Environmental Law History Timeline Activity



Environmental Law History Timeline Activity

Environmental Law Possible Timeline Events

|Year |Event |

|1681 |Pennsylvania colony governor William Penn ordered colonists to conserve one tree for every five cut down. |

|1872 |Congress passed the Yellowstone Act, making Yellowstone the first national park "dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for |

| |the benefit and enjoyment of the people" and "for the preservation, from injury or spoilation, of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, |

| |or wonders. . . and their retention in their natural condition." |

|1900 |The Lacey Act prohibited the transport of illegally obtained wildlife across state lines, and outlawed hunting in Yellowstone National Park. |

|1900 |Missouri v. Illinois and the Sanitary District of Chicago: |

| |Missouri filed suit against Illinois to stop polluting the Mississippi River with waste from the city of Chicago. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in |

| |favor of Illinois, thereby allowing the City of Chicago to continue draining city sewers into neighboring rivers. The Court issued this concern: “It |

| |is a question of the first magnitude whether the destiny of the great rivers is to be the sewers of the cities along their banks or to be protecting |

| |against everything which threatens their purity. To decide the whole matter at one blow by an irrevocable fiat would be at least premature.” |

|1905 |In his annual message to Congress, President Roosevelt suggested, “provisions should be made for preservation of the bison,” calling it a “real |

| |misfortune” should the species become extinct. The American bison population, once 70 million, had dwindled to fewer than 300. |

|1906 |Congress passed the Burton Act, which preserved Niagara Falls from hydroelectric power facilities. |

|1907 |Georgia v. Tennessee Copper Company and Ducktown Sulphur: |

| |Georgia filed suit against the Tennessee Copper Company and Ducktown Sulphur because fumes from the companies were coming across the state border and|

| |polluting communities, killing forests, and making Georgians ill. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Georgia, that the Tennessee Copper Company|

| |must regulate fumes that were traveling across state lines. Chief Justice Holmes opined, “It is a fair and reasonable demand on the part of a |

| |sovereign that the air over its territory should not be polluted on a great scale by sulphurous acid gas, that the forests on its mountains should |

| |not be further destroyed or threatened by the act of persons beyond its control, that the crops and orchards on its hills should not be endangered.” |

|1913 |After a seven year debate between environmentalists and Californians seeking water rights, Congress passed the Raker Act, authorizing the flooding of|

| |Hetch Hetchy Valley and the building of O’Shaughnessy Dam, in Yosemite National Park. |

|1916 |Congress established the National Park Service. Today there are approximately 400 national parks across America, comprising approximately 4% of the |

| |entire U.S., or 84.6 billion acres of preserved land. |

|1921 |New York v. New Jersey and Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners: |

| |New York sued New Jersey commissioners to stop dumping sewage in the New York harbor. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of New Jersey, and the |

| |dumping continued. |

|1926 |Salt Lake City was the first U.S. city to conduct a large scale survey of air pollution. |

|1933 |As part of his New Deal plan during the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to pass the Emergency Conservation Work Act. |

| |Under the Act, thousands of unemployed young men were recruited into a “peacetime army” called the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), also known as |

| |“Roosevelt’s tree army.” Their job was to protect against erosion and the destruction of natural resources. CCC camps existed in every state. |

|1935 |Congress passed the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act in an effort to control Dust Bowl storms, erosion, land use and conservation. Over |

| |100,000,000 acres of U.S. prairie land were affected by the Dust Bowl. The catastrophe inspired the largest migration of Americans in U.S. history, |

| |as 2.5 million Dust Bowl refugees moved away from the prairie. |

|1937 |The first ethanol plant opened in Atchison, KS. The biofuel brand, Agrol, was sold throughout the Midwest with the slogan, “Try a tankful—you’ll be |

| |thankful.” |

|1940 |Congress passed the Bald Eagle Preservation Act to prevent the extinction of the national symbol. The bald eagle was removed from the endangered |

| |species list in 2007. |

|1947 |President Truman established Everglades National Park. Just prior to the park’s designation, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas published The Everglades: |

| |River of Grass. |

|1954 |Heavy smog conditions forced city officials to close schools in Los Angeles for most of the month of October. |

|1959 |The Antarctic Treaty protected Antarctica from the dumping of nuclear waste. To date, 46 countries, including the United States and the former |

| |Soviet Union have signed the treaty. |

|1962 |Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, which warned about the dangers of pesticides, especially DDT, to water supplies and wildlife. The federal |

| |government outlawed the use of pesticides like DDT several years later. |

|1963 |Congress passed the first Clean Air Act, which regulated air pollution and emissions. |

