Jan 5, The Braer, a
Liberian-registered tanker, ran aground in Scotland's Shetland Islands,
spilling some 26 million gallons of light crude oil.
(AP, 1/5/98)(SFC, 11/20/02, p.A14)
1993 Mar 22, The 1st World Water
Day. On Dec 22, 1992, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution
A/RES/47/193 by which 22 March of each year was declared World Day for
Water, to be observed starting in 1993.
(www.unesco.org/water/water_celebrations/index.shtml)
1993 Aug 24, The Clinton
administration unveiled its proposed revisions to wetlands policy,
which would expand protection but also give landowners some
flexibility.
(AP, 8/24/98)
1993 The Seacology environmental
group was founded by ethnobotonist Paul Cox to help island people save
native plants and animals.
(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.A3)
1993 Shark finning was banned in
the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico by the US Sec. of Commerce
due to serious overfishing.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A10)
1993 Princess Cruises began its
Planet Princess environmental conservation and training program.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T9)
1993 Louisiana Pacific was fined
$11 million under the federal Clean Air Act.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.A5)
1993 The California Shellfish
Protection Act mandated that regional water quality control boards
enact policies and set up committees to protect threatened shellfish.
(SFC, 4/28/03, A14)
1993 In Colorado a spill of
cyanide and acidic water from a gold-mining operation killed almost
every living thing along a 17-mile stretch of the Alamosa River in the
foothills of the San Juan Mountains. Summitville Consolidated Mining
Corp. declared bankruptcy. The main officers fled the country and left
taxpayers with a cleanup approaching $150 million.
(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.A4)
1993-2005 In India pollution on the Yamuna River
doubled and continued to rise. The river extended 855 miles from the
Himalaya Mountains to the Ganges. New Delhi with 15 million inhabitants
dumped 57% of its waste into the Yamuna.
(SFC, 7/27/07, p.A17)
1994 Aug 11, A US federal jury
awarded $286.8 million to some 10,000 commercial fishermen for losses
as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
(AP, 8/11/99)
1994 Pres. Clinton signed the
California Desert Protection Act, which set aside 7 million acres of
wilderness, mostly in the Mojave Desert.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A17)(SFEC, 8/29/99, Z1 p.6)
1994 Shooters at Lake Merced’s gun
club in SF, Ca., stopped using lead shot and switched to biodegradable
targets following a 1993 environmental study. During the 1980s some 128
tons of lead were removed from the site. In 2005 lead contamination was
reported to be 10 times higher than the 1993 study and efforts to raise
the water level were put on hold.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.B1)
1994 Some 5,800 square miles were
cleared by fire for agriculture and ranching in this year.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T5)
1994 The "Metales y Derivados"
plant, a car battery recycling facility in Tijuana, Mexico, was closed
for failure to properly dispose hazardous waste. Investigations into
pollution from the plant were demanded in 2000.
(SFC, 5/19/00, p.D4)
1994 Chinese triads arrived in
South Africa seeking abalone to supply black markets in China, Taiwan,
Japan and Korea. Poaching soared and "Operation Neptune" was begun to
combat a feared extinction.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.C1)
1994 Japan introduced subsidies
for solar power technology. A typical system cost $16,000 per kilowatt,
of which the government paid half. The subsidies were phased out in
2005.
(Econ, 11/18/06, p.73)
1994-1998 In Arkansas 59 bald eagles were found dead
at DeGray Lake and Lake Hamilton. Their deaths were associated with
dead coots and followed 10-20 days after heavy rains. Runoff containing
hazardous materials was suspected.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A14)
1995 Sep 8, It was reported that a
lifeless zone in the Gulf of Mexico has grown to more than 7,000 sq.
miles, nearly the size of New Jersey. It was caused by chemical and
fertilizer runoff from US agriculture into the Mississippi River. "An
analysis of data from six major farm states showed a significant
correlation between (farm) subsidies and increased chemical and
fertilizer use." The subsidies encouraged farmers to increase yield on
less acreage.
(WSJ, 9/8/95, p.A-10)
1995 Sep 13, The hole in the
Earth's ozone layer was growing fast and was twice the size it was in
1994. It now reached about the size of Europe.
(WSJ, 9/13/95, p.A-1)
1995 Carol Buckley and Scott Blais
founded the Elephant Sanctuary on a 800-acre farm in Hohenwald, Tenn.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, Par p.14)
1995 The SF Bay Area held its 1st
Bike to Work Day.
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A17)
1995 A World Bank study concluded
that water pollution cost China some $54 billion this year.
(SFC, 6/6/03, p.A12)
1995 A strong wind pushed a tanker
away from a refinery dock in West Deptford, N.J., snapping a fuel line
that spilled 40,000 gallons into the Delaware River.
(AP, 11/28/04)
1995 An Asian beetle, fatal to
North American ash trees, arrived in the US about this time. It was 1st
noticed in 2002 and by 2005 had killed some 15 million ash trees in
Michigan. Ohio, Indian, and southern Ontario were also affected.
Infested trees died within 4 years.
(SSFC, 12/25/05, p.A25)
1996 Jan 23, The US Army disclosed
that it had 30,000 tons of chemical weapons stored in Utah, Alabama,
Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, Arkansas, Colorado and Oregon.
(WSJ, 1/23/96, p.A-1)
1996 Jan 23, France acknowledged
that its nuclear testing had caused leaks of radioactive materials in
the South Pacific.
(WSJ, 1/25/96, A-1)
1996 Feb 15, In the Toronto Globe
and Star there was a report by Peter Whelan that "pesticides sprayed on
fields in Argentina were killing tens of thousands of wintering
Swainson’s hawks that nest on the Canadian prairies and the adjacent US
Great Plains."
(NH, 10/96, p.51)
1996 Feb 15, The Sea Empress
grounded off of Wales and spilled 18 million gallons (72,000 tons) of
oil.
(SFC, 11/20/02,
p.A14)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/55393.stm)
1996 Feb 26, Environmentalists
estimated that there were 100 Amur leopards left in the world and only
30 in Russia. A new seaport on the border of Russia, North Korea and
China would reduce the number even more,
(SFC, 2/26/97, p.A8)
1996 Apr 22, Earth Day. The
Goldman Environmental Foundation of San Francisco presented annual
awards of $75,000 each to grass-roots eco-environ-mentalists on each of
the inhabited continents as selected by a panel of experts from 30
countries. Winners for 1996 were Albena Simeonova, founder of Green
Parliament in Bulgaria; Amooti Ndyakira, for journalism on endangered
gorilla habitats in Uganda; Edwin Bustillos, defender of native lands
and culture in Mexico, Mahesh Chandar Mehta, for crusading against air
and water pollution in India; Bill Ballantine, for promoting marine
reserves in New Zealand, Marina Silva, for fighting deforestation in
Brazil.
(USAT, 4/22/96, p.4-D)
1996 Apr 22, Pres. Clinton
endorsed a plan to expand the Point Reyes National Seashore by 38,000
acres. The Dept. of the Interior was to buy easements from local
farmers and to begin purchasing the 564-acre Giacomini dairy ranch.
(SFC, 5/31/96, E1)
1996 May 16, Chevron said it
spilled as much as 17,000 gallons of oil into Pearl Harbor after a
pipeline sprang a leak.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-4)
1996 May 21, The US Congress
listed the California red-legged frog as an endangered species. The
year long moratorium blocking new listings by the Fish and Wildlife
Service ended last month.
(WSJ, 5/22/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 27, An oil spill in
Galveston Bay stretched for 5 miles after a barge broke up that was
carrying 700,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil. The barge was owned by
Buffalo Marine Services Inc. Two months ago another Buffalo owned barge
broke up and spilled nearly 200,000 gallons that drifted 50 miles into
the Gulf of Mexico.
(SFC, 5/28/96, p.A2)
1996 May 31, State authorities
officially advised the 900 residents of Chualar in Monterey County,
Ca., not to use tap water due to the accumulation of nitrates from
agricultural fertilizers and pesticides.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A1,6)
1996 Jul 10, A report by TRAFFIC,
a global wildlife trade monitoring group reported that 20 million sea
horses are caught and traded each year. China was estimated to import
20 tons each year for use in traditional medicines. Sea horse
populations in the Indo-Pacific region have fallen over 50% in the last
5 years. Sea horses mate for life and if one of a couple is caught, the
other refuses to breed again.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A9)
1996 Aug 12, On the shores of
Australia’s Cocos and North Keeling Islands thousands of thongs
(flip-flops) have been washing up on the shore as discards from
Indonesia.
(WSJ, 8/12/96, p.B1)
1996 Aug 15, A botulism outbreak
began killing birds at the Salton Sea in California. The sea is 278
feet below sea level and is now 10% more salty than the Pacific Ocean.
Extensive pollution with sewage from Mexico and pesticides from farms
in the Coachella valley plagued the big lake.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.D8)(SFC, 9/3/96, p.A18)
1996 The Sapling Foundation, a
private, non-profit foundation, was founded by Chris Anderson. Its
mission is to offer help where it is most needed by leveraging the
power of ideas, technology, media and markets. In 2001 it acquired the
TED conference.
(SSFC, 2/07/04, p.A1)
1996 Bruce Babbitt, US Sec. of the
Interior, called for another survey of land that might qualify for
wilderness protection, which yielded another 2.6 million acres in Utah.
(Econ, 8/23/03, p.26)
1996 The US banned leaded gasoline.
(SSFC, 1/1/06, p.A20)
1996 The California desert
town of Hinkley won a $333 million settlement from PG&E for the
leakage of high concentrations of chromium 6 from storage tanks into
the groundwater. The film "Erin Brockovich" was based on the case."
(SFC, 10/29/00, p.A5)
1996 California State Fish and
Game officials closed fishing for white, pink and green abalone. A year
later a moratorium on commercial and sport catches for all abalone
species south of SF was imposed due to dwindling numbers from excess
harvesting.
(SFEC, 7/2/00, p.C7)
1996 California almond growers
advertised that they would pay $34 per colony for beekeepers to bring
in honeybees. A shortage was caused by parasitic mites, Varroa
jacobsoni and Acarapis woodi. The bee parasite, first found in Java
about a hundred years ago, spread to America in 1987.
(NH, 5/97, p.34)(Econ, 6/4/05, p.33)
1996 In Chile bicyclists formed
“Furiosos Cuiclistas” (raging cyclists) patterned after a SF group,
founded in 1992, to promote bicycling as a form of nonpolluting
transportation.
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.A16)
1996-2000 Deforestation of the Amazon region reached
5 million acres per year.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A10)
1997 Jan 2, 90 miles off the coast
of Japan the Russian oil tanker Nakhodka broke in two. It carried 5
million gallons of fuel oil. The bow of the ship ran aground 5 days
later, 110 miles northwest of Tokyo, and much oil was spilled.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.C1)
1997 Feb-Mar, Over 700 dolphins
and whales piled up on the Atlantic coast of France. They had been
discarded by mid-water commercial fishing trawlers as bycatch.
(NG, 12/97, p.149)
1997 Apr 14, In SF the winners of
the 1997 Goldman Environmental Prize were announced: Alexander Nikitin
of Russia who helped to expose the danger of radioactive fuel from
Russian submarines stored in the Arctic waters; Terri Swearingen of the
US for fighting against a toxic waste incinerator on the Ohio River;
Samoan chieftain Fuiono Senio and ethnobotonist Paul Cox for
establishing forest preserves; Juan Pablo Orrego of Chile for his
battle to stop the damming of the Bio Bio River; Nick Carter of England
for helping to create Africa’s inter-governmental force to fight
illegal wildlife trade; and Loir Botor Dingit, Indonesian tribal chief,
for struggling to protect ancestral rain forest from logging.
(SFC, 4/14/97, p.A11)
1997 Apr 25, The Clinton
administration extended the area over which the northwest coast silvery
Coho salmon is considered a "threatened" species.
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.A1)
1997 May 9, A pesticide plant
burned after an explosion in West Helena, Ark. The chemical
Azinphosmethyl was not supposed to have exploded unless it was heated
and decomposed. A levee was built to keep poison-laden rainwater from
entering the Mississippi River. Three firefighters were killed.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1997 May 16, Some 2,500 barrels of
oil leaked near a coastal marsh in Louisiana at lake Barre in
Terrebonne Parish.
(SFC, 5/20/97, p.A3)
1997 Jun 19, In Zimbabwe delegates
to the UN Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
approved the applications by Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana to sell an
annual quota of their collective 55 tons of ivory stockpile, but only
to Japan. Trade in ivory was shut down in 1989 due to extensive
poaching.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A20)(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A9)
1997 Jul 29, Once a worldwide
symbol of industrial pollution, Minamata Bay, Japan, was declared free
of mercury 40 years after contaminated food fish were blamed for birth
defects and deaths.
(AP, 7/29/98)
1997 Aug 10, It was reported that
the gasoline additive MTBE, methyl tert-butyl ether, was leaking into
ground water in California and elsewhere in the US. Some 1,000 wells in
California tested above the state’s action level. The additive leaks
from gasoline stations and dissolves in water and seeps into aquifers.
In 1995 the EPA reported that it caused cancer in laboratory animals.
(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.A1,14)
1997 Aug 11, Steelhead trout of
the west coast was added to the federal list of imperiled species.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 11, The Environmental
Working Group claimed that high levels of the weed killer atrazine were
found in 245 Midwest communities. The chemical is used to spray corn
and kill weeds.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A3)
1997 Sep, In Sri Lanka Tamil
guerrillas sank a ship in the Trincomalee area. By 1999 leakage of the
700 tons of oil in the ship was threatening the coastline.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A6)
1997 Nov 5, The freighter Kure,
while preparing to load a cargo of woodchips, rammed a concrete piling
of the Louisiana Pacific Co. pier near Eureka, Ca., and spilled 5,100
gallons of oil in Humboldt Bay.
(SFC,11/6/97, p.A19)(SFC, 9/10/99, p.A19)
1997 Dec 11, In Kyoto, Japan,
negotiators at the conference on global warming reached a compromise
with a commitment by some 38 industrialized nations to cut greenhouse
gas emissions by an average of 5% from 1990 levels over the next 10-15
years. Over 160 nations endorsed the treaty that binds industrialized
nations to cut greenhouse gases. It was signed by 171 nations. Int’l.
aviation was excluded from the protocol on condition that by 2007
countries and airlines of the Int’l. Civil Aviation Organization (ICOA)
come up with a way of reducing emissions through a trading scheme.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/11/97, p.A1)(SFC,
5/29/98, p.A2)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.67)
1997 Janine Benyus authored
“Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.” She became one of the 1st
to describe eco-friendly design ideas.
(SSFC, 11/28/04, p.E3)
1997 Joseph Petulla (d.2001 at
68), environmental philosopher and former priest, authored "American
Environmental History."
(SFC, 6/21/01, p.C2)
1997 Ray F. Smith (d.1999 at 71),
entomologist, won the annual $250,000 World Food Foundation prize for
his contributions to integrated pest management and reduced insecticide
use.
(SFC, 9/6/99, p.A21)
1997 A large incidence of
tuberculosis was found in the environmentally degraded area of the Aral
Sea.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A20)
1997 A study discovered that the
water tables beneath much of northern China were shrinking by about 5
feet every year.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A12)
1997 In California the quino
checkerspot butterfly was named an endangered species. It was confined
to western Riverside County and the Ptay Mesa area of San Diego.
(WSJ, 4/14/99, p.CA1)
1997 Australia’s Macquarie Island,
located about halfway between Australia and Antarctica, was designated
a World Heritage site as the world's only island composed entirely of
oceanic crust. It is known for its wind-swept landscape, and about 3.5
million seabirds and 80,000 elephant seals migrate there each year to
breed. In 2009 researchers said a 1995 decision to eradicate cats from
Macquarie island allowed the rabbit population to explode and, in turn,
destroy much of its fragile vegetation that birds depend on for cover.
(AP, 1/13/09)
1997 A study by the Peruvian
government found that the country’s glaciers had shrunk by 22% over the
last 30 years. In the Carabaya range they had receded by 32%.
(WSJ, 6/17/05, p.A1)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.42)
1998 Jan 11, In the UAR a large
oil spill resulted when an 11,000-ton oil barge ran aground. Some 4,000
tons spilled on beaches and threatened marine and bird life.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.A12)
1998 Jan 12, In Nigeria an
underwater pipeline from a Mobil Oil production platform broke and
released 40,000 barrels of oil into the Niger delta.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, p.A26)
1998 Jan 14, An int’l. agreement
on Antarctica took effect that banned mining and oil drilling for 50
years and forbade a wide range of environmental hazards including
pesticides and dogs.
(SFC, 1/17/98, p.C16)
1998 Feb 11, Ben Cohen, co-founder
of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, was named as director of the Greenpeace
environmental group. Greenpeace had an annual worldwide income of about
$160 mil.
(SFEC, 2/15/98, p.A7)
1998 Mar 21, It was reported that
Chinese researchers had discovered heavy industrial pollution in the
snow around the North Pole.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A9)
1998 Apr 20, A poll of 400
scientists indicated that 7 of 10 believed that a "mass extinction" is
under way, and that one-fifth of all living species could disappear
within 30 years.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A7)
1998 May 20, In Kyrgyzstan a truck
spilled 20 tons of cyanide and forced 600 people to seek medical
treatment. 3,876 pounds of cyanide leached out of the truck but did not
seem to hurt any local residents. Some fish died in the river and the
water flowed into the 113-mile-long Lake Ysyk Kol. The Cameco Corp. of
Canada ran the Kumtor gold mine and contributed some 15% of the
country’s GNP.
(WSJ, 5/28/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/18/98, p.A18)
1998 May 21, Canada ordered major
cuts in the catch of Coho salmon on the West Coast due to declining
stocks. Fishing on the Skeena and Thompson River runs was banned and US
officials were urged to take similar action.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.A1)
1998 May 30, Pakistan set off a
nuclear bomb, the 6th test in 3 days.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A15)
1998 May 30, An estimated 6.9
earthquake hit the northern Afghanistan region. Shari Basurkh was hit
hardest and some estimates put the death toll up to 3,000. The
estimated deaths later reached 5,000.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A2)(SFC, 6/1/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 2, Royal Caribbean
Cruises admitted to routinely dumping oily waste into the Caribbean and
agreed to pay a fine of $9 million. It was estimated that 80% of the
oil pollution in the world’s seas was caused by routing dumping by
ships of all sorts.
(SFC, 6/3/98, p.A6)
1998 Jun 5, Some 70,000 white bass
at the Cheney Reservoir west of Wichita had died over the past week
from unexplained causes. The reservoir on the north fork of the
Ninnescah River was the main drinking water source for Wichita.
(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A4)
1998 Jun 5, In Texas an estimated
22,000 trout died in the Guadalupe River after eating dead fire ants
that fell into the river after mating.
(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A4)
1998 Jun 8, In California lethal
algae blooms in recent weeks killed scores of birds and seal lions in
Monterey Bay.
(SFC, 6/8/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 17, Unocal announced that
it would pay up to $200 million to remove an oil spill beneath the town
of Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo.
(SFC, 6/18/98, p.A1)
1998 cJul, Barrie Cook helped
found the Hong Kong Business Coalition on the Environment to push for a
cleaner Hong Kong. Pollution kept the skies gray regardless of the
weather.
(SFC, 7/16/99, p.D3)
1998 Aug 14, Russia announced that
it would proceed with plans to regulate wolves with a planned poisoning
of 15,000.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 16, It was reported that
about 80% of breeding-age swordfish had been eliminated by overfishing.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T9)
1998 Aug, In Alberta, Canada, the
RC Mounted Police arrested evangelical pastor Wiebo Ludwig (56), his
wife and son and a friend for bombing an oil-well site. They were later
released for lack of evidence. Over the last 2 ½ years some 160
attacks were made on natural resource companies in the area.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.C3)
1998 Sep 1, China imposed a ban on
logging upstream on the Yangtze effective by this date due to the
excess flooding following a half-century of clear-cutting.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.A1)
1998 Sep 17, David Chain of Texas
was killed by a falling redwood tree logged by Earl Ammons near the
Headwaters Forest near Eureka, Ca. Chain's family filed suit in 1999
against Pacific Lumber. In 2004 Patrick Beach authored "A Good Forest
for Dying: The Tragic Death of a Young Man on the Front Lines of the
Environmental Wars."
(SFEC, 3/14/99, p.A1)(SFC, 9/13/99, p.A28)(SSFC,
4/11/04, p.M1)
1998 Sep 26, From Zimbabwe it was
reported that timber companies were poisoning hundreds of baboons
causing them to die a slow painful death over 7-10 days.
