requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision-making processes by considering the environmental impacts of their proposed actions; requires agencies to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement detailing impact to the surrounding environment.
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Endangered Species Act
identifies threatened and endangered species in the US, and puts their protection ahead of economic considerations
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Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
lists species that cannot be commercially traded as live specimens or wildlife products.
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Marine Mammal Protection Act
protects all marine mammals by prohibiting, with certain exceptions, the taking of marine mammals in US waters and by US citizens on the high seas, and the importation of marine mammals and marine mammal products into the US
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Lacey Act
prohibits interstate transport of wild animals- dead or alive- without federal permit
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Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act
regulates the effectiveness of pesticides
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Food Quality Protection Act
sets pesticide limits in food, and all active and inactive ingredients must be screened for estrogenic/endocrine effects
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Persistent Organic Pollutants Treaty (POPs)
treaty originated at the Stockholm convention. Phase out 12 POPs, also known as the “dirty dozen,” such as DDT and PCBs.
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Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
regulates coal mining activities in the US and requires reclaiming of land after use
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Federal Mine Safety and Health Act
set forth federal health and safety regulations for all coal and non-coal mining operations in the US
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Energy Policy Act
US law provides incentives, subsidies, for various energy resources including fossil fuels and nuclear and alternative energy sources
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Safe Drinking Water Act
Sets maximum contaminant levels for pollutants that may have adverse effects on human health
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Clean Water Act
sets maximum permissible amounts of water pollutants that can be discharged into waterways. Main goals are to reduce surface water pollution into lakes, rivers, and streams
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Water Quality Act
amended the Clean Water Act by addressing storm water pollution issues- requires industrial storm water discharges and municipal sewage discharge facilities to acquire permits
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Ocean Dumping Ban Act
bans dumping of sewage sludge and industrial waste in the ocean
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Clean Air Acts
sets emission standards for cars, addresses requirements for reducing ozone depletion and acid depostion
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Kyoto Protocol
controls global warming by setting greenhouse gas emissions targets for developed countries
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Montreal Protocol
phase-out of ozone-deleting substance such as CFCs and HCFCs.
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Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Controls hazardous waster with cradle-to-grave system requirements
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Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)
identifies Superfund sites- designed to identify and clean up abandoned hazardous waste dump sites
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Nuclear Waste Policy act
encourages development of US high-level nuclear waste repository site by 2015
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Low-Level Radioactive Policy Act
requires all states to have facilities to handle low-level radioactive waste
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Basel Convention
treaty drafted as a result of hazardous waste from developed nations being shipped overseas to developing countries. It requires that developing countries must give full permission to accept the hazardous waste. As of early 2010, signed by 172 countries
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Rachel Carson
published *Silent Spring* in 1962; documented the environmental damage done by DDT and other pesticides. This book heightened public awareness at the start of the modem environmental movement
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Paul Ehrlich
a biologist who published *The Population Bomb* in 1968; discussed overpopulation and food production issues for future generations
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Garrett Hardin
published “The Tragedy of the Commons” in the journal *Science* in 1968; argued that rational people will exploit shared resources
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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
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Wangari Maathai
won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for “Green Belt” movement- planting trees in Kenya that provided food and fuel, and improved soil erosion and desertification
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Thomas Malthus
a British Economist who said, “human population cannot continue to increase. Consequences will be war, famine pestilence.”
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John Muir
founded Sierra club in 1892; fought unsuccessfully to prevent the damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park
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Gifford Pinchot
first chief of the US Forest Service; advocated managing resources for multiple use using principles of sustainable yield
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Theodore Roosevelt
president of the US from 1901-1909, well known for his conservation efforts. He established the first National Wildlife Refuge at Pelican Island
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Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina
in 1974, determined that CFCs destroy stratospheric (good) ozone
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E.O. Wilson
biologist who co-coined, with Robert MacArthur, the theory of island bio geography, which identifies factors that regulate species richness on islands
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Aral Sea, Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan and Mono Lake, California
a large inland sea that is drying up; its salinity is risking as a result of water diversion for irrigating crops
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Ogallala Aquifer
world’s largest aquifer; under parts of Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Holds enough water to cover the US with 1.5 feet of water. It is being depleted for agricultural and urban use
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Minamata, Japan
mental impairments, birth defects, and deaths caused by mercury dumped in Minamata Bay by a factory. The mercury was converted to methyl-mercury, bio accumulated in fish, and bio-magnified through food chains. Mercury entered humans who ate a traditional fish-based diet.
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Aswan High Dam, Egypt
the silt that made the Nile region fertile fills the reservoir. Lack of irrigation controls cause water logging and salinization. The parasitic disease schistosomiasis thrives in the stagnant water of the reservoir.
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Chesapake Bay, Maryland/Virginia
largest estuary in the US; lies off the Atlantic Ocean between Maryland and Virginia, and was declared a dead zone in the 1970s due to hypoxic conditions created from nutrient loading by fertilizers, which caused cultural eutrophication
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Love Canal Housing Development, Niagara Falls, NY
hazardous chemicals buried in an old canal leaked into homes and school yards. Led to the passage of CERCLA, Superfund Act
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Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania
March 29, 1979- emergency cooling system of nuclear reactor was shut down. Led to partial core meltdown. Containment structure worked well to retain all radioactive materials, but eventually some radioactive gas was purpousely released to reduce pressure in the containment structure and avoid a more serious accident
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Bhopal, India
Dec 2, 1984- poisonous methyl isocyanate gas was releaded accidentally by a Union Carbide pesticide plant killing about 5,000 people and causing serious health effects for 50,000-60,000
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Chernobyl, Ukraine
April 26, 1986- an unauthorized safety test led to a fire and explosion at a nuclear power plant- as a result, millions of people in Europe are exposed to unsafe levels of radiation
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Valdez, Alaska
March 24, 1989- oil tanker Exxon Valdez hit in a reef in Prince William Sound spilling 260,000 barrels of oil. It was the largest oil spill ever in US waters
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Yucca Mountain, Nevada
Proposed site for permanent storage of high-level nuclear waste, 70 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Critics are convened about the safety of transporting high-level radioactive waster to the site and the proximity of the site to a volcano and earthquake faults
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Three Gorges Dam, China
world’s largest dam on Yangtze River submerged ecosystems, cities, archaeological sites, displaced two million people, and fragmented the river habitat.
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Clinch River, Tennessee
Tennessee Valley Authority’s power plant near Knoxville had a wall breached in a retention pond holding sludge from the coal burning power plant. This released up to 1 billion gallons of mercury and arsenic-containing sludge into the nearby Clinch River watershed