Environmental History Important Dates

2 million years ago

beginning of the Pleistocene Epoch, the most recent “ice Age” - Homo erectus emerged and used fire and cooking

200,00 years ago

Homo Sapiens emerged

10,000 years ago

last ice age ended. beginning of the Holocene Epoch. some homo sapiens began domesticating animals and practicing agriculture

5500 years ago/ 3500 BCE

end of pre-historic era and beginning of history

1492

beginning of the Columbian Exchange

1497

John Cabot arrived in newfoundland

1500

Portuguese arrive in brazil

1637

the pequots on long island were slaughtered by european colonists allied with narragansett chiefs from conneticut for control of wampum production

1642-1643

Miantomo argued for killing all european colonists except for their cattle but europeans killed him first

1750

beginning of industrial revolution in britain

1776

declaration of independence - 27th grievance was that england was not protecting colonists from “savages” trying to kill them

1780s

coal started to become integral to british economy

1780s

beginning of the Anthropocene

1855

heny david thoreau’s walden

1860-1865

US civil war

1863

celebration of the first thanksgiving day in US

1890s

over half of global energy came from fossil fuels (coal, some petroleum and natural gas)

1926

Vernadsky argued that the biosphere affects the climate

1945

atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end og WW1

1945-1940

beginning of the great acceleration of human impacts on earth

1965

petroleum surpassed coal as the main fossil fuel burned for energy globally

1970

us created the environmental protection agency (EPA)

1970

us senator Gaylord Nelson launched the first Earth Day tradition on Aprill 22

1970

US clean air act

1970

first “national day of mourning” protest on thanksgiving day for american indian's’ rights

1972

us clean water act

1972

In Stockholm, Sweden, the United Nations’ “conference on the Human Environment” issued a declaration of principles and made recommendations

1987

the UN’s montreal protocol successfully banned CFCs and reduced the hole in the ozone layer

1988

the UN formed the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

1992

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UN conference on the Environment and Development issued a declaration of principles and signed a treaty titled “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change” (UNFCCC) to stabilize greenhouse gases

1995

UN conference of the parties (COP) on climate change #1 (COP1) held in Germany

2000

Chemist, Paul Crutzen, et al, coined the term Anthropocene

2015

80% of global energy use came from fossil fuels

2020

The earth’s global average temperature was 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial average