Apes Study Guide

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

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.

Endangered Species Act

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

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)

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

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

Lacey Act

prohibits interstate transport of wild animals- dead or alive- without federal permit

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act

regulates the effectiveness of pesticides

Food Quality Protection Act

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

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.

Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act

regulates coal mining activities in the US and requires reclaiming of land after use

Federal Mine Safety and Health Act

set forth federal health and safety regulations for all coal and non-coal mining operations in the US

Energy Policy Act

US law provides incentives, subsidies, for various energy resources including fossil fuels and nuclear and alternative energy sources

Safe Drinking Water Act

Sets maximum contaminant levels for pollutants that may have adverse effects on human health

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

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

Ocean Dumping Ban Act

bans dumping of sewage sludge and industrial waste in the ocean

Clean Air Acts

sets emission standards for cars, addresses requirements for reducing ozone depletion and acid depostion

Kyoto Protocol

controls global warming by setting greenhouse gas emissions targets for developed countries

Montreal Protocol

phase-out of ozone-deleting substance such as CFCs and HCFCs.

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Controls hazardous waster with cradle-to-grave system requirements

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)

identifies Superfund sites- designed to identify and clean up abandoned hazardous waste dump sites

Nuclear Waste Policy act

encourages development of US high-level nuclear waste repository site by 2015

Low-Level Radioactive Policy Act

requires all states to have facilities to handle low-level radioactive waste

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

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

Paul Ehrlich

a biologist who published The Population Bomb in 1968; discussed overpopulation and food production issues for future generations

Garrett Hardin

published “The Tragedy of the Commons” in the journal Science in 1968; argued that rational people will exploit shared resources

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

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

Thomas Malthus

a British Economist who said, “human population cannot continue to increase. Consequences will be war, famine pestilence.”

John Muir

founded Sierra club in 1892; fought unsuccessfully to prevent the damming 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

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

Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina

in 1974, determined that CFCs destroy stratospheric (good) ozone

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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