(SFC, 9/26/98, p.A5)
1998 Sep 27, A pair of 3-4
mile-long oil slicks, each a mile wide, were found about 9 miles out to
sea between the Golden Gate and half Moon Bay. Lab tests later matched
this oil to a small spill in the Bay on Sep 24 to the Liberian tanker,
M-T Command, owned by Pearl Shipping of Monrovia. In Dec. the owner,
captain and chief engineer were indicted for dumping fuel. In 1999 Anax
Int'l. was fined $3.8 million. The Greek firm had earlier paid $5.5
million in civil penalties.
(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A1)(USAT, 10/9/98, p.10A)(SFC,
12/3/98, p.A25)(SFC, 12/14/99, p.A28)
1998 Sep, Radioactive red
harvester ants were found underground near waste pipes in Richland, Wa.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.A7)
1998 Oct 9, The weekly Der Spiegel
reported that spinach grown near the nuclear reprocessing plant in
Sellafield, England, had doses of technetium-99 that was 7 times above
EU food standards. Greenpeace in April had demonstrated that game
pigeons in the area were irradiated.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A9)
1998 Oct 12, An American law
protecting sea turtles was overturned by an appeals panel of the World
Trade Organization (WTO).
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 16, It was reported that
a growing number of lobsters in Maine were being found sick and dying
from undetermined causes.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.C1)
1998 Oct 16, In Columbia red ants,
called "crazy ants" by farmers in the Santander and Boyaca provinces,
had destroyed some 10,000 acres of crops and threatened an additional
100,000 acres.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.C1)
1998 Oct 16, It was reported that
fires in Russia were burning in the Sikhote-Alin wildlife reserve and
threatened Siberian tigers of which only an estimated 450 remained.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.C1)
1998 Oct 22, The US government
announced a $1 billion settlement with diesel engine manufacturers for
violations of environmental laws.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 22, At Cape Canaveral
Orbital Sciences launched a Brazilian satellite from a Pegasus rocket
aboard a modified jumbo jet. The satellite will monitor environmental
devices throughout Brazil.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 22, In Texas the Natural
Resource Conservation Commission voted against issuing a license for a
radioactive waste dump at Sierra Blanca, 16 miles from the Mexican
border.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 22, The US National
Academy of Sciences released a report that called for forcefully
reducing fish catches due to dwindling fish populations.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 26, Nutrient pollution
known as eutrophication, the overabundance of nitrogen and phosphorus,
was noted on the Chesapeake Bay and estuaries around the world. A 7,000
sq. mile dead zone was reported to spread every summer across the Gulf
of Mexico from the mouth of the Mississippi. In 2007 Louisiana crabbers
complained of buckets of dead crabs and the condition in the Gulf of
Mexico was expected to get worse due to rising demand for ethanol and
increased corn production in Corn Belt states, which called for more
nitrogen use.
(SFC, 10/25/98, p.A3)(SFC, 12/20/07, p.A26)
1998 Oct, The Italian freighter
Pallas caught fire in the North Sea and leaked some 10-15 tons of oil.
Hundreds of birds along the northern coast of Germany were killed by
the resulting oil slick.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct, In Vietnam a 5-year
study by a Canadian government research group found high levels of
dioxin in the soil, fish and animal tissue, and the blood of people
born after the war in the Aluoi Valley in central Quang Tri province.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, p.A20)
1998 Nov 10, From Bangladesh it
was reported that an estimated 18 million people were slowly poisoning
themselves by drinking from groundwater contaminated with trace amounts
of arsenic.
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 11, Argentina and
Kazakstan pledged to abide by the treaty to cut emissions of gases that
cause global warming. This put a crack in a united front of developing
nations opposed to cuts before 2012.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 12, Pres. Clinton signed
a UN accord on global warming. It still needed to be ratified by
Congress.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 14, In Argentina
negotiators from 150 countries agreed to set a 2 year deadline for
adopting operational rules of the Kyoto Protocol for cutting emissions
of industrial waste gases that were believed to cause global warming.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A21)
1998 Nov 13, Near Hong Kong 2 oil
tankers collided and left a 6-mile oil slick near the Pearl River delta
that threatened the local rare pink dolphins.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A6)
1998 Sep 19, The ozone hole over
Antarctica reached 10.5 million sq. miles. It was feared that
ultraviolet radiation would impact the marine food chain.
(SFC, 11/23/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 3, A scientific report
from the Multispecies Monitoring Committee said that the cod fishing in
the Gulf of Maine has collapsed due to overfishing.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 15, Marine scientists
reported that trawling by fishing fleets was causing widespread
disruption of ocean bottom habitats. They said that each year trawl
nets disturb an area twice the size of the contiguous US.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.A10)
1998 Mike Davis authored "Ecology
of Fear," a 484-page diatribe about the ecological and social disasters
threatening Los Angeles.
(SFC, 8/31/99, p.A5)
1998 Michael Mann published a
chart that purported to show average surface temperatures in the
Northern Hemisphere over the past 1,000 years. It showed a sharp and
continuous increase over the last 100 years following a line of
relatively minor fluctuations and came to be called the hockey stick
chart. Other scientists later questioned his data analysis techniques.
(WSJ, 2/18/05, p.A10)(www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba478/)
1998 The EU agreed to ban asbestos
by 2005.
(WSJ, 12/9/02, p.A1)
1998 Texaco completed a $40
million oil cleanup in Ecuador. The Ecuadoran government, PetroEcuador
and 5 municipalities released the company from all liabilities and
obligations related to its oil operations. A class-action suit against
ChevronTexaco opened in 2003.
(SFC, 10/21/03, p.A3)(Econ, 5/16/09, p.42)
1998 In Mexico high lead levels
amongst children living near the Met-Mex Penoles silver refinery at
Torreon were found. Met-Mex dispatched cleaning equipment and set up a
mobile clinic and agreed to put $6.6 million in a trust fund for
cleanup and medical costs. The 5,000-worker plant is the world's
largest producer of refined silver.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.A24)
1998 A UN workshop decided that
the algae Caulerpa taxifolia could wreck the Mediterranean ecosystem.
The plant is composed of tube-like cells, grows to 9 feet and has only
male parts. Parts can break off and self-clone. The plant is toxic to
fish.
(WSJ, 8/13/01, p.A1,4)
1998-1999 The Univ. of Hawaii was fined $1.8 million
after an EPA inspection found dangerous chemicals buried for years in
the basement of the Honolulu campus.
(WSJ, 1/117/00, p.A1)
1999 Jan 21, In Russia Grigory
Pasko (37), in jail for 14 months, was put on trial for selling
classified information. He had reported on the disposal of radioactive
waste in the Sea of Japan.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A12)
1999 Jan 15, Off of Argentina a
Liberian tanker collided with a German vessel and leaked over 65,000
gallons of crude oil near the Rio de la Plata, 50 miles north of Buenos
Aires.
(SFC, 1/23/99, p.C1)
1999 Feb 1, In Nairobi, Kenya
students protested for a 3rd day against plans for construction in a
virgin forest.
(SFC, 2/2/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 3, The Clinton
administration called for a mining ban on a large section of federal
land along the Rocky Mountain Front.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 3, The first of 110 Lynx
cats was released near South Fork. The program to transfer the cats
from BC was to cost $1.4 million.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 3, It was reported that
Kenyan fisherman were using toxic agricultural chemicals instead of
nets to increase their catch and income from $8 to $240. The idea
supposedly originated in Uganda. Some fishermen were arrested and
beaches were closed.
(SFC, 2/3/99, p.A9)
1999 Feb 22, From Mexico it was
reported that fisherman found 9 dead gray whales in the Magdalena Bay.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb, In Rome delegates from
almost every fishing nation agreed on a plan to reduce fishing capacity
starting within the next 6 years.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A6)
1999 Mar 3, The New England
Forestry Foundation announced a conservation deal that banned
development on over 750,000 acres of prime Maine woods owned by the
Pingree family. Gov. Angus King said the $30 million agreement would
allow managed logging while preserving the wilderness character of the
forestland.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.A3)
1999 Mar 12, The Mexican
environmental Group of 100 reported a record number of dead gray whales
near the Baha California peninsula. The ESSA Saltworks, a
Mitsubishi-Mexican partnership, was blamed. Government officials
proposed other reasons.
(SFC, 3/13/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 16, It was reported that
the world's 300 right whales faced extinction.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 16, The National Marine
Fisheries Service announced the addition to the endangered species list
of 9 salmon species from the Pacific Northwest.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 27, On Christmas Island
the crazy ant, Anoplolepis gracilipes, was reported to be decimating
the local crab population. The ant was introduced by west African
traders about 50 years earlier.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.C1)
1999 Apr 6, In Columbia Pres.
Pastrana said that drug traffickers had destroyed an area of rain
forest the size of Delaware to plant illicit drug crops.
(SFC, 4/8/99, p.C3)
1999 Apr 12, The Snake River in
southeastern Washington state was named as the nation's most endangered
river because of 4 dams that have brought salmon runs to the brink of
extinction.
(SFC, 4/12/99, p.A19)
1999 Apr 18, In Yugoslavia NATO
bombers hit refineries, bridges and other targets in the heaviest
strikes to date. 70% of fuel storage capability was now destroyed and
Yugoslavia no longer had the ability to refine oil. In Pancevo a
refinery, fertilizer plant and American-built petrochemical complex
were destroyed and a dense toxic cloud was released with potential long
term consequences.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A1,8)(SFC, 7/6/99, p.A8)
1999 Apr 19, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prize went to: Ka Hsaw Wa of Burma for reporting on the
plight of indigenous people and environmental abuses on a gas pipeline
across Thailand and Burma; Bernard Martin, a Canadian fisherman, for
his work opposing large factory trawlers; Jacqui Katona and Yvonne
Margarula, Australian aboriginal women, who have led a fight against
the mining of a uranium deposit by Kakadu National Park on lands owned
by the Mirrar people; Samuel Nguiffo, a Cameroon lawyer, for his work
in protecting rain forests and opposition to the slaughter of
chimpanzees and other rare wildlife; Jorge Varela, a Honduran
conservationist, for fighting the destructive shrimp farming practices
in the Gulf of Fonseca; and Michal Kravcik, a Slovakian hydrologist,
who successfully fought a government plan to dam the Upper Torysa River
in 1996.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A2)
1999 Apr 19, In China the number
of Siberian tigers living in the wilderness was reported to be less
than 20. Loss of habitat due to deforestation was blamed.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A6)
1999 May 17, The EPA said the SF
Bay contains unsafe levels of dioxin, furans and the pesticides DDT,
dieldrin and chlordane.
(SFC, 5/18/99, p.A20)
1999 Jun 4, Senators Diane
Feinstein of California and Harry Reid of Nevada announced the Lake
Tahoe Restoration Act. The bill would authorized $300 million over 10
years to restore clarity and health to Lake Tahoe.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 10, Scientists reported a
wintertime cloud of air pollution the size of the US over the Indian
Ocean. The soot and sulfur cloud covered an area of 3.8 million sq.
miles.
(SFC, 6/10/99, p.A7)
1999 Jun 12, It was reported that
all 15,000 glaciers of the Himalayas were melting at an alarming rate
and that torrential floods in Northern India could result over the next
40 years.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A11)
(HN, 6/12/99)
1999 Jun 14, Prof. Paul Ehrlich of
Stanford and Qu Geping, president of the China Environmental Protection
Foundation, won the Blue Planet Prize, an environmental award sponsored
by the Asahi Glass Foundation of Japan.
(SFC, 6/15/99, p.A20)
1999 Jun 16, Austria reported that
it found animal feed contaminated with Dioxin.
(WSJ, 6/17/99, p.A18)
1999 Jun 21, The Wilderness
Society in its 3rd annual listing of the country's most endangered
federal parks, forests and refuges, had California leading with 3 sites
listed: old growth in the Sierra Nevada; the Mojave National Preserve
and the Klamath Basin.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A5)
1999 Jun 23, An environmental
coalition issued its "Fields of Poison" report that slammed California
on pesticide regulation and enforcement.
(SFC, 6/23/99, p.A15)
1999 Jun 26, It was reported that
500,000 acres of forest in China's Liaoning province were destroyed by
at least 20 types of bugs due to lack of diversity, the high ration of
young trees and drought from last year.
(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A8)
1999 Jun, In Florida the
Miccosukee Indians celebrated the opening of their $50 million,
300-room resort and convention center on their 680 acres in Everglades
National Park. Meanwhile the price tag for restoring the everglades
ecosystem was put at $7.8 billion.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A6)
1999 Jul 1, In Maine the 162
year-old Edwards Dam was broken open by government order to allow fish
to move upstream.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.A3)
1999 Jul 1, In Maryland some
20,000 fish turned up dead in the tributaries of the Magothy and
Patapsco Rivers. Drought conditions and the build up of phosphorus and
nitrogen was suspected.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A8)
1999 Jul 3, It was reported that
the Mozambique government had lifted a ban on hunting elephants as a
sport due to growing numbers.
(SFC, 7/3/99, p.A5)
1999 Jul 5, In Riverside County 2
Union Pacific freight trains collided and derailed 9 locomotives. Some
10,000 gallons of diesel fuel was spilled and 2 crewmen were injured.
(SFC, 7/6/99, p.B2)
1999 Jul 1, In Maryland some
20,000 fish turned up dead in the tributaries of the Magothy and
Patapsco Rivers. Drought conditions and the build up of phosphorus and
nitrogen was suspected.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A8)
1999 Jul 22, In Maryland some
300,000 menhaden fish turned up dead at the mouth of the Pocomoke River
in the Chesapeake Bay. Depleted oxygen in the water due to drought
conditions was suspected.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A8)
1999 Aug 14, Some 20 million dead
menhaden fish were reported washed up at the banks of the Arroyo
Colorado. It was the worst kill in 4 years and low oxygen levels
from algal bloom were blamed.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A6)
1999 Aug 20, The Peregrine falcon
was removed from the list of endangered species. Nesting pairs in the
lower 48 states grew to 1,650 from a low of 39 in 1975.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.A2)
1999 Sep 6, The dredge Stuyvesant
spilled an estimated 2,000 gallons of bunker fuel in Humboldt Bay, Ca.,
during dredging operations.
(SFC, 9/10/99, p.A19)
1999 Sep 10, It was reported that
Canada has 339 species in serious danger of disappearing and no federal
legislation for protection of endangered animals.
(SFC, 9/10/99, p.D4)
1999 Sep 30, It was reported that
the Western oak beetle, P. pubipennis, and the oak ambrosia beetle, M.
scutellare, were decimating black, tan and coast live oak trees across
northern California. Sudden Oak Death was later attributed to a fungus
of the genus Phytophthora. The pathogen was later reported to be
related to a fungus that was destroying Port Orford cedars in the
Pacific Northwest. In 2001 it was reported that the pathogen had been
found on rhododendron plants in Europe and California.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A21,26)(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A17)(SFC,
8/1/00, p.A13)(SFC, 9/23/00, p.A1)(SFC, 1/11/01, p.A17)
1999 Oct 2, It was reported that
the flamingoes of Lake Nakuru had migrated away to other locations.
Environmental stress from industrial refuse and other wastes was
blamed. Fluctuating salinity was also suspect in that flamingoes feed
on the algae spirulina platensis, which blooms in saline waters. It was
later reported that tens of thousands of flamingos on Lake Bogoria had
died since July due to heavy metals.
(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A9)(SFC, 3/4/00, p.A8)
1999 Oct 7, The Spix macaw of
Brazil (Cyanopsitta spixii), native to the area of Curaca along the Sao
Francisco River, was the world's rarest wild bird, due to animal
trafficking. It's market value was put at $60,000. 218 species in
Brazil were endangered, including 109 birds, 68 mammals, 31
invertebrates, 9 reptiles and 1 amphibian. The last wild Spix macaw
disappeared in 2000.
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.A15,18)
1999 Oct 13, Pres. Clinton
proposed to place 40 million acres of federal forest beyond the reach
of loggers, miners and road-builders. He urged the forest service to
engage the public in how best to manage and conserve over 50 million
acres of the last roadless tracts.
(SFC, 10/14/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/9/00, p.A21)
1999 Oct 25, It was reported that
the chiru, a goat from the high Tibetan plateau, was seriously
endangered and down to some 75,000. The animal's hide is used to make
expensive shahtoosh shawls.
(WSJ, 10/25/99, p.A1,15)
1999 Oct, In France thousands of
fish were killed when the residue of seasonal pressing for champagne
grapes was washed into the Marne River by heavy rains. Dead fish were
piled 6 feet high along a 20-mile stretch and fisherman said it could
take 10 years for stocks to return to normal.
(SFC, 10/9/99, p.C1)
1999 Nov 18, The SF Board of
Supervisors passed a resolution that urged Coca Cola to use more
recycled plastic in the estimated 10 billion plastic bottles that it
produced annually in the US.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.A26)
1999 Dec 3, Ice in Arctic waters
was reported to be shrinking by about 14,000 square miles annually.
Global warming from human activity was suspected.
(SFC, 12/3/99, p.A6)
1999 Dec 3, A 129 country
environmental conference in China agreed to provide poor countries an
additional $440 million over 3 years to stop using chemicals that harm
the ozone layer.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 12, The Erika, a Maltese
registered oil tanker, broke in two during a storm off the coast of
Brest, France, with 8 million gallons of diesel oil. Half the ship was
towed to deeper waters and 3 million gallons were spilled. In 2008 a
French court found Total SA guilty of maritime pollution and fined it
the maximum penalty of $560,000. It also ordered Total and three other
defendants to pay total damages of $285 million.
(SFC, 12/13/99, p.A13)(WSJ, 12/13/99, p.A1)(SFC,
11/20/02, p.A14)(AP, 1/16/08)
1999 Dec 14, It was reported that
Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa had recently announced a $3.75
billion environmental crusade in an effort to reduce pollution. An 80%
reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions by 2005 was planned. Hong Kong's
yearly emissions for sulfur dioxide was 80,000 tons. Guangdong Province
on the Chinese mainland put out 630,000 tons.
(SFC, 12/14/99, p.A,12,14)
1999 Dec 29, A Russian oil tanker
broke up and sank near the mouth of the Bosporus and coated the Turkish
shore with some 4,800 tons of heavy fuel.
(WSJ, 12/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Kanatjan Alibekov (Ken
Alibek), the former director of Soviet anthrax production in Kazakstan,
published "Biohazard."
(SFC, 6/2/99, p.A11)
1999 Robert Dawson and Gray
Brechin published "Farewell, Promised Land: Waking Up From the
California Dream," a photo-journalist documentation of the
environmental costs to the state's prosperity.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, BR p.1,8)
1999 Mark Hertsgaard published
"Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future."
(SFEC, 4/18/99, p.D5)
1999 The Japanese book "Katte wa
Ikenai" (Don't Buy This ) was an ecological manifesto questioning the
safety of household goods.
(SFC, 11/5/99, p.A15)
1999 Randy Shaw authored
"Reclaiming America: Nike, Clean Air, and the New National Activism."
(SFEC, 8/22/99, BR p.1)
1999 John Terborgh published
"Requiem for Nature," an assessment of the conventional strategies for
ecological conservation.
(SFEC, 6/6/99, BR p.4)
1999 Cambodia agreed to allow
environmentalists to begin an experiment in wildlife and forest
protection with enforcers paid by outside nations.
(WSJ, 6/19/01, p.A1)
1999 An experiment over the Indian
Ocean (INDOEX) found a large cloud, the Asian Brown Cloud, with high
levels of soot that warmed the upper air by absorbing sunlight and
cooled the lower surface causing regional droughts.
(WSJ, 5/6/03, p.A6)
2000 Jan 25, In Texas a tanker
truck with 9000 gallons of furfural overturned and spilled the toxic
chemical, which is used in manufacturing, into a drainage ditch that
flows into San Martin Lake. An estimated 6 million fish and dozens of
ducks were soon found dead.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A9)
2000 Jan 30, In Romania a dam at
the Baia Mare gold mine overflowed and caused cyanide to pout into the
Lapus River and then into the Somes River. It flowed into Hungary and
within weeks into the Tisa River in Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A9)
2000 Jan 31, It was reported that
nitrogen-based fertilizers were likely suspects in the rapid decline of
the spotted frog in the Pacific Northwest.
(SFC, 1/31/00, p.A6)
2000 Jan, A broken crude oil
pipeline in Rio de Janeiro spilled at least 130,000 gallons near the
coast and into Guanabara Bay.
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A6)
2000 Feb, An Asian swamp eel,
Monopterus albus, was discovered in South Miami-Dade County and it was
feared that it would make its way into Everglades National Park and
disrupt food webs.
