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John James Audubon was born on April 26, 1785, in Les Cayes, Saint Domingue, Hispaniola (a former French colony; now Haiti). He was an American ornithologist, naturalist and artist known for his studies and detailed illustrations of North American birds. His book, Birds of America, was among some of the first written and illustrated annexes of bird populations in Early America.

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He was born in Les Cayes Haiti and lived from April 26, 1785, to January 27, 1851. He was sent to a nearby school and was tutored in mathematics, geography, drawing, music, and fencing. After trying and failing in several different types of business ventures, he concentrated on drawing and studying birds and began traveling around the country to pursue this work.

He was notable for his extensive studies documenting all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations, which depicted the birds in their natural habitats.

His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictorial record of all the bird species of North America.

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John Muir was born in the UK in 1838. At 22 years old, Muir became a student at the University of Wisconsin, where he took his first botany lesson.

He grew to be an early advocate for the preservation of wilderness the USA. Muir considered himself to have multiple different occupations, including farmer, philosopher, naturalist, etc. Throughout his life, he wrote numerous books and essays about his "adventures in nature". Muir devoted most of his life towards preserving for Western forests.

Muir fits into the APES curriculum through the Earth System and Resources, as he advocated for the preservation of Earth and it resources.

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Teddy Roosevelt - https://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/theodore-roosevelt-and-conservation.htm#:~:text=The%20conservation%20legacy%20of%20Theodore,within%20the%20Department%20of%20Agriculture.

Teddy Roosevelt was born in Oyster Bay, New York, on October 27th, 1858 and died on January 6th, 1919. His native country is the United States of America, but he was of Dutch and English descent. As a child, Roosevelt had private tutoring, he ended up graduating from Harvard College and briefly attended Columbia Law School. Teddy Roosevelt was elected to represent the Republican Party in 1881 in the New York State Assembly. A few years (1884) later after losing both his wife and mother, he re-entered the political playground, participating in the Republican National Convention, but losing two years later for the position of Mayor for New York City. Later he became the President of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Under William McKinley), and founder of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry. After returning from the Spanish-American War he became the Vice-President of William McKinley, but in September of 1901 McKinley was assassinated causing Roosevelt to take on the Presidency.

Roosevelt founded the USFS in 1905 (during his presidency), a sub-organization within the Department of Agriculture. He also put aside 230 million acres of land, dedicating 150 million to national forests in an attempt to conserve forests while ensuring the use of resources was sustainable. Roosevelt also created a Federal Bird Reserve which was used to help local wildlife. His presidency grew the overall National Parks System as a whole, as after his death 23 of the 25 sites were created with the help of Teddy Roosevelt.

Teddy Roosevelt’s impact on Environmental Science co-insides with several topics addressed within our Syllabus. To be exact, his actions aline with the Earth Systems Resources, Global Change, and Populations.

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Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872.

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President Grant signs the bill creating the nation's first national park at Yellowstone.

Native Americans had lived and hunted in the region that would become Yellowstone for hundreds of years before the first Anglo explorers arrived. Abundant game and mountain streams teeming with fish attracted the Indians to the region, though the awe-inspiring geysers, canyons, and gurgling mud pots also fascinated them.

John Colter, the famous mountain man, was the first Anglo to travel through the area. After journeying with Lewis and Clark to the Pacific, Colter joined a party of fur trappers to explore the wilderness. In 1807, he explored part of the Yellowstone plateau and returned with fantastic stories of steaming geysers and bubbling cauldrons. Some doubters accused the mountain man of telling tall tales and jokingly dubbed the area "Colter's Hell."

Before the Civil War, only a handful of trappers and hunters ventured into the area, and it remained largely a mystery. In 1869, the Folsom-Cook expedition made the first formal exploration, followed a year later by a much more thorough reconnaissance by the Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition. The key to Yellowstone's future as a national park, though, was the 1871 exploration under the direction of the government geologist Ferdinand Hayden. Hayden brought along William Jackson, a pioneering photographer, and Thomas Moran, a brilliant landscape artist, to make a visual record of the expedition. Their images provided the first visual proof of Yellowstone's wonders and caught the attention of the U.S. Congress.

