Laws and Legislation Quiz

Kyoto Protocol

• Definition: International treaty adopted in 1997 as an extension of the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change that established legally binding emission reduction targets developed countries, aiming to combat global climate change.

• Situation: Romania failed to establish an initial report to comply with goals to reduce carbon emissions.

Clean Air Act

• Definition: An act passed in 1970 that regulates all sources of air emissions in the United States. 

• Situation: Banned the use of leaded gasoline for running cars to reduce urban air pollution

• Situation: Banned the use of CFCs in aerosols only in the US

delaney clause of food, drug, and cosmetic act

• def: This law makes sure that all food products are free of potentially carcinogenic substances. This piece of legislation allows the FDA to prohibit processed food from entering the markets that intentionally have cancer-causing ingredients.

• The Better Situation: FDA Bans Use of 7 Synthetic Food Additives After Environmental Groups Sue - they included myrcene, ethyl acrylate, and eugenyl methyl

• Situation: A tomato contains more pesticides in ketchup than in the raw tomatoes creating it

Endangered Species Act

• Definition: a legislation passed in the United States in 1973 that aims to identify and protect endangered plant and animal species from further population decline resulting from human activity

• Violation: A possibly or possibly not American citizen on American soil captures a endangered black-footed ferret from a wild prairie and eats it

Safe Drinking Water Act

• Definition: US federal law enacted in 1974 to ensure the quality of drinking water supplied by public water systems, promoting safe and reliable access nationwide.

• Violation: Toxic sediment and chemical pollution has been documented leaving Sweetbrier, a subdivision of 616 homes, and entering Martin Branch and Hurricane Creek, both sources of drinking water for Durham, North Carolina.

CITES

• Definition: international treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of international trade.

• The ——— act can be violated by illegal transportation and trafficking of endangered plants and animals between states and countries

• Violation: Commercial demand for vicuña furs increased poaching in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru, but this restricted trade of this species. 

• Violation: Maddie travels to China, poaches a critically endangered Chinese giant salamander, and sneaks it back across international waters back to her home in the US to love and care for.

Resource conservation and Recovery Act

• Main law in the U.S that is responsible for governing the disposal of hazardous and solid waste. The act was enacted in 1976 and is regulated by the EPA.

• Common violations include keeping outdated and discontinued chemicals in facilities and improperly disposing chemicals or solid wastes(dumping hazardous wastes down the drain)

• A company drained their old hazardous chemicals down the drain which leads to a nearby creek, contaminating the creak. 

CERCLA

• definition: program responsible for investigation and clean up of sites contaminated by hazardous substances

• What are sites managed under ______ called? Superfund sites

• Situation: Valley of the Drums: 

• 23 acre toxic waste site

• visualization of hazardous waste problem that led to creation and passing of ______

• Situation: After dumping 22,000 tons of hazardous waste into a large ditch in a residental negihberhood, Hooker Chemicals sold their land to the local school board for 1$. The low water quality, low air quality and smell of the area were all reasons as to why this legislation was passed. 

Montreal Protocol

Definition: an international treaty signed to conserve the earth’s ozone layer and levels by banning all CFCs

• What act/treaty aims to protect the earth’s ozone layer by reducing the emission of substances that are responsible for ozone depletion?

• Situation: Chloroflurocarbons are used in modern applications today, such as refrigerators, and air conditioning, and these units are present in many homes in the U.S, and around the world. Under what protocol that was finalized in 1987, did the U.S, along with many other nations;near universally accepted, designates the goal to reduce the amount of Chloroflurocarbons that countries emit into the atmosphere? 

  Violation: China has illegally been emitting CFC-11 into the atmosphere, with 40 to 60% of total global emissions coming from eastern China. Outlined since 1987, the emission of CFC’s such as CFC-11 has been deemed as illegal. This violates the ________ Protocol.

Clean Water Act

• Def: The _________ regulates discharge of pollutants and quality standard of US surface waters 

• Violation: Amalie Oil Company USA (AOCUSA) polluted rivers and oceans with oil