(SFEC, 3/5/00, p.A20)
2000 Feb 2, In Bolivia an oil
spill was reported to have leaked some 5,000 barrels into the
Desaguadero River, which empties into Lake Titicaca. The spill was
reported to have reached Lake Poopo and Lake Uru Uru and was spreading
to the communities of the Aymara Indians.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A16)
2000 Feb 5, In Pennsylvania an oil
pipeline began leaking and released some 25,000 gallons below the
surface of a frozen pond in the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in
southwest Philadelphia.
(SFC, 2/7/00, p.A10)
(AP, 3/11/00)
2000 Mar 9, The Snake river was
declared the most endangered river in the US for the 2nd year in a row.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D2)
2000 Mar 9, In Norway Prime
Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik announced that his minority government
would resign following a failed vote of confidence in an environmental
dispute. He opposed new power plants to burn gas supplies.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D6)
2000 Mar 10, In Romania some
20,000 tons of metal pollutants escaped into the Vaser River from the
state-owned Baia Borsa mine after a dam broke following heavy rains and
melting snow.
(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A9)
2000 Mar 16, About a dozen whales
became stranded on 2 Bahama beaches one day after a US Navy exercise
propagated loud noises through the waters of the region. 5 of the
whales died. In 2001 testing confirmed that Navy sonar caused the
whales to beach themselves.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A9)(WSJ, 12/21/01, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, The Clinton
administration moved to phase out the fuel additive MTBE to avoid
further contamination of groundwater.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 15, The Int’l. Whaling
Commission turned down a requests from Japan and Norway to allow
expanded limited whaling. 2000 delegates were gathered in Nairobi,
Kenya, for a 10 day UN Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES).
(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.A22)
2000 Apr 16, The rest of the
winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize were announced: Nat Quansah
(46), an ethnobotonist in Madagascar; Oscar Rivas (45) and Elias Diaz
(54) of Paraguay for their work in defeating government plans to
reconfigure the Paraguay and Parana rivers for shipping at
environmental expense; Vera Mischenko (47) for environmental legal work
in Russia; Oral Ataniyazova (43), for founding a clinic and fighting
pesticide contamination in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of
Uzbekistan; and Alexander Peal (55), for environmental work and
founding a national park in Liberia.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.A2)
2000 Apr 17, African nations
agreed to a compromise on the trade of ivory. A ban on legal sales was
restored until an effective system to combat poaching can be instituted.
(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A9)
2000 Apr 22, Earth Day 2000, the
30th annual anniversary, was celebrated in Washington DC with the theme
"Clean Energy Now."
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.C8)
2000 Apr 29, The year’s 17th Bay
Area dead whale was found near Pier 50 in SF.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.C12)
2000 Apr 30, It was reported by
the Royal Swedish Academy that the Earth is currently hotter than at
any time in recorded human history.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.A17)
2000 Apr, UNESCO declared the
Atlantic rain forest of Brazil a World Heritage site. Only 3% of the
original 4,500 square mile rain forest remained.
(SFC, 9/4/00, p.B10)
2000 May 9, In Kentucky a fire at
the Wild Turkey Distillery caused an alcohol runoff into an 8-mile
stretch of the Kentucky River and a huge fish kill followed within days.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.D8)
2000 May 16, The 3M Co. announced
that it would stop making many Scotchguard stain repellent products.
The company found that the compound perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOA),
one of the ingredients, tended to persist in the environment and in the
bloodstream of people worldwide. The US market was left to DuPont.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A7)(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A5)
2000 May 22, Russia’s Pres. Putin
abolished the chief agency for environmental protection and transferred
its powers to a ministry that hands out oil and gas leases.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 1, It was reported that
leatherneck sea turtles were in danger of extinction. The National
Marine Fisheries estimated 85,000 mature females left in the Pacific
while the Center for marine conservation estimated only 5,000.
(SFC, 6/1/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 1, The organophosphate
pesticide called chlorpyrifos, sold under names including Dursban, was
reported to pose a risk to children. The EPA announced a ban on its use
for most applications on June 8.
(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 6, A state of emergency
was declared in Marin county, Ca., due to the rapid spread of a
mysterious disease that killed oak trees. Sudden Oak Death was first
reported in 1995. The death of the oak trees was later attributed to a
fungus of the genus Phytophtora, the same kind of organism that caused
the Irish potato famine from 1840-1850.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A17)(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 14, US federal marine
specialists reported that the US Navy induced underwater noise caused
the stranding of a dozen beaked whales in the Bahamas in March.
Hemorrhages were found around the ears of the dead animals.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.a7)
2000 June 22, In Kazakstan some
11,000 seals were reported found dead on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
Infectious disease linked to weakened immune systems due to oil-related
pollutants were blamed.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.D3)
2000 Jun 23, A Panamanian
registered tanker sank off Cape Town, South Africa and at least 1,300
tons of seeped out. Oil began to soak the local penguins at Robben
Island.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 24, A red tide of algal
bloom over 2,700 square miles was reported over the East China Sea.
China’s environmental protection agency blamed pollutants and weather
conditions.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A24)
2000 Jul 16, An oil leak in
Brazil’s Parana state began near the Getulio Vargas Refinery in
Araucaria and dumped over 1 million gallons of crude into a tributary
of the Iguacu River. Petrobras was later fined $94 million for the
country’s worst spill in 25 years.
(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A12)(SFC, 8/3/00, p.A13)
2000 Jul 20, Willamette Industries
of Portland was fined $11.2 million under the federal Clean Air Act
plus $8 mil in contributions to environmental projects. It also agreed
to install an estimated $74 million worth of pollution control
equipment. The company estimated the new equipment at $28 mil.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.A5)(WSJ, 7/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 21, It was reported that
warming climate was causing Greenland to lose 11 cubic miles of ice a
year, or 12.5 trillion gallons, enough to raise sea level by .005
inches annually.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.B3)
2000 Jul 25, Thousands of tons of
anchovies washed up on the beaches near Half Moon Bay, Ca. The die-off
was said to be an annual event and some said it was the largest in 10
years.
(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul, In Kaohsiung, Taiwan,
the water supply from the Kaoping River was shut down after tanker
workers were caught pouring tons of the cancer-causing solvent dimethyl
benzene into a tributary of the river.
(SFC, 8/16/00, p.A18)
2000 Jul, Visitors to the North
Pole reported that the ice had melted for the 1st time in recorded
history and formed a free patch of ocean about a mile in diameter.
(SFC, 8/26/00, p.A20)
2000 Aug 8, Some 109 nuclear waste
sites in 27 states, Puerto Rico and territorial islands of the Pacific
would remain dangerous for centuries according to a new report by the
US National Research Council.
(WSJ, 8/8/00, p.A24)
2000 Aug 17, It was reported that
a soybean aphid from China threatened the $13.5 billion US soybean
market.
(WSJ, 8/17/00, p.A2)
2000 Aug 31, In Ukraine Pres.
Kuchma declared 4 villages near Mykolaiv an ecological disaster zone
due to illnesses of some 400 residents since July 4. Chemical poisoning
from Soviet-era rocket fuel leaks was blamed.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D5)
2000 cSep 8, Millions of dead fish
washed ashore from the Gulf of Oman 50 miles northwest of Muscat. It
was the 2nd kill within a week and authorities suspected oxygen
depletion by phytoplankton as the cause.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A22)
2000 Sep 15, In Uganda the
chimpanzee population was estimated at about 3,000 and declining due to
refugees from Congo eating small apes.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.D2)
2000 Sep 18, It was reported that
Kenya was losing 50,000 ebony trees annually due to the thriving
wood-carving industry. An estimated 80,000 carvers used the wood.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A8)
2000 Sep 19, Japan’s research
whaling fleet returned home with 88 whales that included 43 Bryde
whales, 5 sperm and 40 minke whales.
(SFC, 9/20/00, p.A14)
2000 Sep 27, It was reported that
the Asian swamp eel, Monopterus albus, was within a mile of the fragile
Florida Everglades National Park.
(WSJ, 9/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 6, In Peru a 5,000 barrel
oil spill by an Argentine company threatened the water resources of
some 10,000 inhabitants in the northern jungle.
(SFEC, 10/8/00, p.A24)
2000 Nov 2, It was reported that
82 species of marine and estuarine fish in the waters off of Canada,
Mexico and the US were in danger of extinction due to over fishing and
habitat destruction.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A8)
2000 Nov 5, In Scottsbluff, Neb.,
15 Burlington Northern Santa Fe train cars derailed and spilled some
80,000 gallons of benzene. 15,000 residents were ordered to evacuate
the area.
(SFC, 11/6/00, p.A3)
2000 Nov 13, The US government
declared the wild Atlantic salmon an endangered species.
(SFC, 11/14/00, p.A7)
2000 Nov 15, The US government
announced a plan to use the gnat-like phorid fly to control fire ants.
(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A3)
2000 Nov 19, US negotiators at the
Hague agreed to limit the use of forest projects to reach targets for
green house gases at global warming talks aimed writing the fine print
for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
(SFC, 11/20/00, p.A8)
2000 Nov, In Manaus, Brazil, an
oil leak at an abandoned asphalt factory spilled as much as 6,600
gallons into feeder streams of the Amazon.
(SFC, 11/25/00, p.D8)
2000 Dec 1, The European
Commission demanded reductions in fishing including 60% cuts of cod and
hake catches due to overfishing.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A13)
2000 Dec, It was reported that
Robert Taylor, brother Pres. Charles Taylor, headed the Liberia
Forestry Development Authority and allowed Oriental Timber of Hong Kong
to wipe out entire forests.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B5)
2000 Dec 19, Four companies in LA
County agreed to pay $73 million to help clean an ocean dump used for
DDT. Montrose Chemical, Aventis Crop-Science USA, Chris-Craft
Industries and Atkemix Thirty Seven Inc. settled the suit.
(SFC, 12/18/00, p.A3)
2000 Dec 19, It was reported that
swiftlet colonies in Thailand were threatened due to the excessive
harvesting of their edible nests for Chinese restaurants.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 20, It was reported that
four-fifths of the salmon spawning in the last free-flowing reach of
the Columbia River had reverted to female sex for unknown reasons.
Water temperature and environmental pollutants were suspect.
(SFC, 12/20/00, p.C3)
2000 Dec 20, A new EPA regulation
required oil refineries to remove 97% of the sulfur from diesel fuel by
2006.
(WSJ, 12/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 26, Pres. Clinton signed
a ban on cutting shark fins and discarding the fish back to the sea.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A6)
2000 Oct 10, Sludge from a coal
mines broke through a waste lagoon of the A.T. Massey Coal Co. and some
250 million gallons hit coldwater Creek and Wolf Creek near Inez. Gov.
Paul E. Patton declared a 10-county emergency.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A20)
2000 Nov, The US ended chemical
weapons disposal on Johnston Island, 825 miles southwest of Honolulu,
after 10 years of operations. The island was turned into a wildlife
preserve.
(SFC, 4/22/02, p.A2)
2000 Peter Huber authored "Hard
Green," in which he argued that a growth oriented economy could
actually do a better job of preserving nature than a society run on the
principles of environmentalism.
(WSJ, 2/8/00, p.A24)
2000 Philip Stott, Prof. at London
Univ., authored "Political Ecology: Science, Myth and Power."
(WSJ, 3/25/02, p.A18)
2000 California Fish and Game
Dept. began looking into bird deaths at Searles Lake in Searles Valley,
San Bernardino County. From 2001-2007 some 348 to 706 birds died at the
lake each year. Searles Valley Minerals, formerly IMC Chemicals,
produced soda ash, boron minerals and sodium sulfate there and pumped
spent brine to form the lake. The birds had died of salt toxicosis. The
lake was also a natural repository of arsenic. Numerous area workers
complained of health problems following their employment. In 2008 the
company was sold by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners Inc. to Nirma
Ltd., an India-based company.
(SSFC, 7/6/08, p.A10)(SFC, 7/7/08, p.A9)
2000 Forest Guardians filed a
federal lawsuit in New Mexico over bird deaths against IMC Potash
Carlsbad, a division of IMC Global. US Fish and Wildlife estimated that
from 1996-2000 over 1,600 birds had died in a shallow lake where
wastewater was discharged.
(SFC, 7/7/08, p.A9)
2000 The EU in 1998 announced
plans for tough anti-pollution laws to take effect to make car engines
and fuels burn cleaner.
(SFC, 7/3/98, p.D2)
2001 Jan 8, Mike Dombeck, US
Forest Service chief, outlined a policy to end the cutting of all
old-growth trees in national forests.
(SFC, 1/9/01, p.A3)
2001 Jan 16, The tanker Jessica
with 243,000 gallons of fuel, ran aground on San Cristobal island in
the Galapagos and began leaking.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 19, The tanker Jessica,
aground on San Cristobal island, cracked its cargo hold and began
leaking fuel. Some 150,000 gallons of diesel and bunker fuel were
released. It was later learned that the oil caused the deaths of
thousands of marine iguanas.
(SFC, 1/22/01, p.A10)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A2)
2001 Jan 20, It was reported that
12.5% of the original forest in the Amazon region had been destroyed.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb, In Mexico it was
reported that millions of monarch butterflies had died at a hilltop
reserve in Michoacan. Insecticides were suspected while officials
blamed cold weather.
(SSFC, 4/8/01, p.C6)
2001 Mar 1, The pesticide Diazinon
was scheduled to be removed from retail products for use indoors.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A5)
2001 Mar 11, The San Francisco
Bay’s tidal marshes were reported to have dwindled from 190,000 acres
to 40,000 over the last 150 years.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 26, The Bill Moyers PBS
special "Trade Secrets" focused on the coverup by the American chemical
industry of health problems caused by numerous products including vinyl
chloride and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.A17)
2001 Mar 29, An oil tanker
collided with a freighter in the Baltic Sea and some 550,000 gallons of
oil were spilled and drifted toward Denmark.
(SFC, 3/30/01, p.D4)
2001 Mar 30, It was reported that
the forests of China’s Yunnan province had dropped from 50% coverage in
1949 to less than 10% today.
(SFC, 3/30/01, p.A17)
2001 Mar 30, It was reported that
the forests of Burma had dropped from 21% coverage in 1949 to less than
7% today.
(SFC, 3/30/01, p.A17)
2001 Apr 13, It was reported that
new evidence from ocean surveys supported the idea of global warming
due to "greenhouse gases."
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A1)
2001 cApr 15, Australia indicated
that it would not ratify the Kyoto treaty to reduce carbon-dioxide
emissions and said the treaty is probably defunct now that the US has
repudiated it.
(WSJ, 4/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 22, The Goldman
Environmental Prize was awarded. Jane Akre and Steve Wilson, American
TV journalist, won for reports on modified bovine growth hormone.
Eugene Rutagarama of Rwanda won for efforts to protect the mountain
gorillas. Myrsini Malakou and Giorgos Catsadorakis, Greek biologists,
won for their efforts to save the Prespa wetlands. Yosepha Alomang,
spokeswoman for the Amungme tribe of Irian Jaya, won for her opposition
to mining dumps by Freeport McMoran. Oscar Olivera, grassroots leader
in Bolivia, won for his efforts against water privatization. Bruno Van
Peteghem, an Air France crew member, won for resisting mining
activities on New Caledonia.
(SFC, 4/23/01, p.A3)
2001 May 4, It was reported that
the hydroxyl radical, a critical air-cleaning molecule, was decreasing.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D4)
2001 May 19, In Utah it was
reported that Mormon crickets (Anabrus simplex) had reproduced into the
worst infestation since the early 1970s.
(SFC, 5/19/01, p.A3)
2001 May, In Cameroon a plague of
caterpillars was devastating crops in the eastern and southern
provinces.
(SFC, 5/19/01, p.C9)
2001 May 22, In Sweden delegates
from 127 countries formally adopted a global treaty banning 12 toxic
chemicals called persistent organic pollutants (POPS).
(SFC, 5/23/01, p.C4)
2001 May 23, The Stockholm
Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS) opened for signature
in Stockholm, Sweden. The convention entered into force on May 17th,
2004 with ratification by an initial 128 parties and 151 signatories.
(http://tinyurl.com/5exstm)(SSFC, 7/6/08, p.A2)
2001 May 29, The US National
Marine Fisheries Service declared the California coast white abalone an
endangered species.
(SFC, 5/30/01, p.A3)
2001 Jun 4, Pres. Bush spoke in
the Florida Everglades and underlined his request for $58 million in
the 2002 budget for Everglades restoration.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A3)
2001 Jun 5, In Rwanda soldiers
fanned out across Virunga National Park to protect endangered mountain
gorillas. 2 were recently killed and eaten by Hutu militiamen. Only 355
members of the group live in the wild.
(SFC, 6/6/01, p.C14)
2001 Jun 6, It was reported that
the Caspian sturgeon catch had plummeted to 1,100 tons in the late
1990s from 22,000 tons in the 1970s. The UN Cites organization stopped
shipments in 2001 and threatened to ban exports from the Caspian states
until a feasible protection plan was presented.
(WSJ, 6/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 6, A report by the
National Academy of Sciences concluded that industrial greenhouse gases
would likely raise temperatures 2.5-10.4 degrees Fahrenheit before the
end of the century.
(SFC, 6/7/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 11, In Germany Chancellor
Schroeder and leading energy companies signed an agreement to shit down
the country’s 19 nuclear power plants. Average operation was limited to
32 years and the last would close around 2021.
(SFC, 6/12/01, p.A8)
2001 Jun 14, Pres. Bush clashed
with EU leaders in Sweden over his global warming policy. The EU
leaders said they would move to implement the Kyoto treaty without the
US.
(SFC, 6/15/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 14, A tanker capsized in
a sea lane between Malaysia and Singapore. The MT Endah Lestari with
660 tons of phenol rolled as it was towed. Unknown amounts of phenol
and a large amount of diesel oil was spilled.
(SFC, 6/15/01, p.D6)
2001 Jul 2, In Irkutsk authorities
declared a state of emergency following a huge invasion of locusts.
(SFC, 7/7/01, p.A4)
2001 Jul 23, In Bonn, Germany,
negotiators from 178 nations, without the US, rescued the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol and accepted rules to cut emissions of waste gases linked to
global warming after marathon talks.
(DFP, 7/24/01, p.3A)(SFC, 7/24/01, p.A1)(AP, 7/23/02)
2001 Jul 27, It was reported that
the Earth Liberation Front had begun selling a promotional videotape
for $10 called "An Introduction to the Earth Liberation Front."
(SFC, 7/27/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 1, The US House passed
energy legislation that included opening the Arctic national Wildlife
Refuge to oil and gas drilling.
(SFC, 8/2/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 18, It was reported that
Chelyabinsk Gov. Pyotr Sumin had written Russia’s Pres. Putin a letter
of concern over the radioactive waste from the Mayak nuclear processing
plant. Some 14 billion cubic feet of waste in artificial lakes
threatened to leak into the region’s rivers.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.E1)
2001 Aug 26, It was reported that
MTBE was leaking from 251 underground gasoline tanks in the Bay Area
and reached 48 wells in public water systems.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 1, Scientists gathered in
the French Alps to discuss a medicine called ivermectine given to
livestock to protect them from parasites. Dung from the animals was
toxic and virtually indestructible and threatened the survival of
insects, birds and bats.
(SSFC, 9/2/01, p.A20)
2001 Oct 31, The Bush
administration said it would adopt stricter arsenic standard for
drinking water as proposed in the final days of the Clinton
administration.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A13)
2001 Nov 9, In Morocco negotiators
of over 160 countries reached agreement on a climate control treaty and
set mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A12)
2001 Nov 23, In Brazil an oil
pipeline leak near Rio was stopped after some 26,000 gallons spilled
into Guanabara Bay.
(SSFC, 11/25/01, p.A18)
2001 cDec 25, Grigory Pasko (39),
Russian military journalist, was sentenced to 4 years in prison plus
credit for time served for passing state secrets to Japan. He had
reported on the Russian navy practice of ocean-dumping old weapons and
nuclear waste.
(SFC, 12/26/01, p.A5)
2001 Tim Flannery authored "The
Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its
Peoples."
(SSFC, 6/3/01, DB p.70)
2001 Bjorn Lomborg authored "The
Skeptical Environmentalist" in which he presents data that shows the
environment to be improving.
(WSJ, 10/2/01, p.A17)
2001 The US EPA recommended that
strict regulations on perchlorate. The chemical, a key component in
munitions, had seeped into drinking water supplies. A strict limit
meant that defense contractors would have to clean up scores of water
sources in 35 states.
(WSJ, 12/29/05, p.A1)
2001 The New Orleans Regional
Transit Authority installed plastic railroad ties for the 1st time on
its St. Charles line. Plastic tie manufacturers included Polywood Inc.
and the TieTek unit of North American Technologies Group. Each mile of
track laid with plastic ties was said to save 800 oak trees.
