APES Review - Key People + Places + Acts

CAFE Standards

Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards enacted into law in 1975, established fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars and light trucks. The fuel economy ratings for a manufacturer’s entire line of passenger cars must currently average at least 27.5 mpg for the manufacturer to comply with the standard.

Chernobyl, Ukraine

April 26, 1986, unauthorized safety test (irony), leads to fire and explosion at nuclear power plant— millions exposed to unsafe levels of radiation.

Three Mile Island, PA

March 29, 1979, nuclear power plant loses cooling water 50% of core melts, radioactive materials escape into atmosphere, near meltdown (disaster).

Texas is for ___ West VA is for ____

oil, coal

Yucca Mtn, NV

controversial as proposed site for permanent storage of high-level nuclear waste, 70-miles northwest of Las Vegas, near volcano and earthquake faults.

Aral Sea - Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan

large inland sea is drying up as a result of water diversion

Love Canal, NY

chemicals buried in old canal, school and homes built over it led to birth defects and cancers.

Aswan High Dam, Egypt

the silt that made the Nile region fertile fills the reservoir. Lack of irrigation controls causes waterlogging and salinization. The parasitic disease schistosomiasis thrives in the stagnant water of the reservoir.

Three Gorges Dam, China

world’s largest dam on Yangtze River will drown ecosystems, cities, archeological sites, fragment habitats, and displace 2 million people.

Ogallala Aquifer

world’s largest aquifer; under parts of Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas (the Midwest). Holds enough water to cover the U.S. with 1.5 feet of water. Being depleted for agricultural and urban use.

Minanmata, Japan

mental impairments, birth defects, and deaths were caused by mercury dumped in Minamata Bay by factory. Mercury entered humans through their diet (fish).

Bhopal, India

December 2,1984, methyl isocyanate released accidentally by Union Carbide pesticide plant kills over 5,000.

Valdez, Alaska

March 24, 1989, tanker Exxon Valdez hits submerged rocks in Prince William Sound—worst oil spill in US waters.

Clean Water Act

set maximum permissible amounts of water pollutants that can be discharged into waterways. Aim: to make surface waters swimmable and fishable.

Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act

requires coal strip mines to reclaim the land.

Clean Air Act

Set emission standards for cars, and limits for release of air pollutants.

Kyoto Protocol

controlling global warming by setting greenhouse gas emissions targets for developed countries.

Montreal Protocol

phase out of ozone depleting substances (cfcs —> hcfcs) - international

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

controls hazardous waste with a cradle to grave system.

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)

The gov’t “Superfund” act, designed to identify and clean up abandoned hazardous waste dumpsites.

Endangered Species Act

identifies threatened and endangered species in the US, and puts their protection ahead of economic considerations - recall standards of being endangered

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)

lists species that cannot be commercially traded as live specimens or wildlife products.

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act

regulates the effectiveness of pesticides.

Food Quality Protection Act

set pesticide limits in food, & all active and inactive ingredients must be screened for estrogenic/endocrine effects.

Low-Level Radioactive Policy Act

all states must have facilities to handle low-level radioactive wastes.

Nuclear Waste Policy Act

US government must develop a high level nuclear waste site by 2015 (see Yucca Mountain).

Rachel Carson

published Silent Spring in 1962; documented the environmental damage done by DDT and other pesticides. Which heightened public awareness at the start of the modern environmental movement.

John Muir

founded Sierra Club in 1892; fought unsuccessfully to prevent the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.

Gifford Pinchot

first chief of the US Forest Service; advocated managing resources for multiple use using principles of sustainable yield.

Aldo Leopold

wrote A Sand County Almanac published a year after his death in 1948; promoted a “Land Ethic” in which humans are ethically responsible for serving as the protectors of nature.

Thomas Malthus

sooner or later population will be checked by famine and disease, leading to what is known as a Malthusian catastrophe - earth’s carrying capacity sort of