Ecobeetle's  Eco-Calendar

December

December 1, 1959 - Antarctic Treaty establishes the South Polar region as an international scientific reserve.

                      1997 - Conference on global warming began in Kyoto, Japan. Goal of conference was to set limits for carbon dioxide emissions by developed nations and to set deadlines for their implementation.

December 2, 1946 - U.S. signs convention to establish an International Whaling Commission.

                       1970 - U.S. President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency.

December 3, 1968 - UN General Assembly Resolution 2398 on the problems of Human Environment, initiates the Stockholm Conference (1972).

December 4, 1952 - An inversion over London, England, prevented the circulation of air, and trapped smoke and industrial emissions near the ground surface creating a dense smog that resulted in the deaths of approximately 4,000 people in a weekend from respiratory distress.

December 5, 1969 - The Endangered Species Conservation Act required the Secretary of Interior to create a list of endangered species worldwide that were threatened with extinction. The Act banned the import of such species into the U.S.

December 6, 1919 - Landscape architect and forest service employee, Arthur Cahart met forester Aldo Leopold in Denver, Colorado. They had independently considered preserving forest lands in a wilderness state to preserve intangible characteristics such as recreation and aesthetic values.

December 7, 1993 - Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary announced the U.S. government had conducted 204 underground nuclear tests during the previous 50 years without notifying the public.

December 8, 1906 - Petrified Forest National Monument was created as the U.S.’s second national monument when it was recognized that geologic features were being removed from the site.

December 9, 1962 - Petrified Forest National Monument becomes a national park.

December 10, 1976 -  The U.N. General Assembly approved a treaty to outlaw the manipulation of the environment for military or hostile purposes. The agreement prohibited the use of techniques to induce earthquakes, tidal waves, hurricanes or to penetrate the ozone shield of the earth.

December 11, 1980 - Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) created a National Priorities List of the nation's most polluted hazardous sites.  CERCLA also established a Superfund that uses taxes from oil and chemical companies to pay for clean up of hazardous sites.(U.S.A)

December 12, 1878 - Last authenticated specimen of a Labrador duck was shot on Long Island, New York. The duck was common on the northeastern coast but was already in decline when described by naturalists of the eighteenth century.

December 13, 1989 - North American Wetlands Conservation Act passed.

December 14, 1882 - George Grinell launched a campaign in the pages of Field & Stream to help define the status of Yellowstone National Park, protect it from commercialization, and prevent poaching of large game animals.

December 15, 1978 - Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), FDA and Consumer Product Safety Division jointly announced a ban on the manufacture of nearly all aerosol products containing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The ban did not include CFCs used in refrigerators and air conditioners and those used in the production of plastic foams.

                         1994 - The government of Ecuador ended the harvest season on sea cucumbers around the Galapagos Islands over fears that it would decimate the local food chain and negatively impact ecotourism on the islands. 97% of the islands are a national park that generates half of Ecuador’s tourist income.

December 16, 1974 - Safe Drinking Water Act approved providing the first U.S. national standards for public drinking water quality and protection of groundwater supplies.

December 17, 1963 - Clean Air Act approved, the first U.S. national air quality act "to protect and enhance the quality of the Nation’s air resources so as to promote the public health and welfare", but did not mandate a reduction in pollution.

December 18, 1991 - U.S. President Bush signs a Highway bill with a rider, the Symms National Recreational Trails Act, which approves $30 million for back-country trail construction. This is the first piece of federal "Wise Use" legislation promoted by groups interested in making greater use of public lands.

December 19, 1989 -Global Environmental Protection Assistance Act approved.

December  20, 1824 - A party of trappers set out from an outpost of the Hudson’s Bay Company for the Snake River. Their plan was to eradicate the beaver along the river in an effort to prevent the American trappers from moving toward the Columbia River which the British hoped to retain as part of Canada after boundary negotiations.

                      1988 - Animal Liberation Front explodes fire bombs in five cities across England.

December 21, 

December 22, 1988 - Rainforest activist Chico Mendes murdered in Brazil. Mendes had organized opposition to those who sought to cut down the rainforest for personal gain.

December 23, 1985 - U.S. Food Security Act passed including provisions for agricultural conservation programs.  The programs linked soil conservation to eligibility for other U.S. Department of Agriculture programs. One component, the Conservation Reserve Program, provided support for farmers to set aside 36 million acres of potentially erodible land.

December 24, 1970 - Geothermal Steam Act approved.

December 25, 1938 - Coelacanth, a fish long thought extinct, was discovered by fishermen off the coast of South Africa.

December 26  1985 - American scientist Dian Fossey was murdered at Karisoke Research station, Rwanda, where she studied the small, remaining population of mountain gorillas.

December 27, 1977 - An amendment to the 1972 U.S. Clean Water Act provided cost sharing with rural landowners to control non-point source pollution with the goal of making surface waters suitable for swimming and fishing.

December 28, 1973 - The third version of the Endangered Species Act expanded the definition of wildlife and declared that endangered species could not be "harassed, harmed, pursued, hunted, shot, wounded, killed, trapped, captured, or collected."

December 29

December 30, 1985 - Wild bison were killed during the first declared hunting season on bison in over 100 years. The federal government permitted shooting bison that left Yellowstone National Park out of fear that they would transmit a disease (brucellosis) to cattle on neighboring rangeland.

 December 31, 1970 - The U.S. Clean Air Act authorized the regulation of emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, ozone, and particulates. The Act centralized the control of air pollution in the recently created Environmental Protection Agency and created mandatory auto emission standards.