(WSJ, 10/19/04, p.B8)
2001 Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer
co-founded TerraCycle, an environmentally friendly consumer products
firm, at the end of their freshman year at Princeton, NJ. In 2009 Tom
Szaky (27) authored “Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Is
Redefining Green Business.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraCycle)(WSJ,
3/11/09, p.A13)
2001 In Nigeria over 100 flare
stacks burned some 2 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas per
day. It was estimated that 35 million tons of carbon dioxide was
released annually along with 12 million tons of methane.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A14)
2002 Jan 30, The Nature
Conservancy announced a $31 million purchase of the 151-sq. mile Baca
Ranch. It was a step towards the creation of a new 58th US national
park with the adjacent Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve
in 2005.
(SFC, 1/31/02, p.A2)
2002 Jan 12-13, In Mexico a rain
storm was followed by a freeze and as many as 270 million monarch
butterflies were killed at the Rosario and Sierra Chincua colonies in
Michoacan state.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A4)(SFC, 2/18/02, p.A3)
2002 Feb 14, Pres. Bush proposed
an environmental plan that would encourage businesses to cut pollution
and develop more energy-efficient technology.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A5)
2002 Feb 14, The 168th annual
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
opened in Boston with a bleak assessment of planet health and a call
for conservation of resources.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A3)
2002 Feb 16, It was reported that
80% of the 235 rivers of Bangladesh were drying up due to silting,
dumping and construction of unplanned embankments.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A26)
2002 Feb 16, Mark Meier, glacier
expert, predicted that oceans would rise 7-11 inches by the end of this
century due to polar warming.
(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 22, An Alabama jury found
Monsanto and its corporate successors (Solutia Inc.) guilty of
releasing tons of PCBs in Anniston between 1935-1979. In 2004 some
18,447 plaintiffs were scheduled to an average of $7,725, while 27
lawyers were scheduled to receive over $4 million each.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A7)(SFC, 3/24/04, p.A5)
2002 Feb 27, Eric V. Schaeffer
ended his 12-year EPA career with a missive accusing the Bush
administration of dragging its feet on lawsuits against 9 power
companies blamed for a quarter of the nation’s annual sulfur dioxide
pollution.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A9)
2002 Feb 28, Japan reportedly
planned to double its whale catch to 260 whales and include the
endangered sei whale.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A19)
2002 Feb, Florida Bay experienced
a mass of "black water" spread over some 700 sq. miles north of the
Keys. It was thought to be caused by an algal bloom.
(SFC, 4/6/02, p.C10)
2002 Mar 3, Denmark generated 13%
of its electricity from wind and planned to raise the figure to 50% by
2030.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 4, European Union’s 15
members ratified the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, but failed to
set pollutant-emission levels to meet the accord’s targets.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2002 Mar 6, The Bush
administration announced an additional $450 million to speed the
cleanup of the Washington state Hanford nuclear reservation by 35-45
years.
(SFC, 3/7/02, p.A4)
2002 Mar 25, It was reported that
poachers were destroying the palms in Brazil’s Itatiaia National Park
in order to harvest the palm hearts. A 100-year-old tree has enough
heart to fill 2 14-oz cans sold retail at $3.99.
(WSJ, 3/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 28, It was reported that
the US government planned to distribute safety hoods and training to
some 35,000 Alabama state residents in an eastern county prior to the
incineration of nerve-gas weapons in the fall.
(WSJ, 3/28/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 1, The American Rivers
environmental group listed the most endangered US rivers and included
the Missouri, Big Sunflower (Mississippi), and Klamath (California) in
the top 11.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr 6, Some 90,000 gallons of
oil from a ruptured pipeline spilled into the coastal area of Little
Lake, La.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A15)
2002 Apr 10, It was reported that
the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) was becoming exhausted from over
fishing.
(SFC, 4/10/02, p.A16)
2002 Apr 12, Beth O’Brien (22)
fell from a tree platform in the Eagle Creek area of Mount Hood,
Oregon, while protesting a timber sale.
(SSFC, 4/14/02, p.A14)
2002 Apr 21, The annual
environmentalist Goldman Prize winners included: Gwich’in natives
Jonathan Solomon, Sarah James and Norman Kassi for their work to
prevent oil drilling in the Arctic Nat’l. Wildlife Refuge; Fatima
Jibrell of Somalia for her resistance to the charcoal trade threatening
the local rain forests; Psit Charnsnoh of Thailand for helping to
restore coastal ecosystems; Jean La Rose of Guyana for organizing
resistance to mining and logging on native Arawak lands; Alexis
Massol-Gonzalez of Puerto Rico for converting a mining zone to a forest
reserve; and Jadwiga Lopata of Poland for promoting eco-farming.
(SFC, 4/22/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr 24, The EPA reported that
ethanol factories were producing carbon monoxide, methanol and some
carcinogens at levels higher than promised.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr, Carnival Corp. pleaded
guilty to dumping oily waste from bilge tanks between 1998-2001 and
agreed to a $18 mil fine. Royal Caribbean pleaded guilty to similar
charges in 1999.
(SSFC, 4/28/02, p.C12)
2002 May 11, It was reported that
a dead orca whale found off the Washington state coast contained toxic
PCBs so high that test equipment needed to be recalibrated. Levels were
measured at 1,000 parts-per-million.
(SFC, 5/11/02, p.A5)
2002 May 18, It was reported that
the US-funded Plan Colombia had caused widespread crop damage in
Ecuador. The coca leaf fumigation affected some 10,000 Ecuadorians
along the Colombia border where the RoundupUltra herbicide was spread
by Colombian airplanes.
(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A11)
2002 May 22, A UN environmental
report said population growth was slowing but that severe water
shortages should be expected in the Middle East over the next
generation and biodiversity will continue to be damaged in many world
regions. Ocean degradation was also noted.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A6)
2002 May 24, Japan led a
successful move to deny Alaska and Siberian native peoples a renewal of
permission to hunt whales after a failed bid to end a 20-year
moratorium on commercial whaling.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A17)
2002 May 24, In Mexico Pres. Fox
announced that all of Mexico’s waters are a preserve for whales and
off-limits to whale hunting.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A13)
2002 May 30, It was reported that
dynamite fishing in the Philippines has put the native coral reefs on
the verge of collapse.
(SFC, 5/30/02, p.A1)
2002 May 31, European Union
countries formally signed on to the Kyoto Protocol, a pact aimed at
stemming pollution and global warming that has been opposed by the
United States.
(SFC, 6/1/02, p.A9)(AP, 5/31/03)
2002 Jun 2, It was reported that
atrazine, a commonly used herbicide made by Sygenta AG of Switzerland,
had been linked to cancer in humans and deformities in frogs. US
farmers sprayed over 60 million pounds of it each year.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A3)(NH, 10/02, p.56)
2002 Jun 4, Pres. Bush said that
he read the new EPA report on global warming, but still opposed the
Kyoto treaty.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A3)
2002 Jun 4, Japan ratified the
Kyoto Protocol, aimed at cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases and
urged the US and other countries to do so.
(AP, 6/4/03)(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A3)
2002 Jun 18, In London it was
reported that sparrows numbers had declined steeply for no known reason.
(AP, 6/18/02)
2002 Jul 1, It was reported that
the Bush administration had designated 33 toxic waste sites for funding
cuts.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.A5)
2002 Jul 3, The federal government
agreed to nullify the 2001 designation of most of 4.1 million acres as
protected habitat for the red-legged frog in an agreement with the Home
Builders Association of Northern Calif.
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 9, WWF Int’l. released
its 4th Living Planet Report and said humans are using 20% more natural
resources each year than can be regenerated.
(SFC, 7/10/02, p.A12)
2002 Jul 9, The US Senate approved
a nuclear waste burial site at Yucca Mountain Nevada. Gov. Kenny Guinn
vowed to continue fighting the plan.
(SFC, 7/10/02, p.A3)
2002 Jul 13, It was reported that
some 100 northern snakehead fish, a meat-eater native to China, had
been found in a Maryland pond.
(SFC, 7/13/02, p.A4)
2002 Jul 15, A federal agency
approved Navy plans for a sonar system to search out enemy submarines
despite potential injury to whales and dolphins.
(SFC, 7/16/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 19, West Coast
Homebuilders under Albert Seeno agreed to pay $1 million for draining
frog-breeding ponds for 3,200 homes in Pittsburg, Ca. Seeno also agreed
to turn hundreds of acres over to a frog refuge.
(SFC, 7/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 22, Gov. Davis signed a
bill for California air regulators to enact measures by 2009 to cut
vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases believed to contribute to global
warming.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 27, Nearly 60 false
killer whales stranded on an Australian beach died or were euthenize
after failed attempts to return them to the water.
(AP, 7/27/02)
2002 Jul 30, In Mass. 46 pilot
whales beached themselves a 2nd time one day after rescuers managed to
return most of a pod back to sea. All the animals died.
(SFC, 7/31/02, p.A3)
2002 Aug 5, Shell Oil agreed to
pay $28 million to the Tahoe Public Utility District to help cleanup
contamination from the gasoline additive MTBE.
(SFC, 8/6/02, p.A17)
2002 Aug 9, The Bush
administration said the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act does not
extend beyond the few miles of territorial waters.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A3)
2002 Aug 12 It was reported that a
2-mile thick cloud of pollution covered South Asia and that it was
suspected for causing drought, flooding and the premature deaths of a
half-million people in India each year.
(SFC, 8/12/02, p.A7)
2002 Aug 21, Weldon Spring,
Missouri, was reported open to the public as tourist attraction. The
radioactive site opened after a $1 billion, 16-year cleanup.
(SFC, 8/21/02, p.A2)
2002 Aug 22, In Brazil President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso signed a decree creating the Tumucumaque
(too-moo-koo-MAH-kee) Mountains National Park bigger than Maryland
covering a region of virgin rainforest in Amapa state, along Brazil's
northern borders with Surinam and Guyana.
(AP, 8/22/02)
2002 Aug 26, The 4th UN World
Summit on Sustainable Development opened in Johannesburg, SA. Pres.
Bush sent Colin Powell as his stand-in. The 3rd gathering was in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992.
(SSFC, 8/25/02, p.A3)
2002 Aug 27, In South Africa
delegates to the World Summit on Sustainable Development called for
increased global efforts to bring new agricultural technologies to poor
farmers to help feed the developing world.
(AP, 8/27/02)
2002 Aug 28, Delegates at the
World Summit on Sustainable Development focused on ways to bring fresh
water and sanitation to hundreds of millions of people who lack access
to either. Negotiators hailed their first breakthrough: a deal to
protect the world's oceans and marine life.
(AP, 8/28/02)
2002 Aug 29, The World Summit on
Sustainable Development focused on ways business and governments could
work together to spread prosperity in the developing world while
protecting the environment.
(AP, 8/29/02)
2002 Aug 29, The federal
government approved a plan to store Colorado River water under the
Mohave Desert and tap it for use by Southern California during times of
drought.
(SFC, 8/30/02, p.A10)
2002 Sep 12, Gov. Davis signed
legislation to dramatically increase California’s use of renewable
energy.
(SFC, 9/13/02, p.A23)
2002 Sep 13, In South Africa the
Italian ship, the Jolly Rubino, that ran aground within the
boundaries of the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park, began leaking oil and
was in danger of breaking up, according to conservation officials and a
salvage company.
(AP, 9/13/02)
2002 Sep 15, In Knoxville,
Tennessee, a Norfolk Southern train derailed near and one car with
93,000 pounds of sulfuric acid ruptured. The liquid acid vaporized
creating a toxic cloud.
(SFC, 9/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Sep 24, The annual $500,00
"genius award" MacArthur grants were given to 24 men and women
including David B. Goldstein, energy specialist at the Natural
Resources Defense Council in SF for his work on energy-efficient
refrigerators.
(SFC, 9/25/02, p.A3)
2002 Sep 24-25, In the Canary
Islands over a dozen beaked whales beached themselves following NATO
exercises that involved a cluster of warships and submarines. 9 of the
whales washed ashore dead and showed lesions in the brain and hearing
system, consistent with acoustic impact.
(SFC, 9/26/02, p.A20)(SFC, 10/7/02, p.A6)
2002 Sep 27, The federal
government increased the flow of water into the Klamath River from
Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon following the die-off of some 20-30,000
salmon in northern California.
(SFC, 9/28/02, p.A2)(SFC, 10/3/02, p.A3)
2002 Nov 1, Scientists reported
that 22-47% of Earth’s plant species are in danger of becoming extinct
due to human activity.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.A4)
2002 Nov 13, The
Bahamian-registered Prestige, with 85,000 tons of oil, sprang a leak
during a storm off the coast of Spain. Some 3,300 tons leaked and began
reaching the coast of Spain after a few days.
(AP, 11/16/02)
2002 Nov 19, The Prestige oil
tanker, carrying 20 million gallons of fuel oil, broke in two and sank
in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Spain. It leaked up to 1.02
million gallons of oil and threatened a spill nearly twice as big as
the Exxon Valdez in 1989. Leakage continued at some 33,000 gallons per
day and could drain until 2006.
(AP, 11/19/02)(WSJ, 12/11/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 22, An epidemic of
tree-killing pine beetles was reported to be spreading rapidly through
the forests of British Columbia, Canada's largest lumber exporting
province, with the deadly insects now found in a area nearly
three-quarters the size of Sweden.
(Reuters, 11/22/02)
2002 Nov 24, A tanker carrying
20,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas was on fire in Chinese waters
about 38 kilometers east of Hong Kong, risking a huge explosion.
(Reuters, 11/24/02)
2002 Nov 22, The US EPA eased
rules requiring installation of anti-pollution gear. The Bush
administration eased clean air rules to allow utilities, refineries and
manufacturers to avoid having to install new anti-pollution equipment
when they modernized their plants.
(WSJ, 11/25/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/22/07)
2002 Dec 6, The EU agreed to ban
single-hull tankers, likely to be effective in 2010.
(SFC, 12/7/02, p.A15)
2002 Dec 14, The Norwegian
Tricolor, a cargo ship carrying nearly 2,900 luxury cars capsized and
sank after colliding with the Bahamas-registered Kariba cargo ship in
the English Channel. Tricolor carried 2,862 cars, high-end BMWs, Volvos
and Saabs, and 77 other items, mainly tractors and large crane parts.
(AP, 12/14/02)
2002 Dec 16, The EPA issued a
water-pollution rule to cover animal waste from "factory farms."
(WSJ, 12/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 16, It was reported that
a severe drought ravaging most of Australia's rural sector will slash
farm exports by 13 percent this fiscal year. Triggered by abnormal sea
temperatures, El Nino was blamed for severe drought in Australia, which
slashed crops and caused a liquidation of the nation's livestock. The
drought continued thru 2005.
(AP, 12/16/02)(AP, 5/24/05)
2002 Dec, China signed a
preliminary agreement with Indonesia aimed at halting the trade in
illegal logs.
(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.A12)
2002 Devra Davis authored "When
Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle
Against Pollution."
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M5)
2002 Richard Porter authored “The
Economics of Waste.”
(Econ, 2/28/09, SR p.6)
2002 A UN analysis of timber
statistics for 2002 showed China's reported import of logs from
Indonesia to be 200 times higher that the figures reported by
Indonesian customs.
(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.A12)
2002 Pres. Omar Bongo decided to
preserve a tenth of Gabon's 103,000 square miles in 13 nature preserves
based on stories and photographs by Mike Fay and Nick Nichols.
(SSFC, 10/5/03, p.D10)
2003 Jan 1, A US Army incineration
at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama, scheduled to begin destroying
stockpiled chemical weapons in Oct 2002, was postponed to at least Jan
1, 2003. A global treaty called for complete destruction by 2004.
(SFC, 9/15/02, p.A5)
2003 Jun 30, The pesticide
Diazinon was scheduled to be removed from retail products for use on
lawns and gardens.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A5)
2002 Michael D’Orso authored
"Plundering Paradise: The Hand of Man on the Galapagos Islands."
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M6)
2003 Jan 29, Belgium said oil
leaking from the sunken cargo ship Tricolor (Dec 14) is washing up on
the Belgian coastline, damaging wildlife and beaches.
(AP, 1/30/03)
2003 Feb 15, It was reported that
SF Bay Area refineries were belching 30% more pollutants than
previously known due to the frequent flaring of gases.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 7, Jose Marcio Ayres
(49), Brazilian biologist and senior Wildlife Conservation Society
(WCS) biologist, died in NYC. In 1996 he set up the Mamiraua
Sustainable Development Reserve to protect a 4,300 square-mile area of
the Amazon rain forest.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.77)
2003 Mar 19, Pacific Lumber began
removing tree sitters near Eureka, Ca. Some of the 18 sitters had been
in the trees for almost a year.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A23)
2003 Apr 14, The US EPA launched
an investigation into perfluorooctanoic acid, an ingredient in teflon,
for possible health risks to humans.
(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A5)
2003 Apr 24, Canada banned cod
fishing off the Atlantic provinces and Quebec due to the collapse of
cod stocks.
(SFC, 4/25/03, A8)
2003 Apr 28, An environmental
group reported that chemical perchlorate, the explosive ingredient in
rocket fuel, was found in samples of lettuce traced to growers in
southern California or Arizona. The Bush administration had already
imposed a gag order on the EPA from publicly discussing perchlorate
pollution.
(SFC, 4/28/03, A1)(WSJ, 4/28/03, A3)
2003 Apr 29, California biologists
reported that some 92 southern sea otters had died since the beginning
of the year between Point Conception and Half Moon Bay.
(SFC, 4/30/03, A1)
2003 May 3, It was reported that
half of Germany's bee colonies failed to survive the winter due to a
mite that began spreading from Southeast Asia about 90 years ago.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B8)
2003 May 15, The SF Bay Area
celebrated its 9th Bike to Work Day.
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A17)
2003 May 21, Christie Whitman
(56), former New Jersey governor, announced her resignation as chief of
the Environmental Protective Agency.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A1)
2003 May 31, A Chinese freighter
sank in the Baltic Sea. It carried 66,000 tons of fertilizer and leaked
over 55,270 gallons of diesel oil. Some 38,000 gallons were recovered.
(SFC, 6/3/03, p.A3)
2003 May, Freecycle, a global
recycling phenomenon started operating in Arizona. By 2008 it had grown
to more than 4 million members in more than 4,100 cities. It boasted of
keeping more than 300 million tons of trash out of landfills every day
and inspired imitators.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2003 Jun 4, The Pews Ocean
Commission said US waters are so stressed by pollution and overfishing
that drastic federal intervention is required.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A8)(WSJ, 6/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 13, Scientists reported
that the new hydrogen fuel cell technology could lead to greater
destruction of the ozone layer that protects Earth from cancer-causing
ultraviolet rays.
(AP, 6/13/03)
2003 Jun 15, Scientists reported
that nearly 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises drown every day after
becoming tangled in fishing nets and other equipment.
(AP, 6/15/03)
2003 Jun 18, The Mercury Policy
Project reported that 1/3 of albacor tuna contained levels of toxic
mercury exceeding a federally recommended dose for women of
child-bearing age.
(SFC, 6/19/03, p.A10)
2003 Jul 7, It was reported that
the night crawler, Lumbricus terristris, was not native to northern
American forests and that its introduction was causing problems on the
forest floor.
(WSJ, 7/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 9, Research was released
that said PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), commonly used in
flame retardants, posed a health hazard.
(SFC, 7/9/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 1, In San Diego, Ca., a
206-unit complex under construction was leveled by a fire. Members of
the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 9/20/03, p.A5)
2003 Aug 9, The US Army began
burning chemical weapons at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal
Facility in Anniston, Ala.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.A4)
2003 Aug 9, California Gov. Davis
signed legislation banning 2 forms of flame-retardant chemicals (PBDEs)
effective Jan 1, 2008.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.A32)
2003 Aug 11, Pres. Bush named Mike
Leavitt, Republican governor of Utah, to head the EPA.
(SFC, 8/11/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 14, A Greek oil tanker
that ran aground Jul 27 off the port city of Karachi broke apart, but
officials said the worst was over and rich fishing grounds nearby were
not threatened. The ship carried 378,000 to 450,000 gallons. It leaked
an estimated 12,000 metric tons.
(AP, 8/14/03)(SFC, 8/15/03, p.A3)
2003 Aug 14, The California Dept.
of Fish and Game proposed an indefinite ban on herring fishing in SF
Bay due to a marked decline in the number of fish.
(SFC, 8/15/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 22, In southern
California members of the Earth Liberation Front struck 4 car
dealerships. Damage at a Chevrolet dealership in West Covina was over
$1 million.