Early in 1872, Congress moved to set aside some 2 million acres of public land straddling the future states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho as America's first national park. President Grant signed the bill into law on this day in 1872. The Yellowstone Act of 1872 designated the region as a public "pleasuring-ground," which would be preserved "from injury or spoilation, of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within."

For a nation bent on settling and exploiting the West, the creation of Yellowstone was surprising. Many congressmen gave it their support simply because they believed the rugged and isolated region was of little economic value. Yet the Yellowstone Act of 1872 set a precedent and popularized the idea of preserving sections of the public domain for use as public parks. Congress went on to designate dozens of other national parks, and the idea spread to other nations around the world.
READ MORE: The National Park Service

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President Grant signs the bill creating the nation's first national park at Yellowstone. Native Americans had lived and hunted in the region that would become Yellowstone for hundreds of years before the first Anglo explorers arrived. Abundant game and mountain streams teeming with fish attracted the Indians to the region, though the awe-inspiring geysers, canyons, and gurgling mud pots also fascinated them.

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1875: American Forestry Association founded

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1875: American Forestry Association founded

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This association was made to manage and conserve forests. They helped originate the idea of a national forest system and advocated for the expansion of national forests, and funded more than 1,000 forest restoration projects and planted over 65 million trees. https://www.americanforests.org/about-us/our-history/#:~:text=2020s-,1875,postwar%20development%20and%20intense%20wildfires.

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Carver lived from 1864 to January of 1943. He was born in Missouri, United States. He got his education from Tuskegee University and Iowa State University for a master’s degree in Agricultural Science. As far as his occupation he was considered to be an agricultural scientist and inventor. Carvers contributions to agriculture would be his founding of an industrial research lab where he discovered hundreds of applications for new plants. Another contribution is his discovery of hundreds of new ways for the use of peanuts, pecans, soybeans, and sweet potatoes. Where Carver fits into APES is satiability and improving soil quality.

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George Washington Carver - Scott Currivan

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George Washington Carver - Scott Currivan

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George Washington Carver was born in Missouri sometime in 1864. He was born on a farm into slavery a year before it was outlawed. He was bought and raised by Moses and Susan Carver. They treated him like their own child and taught him how to read and write. He moved to different schools around the country until he attended Iowa State Agricultural School for agriculture. He was the first black man to get a Bachelor of Science and continued to do graduate school to be a fungal scientist. He impacted the environment in his teaching of how to farm correctly and do so the most efficiently and sustainably. This ties into APES with our study about soil quality and sustainability.

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She was born in Minnesota and lived from 1890-1998, she graduated with a English Major from Wellesley Collage. During WWI she served with the Red Cross, and then went on to become a newspaper editor.

She dedicated her life to preserving the everglades, and in 1996 a amendment was finally passed that held polluters responsible for cleaning up the Everglades.

She contributed to the study of sustainability with her continued efforts in cleaning the everglade.

-Noah Shafritz

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1891: General Revision Act by Esleey Boadu

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1891: General Revision Act by Esleey Boadu

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The General Revision Act was signed into law under Former President Benjamin Harrison. This act allowed the president to set aside land for forest reserves. This act made it able for the Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve to be created.
Link: https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/1783897

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The Lacey Act was enacted in 1900 to prevent hunters from illegally killing game in one state and escaping prosecution by crossing state lines. It has evolved into a law that prohibits import, export, transport, purchase, or sale of species when that action would violate state, federal, tribal, or foreign law.

-Monaco Wilkerson

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The Act

The Lacey Act, initially enacted in 1900, is a United States law that bans trafficking in fish, wildlife, or plants that are illegally taken, possessed, transported, or sold. Prior to 2008, the Lacey Act only applied to a narrow range of plants indigenous to the United States and did not prohibit trade in plants taken in violation of foreign law. However, in 2008, the Lacey Act was amended to include a prohibition on trade in plants and plant products, such as timber and paper, harvested in violation of foreign law. This landmark legislation constituted the world's first ban on trade in illegally sourced wood products.