|1964 |Congress passed the Wilderness Act, establishing the National Wilderness Preservation System to “secure for the American people of present and future|

| |generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness.” By 2001, there were 90 million acres of preserved wilderness in the U.S. |

|1965 |President Johnson signed the Water Quality Act to strengthen federal water pollution laws and outline water quality guidelines for states/ |

|1965 |Sierra Club v. Morton: |

| |The Sierra Club sued Morton to stop the building of Mineral King near Sequoia National Park. Questions arose over Sierra Club’s legal standing—they |

| |personally were not impacted by the building of Mineral King, so did they have the right to file suit? The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Sierra |

| |Club could file suit only if any one of its individual members were impacted by the building of Mineral King. Thus, the standing requirement that a |

| |third party with no direct interest in a case may file suit on behalf of members with direct interests was established. Justice Williams famously |

| |dissented, arguing that environmental issues, because the environment impacted everyone, were not subject to legal standing rules. |

|1968 |NASA released the “Blue Marble” photo of earth from space, giving Americans a first ‘outside’ look at their planet. The photo helped raise awareness|

| |of environmental issues. |

|1968 |The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act passed by Congress and President Johnson to protect waterways from pollution, commercialization, and development. |

|1968 |Colorado River Bill ended a decades-long dispute in the American West by authorizing the construction of the Central Arizona water diversion project,|

| |allowing the seven states of the Colorado River Basin to draw from the river’s annual flow. |

|1969 |Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River ignited, as the chemicals and pollution floating on top of the water caught fire. Images of the fire, along with a Time |

| |magazine article accusing the river of “oozing rather than flowing” sparked nationwide attention to pollution. |

|1969 |The National Environmental Policy Act was one of the first laws to establish the broad national framework for protecting the environment. The Act |

| |demanded that all braches of government give proper consideration to the environment prior to building airports, buildings, military complexes, |

| |highways, parks, and other activities. |

|1970 |The first Earth Day was celebrated by 20 million people across the country. Earth Day was first organized by Gaylord Nelson, a former Wisconsin |

| |senator, and Denis Hayes, a Harvard graduate student. Today, Earth Day is celebrated annually around the world. |

|1970 |The Environmental Protection Agency was established to “create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony.” |

|1970 |General Motors president Edward Cole promised Americans “pollution free” cars by 1980. |

|1971 |The Ad Council and Keep America Beautiful first aired the “Crying Indian” commercial on nationwide television, inspiring popular interest in the |

| |environment. |

|1973 |Congress passed the Endangered Species Act to protect what are now known as Endangered Species from possible extinction. |

|1974 |Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act to be administered by the EPA, protecting Americans from contaminated drinking water. The EPA still |

| |regulates public drinking water as a result of the act. |

|1977 |Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill et al.: |

| |The federal government, via the TVA, spent $80 million to begin construction of Tellico Dam in the Tennessee Valley. Hill, a scientist, held up |

| |construction on the basis that construction of the dam would harm the snail darter, and petitioned that the snail darter be added to the Endangered |

| |Species list. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hill, upholding the legitimacy of the Endangered Species list, in spite of the public funds |

| |poured into the dam project. Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote in his opinion, “It is clear that Congress intended to halt and reverse the trend |

| |toward species extinction whatever the cost.” |

|1980 |Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, designating over 100 million acres of parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness |

| |areas throughout the state. |

|1980 |The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund) was established to provide funds for cleaning of uncontrolled |

| |or abandoned hazardous waste sites, along with accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of pollutants or contaminants into the environment. |

| |The Act also gave the EPA power to prosecute polluters. |

|1987 |Long Island garbage barge, Mobro 4000, began a 6,000 mile journey up and down the East Coast, looking for a dumping place. The barge became a |

| |popular icon representing the mounting waste crisis in America, but in reality, the barge was simply a victim of circumstance, caught up in legal red|

| |tape preventing any city from allowing it to dock. |

|1987 |The Montreal Protocol, an international treaty, was first signed to eliminate ozone-depleting hydrocarbons from the environment. It was adopted by |

| |so many countries that it has been hailed as an example of exceptional international cooperation. Since the Montreal Protocol came into effect, |

| |harmful ozone-depleting hydrocarbon production has significantly decreased. |

|1988 |NASA warned Congress of the effects of global warming. |

|1989 |The Exxon Valdez oil spill dumped 11 million gallons of oil, devastating Prince William Sound off the coast of Alaska, and images of oil-soaked ocean|