(SFC, 8/23/03, p.A2)
2003 Aug 27, The Bush
administration relaxed clean air rules to allow industrial plants to
make upgrades without installing pollution controls.
(SFC, 8/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 28, The WWF reported that
the hippos of Congo's Virunga national Park have been nearly wiped out
by poachers and civil war.
(WSJ, 8/29/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 3, It was reported that
Lake Chapala in Jalisco state had lost some 80% of its water over the
last 10 years due to heavy development in central Mexico and
agricultural diversion of water from the Rio Lerma.
(WSJ, 9/3/03, p.B1)
2003 Oct 9, Scientists in Nature
reported that certain types of Navy sonar use was responsible for whale
deaths due to beaching.
(SFC, 10/9/03, p.A4)
2003 Oct 21, A report from the
Environmental Working Group ranked pesticide contamination for 46
fruits and vegetables based on lab tests done between 1992 and 2001.
(SFC, 10/21/03, p.A3)
2003 Oct 28, The US Senate
approved Utah's Gov. Mike Leavitt as head of the EPA.
(SFC, 10/29/03, p.A3)
2003 Oct 31, The EPA rejected new
restrictions on weed-killer atrazine. It was suspected of causing
mutations in frogs.
(WSJ, 11/3/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 4, It was reported that
world sulfur stocks were at record highs and that the energy industry
produces some 64 million tons a year, far more than needed.
(WSJ, 11/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 28, It was reported that
the New Zealand mud snail had invaded trout streams in Northern
California. They were capable of stripping entire river systems of
algae and had already infested trout streams in Montana.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.A21)
2003 Dec 1, In Canada a coalition
of energy and forest companies and Indian tribes and environmental
groups announced a framework for forest and wetland conservation to
conserve at least 50% of Canada's sub-Arctic boreal forests.
(SFC, 12/1/03, p.A7)
2003 Dec 2, A senior adviser to
President Vladimir Putin said that Russia cannot ratify the Kyoto
Protocol limiting greenhouse gas emissions, dealing a mortal blow to
the pact that required Russia's ratification to take effect.
(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Dec 4, It was reported that
scientists saw 2003 set to become the 3rd hottest year since modern
temperature records began. The warmest since 1880 was 1998 followed by
2002.
(WSJ, 12/4/03, p.A10)
2003 Dec 8, US District Judge
James Ware ruled that US toxic cleanup law doesn't apply abroad. A suit
by Filipinos sought that the US government be required to assess
pollution near 2 former military bases.
(SFC, 12/12/03, p.A6)
2003 Dec 12, A UN conference on
climate control closed in Milan, Italy. Many countries planned to go
ahead with their Kyoto Protocol commitments to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.
(AP, 12/13/03)
2003 Dec 15, The Bush
administration proposed a market-based system of pollution controls
that required power companies to cut mercury pollution by nearly 70%
over the next 15 years, but let them decide for themselves how to meet
the overall limits.
(SFC, 12/16/03, p.A5)
2003 Dec 18, The Cayman Islands
banned fishing in grouper spawning areas for eight years, citing a
sharp decline in the species' population. The ban took effect of Dec 29.
(AP, 12/19/03)
2003 Dec 19, Fisheries ministers
of the 15 European Union nations reached a compromise deal to protect
dwindling stocks of cod, hake and other species.
(AP, 12/19/03)
2003 Dec 24, A US federal appeals
court blocked the Bush administration from implementing a major
environmental rule change that would have allowed power plants to
upgrade their facilities without installing anti-pollution equipment.
(SFC, 12/25/03, p.A3)
2003 In New South Wales,
Australia, the lower reaches of the Great Anabranch of the Darling
River ran dry following a 10-year drought.
(Econ, 5/7/05, Survey p.15)
2003 Brazilian ranchers, soybean
farmers and loggers destroyed a chunk of the Amazon rainforest about
the size of Massachusetts.
(AP, 4/8/04)
2003 A high court in Kerala,
India, ordered Coca Cola to shut down a $25 million plant due to local
complaints of excess water use. Villagers also complained that waste
from the plant had contaminated drinking water. Activists left alone a
nearby Indian brewery.
(SSFC, 3/6/05, p.A3)
2004 Jan 1, Restrictions on
wood-burning stoves in the San Joaquin Valley went into effect. Fresno
County was noted for the highest childhood asthma rate in California
and the SJ valley was considered the 2nd dirtiest air basin in the US
outside of Los Angeles.
(SFC, 1/1/04, p.A20)
2004 Mar 4, Michigan authorities
asked 6 southeastern counties to evaluate damage done by the emerald
ash borer. The pests had already killed some 6 million ash trees.
(USAT, 3/5/04, p.9A)
2004 Mar 9, Groundbreaking
ceremonies were set for a research center on the Israeli-Jordan border.
The Bridging the Rift foundation, launched in 1999, planned a $30
million environmental research center created with the assistance of
California's Stanford Univ.
(SFC, 2/28/04, p.A8)
2004 Mar 10, The Monrovia Growers
in Azusa, LA County, reported that its camellias were infested with oak
disease, Phytophthora ramorum. Plants from the nursery were distributed
around the country.
(SFC, 3/11/04, p.B1)
2004 Mar 11, The California Office
of Environmental Health Hazzard Assessment raised the action level for
reporting perchlorate pollution in drinking water from 4 to 6 ppb.
(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.A8)
2004 Mar 19, Scientists reported
that Earth may be in the middle its 6th big extinction event, which
began some 50,000 years ago. A recent survey indicated population
extinctions in all the main ecosystems of Britain.
(SFC, 3/19/04, p.A5)
2004 Mar 24, The Bush
administration, under pressure from farmers, petitioned to postpone the
global phase-out of methyl bromide, a pesticide that has been shown to
destroy ozone.
(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A5)
2004 Mar 24, Australia's
parliament passed a law making the Great Barrier Reef the most
protected reef system on earth. A fishing ban on a third of the World
Heritage site would begin in July.
(AP, 3/24/04)
2004 Mar 26, The US Department of
Agriculture ordered a 60-day ban on the interstate sale of host plants
from California due to infestation by the sudden oak death disease.
(SFC, 3/27/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar, A biology professor said
the monarch butterfly population wintering in Morelia, Mexico, was down
75%. Logging had severely impacted the area.
(SFC, 2/24/05, p.A10)
2004 Apr 19, The annual
environmental Goldman Prizes were awarded in SF. Winners included
Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla of India for their work following
the Bhopal catastrophe; Margie Richard of the US for her work following
chemical leaks in Norco, Louisiana; Rudolf N. Amenga-Etego of Ghana for
his work in suspending a water privatization project; Libia R. Grueso
Castelblanco of Colombia for her work in securing territorial rights
for rural communities; Manana Kochladze of Georgia for winning
concessions to protect villagers and a pristine gorge from an oil
pipeline; Demetrio De Carvalho of East Timor for his environmental
efforts.
(SFC, 4/19/04, p.B5)
2004 Apr 20, A US federal
commission said oceans of the US are in dire shape due to pollution and
overfishing.
(WSJ, 4/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 23, On Earth Day Pres.
Bush toured a Maine nature preserve and said the US should try to
expand its wetlands.
(WSJ, 4/23/04, p.A1)
2004 May 12, A wildlife group
warned that world cod stocks were falling and could be wiped out in 15
years if the current rate of overfishing continues.
(WSJ, 5/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 12, The Bush
administration announced a new rule to allow the nation’s governors to
help decide whether roadless areas in their states should be opened for
logging or other commercial activity.
(SFC, 7/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 15, Scientists reported
that excess carbon dioxide spilled into the air by humans over the past
2 centuries has been taken up by the oceans. They warned that a
continuation of this process could damage the ability of ocean
creatures to make their shells.
(SFC, 7/16/04, p.A4)
2004 Jul 17, Office Depot and
Hewlett-Packard launched the country's first free, nationwide, in-store
electronics recycling program. The program ran to Sep 6.
(TechWeb, 7/19/04)
2004 Jul 19, Some 4,000 acres of
salt ponds in the south bay began receiving SF Bay water in a project
to return the area to natural wetlands.
(SSFC, 7/18/04, p.B1)
2004 Aug, The World Bank estimated
that pollution is causing China and annual 8-12% of its $1.4 trillion
GDP in direct damage.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.56)
2004 Sep 5, Australian Prime
Minister John Howard defended his country's controversial refusal to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases as he launched the 19th
World Energy Congress in Sydney.
(AP, 9/5/04)
2004 Sep 23, Gov. Schwarzenegger
signed bills allowing some hybrid vehicles to use freeway carpool lanes
and requiring older autos to pass smog checks. He also authorized the
Sierra Nevada Conservancy, a new California agency dedicated to
preserving 25 million Sierra acres.
(SFC, 9/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 23, Antarctic researchers
reported that the ice cap’s glaciers are now melting twice as fast as
in the 1990s and raising sea level.
(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 30, Love Canal, NY, was
formally removed from the Superfund list. The land was deemed safe only
for industry. In the center a 16-acre canal dump site remained fenced.
(SFC, 10/1/04, p.A8)
2004 Sep 30, Russia's Cabinet
approved the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
(AP, 9/30/04)
2004 Oct 15, The journal Science
published a report that said 1,856 of 5,743 species of amphibians are
“globally threatened.”
(SFC, 10/15/04, p.A4)
2004 Oct 15, Authorities said the
Northern Snakehead has invaded the Great Lakes. The voracious predator
dubbed the "Frankenfish" can breathe out of water and wriggle across
land.
(Reuters, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 21, WWF Int’l. said
humanity is consuming 20% more natural resources each year than the
Earth produces.
(WSJ, 10/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 22, It was reported that
engineers in Arizona, in an effort to stave off global warming, were
building a prototype machine that would remove carbon dioxide from the
air and store it in rocks or under the Earth.
(WSJ, 10/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 22, Russia's lower house
of parliament ratified the Kyoto Protocol on combating global warming.
(AP, 10/22/04)
2004 Oct 27, It was reported that
Stefan Jaronski, a Montana researcher, had found that canola oil
combined with a fungus can be used to get rid of grasshoppers.
(USAT, 10/27/04, p.6D)
2004 Oct 27, In Russia the Kyoto
Protocol overcame its final legislative hurdle when the upper house of
parliament ratified the global climate pact and sent it on to Pres.
Vladimir Putin to sign.
(AP, 10/27/04)
2004 Oct, Michael Shellenberger of
El Cerrito, Ca., and Ted Norhaus of Berkeley delivered a 36-page
treatisse titled “The Death of Environmentalism” at a national
gathering of environmentalists.
(SFC, 4/23/05, p.B1)
2004 Nov 3, British scientists
reported an 89% decline since the 1970s in stocks of Antarctic krill,
vital food for marine animals.
(WSJ, 11/4/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 11, It was reported that
large swathes of southern and eastern China are in the grip of their
worst drought in more than 50 years, prompting calls from the countries
top leaders for better management of water conservation.
(AP, 11/12/04)
2004 Nov 12, Mexico and a US
environmental group agreed on a plan to protect 370,000 acres of
tropical forest on the Yucatan Peninsula. Officials said it was the
largest conservation project in the country's history.
(AP, 11/12/04)
2004 Nov 22, Stavros Dimas
(b.1941), Greek politician, succeeded Margot Walstron of Sweden as the
EU’s environment commissioner.
(Econ, 10/25/08,
p.80)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavros_Dimas)
2004 Nov 23, In Brazil government
data indicated that 47% of its rainforest was now occupied by man or
logged.
(WSJ, 11/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 25, The 3rd IUCN World
Conservation Congress closed in Bangkok. Its final resolutions included
a resolution urging governments to limit the use of loud noise sources
in the world’s oceans.
(SFC, 12/13/04, p.C1)
2004 Nov 26, A Cyprus-registered
tanker spilled 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River
between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, creating a 20-mile-long
slick that killed dozens of birds and threatened other wildlife.
(AP, 11/28/04)
2004 Nov 28, On a southern
Australian island about 100 whales and dolphins died after beaching,
and about 50 more were still at risk.
(AP, 11/28/04)
2004 Dec 7, The German-registered
MSC Ilona was punctured during a collision night with the
Panama-registered Hyundai Advance near the mouth of the Pearl River,
northwest of Hong Kong. The collision of the container ships caused a
huge oil spill and cleanup effort.
(AP, 12/9/04)
2004 Dec 8, The 738-foot
freighter, Selendang Ayu, ran aground off Unalaska Island and began
leaking oil. 6 crew members were missing following an attempted rescue
in which a Coast Guard helicopter crashed. The ship carried some
500,000 gallons of bunker oil and diesel fuel.
(SFC, 12/11/04, p.A3)
2004 Dec 9, Scientists tracked an
algae bloom covering 400 square miles in the Gulf Coast that has caused
a mass fish kill and dolphin deaths near Florida.
(WSJ, 12/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 17, It was reported that
China’s growing power industry was causing global concern over mercury
accumulation in the world’s water and food supply.
(WSJ, 12/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 18, UN talks on climate
change ended with few steps forward as the US, oil producers and
developing giants slammed the brakes on the European Union's drive for
deeper emissions cuts to stop global warming.
(AP, 12/18/04)
2004 Dec 19, It was reported that
the wind farm at Altamont, Ca., killed some 4,700 birds every year.
(SSFC, 12/19/04, p.A1)
2004 In Mongolia scientists and
American sport fishermen teamed with local Buddhist monks to help stamp
out habitat destruction and poaching of the Siberian salmon called
taimen.
(WSJ, 10/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Charles Clover authored “The
End of the Line: How Over-Fishing is Changing the World and What We
Eat.”
(Econ, 10/2/04, p.83)
2004 Mark Elvin authored “The
Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China.”
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.74)
2004 Paul and Anne Erlich authored
“One With Nineveh,” a plan for reorganizing the world’s economy and
systems of government in order to ward off a prospective collision with
nature.
(WSJ, 5/20/04, p.D10)
2004 James Gustave Speth authored
“Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crises of the Global Environment—A
Citizen’s Agenda for Action.”
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.91)
2004 Turkmenistan’s Pres. Niyazov
moved forward with the building of the Golden Era Lake. The massive 75
by 37 mile lake in the middle of the Krakum Desert was considered by
many to be an environmental catastrophe.
(WSJ, 7/16/04, p.A8)
2005 Jan 1, A new California law
took effect levying a surcharge on computer sales to defray recycling
costs.
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.60)
2005 Jan 22, It was reported that
a mutant of the sudden oak pathogen was found in a nursery in
Washington state. Phytopthora ramorum was believed to be the result of
a union between California and European strains.
(SFC, 1/22/05, p.B1)
2005 Jan 25, Georgina Mace told a
meeting of zoologists in London that 0.5% of the area of natural
habitats on land is lost each year, largely due to conversion to
farmland.
(Econ, 2/5/05, p.74)
2005 Jan, The European Emissions
Trading Scheme (ETS), a market for carbon emission permits, was created
to help EU countries meet their commitment to cut emissions under the
Kyoto Protocol. It covered 5 industries, and 13,000 factories and
plants, rated as particularly dirty. A 2nd phase of ETS would run from
2008-2012.
(Econ, 5/6/06, p.75)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.69)(Econ,
12/2/06, p.56)
2005 Feb 16, The Kyoto global
warming pact went into force, 7 years after it was negotiated, imposing
limits on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases scientists blame
for increasing world temperatures, melting glaciers and rising oceans.
Canada’s pledge to cut emissions 6% below its 1990 level by 2012 faced
the problem of an average annual increase of 1.5%.
(AP, 2/16/05)(WSJ, 2/15/05, p.A16)
2005 Feb 22, Researchers at Texas
Tech Univ. reported that the rocket fuel perchlorate has been found in
women’s breast milk at 5 times the average level found in dairy milk.
(SFC, 2/23/05, p.A6)
2005 Feb 23, Pres. Bush and German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder pledged to help developing nations cut
back on their output of greenhouse gases.
(SFC, 2/26/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb, A group called the
Environmental Investigation Agency alleged that $600 million worth of
timber was being smuggled from Indonesia to China every month. Pres.
Yudhojono pledged a crackdown in March with Operation Sustainable
Forest. The EIA described a timber-smuggling chain bringing 300,000
cubic meters of merbau, a valuable hardwood, from Indonesia’s Papua
province to China. EIA claimed Indonesia was losing an area of forest
the size of Switzerland every year.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.42)(Econ, 5/7/05, p.39)
2005 Mar 4, Pres. Bush picked
Stephen Johnson (53) to head the EPA.
(SFC, 3/5/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 10, The EPA approved new
limits on power plant emissions in the Eastern US.
(WSJ, 3/11/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 23, Chinese state media
reported that already severe water shortages are worsening due to heavy
pollution of lakes and aquifers and urban development projects with a
big thirst for water, such as lawns and fountains.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2005 Apr 4, Evergreen Int’l., a
Panamanian shipping line, pleaded guilty to over 2 dozen counts of
illegal dumping around the US. It was ordered to pay a fine of $25
million, one of the largest ever imposed for polluting the ocean.
(SFC, 4/5/05, p.B8)
2005 Apr 12, Wal-Mart said it will
spend $35 million over 10 years to conserve land equal to the total US
footprint of its stores and other facilities.
(WSJ, 4/13/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 14, Ethiopia police said
authorities have seized more than 1,100 pounds of illegal ivory,
stuffed animals and ostrich eggs that were destined for collectors
abroad.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 18, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prizes were awarded in San Francisco. Recipients included
Isidro Baldenegro of Mexico (forest protection), Rev. Jose Andres
Tamayo Cortes of Honduras (unregulated logging), Kaisha Atakhanova of
Kazakhstan (fighting the import of nuclear waste), Corneille E.N.
Ewango of Congo (animal and plant protection), Stephanie Daniel Roth of
Romania (for fighting an open-cast gold mine), and Chavannes
Jean-Baptiste of Haiti (for teaching sustainable agriculture).
(SFC, 4/18/05, p.B2)
2005 Apr 25, It was reported that
Didemnum, a species of sea squirt, were spreading unabated off New
England and the Pacific Northwest to the detriment of valuable
shellfish beds and habitat for bottom feeding fish.
(SFC, 4/25/05, p.A6)
2005 Apr 28, Scientists reported
that deep ocean readings promised a steadily warming world and
attributed global warming to human activity.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr, It was reported that the
US Fish & Wildlife Service listed 317 species, including 273
plants, as threatened or endangered in Hawaii. Local environmentalists
blamed pollution from cruise ships and tourists.
(Econ, 4/9/05, p.24)
2005 May 2, Bob Hunter (63),
inspirer of Greenpeace, died.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.89)
2005 May 5, The Bush
administration set aside a rule protecting 33% of national forests from
roads. This opened some 58.5 million acres for possible commercial use.
New rules by the Bush administration in 2008 repealed a 1982 regulation
requiring that fish and wildlife habitats be managed to maintain viable
populations. On June 30, 2009, these changes were reversed by a federal
judge in San Francisco.
(SFC, 5/6/05, p.A4)(WSJ, 5/6/05, p.A1)(SFC, 7/1/09,
p.A6)
2005 May 17, The captain of the
Greenpeace boat, "The Rainbow Warrior," was sentenced to six months in
prison for disobedience during a protest against the war in Iraq in
2003. The case stemmed from the detention of five men on March 14,
2003, for staging a protest aboard the boat captained by Daniel
Rizzotti, an Argentine citizen, near the U.S.-Spanish Rota naval base
in southern Spain.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 Jun 1, A 5-day UN World
Environment Day conference opened in SF.
(SFC, 6/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 5, In San Francisco big
city mayors from around the world signed a set of 21 urban
environmental accords, capping a 5-day UN World Environment conference.
(AP, 6/6/05)(SFC, 6/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 8, The WWF conservation
group reported that fishing nets claim the lives of some 1,000 whales,
dolphins and porpoises around the world each day.
(WSJ, 6/9/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 15, Blairo Maggi,
Brazilian soyabean magnate, governor of Mato Grosso, and winner of this
year’s Greenpeace “golden chainsaw” award for deforestation, refused to
accept the award and slunk out through the back door of the school he
was visiting, to the taunting shouts of hundreds of children.
(Econ, 8/8/09,
p.70)(www.treehugger.com/files/2005/06/brazilian_soy_k.php)
2005 Jun 17, SF enacted its
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for Commodities Ordnance. It
became the 1st US city take public health and environmental stewardship
into consideration when purchasing products.
(SFC, 6/18/05, p.B2)
2005 Jun 20, California state and
federal officials set aside $2 million to determine why smelt and other
species in the San Joaquin and Sacramento River Delta has dropped
sharply. Numerous causes were suspect including nonnative predators and
increasing herbicide and pesticide runoff as well as water draw down to
supply Southern California and the Central Valley.