There are two major components to the Lacey Act plant amendments: a ban on trading plants or plant products harvested in violation of the law; and a requirement that importers of plants and plant products file a declaration identifying the scientific name, value, quantity, and country of harvest for most plant products.

The Lacey Act is a fact-based statute rather than a document-based statute. This means that its prohibition applies to trade in illegally harvested plants and plant products, even if the person trading in these products has paperwork or certification purporting to establish their legality. In other words, only actual legality counts -- no third-party certification or verification schemes can be used to "prove" legality under the Act if the timber was illegally harvested.

Penalties for violating the Lacey Act vary in severity based on the violator's level of knowledge about the illegal origin of the plant or plant product. Felony criminal penalties, including fines and imprisonment, may be imposed on those who traffic in plants or plant products that they know to be illegally harvested. Misdemeanor criminal or civil penalties may be imposed on an individual or company who failed to exercise "due care" to determine whether the plant or plant product was legally harvested. Due care means 'the degree of care which a reasonably prudent person would exercise under the same or similar circumstance" (Senate Report 97-123). The links below provide more detail about how due care has been interpreted under the Lacey Act. As opposed to misdemeanor criminal or civil penalties, the government does not have to establish any level of knowledge on the part of the person regarding the illegal nature of the product to forfeit it: civil forfeiture of illegally harvested plants or plant products may be imposed on a strict liability basis.

More information from various U.S. government sources regarding Lacey Act penalties and the definition and exercise of due care include the following:

Enforcement to date

The Lacey Act has a long history of successful enforcement as a statute prohibiting trade in illegally taken fish and wildlife, and over a century of case law on these older provisions of the Act is readily available. The Lacey Act plant product amendments have been used in at least four enforcement cases to date involving trafficking in illegal timber or plant products harvested in violation of foreign laws: a 2012 criminal enforcement agreement entered into between the U.S. and Gibson Guitar, a major U.S. guitar manufacturer, relating to ebony wood products imported from Madagascar; a 2016 criminal enforcement action against Lumber Liquidators for importation of wood flooring manufactured in China that was comprised of wood illegally harvested in the Russian Far East ; a 2017 criminal enforcement action against Young Living Essential Oils for trafficking in illegal rosewood oil from Peru and spikenard oil from Nepal ;and a September 2021 criminal enforcement action against Global Plywood and Lumber Trading, LLC, for trafficking in illegally taken wood products imported from Peru . Under the criminal plea agreement in the recent Global Plywood and Lumber Trading case, the company was required to pay $200,000 in restitution to the Ministry of Environment of Peru as compensation for failing to exercise due care when it imported illegally-sourced timber from the Peruvian Amazon, as well as a $5,000 fine.

The Lacey Act and other criminal statutes are also used to prosecute persons and companies who traffic in timber illegally harvested within the United States. For example, in April 2016, Harold Kupers, a timber mill owner from Washington State, was sentenced to six months in prison, six months of home detention, and three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $159,692 in restitution for violating the Lacey Act by trafficking in big leaf maple illegally cut on national forest land . Three men who illegally cut the wood also pleaded guilty to theft of public property or conspiracy to steal public property for illegally harvesting the maple trees in a national forest. In another case in Washington State involving illegal harvest of big leaf maple in a national forest, Justin Andrew Wilke was convicted in July 2021 of conspiracy, theft of public property, depredation of public property, trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber, and attempting to traffic in unlawfully harvested timber . Wilke was sentenced to twenty months in prison and ordered to pay restitution to the U.S. Forest Service. This prosecution involved the first use of tree DNA evidence in a federal criminal trial.

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The Act The Lacey Act, initially enacted in 1900, is a United States law that bans trafficking in fish, wildlife, or plants that are illegally taken, possessed, transported, or sold. Prior to 2008, the Lacey Act only applied to a narrow range of plants indigenous to the United States and did not prohibit trade in plants taken in violation of foreign law.