| |life flood American homes. Spill results in Exxon v. Baker. |

|1990 |The Oil Pollution Act streamlined the EPA’s ability to prevent and clean up catastrophic oil spills. |

|1990 |A gallop poll found that 76% of Americans considered themselves “environmentalists.” |

|1992 |The Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, resulting in the signing of the Convention on Climate Change and the Earth Charter, a global pledge to |

| |control global warming. |

|1992 |Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife: |

| |The Defenders of Wildlife sued the Department of the Interior to modify the Endangered Species Act to apply to U.S. actions taken in foreign nations,|

| |rather than actions only in the U.S. or at sea. Based on the Court’s earlier ruling in Sierra Club v. Morton, the Defenders of Wildlife had two |

| |members file affidavits saying that they had traveled abroad to observe the habitats of endangered species (the Nile crocodile in Egypt and the Asian|

| |elephant and leopard in Sri Lanka) and planned to visit these habitats again. The Supreme Court ruled against the Defenders of Wildlife had failed |

| |to establish sufficient standing to sue, as outlined in Sierra Club v. Morton. The plans of the Defenders of Wildlife members to “some day” revisit |

| |potentially threatened habitats were not enough to establish actual or imminent harm. |

|1997 |Julia Butterfly Hill, age 23, lived for 735 days in the top of a 180-feet tall California Coast Redwood tree and successfully blocked its |

| |destruction. |

|1998 |David Chain was killed by a tree felled by foresters while protesting in a forest to protect the destruction of old-growth redwood trees. |

|2005 |Kyoto Protocol implemented as countries around the world pledged to reduce the emission of gasses that contribute to global warming. |

|2006 |Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore released An Inconvenient Truth, and the following year, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to raise |

| |awareness about global warming. |

|2006 |The EPA Issued New Air Quality Standards to control daily “small” or “fine” particulate matter—soot, dust, and particles too small to see. Fine |

| |particulate matter, which pollutes the air, comes from things like car exhaust, smokestacks, and coal-fired power plants. |

|2007 |Massachusetts v. EPA: |

| |Massachusetts files suit against the EPA for not establishing greenhouse gas requirements in the state. The EPA argued that it, as a federal agency,|

| |could not regulate individual state issues. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Massachusetts, that the states, via the EPA, may regulate |

| |greenhouse gasses. |

|2007 |Live Earth concerts around the world featured Madonna, the Black Eyed Peas, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, and the Beastie Boys, to raise |

| |awareness of climate change. |

|2007 |San Francisco Oil Spill: |

| |On November 7, a South Korea bound container ship struck a tower supporting the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge spilling 58,000 gallons of oil in |

| |the San Francisco Bay. Dozens of dead and injured seabirds were immediately found following the spill. The spill fouled miles of coastland and |

| |according to area scientists, could threaten the lives of the bay’s birds, fish, invertebrates, and marine mammals for years. A day after the spill, |

| |oil could be spotted 15 miles north of the city, and at least eight beaches in San Francisco and Marin County were ordered closed. |

|2008 |Great Lakes Compact signed by all eight Great Lakes states in an attempt to prevent distribution and sale of water to nonregions. |

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1916

National Park Service established

You are a museum curator, and have to create an exhibit for your community about the history of environmental law in the U.S. The American Bar Association has been working with your boss to assemble some very important laws, cases, and events related to environmental law to include on the timeline. Unfortunately, your museum can not afford to host an exhibit highlighting everything on your boss’ list. Your job as curator is to select the most important laws, cases, and events from the list, in order to best educate your museum visitors about environmental law and its impact on your community. What will you include? What you will leave out? Why?

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Directions

1. Review the list of possible timeline exhibit events.

2. Select 20 items from the list to include on your exhibit timeline. As you create your exhibit, you’ll want to look for the most important events, historically significant events, and the most relevant events for your community. You want your exhibit viewers to be well-educated about the history of environmental law and environmentalism in their community and throughout American history.

3. Use the large sheet of paper to create a timeline. Attach the events to the paper on the timeline, in chronological order.

4. Once your timeline is assembled, go the copy of timeline events stapled to this sheet, and mark all of the events that you used on your timeline so you have a record of them for later.

5. Share your final timeline exhibit with your classmates. Explain why you chose the events that you did.

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Homework Assignment

Using the list of possible timeline events, and the events that you marked as used on your timeline, write 1-2 sentences for each event describing why it is important enough to be part of your exhibit. In doing so, you should answer one of the following questions:

• Why should we know about the event?

• How does the event impact you today?

• Why is it important for your community members viewing your exhibit to learn about the event?

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