(SFC, 6/21/05, p.B3)
2005 Jun 28, Austria launched an
energy exchange to trade carbon allowances in accord with the Kyoto
treaty to deal with greenhouse gases.
(Econ, 7/25/05, p.64)
2005 Jul 1, An EU directive took
effect banning lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and 2 types
of brominated flame retardants. Some exceptions were allowed.
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.E1)
2005 Jul 14, The White Holly, a
retrofitted WW II Navy freighter, embarked from SF Bay on a 7,000 mile
roundtrip cruise to study coral reef decay.
(SFC, 7/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 20, SF Bay Area air
quality officials impost the toughest regulations in the nation to
reduce flaring in the East Bay’s 5 oil refineries.
(SFC, 7/21/05, p.B1)
2005 Jul 21, The US Centers for
Disease Control reported that the bodies of American children and
adults contained over 100 toxic substance including pyrethroids, a
pesticide ingredient, and phthalates, found in beauty products and soft
plastics.
(SFC, 7/22/05, p.A12)
2005 Jul 22, Researchers estimated
that deaths of North Atlantic right whales may be underreported by as
much as 83 percent annually. At least eight whales have died in the
last 16 months, and only 350 of the animals are believed to exist.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Jul 27, Environment Minister
Ian Campbell said Australia and the US have been secretly negotiating a
new international pact on greenhouse gas emissions to replace the Kyoto
Protocol, which they refused to sign.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Aug 16, The Bush
administration reduced the estimated value of recreation in national
forests from $111 billion to $11 billion. Environmentalists warned the
new Forest Service assessment could be used to justify increased
logging.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A4)
2005 Aug 17, Researchers from
Greenpeace Int’l reported that toxic waste from electronic devices
discarded in the US and dismantled in China and India was posing a
sever problem around Guiyu, China, and New Delhi, India.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.C3)
2005 Aug 24, The New York Times
reported that officials in nine northeastern US states have reached a
preliminary agreement to freeze power plant emissions at their current
levels and then reduce them by 10 percent by 2020.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Dec 10, In Canada more than
150 nations agreed to launch formal talks on mandatory post-2012
reductions in greenhouse gases, talks that will exclude an unwilling
US.
(AP, 12/10/05)(Econ, 12/17/05, p.77)
2005 Marla Cone authored “Silent
Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic.”
(SSFC, 5/22/05, p.F2)
2005 Americans generated over 245
million tons of municipal solid waste, roughly 4½ pounds for per
person per day.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.C1)
2005 The EU in 1998 announced
plans for tougher anti-pollution laws to take effect to make car
engines and fuels burn cleaner. Implementation of new laws began in
2000.
(SFC, 7/3/98, p.D2)
2006 Jun 15, Pres. Bush announced
plans to designate a new marine sanctuary in the area of the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands encompassing nearly 140,000 square miles.
The plan for Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, the nation’s
14th marine sanctuary, would end fishing in the area within 5 years.
Formal designation was about a year away.
(SFC, 6/15/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 6/16/06, p.A1)(Econ,
1/10/09, p.70)
2006 Jun 19, The US Supreme Court
rolled back coverage of the Clean Water Act, but did not agree on how
to define the waters protected by the act.
(WSJ, 6/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug, In China a project was
begun in Shanghai to treat industrial waste with iron filings, a
process which had been found to be a cheap and efficient way to clean
up polluted water.
(Econ, 12/6/08, TQ p.11)
2006 Sep 20, The 3-day second
annual Clinton Global Initiative, on the sidelines of the United
Nations General Assembly, kicked off in Manhattan and collected over $2
billion in pledges in funds and programs on its 1st day to combat
global ills. A day later British mogul Richard Branson pledged to spend
three billion dollars in the next decade on projects to combat global
warming and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
(SFC, 9/21/06, p.A3)(AFP, 9/21/06)
2006 Oct 19, The UN Environment
Program said the number of "dead zones" in the world's oceans had
reached 200, an increase of 34% in 2 years, threatening fish stocks and
the people who depend on them.
(AP, 10/19/06)(WSJ, 10/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 3, US and Canadian
researchers reported that the world's fish and seafood could disappear
by 2048 as overfishing and pollution destroy ocean ecosystems at an
accelerating pace.
(AFP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 3, Ben Bradshaw,
Britain’s Fisheries Minister, responded to a major report warning that
stocks could be wiped out by 2048 by ruling out a complete ban on cod
fishing. Bradshaw said that the UK had already taken action by clamping
down on illegal fishing and setting fishing quotas.
(AFP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 3, The UN weather agency
said heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a record
high in 2005 and are still increasing.
(AP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 6, In Kenya thousands of
delegates from around the world opened a UN conference on next steps to
ward off the worst effects of climate change.
(AP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 16, The Vermont based
Conservation Fund partnered with the state of California to purchase
16,000 acres in northern California from the Hawthorne Timber Co. for
$48.5 million.
(WSJ, 11/17/06, p.A4)
2006 Nov 21, The Environmental
Protection Agency announced that pesticides can be applied over and
near bodies of water without a permit under the federal Clean Water Act.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2005 Nov-2005 Dec, In San
Francisco between 39,488 and 53,988 gallons of diesel fuel leaked over
4 weeks from an underground storage tank at the John Muir Motor Coach
yard at 1095 Indiana St. Muni workers had disabled an alarm system that
would have warned of the leak. In 2009 the US EPA sought a $250,000
settlement for the leak which allowed fuel to enter a storm drain
leading the SF Bay.
(SFC, 11/3/09, p.C1)
2006 Dec 8, Scientists said that
the forests of the American West are under siege from bark beetles,
miniscule but mighty foes that are ravaging the region's leading trees
in record numbers. Experts said the region has failed in recent years
to register the sustained periods of sub-zero temperatures that once
dealt a fatal blow to beetle populations.
(AFP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 12, A new environmental
report said fertilizer and sediment runoff from sugarcane, banana and
pineapple plantations are threatening tourism by damaging a coral reef
stretching along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and
Honduras.
(AP, 12/13/06)
2006 Dec 12, Eritrea said it aims
to become the 1st country in the world to turn its entire coast into an
environmentally protected zone to ensure balanced and sustainable
development.
(AFP, 12/12/06)
2007 Jan 20, Richard Vollenweider
(1922-2007), Swiss scientist, died. He developed methods for
quantifying the eutrophication of freshwater. His methods were used to
save Lake Erie and helped from the basis of the 1972 Great Lakes Water
Quality Act.
(http://tinyurl.com/ygrc3p)(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.A8)
2007 Jan 22, Scientists warned
that glaciers will all but disappear from the Alps by 2050, and that
most would be gone by 2037.
(SFC, 1/23/07, p.A4)
2007 Feb 2, Scientists from 113
countries issued a report saying they have little doubt global warming
is caused by man, and predicting that hotter temperatures and rises in
sea level will "continue for centuries" no matter how much humans
control their pollution. The 4th report of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) was published in Paris.
(AP, 2/2/07)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.86)
2007 Feb 15, Scientists gathered
in Atlanta, Ga., to find a way to stop a fungus killing the world’s
frogs. Up to 170 species have gone extinct in the past decade.
(WSJ, 2/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 20, EU ministers agreed
to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below their 1990 level by 2020.
(SFC, 2/21/07, p.C5)
2007 Mar 6, Researchers reported
in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that pollution
from Asia is helping generate stronger storms over the North Pacific,
according to new research. Satellite measurements have shown an
increase in tiny particles generated from coal burning in China and
India in recent decades.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 9, EU leaders agreed on a
bold set of measures to fight global warming, pledging that a fifth of
the bloc's energy will come from green power sources such as wind
turbines and solar panels by 2020 and that 10% of European cars will
run on biofuels.
(AP, 3/9/07)(Econ, 3/17/07, p.59)
2007 Mar 13, Environmental group
Greenpeace launched a fresh attack on genetically modified maize
developed by US biotech giant Monsanto, saying that rats fed on one
version developed liver and kidney problems.
(Reuters, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 20, The WWF conservation
group said climate change, pollution, over extraction of water and
development are killing some of the world's most famous rivers
including China's Yangtze, India's Ganges and Africa's Nile.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 30, It was reported that
shark overfishing has led scallops to decline because their predators,
mainly rays, aren’t being eaten.
(WSJ, 3/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 30, Leaked extracts of a
UN report said Australia will suffer more droughts, fires, floods and
storms due to global warming and its famous Great Barrier Reef will be
devastated by 2030.
(AFP, 3/30/07)
2007 Apr 2, The US Supreme Court
ruled that a US government agency has the power under the clean air law
to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming. In its
first case on climate change, the Supreme Court declared in a 5-4
ruling that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were air
pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
(Reuters, 4/2/07)(AP, 4/2/08)
2007 Apr 10, In China’s southeast
Guangxi Zhuangzu region thousands of fish were reported killed this
month in a lake near Nanning due to “sharp drops in temperature.”
(SFC, 4/12/07, p.A3)
2007 Apr 13, Prominent Chinese
environmental activist Wu Lihong (39) was arrested for alleged
blackmail. Lihong has campaigned for years against the pollution of Tai
Lake which lies in the center of Yangtze Delta plain, a region known
for its natural beauty but littered with polluting light industry and
chemical factories. In August Lihong was sentenced to 3 years in prison
for fraud and blackmail.
(AFP, 4/23/07)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.49)
2007 Apr 16, Scientists reported
that Britain once had around 25 native species of bumblebee, but three
of those have been wiped out in the past 50 years and 10 more are now
severely threatened.
(Reuters, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 16, A state-run newspaper
said China's massive Yangtze river, a lifeline for tens of millions of
people, is seriously polluted and the damage is almost irreversible.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 May 1, Julie A. MacDonald, a
deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, resigned
after an internal review found that she had violated federal rules by
giving government documents to lobbyists for industry. In November the
US Fish and Wildlife Service reversed 7 rulings that had denied
endangered species increased protection.
(www.mindfully.org/Heritage/2007/Interior-Wildlife-Decisions21jul07.htm)(SFC,
11/28/07, p.A3)
2007 May 4, Delegates meeting in
Thailand from 120 countries approved the first roadmap for stemming
greenhouse gas emissions, laying out what they said was an affordable
arsenal of anti-warming measures that must be rushed into place to
avert a disastrous spike in global temperatures.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 7, More than 1,000
government delegates gathered in Bonn, Germany, to find ways to break
gridlock in international negotiations on widening action to slow
global warming. The UN urged far tougher action to fight climate change
at the 166-nation climate conference.
(Reuters, 5/7/07)
2007 May 29, President Bush's
environmental adviser said the US rejects the EU's all-encompassing
target on reduction of carbon emissions. The US and Australia ruled out
a regional carbon trading scheme before the meeting officially opened
in the northern city of Darwin, saying it was too early to impose
uniform targets on APEC nations. APEC members already account for 60%
of global energy demand and their needs are expected to almost double
by 2030. Fidel Castro lambasted President Bush for opposing the EU's
goal for an agreement on carbon emissions at next week's Group of Eight
summit.
(AFP, 5/29/07)(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 May 29, China said it will
not be tied to targets on cutting carbon emissions as Europe and Asia
failed to agree at a 40-nation meeting on how to fight global warming.
(AFP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 29, European and Asian
foreign ministers meeting in Germany agreed to set a 2009 deadline to
complete negotiations on a new international climate change pact to
limit greenhouse gases.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 29, Sweden said it plans
to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020, bettering the EU's
proposal to cut emissions by at least 20%.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 Jun 4, China promised to
better control emissions of greenhouse gases, unveiling a national
program to combat global warming, but rejected mandatory caps on
emissions as unfair to countries still trying to catch up with the
developed West. The government also said it will license no new
Internet cafes this year while regulators carry out an industry-wide
inspection, amid official concern that online material is harming young
people.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Experts warned at a
conference in Nepal's capital that Himalayan glaciers are retreating
fast and could disappear within the next 50 years.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, The UN warned in a
report that up to 12% of Arctic ice has turned to water in the past 30
years, an alarming fact that only accelerates global warming further.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 20, A Dutch
government-funded agency said China has overtaken the United States as
the top emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, because of
surging energy use amid an economic boom. However consumption and
emission levels per head remained a mere fraction of America’s.
(AP, 6/20/07)(Econ, 6/13/09, p.45)
2007 Jun, The World Monuments Fund
added the Jordan River Valley to its list of 100 most endangered sites.
Israel, Jordan and Syria diverted over 90% of the Jordan River water
annually for drinking and irrigation, reducing flow to the Dead Sea.
(SSFC, 8/12/07, p.A15)
2007 Aug 31, In Vienna, Austria,
negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement, at a UN
conference on climate, on rough targets aimed at getting some of the
world's biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases
blamed for global warming.
(AP, 8/31/07)(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 21, In Canada, delegates
from almost 200 countries agreed to eliminate ozone-depleting
substances faster than originally planned. The agreement was reached at
a conference in Montreal to mark the 20th anniversary of the Montreal
protocol, which was designed to cut chemicals found to harm the ozone
layer.
(Reuters, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep 17, Volunteers worldwide
collected debris from beaches and waterways in a 22nd annual effort. A
report by Ocean Conservancy in 2008 said 7.2 million items were
gathered weighing 6 million pounds.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2007 Oct 22, Two new studies said
the world's oceans may be losing their ability to soak up extra carbon
dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, with the risk that this will help
stoke global warming.
(AFP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22,
About 40 tons of oil spilled from a land pipeline carrying crude
from the port of Ashkelon in southern Israel to refineries in the
northern city of Haifa.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, At least 21 oil
workers were killed when a drilling rig hit an oil platform in stormy
weather, spilling gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Pemex said the
workers who died included four Pemex employees, seven employees of the
subcontractor company that operated the rig, at least one rescue boat
crew member, and six others who worked for other companies. On Dec 16
Pemex announced that the well was finally capped. Roughly 420 barrels
of oil per day had spilled from the damaged platform since the accident.
(AP, 10/25/07)(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Oct 26,
China announced a multibillion-dollar plan to clean up severely
polluted Lake Tai, where an algae bloom forced the suspension of water
supplies to millions of people this summer. The $14.5 billion plan to
clean up the lake, in a densely populated area northwest of Shanghai,
should take five years.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct-2008 Nov, In Senegal lead
poisoning killed 18 children in Thiaroye Sur Mer. For years, the town's
blacksmiths had extracted lead from car batteries and remolded it into
weights for fishing nets. The work left the dirt of Thiaroye dense with
small lead particles. As the price of lead climbed local people had
begun to sift the dirt to extract the lead.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2007 Nov 7, The Cosco Busan, a
65,131 ton Greek-owned container ship leased by Hanjin Shipping of
South Korea, hit a protective shield at the base of a tower of the Bay
Bridge. The Bridge was not damaged, but the ship suffered a gash and
spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil into the SF Bay. By the end
of the month estimated bird deaths due to the oil topped 20,000. The
cleanup cost was later estimated at some $61 million. A year later
federal authorities still held 6 Chinese crew members for their
testimony. In July, 2009, Cosco Busan Capt. John Cota (61) was
sentenced to 10 months in prison, becoming the first ship’s pilot in US
history to be sent to prison for an accident. On August 13, 2009, Fleet
Management Ltd. of Hong Kong pleaded guilty to charges of water
pollution and falsifying documents and agreed to pay $10 million in
fines.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A1)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A1)(SFC,
12/19/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/5/08, p.A2)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.C1)(SFC, 8/14/09,
p.D1)
2007 Nov 7, A Chinese government
publication reported that industrial discharge and household wastewater
have polluted the northern Futuo River so badly that the water is dark
red in some sections and has caused chronic illnesses among villagers.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 8, California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger, joined by 14 other states, sued the Bush
administration over its refusal to let them enforce bigger auto
emissions cuts than those required by the federal government.
(Bloomberg.com, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 11, A severe storm broke
the Volganeft-139, a small Russian oil tanker, in two in the Strait of
Kerch, spilling at least 560,000 gallons of fuel into the strait
between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. A Russian official said it
was an "environmental disaster." 8 seamen were left missing. Two
freighters nearby also sank under 18-foot waves in storm. As many as 10
ships sank or ran aground in the area.
(AP, 11/11/07)(Reuters, 11/12/07)(SFC, 11/12/07,
p.A15)
2007 Nov 12, Alexander Tkachyov,
governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region, said more than 30,000 birds and
countless fish have been killed in an "ecological catastrophe" wrought
by thousands of tons of oil from a tanker that broke apart in a heavy
storm near the Black Sea. 3 bodies washed ashore and 20 sailors
remained missing after the sinking of at least 11 ships.
(AP, 11/12/07)(SFC, 11/13/07, p.A10)
2007 Nov 16, In Spain negotiators
concluded a policy guide for governments on global warming that
declares climate change is here and is getting worse.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 17, A Nobel-winning UN
scientific panel said in a landmark report that the Earth was hurtling
toward a warmer climate at a quickening pace.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2007 Nov 18, Greenpeace said an
international commission designed to protect bluefin tuna stocks has
effectively increased the fishing quota for 2008 from what was already
an "unsustainable" level. Greenpeace said the annual meeting of the
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
(ICCAT), held in Turkey had approved a nearly 1,000-ton increase in the
2008 catch.
(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 20, In SF large grocery
stores stopped using plastic bags as a new city ordnance banning the
bags took effect.
(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 3, Labor Party leader
Kevin Rudd became Australia's 26th prime minister and immediately began
dismantling the former government's policies by ratifying the Kyoto
Protocol on climate change.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Bali, Indonesia,
climate experts at a massive UN conference urged quick action toward a
new international pact to stem global warming. The UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) hoped for an agreement to mitigate
climate change after the Kyoto protocol runs out in 2012.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.73)
2007 Dec 7, China said it will not
consider mandatory cuts on greenhouse gases, saying the United States
and other industrialized countries should take the lead in fighting
climate change by embracing a less-extravagant lifestyle.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 7, A crane-carrying
vessel collided with the Hebei Spirit, an oil tanker off of South
Korea's west coast, spilling nearly 80,000 barrels of crude oil in what
was believed to be South Korea's largest offshore oil leak.
(AP, 12/7/07)(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 8, The chief US
negotiator at the climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, said the US
will come up with its own plan to cut global-warming gases by mid-2008
and won’t commit to mandatory caps.
(SSFC, 12/9/07, p.A17)
2007 Dec 8, Worldwide
demonstrations began to draw attention to climate change and push their
governments to take stronger action to fight global warming.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 8, South Korea's
worst-ever oil spill reached the country's southwest coastline,
polluting beaches with pungent sludge and threatening valuable sea
farms.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 11, Environmentalists
warned that a scenic coastal region could take years to recover from
South Korea's worst oil spill, as over 19,000 people worked to contain
or clean up the slick.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 13, Nobel laureate Al
Gore accused the United States of blocking progress at the UN climate
conference, and European nations threatened to boycott US-led climate
talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 30, Bert Bolin (82), a
Swedish climate scientist and co-founder of the Nobel Peace-winning UN
panel on climate change, died in Stockholm. His last book, "A History
of the Science and Politics of Climate Change: The Role of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" was published in November
2007.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2007 Carbon dioxide output jumped
3% this year putting the world on track for a worst-case global warming
scenario.
(WSJ, 9/26/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 2, California led 15
other states and 5 environmental groups into federal court to challenge
the Bush administration’s refusal to let the state limit vehicle
emissions of gases that contribute to global warming.
(SFC, 1/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 17, The US EPA said
Massey Energy, the country’s 4th largest coal producer, had agreed to
pay a $20 million fine as part of a settlement over allegations that it
routinely polluted hundreds of streams and waterways in West Virginia
and Kentucky.
(SFC, 1/18/08, p.A7)
2008 Jan 31, The Sewerage Agency
of Southern Marin, Ca., let nearly 3 million gallons of treated and raw
sewage spill into the SF Bay. A week later it was reported that a spill
on Jan 25 had released 2.5 million gallons.
(SFC, 2/6/08, p.B7)
2008 Feb 28, In western Antarctica
a 160-square mile chunk of ice on the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf
began collapsing. It had been there for some 1,500 years.
(SFC, 3/26/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 4, In southern Sudan
activists warned that the 2006 arrival of White Nile Petroleum Company
(WNPOC), a consortium led by Malaysia's Petronas, in Unity State
threatens the Sudd wetlands, the world's largest maze of swamps,
lagoons and tributaries. Villagers said thousands were forcefully
evicted to make way for the low-sulphur crude oil venture. They lost
ancestral homes, died from contamination and saw livelihoods
jeopardized.
