Worldwatch Institute has created an interactive web-based
timeline traces the evolution of the environmental movement
from the 1962 release of the book "Silent Spring"
to this year's World Summit on Sustainable Development. Links
to research, publications, and other resources are also provided,
as well as a printable PDF version. http://www.worldwatch.org/worldsummit/
Broken down by issue, Stakeholder Forum looks at the formative
UN events that have shaped the international agenda for sustainable
development that had brought us to Johannesburg. http://www.earthsummit2002.org/roadmap/
This is a short chronology of major events affecting sustainable
development efforts over the past half century. (This timeline
is primarily composed of environmentally-oriented events.)
| Year |
Events |
US NGOs |
| 1948 |
Water
Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act ) |
|
| 1950 |
|
|
| 1951 |
|
Nature
Conservancy |
| 1952 |
|
|
| 1953 |
|
|
| 1954 |
|
|
| 1955 |
Clean
Air Act |
|
| 1956 |
|
|
| 1957 |
|
|
| 1958 |
|
|
| 1959 |
|
|
| 1960 |
|
|
| 1961 |
|
World
Wildlife Fund |
| 1962 |
Silent Spring
White House
Conservation Conference |
|
| 1963 |
Clean
Air Act amended |
|
| 1964 |
Wilderness
Act |
|
| 1965 |
Northeast
US blackout
Water Quality
Act
Solid Waste Disposal
Act
Clean Air Act
amended |
|
| 1966 |
|
|
| 1967 |
Clean
Air Act amended |
Environmental
Defense Fund |
| 1968 |
Population Bomb
National Wild
and Scenic Rivers Act
National Trails
Act |
Zero
Population Growth |
| 1969 |
Santa
Barbara oil spill
Cuyahoga River
bursts into flames
Cyclamates banned
National Environmental
Policy Act |
Council
on Economic Priorities
Friends of the
Earth
Union of Concerned
Scientists |
| 1970 |
First
complete gene synthesis
EPA established
Clean Air Act
amended
Water Quality
Control Act
Occupational Safety
and Health Act
Earth Day (April
22)
National Industrial
Pollution Control Council |
Center
for Science in the Public Interest
Environmental
Action
League of Conservation
Voters
Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC)
Public Interest
Research Groups (PIRG) |
| 1971 |
Cigarette
ads banned from TV |
Greenpeace
Public Citizen |
| 1972 |
UN
Stockholm Conference on Human Environment
First returnable
bottle law (Oregon)
Limits to Growth
(Club of Rome)
Water Pollution
Control Act
UN Environment
Programme |
|
| 1973 |
"Energy
crisis" - OPEC oil embargo
Endangered Species
Act
Small is Beautiful |
Cousteau
Society |
| 1974 |
Karen
Silkwood killed
CFC danger reported
World population
reaches 4 billion
Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act
Safe Drinking
Water Act |
Environmental
Policy Institute |
| 1975 |
FMC
corporation dumped 3,000 pounds of toxic waste into
Ohio River |
Food
First
Worldwatch Institute |
| 1976 |
Seabrook
anti-nuclear demonstration
Federal Land Policy
and Management Act
National Forest
Management Act
Toxic Substances
Control Act
Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act
Fishery Conservation
Act |
|
| 1977 |
Blackout
in New York City
North Seal oil
spill (8.2 million gallons)
Clean Air Act
amended
Ocean Dumping
Act amended |
|
| 1978 |
Love
Canal contamination reported
Three Mile Island
radioactivity leak
First test-tube
baby
Amoco Cadiz oil
spill off France (70 million gal)
Oil drilling begins
off New Jersey shore |
|
| 1979 |
World
population reaches 5 billion |
Greenpeace |
| 1980 |
Global
2000 Report to President Carter
World Conservation
Strategy (IUCN)
Overshoot
(Catton)
Superfund (Comprehensive
Environment Response Act)
Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Act
Alaska National
Interest Lands Act
Low-level Radioactive
Waste Act
Alternative Motor
Fuels Act |
Earth
First! |
| 1981 |
Reagan
Administration begins |
Citizens
Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes |
| 1982 |
UN
World Charter for Nature
Nuclear Waste
Policy Act |
Co-op
America
Earth Island Institute
Rocky Mountain
Institute |
| 1983 |
Green
Party elected in West Germany |
|
| 1984 |
Bhopal
disaster in India
Brundtland Commission
appointed
Famine in the
Sahel, Africa
First Worldwatch
State of the World report
Resource Conservation
Act amended |
US
Greens (Committees of Correspondence)
National Toxics
Campaign |
| 1985 |
Rainbow
Warrior blown up by French government
Ozone hole discovered
in Antarctic
FDA approves bovine
somatotropin |
|
| 1986 |
Chernobyl
nuclear plan explosion (Ukraine)j
Safe Drinking
Water Act amended |
|
| 1987 |
Our
Common Future (Brundtland Report)
First debt-for-nature
swap
First US Greens
meeting (Amherst)
Montreal CFC Protocol
Clean Water Act
amended |
Conservation
International |
| 1988 |
Alternative
Motor Fuels Act |
Student
Environmental Action Committee (SEAC) |
| 1989 |
Exxon
Valdez oil spill in Alaska (11 million gal)
Valdez Principles |
Coalition
for Environmentally Responsible Economics (CERES) |
| 1990 |
"Big
Green" - proposition in California defeated
Coastal Zone Management
Act amended
Clean Air Act
amended
Northern Forest
Appropriation Action |
US
Network for UNCED, later Citizens Network for Sustainable
Development (CitNet)
Alliance of Northern
Peoples for Environment & Development (ANPED), later
becomes Northern Alliance for Sustainability |
| 1991 |
Persian
Gulf war
Global Assembly
of Women and the Environment and World Women’s Congress
(Miami)
Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge bill ended by threat of filibuster |
Women’s
Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) |
| 1992 |
UN
Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit)
in Riode Janeiro
Agenda 21 Programme of Action
World population
reaches 5.5 billion |
Integrative
Strategies Forum (ISF) |
| 1993 |
UN
Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)
President’s
Council on Sustainable Development |
|
| 1994 |
|
|
| 1995 |
UN
Social Summit |
|
| 1996 |
CSD5
UN General Assembly
Special Session to review progress on Agenda 21 |
NGO
Taskforce on Business & Industry (ToBI) |
| 1997 |
CSD6
(industry, fresh water) |
|
| 1998 |
CSD7
(SPAC, tourism, oceans) |
|
| 1999 |
CSD8
(agriculture, land, finance) |
|
| 2000 |
CSD9
(energy, atmosphere) |
|
| 2001 |
CSD10
(Rio+10 assessment of progress) |
International
Coalition for Sustainable Production & Consumption
(ICSPAC) |
| 2002 |
World
Summit on Sustainable Development |
|