(AFP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 11, China unveiled plans
to revamp bureaucratic government ministries and create new agencies to
help it tackle pressing issues such as nuclear energy, food and drug
safety, environmental protection and the Internet.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Japan Tony Blair,
during a meeting of senior officials from the world's top 20 greenhouse
gas emitters, urged the world's heaviest polluters including the United
States, China and India to agree to binding emissions cuts, saying
failure to act on global warming would be "unforgivably irresponsible."
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 16, In France a pipe
ruptured while a tanker was being loaded at a Total refinery. Some
3,000 barrels of fuel oil leaked in and along the Loire River.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 17, The first
carbon-linked derivatives contracts began trading on the Green
Exchange, a joint venture between the NY Mercantile Exchange, Evolution
Markets and Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and others. This followed the
emissions trading market already established in the Chicago Climate
Exchange.
(Econ, 3/15/08, p.91)
2008 Mar 18, NASA reported that
the thickest Arctic ice is melting according to satellite data.
(WSJ, 3/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 1, The US EPA took over
cleanup of an oil spill in Santa Barbara, Ca., after failed efforts by
Greka Oil & Gas to clean up a spill. 2 spills since last summer had
left some 29,000 gallons of crude oil and toxin-laden water in a creek
in Los Olivos.
(SFC, 4/2/08, p.B6)
2008 Apr 4, In Thailand climate
negotiators ended 5 days of talks. More than 160 nations agreed to
consider how to reduce rapidly growing emissions from air and sea
travel as they worked toward drafting an ambitious new treaty on global
warming.
(AFP, 4/4/08)(WSJ, 4/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 10, The UN Environment
Program said dumping of waste by ships in the Mediterranean Sea will
become illegal as of May 1, 2009.
(AFP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 13, The winners of this
year’s Goldman Awards were reported to be: Feliciano dos Santos (43) of
Mozambique, the director of Estamos, an environmental group promoting
sanitation, sustainable development and reforestation; Marina
Rikhvanova (46), founder of Baikal Environmental Wave, which forced the
rerouting of an oil pipeline in the Baikal basin; Pablo Fajardo (35)
and Luis Yanza (48) of Ecuador, co-founders of the Amazon Defense
Front, which accused Texaco (now Chevron) of dumping oil and wastewater
into local streams; Rosa Hilda Ramos (63) of Puerto Rico, head of a
movement to protect the Las Cicharillas Marsh; Ignace Schops (43) of
Belgium, head of a movement to establish Belgium’s 1st and only
national park; Jesus Leon (42) of Mexico, co-founder of the Center for
Integral Samll Farmer Development of the Mixtec (CEDICAM).
(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 30, Syncrude Canada's
operations were under investigation by environmental regulators after
as many as 500 birds landed in the waste water in the oil sands region
of northern Alberta.
(Reuters, 5/1/08)
2008 May 13, In Brazil renowned
rain forest defender Marina Silva resigned as the environment minister,
saying she lacked the necessary political support to protect the
Amazon. A government study said Blacks will outnumber whites in Brazil
this year for the first time since slavery was abolished, but the
income gap between the two groups may take another 50 years to bridge.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 17, In Louisiana 6 train
cars derailed spilling 8-10 thousand gallons of hydrochloric acid and
forming a toxic cloud over Lafayette, 125 miles west of New Orleans.
(WSJ, 5/19/08, p.A2)
2008 May 26, In Japan the Group of
Eight (G8) environment chiefs pledged "strong political will" toward
cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, declaring that
developed nations should take the lead in battling global warming, but
failed to agree on much more contentious near-term targets.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 27, President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva swore in Carlos Minc, former environment secretary for
Rio de Janeiro state, as Brazil's new environment minister. Silva used
the swearing-in speech to lash developed nations for alleged hypocrisy
on environmental policy.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 Jun 1, China became the
latest country to declare war on plastic bags in a drive to save energy
and protect the environment.
(Reuters, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 2, Carlos Minc, Brazil’s
new environment minister, said the government will impound cattle
caught grazing on illegally cleared pastures with an operation, dubbed
"Rogue Bull," to attack deforestation in the rain forest. Government
researchers said that preliminary data indicate the Amazon lost at
least 2,258 square miles (5,850 square kilometers) of forest cover from
August to April 2008.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 2, In Germany Some 2,000
delegates from 162 countries and dozens of specialist agencies opened a
two-week conference to start tackling the details of a new global
warming agreement slated to take effect after 2012.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 4, An undetermined amount
of fuel oil was released after the Greece-registered Syros slammed
against the Malta-registered Sea Bird near Montevideo, Uruguay.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 20, A rocket carrying a
US-French satellite for monitoring ocean surface height was launched
from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The data will be used to
monitor climate change effects on sea level.
(SFC, 6/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 24, In Florida Gov.
Charlie Crist and officials of US Sugar announced a plan for the state
to buy US Sugar for $1.7 billion. The company, founded by Charles
Stewart Mott, would be allowed to operate for 6 more years before
returning 187,000 acres of the Everglades to its natural state. In
November the plan was revised to pay $1.34 billion for 181,000 acres.
In 2009 the plan was again scaled back to cover 72,500 acres fro $533
million with a 10-year option to buy the remaining land.
(SFC, 6/25/08, p.A2)(WSJ, 6/25/08, p.B1)(WSJ,
11/12/08, p.A2)(WSJ, 4/2/09, p.A4)
2008 Jun 26, A UN rights official
said many poor countries accept toxic waste from abroad, such as old
computers, rusted ships and pesticides, in a shortsighted bid to lift
themselves out of poverty, despite the dangers to human health and the
environment.
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jun 27, In Piedras Negras,
Mexico, Chad Foster, the mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas, attended a tree
planting ceremony for the first of 400,000 trees which will form a
"green wall" in protest of the fence the US is building along the
border with Mexico.
(AP, 6/28/08)
2008 Jul 23, Two environmental
groups estimated that cement kilns in the US annually released mercury
compounds totaling some 23,000 pounds. Two of the worst emitters were
located in northern California in Cupertino and Davenport.
(SFC, 7/24/08, p.B1)
2008 Jul 23, In Louisiana an oil
tanker and an oil barge collided near New Orleans creating a 12-mile
oil slick and closing about 29 miles of the Mississippi River.
(SFC, 7/24/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 14, Scientists reported
that the number of oxygen-starved "dead zones" in coastal waters around
the world has roughly doubled every decade since the 1960s, killing
fish, crabs and massive amounts of marine life at the base of the food
chain.
(SFC, 8/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 27, In Honolulu Marcus
Eriksen and fellow eco-mariner Joel Paschal celebrated the end of their
2,600-mile voyage on what they call the JUNK raft. They had spent three
months crossing the Pacific on a raft made of plastic bottles to raise
awareness of ocean debris. Research suggested that every square
kilometer of the ocean has an average of 13,000 pieces of plastic
floating in it. The floating portion was thought to make up only 15% of
marine litter.
(AP, 8/28/08)(Econ, 2/28/09, SR p.9)
2008 Aug 30, Brazilian officials
said Amazon deforestation jumped 69 percent in the past 12 months, the
first such increase in three years, as rising demand for soy and cattle
pushes farmers and ranchers to raze trees.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Sep 14, France's ecology
minister said the government is considering a "picnic tax" on
disposable dishes to encourage people to use reusable plates and cups
instead.
(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 19, PM Kevin Rudd
announced that Australia will launch a multi-million dollar
international carbon capture and storage institute to fight global
warming.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 24, In California a
mercury spill at Searles Valley Minerals in San Bernardino County
released some 90 pounds during a demolition project. Another 90 pounds
was released in a 2nd spill at the site on Oct 10.
(SSFC, 2/8/09, p.A21)
2008 Sep 28, Ecuadoreans voted on
a new constitution that would significantly broaden leftist President
Rafael Correa's powers and let him run for two more consecutive terms.
Correa's avowed quest for an "equitable, just" Ecuador won a major
boost as voters approved a new constitution that will help the leftist
president consolidate power and enable him to run for two more
consecutive terms. The new constitution conferred on ecosystems “the
inalienable right to exist, flourish and evolve.”
(AP, 9/28/08)(AP, 9/29/08)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.68)
2008 Sep 29, Brazilian officials
said the Amazon is being deforested more than three times as fast as
last year, acknowledging a sharp reversal after three years of declines
in the deforestation rate.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Oct 6, A panel of scientists
met in Monaco for the 2nd international UNESCO symposium on The Ocean
in a High-CO2 World. On Jan 30, 2009, they issued the Monaco
Declaration, which summed up their deliberations, and reported that
acidity of ocean surface waters has increased 30% since the 17th
century.
(SFC, 1/31/09, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/bdtj3p)
2008 Oct 14, The World
Conservation Congress ended in Barcelona, Spain. The meeting was awash
in gloomy forecasts.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.68)
2008 Oct 15, EU leaders agreed to
stick to ambitious plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020,
but divisions over how to share out the cuts were widened by fears over
the impact of the financial crisis.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 27, It was reported that
a new study, released last week, has found dangerous levels of toxic
metals in produce grown on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, formerly used
as a Navy bombing range, despite US government claims that the soil
there is safe.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 31, Petrofac evacuated 56
non-essential workers from the North Sea Heather Alpha oil rig after a
reports of 10-20 ton oil spill.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Nov 7, An environmentalist
group and four Nigerians filed suit against Royal Dutch Shell PLC in
the Netherlands, claiming the company was negligent in cleaning up oil
spills in Nigeria.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 10, In Japan a
California-based computer scientist, a Canadian philosophy professor
and a Canadian molecular biologist each received US$500,000 at an
awards ceremony for this year's Kyoto Prizes for achievement in the
arts and sciences.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 22, The Yellow River
Conservancy Committee reported that one-third of the Yellow River,
which supplies water to millions of people in northern China, is
heavily polluted by industrial waste and unsafe for any use.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Dec 1, A 12-day UN climate
conference opened in Poznan, Poland. During the conference Chief Bill
Erasmus of the Dene nation in northern Canada brought a stark warning
about the climate crisis: The once abundant herds of caribou are
dwindling, rivers are running lower and the ice is too thin to hunt on.
(www.environmentalleader.com/2008/12/01/un-climate-talks-kicks-off-in-poznan/)
2008 Dec 11, US Interior Sec. Dirk
Kemphorne announced major changes to the Endangered Species Act causing
environmental groups to charge that the ‘midnight rules” set to go into
effect before Pres. Obama takes offices were intended to eviscerate the
wildlife protection law.
(SFC, 12/12/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 12, The Bush
administration issued a regulation exempting farms from reporting
releases of hazardous air pollution from animal waste to federal, state
and local authorities.
(SFC, 12/13/08, p.A9)
2008 Dec 12, In Poland negotiators
at a UN climate conference broke through red tape and freed up millions
of dollars to help poor countries adapt to increasingly severe
droughts, floods and other effects of global warming.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 15, Australia pledged to
cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least five percent by 2020 to fight
climate change, but critics said the plan was a "global embarrassment"
and called for deeper reductions.
(AFP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 16, NASA said satellite
data indicated that more than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Alaska,
Antarctica and Greenland since 2003 among the latest signs of global
warming.
(SFC, 12/17/08, p.A20)
2008 Dec 22, In Tennessee a dam
broke at the Kingston Fossil Plant spilling some 5.4 million cubic
yards of toxic coal ash sludge near the Emory River. TVA officials
later said the spill does not threaten water in the Tennessee River,
which is fed in part by the Emory River. On Jan 2 federal data showed
arsenic levels over 100 times the acceptable amount in the Emory River.
In February the TVA estimated cleanup costs of up to $825 million. In
May the estimate for cleanup was raised to $975 million.
(SFC, 12/25/08, p.A6)(WSJ, 12/26/08, p.A2)(SFC,
12/27/08, p.A2)(SFC, 1/3/09, p.A3)(WSJ, 2/13/09, p.A1)(SFC, 5/2/09,
p.A4)
2008 Dec 27, It was reported that
the mountain pine beetle was expected to kill virtually every mature
lodgepole pine in Colorado. The beetle had already destroyed pine
forests from Mexico to Canada.
(WSJ, 12/27/08, p.A2)
2008 Dec 31, It was reported that
China has delayed plans to start the central section of its massive
South-to-North water diversion project by 4 years due to environmental
concerns.
(WSJ, 12/31/08, p.A4)
2008 Wallace S. Broecker and
Robert Kunzig authored “Fixing climate: What Past Climate Changes
Reveal About the current Threat – And How to Counter It.”
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.101)
2009 Jan 5, In Hong Kong a new
survey said one in five residents is considering leaving the city
because of its dire air quality, raising fears over the financial hub's
competitiveness.
(AFP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 6, South Korea said it
will invest 50 trillion won ($38.1 billion) over the next four years on
environmental projects in a "Green New Deal" to spur slumping economic
growth and create nearly a million jobs. Opposition lawmakers ended
their violent, 12-day siege of the parliament after successfully
delaying a key vote on a US free trade deal and other legislation.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 23, Japan’s space agency
(JAXA) launched Ibuki (breath), the first satellite dedicated to
monitoring carbon dioxide emissions. Officials hoped to gather
information on climate change and help the country compete in the
lucrative satellite-launching business.
(AP, 1/23/09)(Econ, 2/14/09, p.90)
2009 Jan 26, It was reported that
recent analysis of vials of treated wastewater taken from a plant in
Patancheru, where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues,
enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one
stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Feb 5, Turkey's parliament
approved the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The
parliament voted 243-3 after the Cabinet signed the protocol.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Illinois a broken
holding tank at a Caterpillar plant near Joliet spilled some 65,000
gallons of oil sludge and contaminated a 30-mile section of the Des
Plaines River.
(SFC, 2/9/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 10, A tanker burst into
flames after colliding with a container ship in a shipping channel off
the coast of Dubai. The Maltese-flagged tanker, Kashmir, was carrying
about 30,000 tons of oil condensate.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 14, Irish authorities
learned about an oil spill through surveillance carried out by the
European Maritime Safety Agency in Lisbon, Portugal. Irish military
aircraft flew over the area and saw the Russian aircraft carrier
Admiral Kuznetsov, a Russian oil tanker, and a Russian oceangoing tug
near the slick. this was the biggest oil spill in the waters around
Ireland in the last ten years.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, In the SF Bay Area a
sewage spill began at the Fort Baker treatment plant of the
Sausalito-Marin County Sanitaru District. By the next day some 300,000
gallons of bacteria-laden sewage had entered the SF Bay.
(SFC, 2/18/09, p.B4)
2009 Feb 19, In Spain the mobile
phone industry's biggest trade show wrapped up after four days that
delivered exciting news for technophiles, average phone users and even
environmentalists. During the show leading manufacturers announced an
initiative to produce a standard charger that would fit all phones by
2012 in a step set to reduce waste and increase convenience.
(AFP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 20, Chinese authorities
closed a chemical plant being investigated for contaminating water
supplies to 1.5 million people in the country's east. Water supplies
were restored after a five-hour shutdown. Biaoxin Chemical Company
caused "massive" tap water pollution in Yancheng, a city in east
Jiangsu province. Investigators identified the pollutant as a phenol
compound used to make products including air fresheners, medical
ointments, cosmetics and sunscreens.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 26, The Australian
government announced a multi-million dollar investment in research on
reducing gas emissions from farm animals as part of the fight against
global warming.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Mar 11, A California state
study said global warming is expected to cause a rise of nearly 5 feet
along the coastline and severely threatening SF Bay by 2100. The rising
waters could cost the state $14 billion of more to safeguard the coast.
(SFC, 3/12/09, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/12/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 11, More than 30 shipping
containers of ammonium nitrate fell off a ship in stormy seas off
Australia, damaging the ship's hull and leaking up to 30 tons of oil
[see Mar 13]. Swire Shipping's cargo liner Pacific Adventurer released
about 200,000 liters (53,000 US gallons) of heavy fuel oil off the
coast of Queensland state as it travelled through cyclonic weather.
Australia later sought more than 18 million US dollars in compensation
from a Hong Kong-based shipping company. In August the Hong Kong-based
Swire Shipping company said it will pay Australia 25 million dollars
(21 million US) in compensation for the oil spill.
(AP, 3/11/09)(AFP, 5/6/09)(AFP, 8/8/09)
2009 Mar 13, Dozens of popular
tourist beaches on Australia's northeast coast were declared a disaster
zone, with their once-pristine sands fouled by a massive oil and
chemical slick. Queensland state's marine safety authority said up to
100 tons of fuel were now believed to have spilled from the Hong
Kong-flagged ship Pacific Adventurer amid cyclonic conditions on March
11.
(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 13, Russia’s Kontinental
Management said it has closed for good its Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill,
located on the southern edge of Lake Baikal. It halted production in
October. The plant has polluted the world's largest freshwater lake
with chemical effluent for decades.
(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 19, A report issued by
the US Interior Department said one-third of the nation's endangered
birds are in Hawaii. 31 Hawaiian bird species were listed as
endangered, more than anywhere else in the country. The native birds
were threatened by the destruction of their habitats by invasive plant
species and feral animals like pigs, goats and sheep, habitat loss and
insect born diseases. The report also said energy production of all
types — wind, ethanol and mountaintop coal mining — was contributing to
steep drops in bird populations.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 25, The US House voted to
set aside over 2 million acres in 9 states as protected wilderness.
Legislators also approved a $400 million project to restore a 3-mile
stretch of the San Joaquin River in central California.
(SFC, 3/26/09, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/26/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 28, Sydney became the
world's first major city to plunge itself into darkness for the second
worldwide Earth Hour, a global campaign to highlight the threat of
climate change.
(AP, 3/28/09)
2009 Mar 30, Pres. Obama signed
legislation setting aside over 2 million acres as protected wilderness.
(SFC, 3/31/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar, Mexico City passed
legislation to ban free non-biodegradable plastic bags. It was signed
in August gave retailers a year to comply.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Apr 2, The US Environmental
Working Group issued a press release drawing attention to a study by
scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which
looked for the chemical, perchlorate, in different brands of powdered
baby formula. The study was published last month.
(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 17, The US EPA declared
that greenhouse gases endanger public health paving the way for new
federal regulations on pollutants. The Obama administration declared
that carbon dioxide and 5 other industrial emissions threaten the
planet.
(SFC, 4/18/09, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/18/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 19, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prize was awarded to 7 activists from 6 nations. Rizwana
Hasan (40) of Bangladesh was awarded for exposing environmental damage
and exploitative practices used in the country’s ship dismantling
industry; Marc Ona Essangui (45) of Gabon, the founder of Brainforest,
was awarded for exposing secret agreements for a Chinese mine project
that threatened Gabon’s rain forests; Yuyun Ismawati of Indonesia was
awarded for designing environmentally safe waste management systems for
poor Indonesia n communities; Olga Speranskaya (46) of Eco-Accord in
Russia was awarded for her efforts to control and store chemicals in
Russia and former Soviet republics; Wanze Eduards (52) and Hugo Jabini
(44) of Suriname, leaders of the maroon community, were awarded for
their efforts that led to a landmark ruling ending tribal exploitation
by the government. Maria Gunnoe (40) of West Virginia was awarded for
her fight against the practice of removing of the tops of mountains and
filing valleys below with tailings.
(SSFC, 4/19/09, p.A18)
2009 May 4, California’s State
Water Resources Control board released a study that said only 21 of 152
lakes studied were free of mercury and other contaminants. 131 lakes
showed one or more pollutants above state health guidelines.
(SFC, 5/5/09, p.A1)
2009 May 8, In Ireland Dr. Yuri
Melini (47), a leading Guatemalan environmentalist who recently
survived an assassination attempt, won a human rights award for his
efforts to stop the rapid growth of mines in his mineral-rich nation.
Melini received the annual Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders
at Risk in a Dublin City Hall ceremony.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 8, A federal jury
acquitted W.R. Grace and 3 of its executives on all criminal charges
that they knowingly contaminated Libby, Montana, with asbestos and
conspired to cover up the deed.
(SFC, 5/9/09, p.A6)
2009 May 15, In Hong Kong 63
governments approved the Int’l. Convention for the Safe and
Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. It aimed to make the business
of scrapping ships safer and greener by requiring higher standards at
recycling yards mostly located in South Asia. 107 environmental rights
groups complained that the UN accord, doesn’t go far enough.
(SFC, 5/16/09, p.A2)
2009 May 15, In Indonesia 6
Asia-Pacific countries, meeting at the World Oceans Conference, agreed
on a management plan to protect one of the world's largest networks of
coral reefs, promising to reduce pollution, eliminate overfishing and
improve the livelihoods of impoverished coastal communities. The Coral
Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security covered
an area defined as the Coral Triangle, which spans Indonesia, the
Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and East
Timor.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 19, Environmental groups
in Indonesia said Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper, one of
the world's largest paper companies, plans to clear a large swath of
unprotected forest in Indonesia being used as a sanctuary for
critically endangered orangutans.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 26, In Denmark business
leaders attending the World Business Summit on Climate Change urged
governments to order steep and mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases,
favoring a cap-and-trade system instead of a tax to set a market price
for carbon waste.
(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 28, US Agriculture Sec.
Tom Vilsack issued a directive reinstating for one year a Clinton-era
ban on new road construction and development in national forests.
(SFC, 5/29/09, p.A7)
2009 Jun 18, A study by an
environmental group said pollution in the Mekong River is putting the
rare Irrawaddy dolphin in danger of disappearing from Cambodia and Laos.
(AP, 6/18/09)
2009 Jun 22, The US Supreme Court
ruled 6-3 to allow a mining company to dump waste from an Alaskan gold
mine into a nearby 23-acre lake, although the material will kill all of
the lake's fish. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called the decision "great
news for Alaska" and said it "is a green light for responsible resource
development." The Kensington gold mine 45 miles north of Juneau will
produce as many as 370 jobs when it begins operation.
(AP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jun 25, The EU said it will
give China up to euro50 million ($70 million) to build a carbon capture
and storage plant that will test a technology aimed at limiting climate
change.
(AP, 6/25/09)
2009 Jun 30, Indonesia committed
to the conservation of its dwindling tropical forests in a multimillion
dollar debt-swap deal signed with the American government. Jakarta's
payments to Washington will be reduced by $30 million over the next
eight years under the US Tropical Forest Conservation Act.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jun, Sludge containing PCBs,
released into the Hudson River between 1946-1977 by 2 General Electric
plants, began to be shipped for disposal to West Texas. The sludge
along 197 miles had been declared a Superfund site. Cleanup of the
Hudson River began in 2009 at an estimated cost of $750 million, to be
paid by GE.
(SFC, 11/29/00, p.A10)(SFC, 5/16/09, p.A5)(SFC,
6/22/09, p.A9)
2009 Jul 15, In Turkmenistan
President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov led a ceremony for channeling
water across hundreds of miles to create Golden Age Lake in the heart
of the barren Karakum Desert, in a Soviet-style engineering feat that
some experts fear could unleash an environmental catastrophe.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 17, The UN said an
international accord requiring governments to publicly identify sites
of environmental pollution will come into force on Oct. 8.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 29, China’s state media
reported that contaminated drinking water has sickened more than 2,600
people in northern China, including 59 who were hospitalized with
fevers, diarrhea, stomach aches and vomiting.
(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 30, In China nearly a
thousand villagers gathered at government and police offices in Zhentou
township in Hunan province to highlight what they say is deadly
pollution being discharged from the Xianghe Chemical Factory in nearby
Liuyang city.
(AP, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 1, Chinese police
detained the head of the Xianghe Chemical Factory and the government
suspended the chief and deputy chief of the city's environment
protection bureau.
(AP, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 3, China’s state media
reported that more than 500 villagers in central China have been found
to have high concentrations of a dangerous metal in their bodies after
a series of leaks from the Changsha Xianghe Chemical Plant in Hunan
province's Zhentou township. 509 people were found to have high
concentrations of cadmium and 33 were hospitalized over the weekend.
(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Aug 7, The US Environmental
Protection Agency said the US Department of Agriculture has
agreed to pay $30,000 in penalties for alleged improper maintenance of
underground storage tanks in Puerto Rico.
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 8, In China hundreds of
villagers rioted after news broke about the lead poisoning at the
Wugang Manganese Smelting Plant in Wenping township, central Hunan
province. A crowd of 600 to 700 people overturned four police cars and
smashed a local government sign. China later detained two factory
officials after 1,354 children were reported poisoned by lead pollution
from the manganese processing plant.
(AP, 8/20/09)
2009 Aug 10, New Zealand announced
that it will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 10 to 20 percent below
1990 levels by 2020.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 12, China’s state media
reported that authorities in northern China have shut down the Dongling
Lead and Zinc Smelting Co. in Shaanxi province after it was found to
have caused lead poisoning that sickened more than 300 children. Media
later reported that 851 children in Changqing township had tested
positive for lead poisoning.
(AP, 8/12/09)(AP, 8/14/09)(AFP, 8/19/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Russia powerful
explosion took place during repair work at the Sayano-Shushinskaya
hydroelectric plant in southern Siberia. The death toll soon reached 69
with 6 still missing and feared dead after an engine room was suddenly
flooded. The accident produced an oil spill and the slick that floated
down the Yenisei River.
(AP, 8/17/09)(AP, 8/18/09)(AP, 8/21/09)(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 20, Australia passed a
clean energy law requiring the country to produce 20 percent of its
power from renewable sources by 2020 in move that could draw billions
of dollars of green investment.
(AFP, 8/20/09)
2009 Aug 20, A French
government-sponsored report was released saying that decomposing algae
covering some beaches in Brittany represent a serious health risk and
gases that can kill within minutes were detected on a beach where a
horse died last month.
(AP, 8/20/09)
2009 Aug 21, A massive oil and gas
leak forced the evacuation of an oil rig off Australia's northwest
coast. PTTEP Australasia, a Bangkok based company, said about 40
barrels of oil had been discharged in the initial incident, and it was
still attempting to bring the leak under control at the rig, which is
owned by Norway's Seadrill.
(AFP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 22, The EU published a
list of nearly 4,000 airlines that it says should reduce their impact
on the environment from 2012 or face being banned from European
airports.
(AP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 31, The European
Commission said an EU-wide transition of power-draining light bulbs to
more energy efficient ones will start Aug 1. The new rules follow an
agreement reached by the 27 EU governments last year to phase out the
traditional incandescent light bulb over three years starting this year
to help European countries lower greenhouse gas emissions.
(AP, 8/31/09)
2009 Aug 31, Nepal's PM Madhav
Kumar Nepal opened the first climate change conference of Himalayan
nations with a warning about the dangers of melting glaciers, floods
and violent storms for the region.
(AFP, 8/31/09)
2009 Sep 3, The Ford Motor Co.
settled a lawsuit filed by residents of a northern New Jersey town over
toxic waste dumped there in the 1960s and '70s. Thousands of tons of
paint sludge and other toxic material from Ford's old Mahwah factory
were dumped in Ringwood, and residents sued in 2006 claiming that the
waste led to illnesses ranging from skin rashes to cancer, and
threatened the Wanaque Reservoir. The Record of Bergen County reported
that residents of Ringwood will receive about $10 million.
(AP, 9/4/09)
2009 Sep 7, Yukio Hatoyama,
Japan's next prime minister, vowed to slash greenhouse gas emissions by
25% from 1990 levels by 2020.
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 11, A risk consultancy
said Australians have overtaken Americans as the world's biggest
individual producers of carbon dioxide, which is blamed for global
warming. British firm Maplecroft placed Australia's per capita output
at 20.58 tons a year, some four percent higher than the United States
and top of a list of 185 countries.
(AFP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 11, In Vietnam the
Canadian environmental firm Hatfield Consultants said new environmental
tests confirm extremely high levels of dioxin, the toxic ingredient of
Agent Orange, in people, fish and soil near Danang airport, a former US
air base where American troops stored the herbicide during the Vietnam
War.
(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 15, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed an executive order mandating that the state Air
Resources Board create a regulation requiring that 1/3 of energy sold
by utility companies in the state over the next decade come from
renewable sources.
(SFC, 9/16/09, p.A16)
2009 Sep 20, Trafigura, a
Netherlands-based oil trading company, said it has agreed to a
settlement with people who claim they fell ill after a tanker dumped
hundreds of tons of waste around the Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan
in 2006. Trafigura paid Ivory Coast's government euro152 million
(US$197 million) in 2007 to assist in cleaning up the waste without
admitting responsibility.
(AP, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 23, US President Barack
Obama delivered a stern message to global leaders to work together to
solve the world's most pressing problems in his maiden speech to UN
General Assembly. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon challenged world
leaders to cleanse the globe of nuclear weapons, tackle the threat of
catastrophic climate change and combat growing poverty from the global
financial crisis.
(AFP, 9/23/09)(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 24, Ireland, the first
nation to tax plastic bags as a way to stop them littering the
countryside, announced plans to double its levy to a 44 euro cents (59
US cents) per bag.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 26, The Australian town
of Bundanoon pulled all bottled water from its shelves and replaced it
with refillable bottles in what is believed to be a world-first ban.
(AFP, 9/26/09)
2009 Sep 26, China reported that
medical tests have shown at least 121 children living near a battery
plant in eastern Fujian province are suffering from lead poisoning, the
latest in a recent string of such cases that have affected hundreds.
The government has ordered the Huaqiang Battery Plant to shut about 10
days ago after local villagers approached the authorities with test
results showing lead poisoning in some children.
(AP, 9/27/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Thailand climate
talks kicked off in Bangkok with the UN urging nations to break the
deadlock over a global warming deal that is supposed to be finalized in
just 70 days time, and warning that failure to act would leave future
generations fighting for survival.
(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Sep 29, In California 28
parties, after a decade of negotiations, reached a tentative agreement
to remove 4 dams on the Klamath River, which have blocked salmon
migrations.
(SFC, 9/30/09, p.A1)
2009 Sep, George Zimmermann, a
Pennsylvania landowner, filed suit against Atlas Energy Inc. for
polluting his soil and water in an attempt to link a natural gas
drilling technique with environmental contamination. Atlas was
exploiting the Marcellus Shale, a vast gas reserve that underlies about
two-thirds of Pennsylvania and parts of West Virginia, Ohio and New
York State. Experts estimated that it contains enough natural gas to
meet total US demand for at least a decade. Baseline tests on
Zimmermann's water a year before drilling began were "perfect," he
said. In June, water tests found arsenic at 2,600 times acceptable
levels, benzene at 44 times above limits and naphthalene five times the
federal standard.
(Reuters, 11/9/09)
2009 Oct 5, President Barack Obama
ordered the federal government, the nation's largest energy user, to
cut its greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce its impact on the
environment.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/3326813)
2009 Oct 9, Burkina Faso's
environment minister, at the opening of a special forum on climate
change, said Africa needs 65 billion dollars (44 billion euros) to deal
with the effects of global warming.
(AFP, 10/9/09)
2009 Oct 13, China’s Xinhua state
news agency said 968 children in central China have tested positive for
lead poisoning in the latest environmental scandal to erupt in the
nation's smelting industry. Residents in Jiyuan city, Henan province,
had protested over pollution from three local smelters last month.
(AFP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 13, Activists from Congo,
Rene Ngongo (48), and New Zealand, Alyn Ware (47), and an
Ethiopia-based doctor from Australia, Catherine Hamlin (85), won the
Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "alternative Nobel," for work
to protect rain forests, improve women's health and rid the world of
nuclear weapons. The honorary part of the award, without prize money,
went to Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki (73) for raising
awareness of climate change. Each will receive euro50,000 (US$74,000).
(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 14, It was reported that
Swiss researchers have found that Alpine glaciers melting under the
impact of climate change are releasing highly toxic pollutants that had
been absorbed by the ice for decades.
(AFP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 17, Members of the
Maldives' Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals at an
underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming to
the lowest-lying nation on earth.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 18, Representatives of
the world's biggest carbon polluters began two days of informal talks
in London to map out common ground 50 days before a key UN climate
conference in Copenhagen.
(AFP, 10/18/09)
2009 Oct 18, Amazon Chief Almir
Surui (35), unveiled a project in partnership with Google, to make
public the encroachment of illegal mining and logging on his people’s
600,000 acre reserve in Brazil. Almir was evacuated for his safety to
the US in 2006. Eleven chief of the Surui and neighboring tribes have
been shot and killed this decade.
(SSFC, 10/18/09, p.A1)
2009 Oct 20, Representatives of
Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay announced a joint plan in Buenos Aires
to establish protected zones to halt deforestation in their countries
by 2020.
(SFC, 10/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Oct 20, An Indian official
said 8 South Asian countries have agreed they can't be part of any
climate change deal that sets legally binding limits on their emissions.
(AP, 10/20/09)
2009 Oct 21, China and India put
aside a diplomatic spat to sign a five-year agreement in New Delhi to
cooperate on climate change leading up to crucial talks in Copenhagen.
(AFP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 22, The EU said it has
launched an investigation into a prized Spanish wetland that has turned
bone dry through mismanagement of water resources and is now on fire
underground, white smoke now rising from areas where fish once swam.
The EU wants the Spanish government to explain how it plans to save Las
Tablas de Daimiel National Park in the central Castilla-La Mancha
region. It is classified as a UNESCO biosphere site and an EU-protected
area because of its birdlife.
(AP, 10/22/09)
2009 Oct 29, The US rubber company
Firestone said in a statement that it has conducted its own extensive
testing of discharge water in Liberia and found it was not harmful to
human health. The Liberian government has said a three-month
investigation found high levels of orthophosphate being released into
the water.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Oct 30, In the San Francisco
Bay the tanker Dubai Star began leaking fuel oil after a tank
overflowed during refueling. Coast Guard officials later estimated that
some 400-800 gallons of toxic oil leaked into the SF Bay killing at
least 37 birds along the Alameda coastline.
(SFC, 10/31/09, p.A1)(SFC, 11/3/09, p.C3)(SFC,
11/17/09, p.C2)
2009 Oct 30, In Puerto Rico new
Gov. Luis Fortuno's issued an order allowing large-scale development
inside a 3,200-acre parcel of land immediately north of El Yunque, the
only tropical rain forest in the US National Forest system. Previous
Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila had declared the Northeast Ecological Corridor
off-limits to all but small, eco-friendly projects after a preservation
campaign backed by actor Benicio del Toro and attorney Robert F.
Kennedy Jr.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2009 Oct 30, European Union
leaders agreed to contribute to a euro50 billion ($74 billion) annual
aid fund that would help developing nations adapt to climate change,
but failed to set a firm figure for exactly how much the EU would pay.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Oct 30, Indonesian officials
and fishermen said thousands of dead fish and clumps of oil have been
found drifting near the coastline more than two months after an
Australian underwater well began leaking in the Timor Sea on Aug 21.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Nov 1, PTTEP Australasia
attempted to plug a leaking well of the West Atlas drilling rig when a
fire then broke out on the rig. The operation to stem the leak has
involved the Thai-based operator towing the West Triton rig from
Singapore, which took five weeks, to drill down some 2.6km under the
seabed to the source of the emissions. The leak has dumped thousands of
barrels of oil into the Timor Sea since it began on August 21. The
blaze was brought under control on Nov 3 when experts managed to plug
the leak that has spewed tons of crude over the past 10 weeks.
(AP, 11/1/09)(AFP, 11/2/09)(AP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 1, In China a ship
carrying 100 tons of hydrochloric acid sank in the Yangtze river after
colliding with another vessel.
(AFP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 3, African countries
boycotted meetings at UN climate talks in Barcelona, saying that
industrial countries had set carbon-cutting targets too low for
reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.
(AP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 12, In Bolivia
authorities said that evaporation blamed on global warming has reduced
Lake Titicaca, one of the world's highest navigable lakes, to its
lowest level since 1949.
(AP, 11/12/09)
2009 Nov 13, The Dutch government
announced to bring the polluter-pays principle into the home garage. As
of 2012 rather than an annual road tax for their cars, drivers will pay
a few cents for every kilometer on the road, in a plan aimed at
breaking chronic traffic jams and cutting carbon emissions.
(AP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 17, In Beijing President
Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao promised a determined,
joint effort to tackle climate change, nuclear disarmament and other
global troubles yet emerged from their first full-blown summit with
scant progress beyond goodwill.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 21, The University of
East Anglia, in eastern England, said computer hackers have broken into
a server at a well-respected climate change research center and posted
hundreds of private e-mails and documents online, stoking debate over
whether some scientists have overstated the case for man-made climate
change. More than a decade of correspondence between leading British
and US scientists was included in about 1,000 e-mails and 3,000
documents posted on Web sites following the security breach last week.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 26, China announced plans
to cut its carbon emissions by up to 45 percent as measured against its
economic output, a commitment from the world's largest polluter that
builds momentum ahead of a widely anticipated climate conference in
Copenhagen next month.
(AP, 11/26/09)
2009 Nov 26, In Indonesia police
broke up a protest by the environmental group Greenpeace against
deforestation on the island of Sumatra, arresting 12 foreign and six
Indonesian demonstrators.
(AP, 11/26/09)
2009 Dec 2, Australia's plans for
an emissions trading system to combat global warming were scuttled in
Parliament, handing a defeat to a government that had hoped to set an
example at international climate change talks next week.
(AP, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 2, The World Bank said it
will give India at least one billion dollars to help clean up the
heavily polluted holy river Ganges as part of moves to sharply hike
lending to the country.
(AFP, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 4, Nepal's top
politicians strapped on oxygen tanks and held a Cabinet meeting amid
Mount Everest's frigid, thin air to highlight the danger global warming
poses to glaciers.
(AP, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 7, In Denmark the largest
and most important UN climate change conference in history opened in
Copenhagen, with organizers warning diplomats from 192 nations that
this could be the last best chance for a deal to protect the world from
calamitous global warming. This was the 15th conference of the parties
to the 1992 UNFCCC in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 12/7/09)(Econ, 12/5/09, SR p.3)
2009 Dec 7, South Africa offered
to slash the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent by
2025, but in exchange wants rich nations to expand aid for poor
countries to cope with climate change.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 8, The UN weather agency
reported that this decade is on track to become the warmest since
records began in 1850, and 2009 could rank among the top-five warmest
years, on the second day of a pivotal 192-nation climate conference.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 11, In Brazil a new
presidential decree suspended up to an estimated $5.7 billion in fines
and gave landowners two more years to comply with environmental
regulations meant to stop the razing of the Brazilian rain forest.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 11, EU leaders agreed to
commit euro2.4 billion ($3.6 billion) a year until 2012 to help poorer
countries combat global warming, as they sought to rescue their image
as climate change innovators and bolster the talks in Copenhagen. A new
draft agreement at the climate talks pulled together the main elements
of a global pact but left gaping holes on financing and cutting
greenhouse gas emissions for world leaders to fill in next week.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 12, In Denmark violence
broke out in Copenhagen as tens of thousands took to the streets to
demand tough measures on climate change, with demonstrators around the
world rallying for action instead of words.
(AFP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 14, In Denmark China,
India and other developing nations boycotted UN climate talks, bringing
negotiations to a halt with their demand that rich countries discuss
much deeper cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions. Representatives
from 135 developing countries said they refused to participate in any
formal working groups at the 192-nation summit until the issue was
resolved. African nations agreed to resume UN climate talks in
Copenhagen after a half-day suspension, accusing rich countries of
trying to kill the existing Kyoto Protocol.
(AP, 12/14/09)(Reuters, 12/14/09)
2009 Dec 16, In Denmark police
fired pepper spray and beat protesters with batons outside the UN
climate conference, as disputes inside left major issues unresolved
just two days before world leaders hope to sign a historic agreement to
fight global warming.
(AP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 16, Nigerian authorities
announced the creation of five committees that will address oil,
environmental and disarmament issues, following an amnesty in the
southern Niger Delta.
(AFP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 17, In Copenhagen US
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to put new life into
flagging UN climate talks by announcing the US would join others in
raising $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations cope with
global warming.
(AP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 18, In China an
environmental group backed by the government said it had won two
lawsuits on behalf of residents threatened by pollution, marking the
first time such an organization has been allowed to file a public
interest case.
(AP, 12/18/09)
2009 Dec 19, In Denmark the UN
climate conference narrowly escaped collapse by agreeing to recognize a
political accord brokered by President Barack Obama with China and
other emerging powers. A plan to protect the world's biologically rich
tropical forests was shelved after world leaders failed to agree on a
binding deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A small group of
nations blocked the Copenhagen Accord, because it lacks specific
targets for reducing carbon emissions. After a break, the conference
president gaveled the decision to "take note" of the agreement instead
of formally approving it. Experts said that clears the way for the
accord to become operational in practice even though it has not been
formally approved by the conference. Several developing countries,
including Bolivia, Cuba, Sudan and Venezuela, bitterly protested the
deal and said it is unacceptable because it lacks specific targets for
reducing carbon emissions.
(AP, 12/19/09)
2009 David Own authored “Green
Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the
Keys to Sustainability.”
(SFC, 11/4/09, p.E2)
2009 The US National
Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS),
estimated in the mid 1990s to cost some $6.5 billion, ballooned to some
$15 billion. At this point it was under review with the launch date
postponed to 2011.
(Econ, 10/17/09,
p.94)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPOESS)
2020 Deforestation of the Amazon
region was expected to reach 28-42%.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A10)
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Subject = Environment
End of file.