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Upton Sinclair was born in the United States 1878 and lived until 1968. He graduated from College of the City of New York in 1897 and he also went to Columbia for some graduate work. He was a novelist.

His most famous work was his book "The Jungle" written in 1906. The book calls out poor living conditions do to industrialization in the US. This brought light to the bad environmental/sanitary situation going on in the US at that time.

He fits into our study about the negative environmental effects of industrialization.

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The Lacey act banned trafficking in fish, wildlife, or plants that were illegally taken, possessed, transported, or sold.

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Overview of the Lacey Act (16 U.S.C. SS 3371-3378) | Animal Legal & Historical Center

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1905: U.S. Forest Service founded - Ori Gal

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1905: U.S. Forest Service founded - Ori Gal

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In February of 1905, under president Teddy Roosevelt's administration, the US Forestry service was founded with Gifford Pinchot as the cheif of the service. Their job was to care for the forests in the country with a large emphasis on combating forest fires.

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1905: U.S. Forest Service by Esleey Boadu

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1905: U.S. Forest Service by Esleey Boadu

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The U.S Forest Service was created by Former President Theodore Roosevelt to help manage public lands. They focus on controlling/ containing fires, protecting fish and wildlife, and managing public recreation.
Link: https://www.fs.usda.gov/

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Archie Carr was born on June 16, 1909 in Mobile Alabama. Archie Carr had a Ph. D in zoology from the university of Florida in 1937. He became a university teacher at university of Florida and a Naturalist. in the conservation movement, Archie Carr was one of the great heroes of the 20th century. A pioneering biologist, ecologist and nature writer, he launched an international campaign to protect various species of migratory sea turtles all over the world.
-he could be talked about when we learn about population and ecosystems

-Monaco Wilkerson

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To those in the conservation movement, Archie Carr was one of the great heroes of the 20th century. A pioneering biologist, ecologist and nature writer, he launched an international campaign to protect various species of migratory sea turtles all over the world. In so doing, Carr, who died in 1987, created the template for many successful environmental campaigns that followed.

Now, a Florida State University historian has documented Carr's life and analyzed his lasting impact in a new biography. Frederick R. Davis, an assistant professor of history at FSU, has written "The Man Who Saved Sea Turtles: Archie Carr and the Origins of Conservation Biology," recently published by Oxford University Press.

"Like so many others, I was inspired by Archie Carr's efforts in science and conservation," Davis said. "I've always spent a lot of time outdoors, studying birds and other wildlife. I've also enjoyed reading naturalists' accounts of their travels. So I found him to be something of a kindred spirit.

"What made Carr particularly interesting to me was the way his 50-year career mirrored the overall evolution of naturalist tradition, biology and conservation during the 20th century. As someone whose main research interests are environmental history and the history of science, I found Archie Carr to be the perfect subject for exploring these topics."

Born in Mobile, Ala., in 1909, Carr grew up in Savannah, Ga., where the family's backyard was filled with cages of snakes, lizards and turtles. He earned a doctorate in zoology from the University of Florida in 1937, and remained on the UF faculty for the rest of his life.

Early in his career, Carr's work was predominantly in the field of taxonomy - the systematic classification of plants and animals. He described numerous species and subspecies that were new to science. However, he went on to teach biology in Honduras from 1945 to 1949. This gave him the perfect opportunity to study Central American wildlife - and
to encounter sea turtles, which became his life's work.

"From a conservation standpoint, perhaps his greatest discovery was that a beach known as Tortuguero in Costa Rica is the most important nesting site of the endangered green turtle in the entire Western Hemisphere," Davis said. "In documenting their migratory patterns, he showed that these large turtles, which can grow in excess of 300 pounds, travel all over the Caribbean - even to the Florida Keys - but return to Tortuguero to reproduce.

"By protecting just one beach, then, he demonstrated how it might be possible to save an entire sea turtle population from extinction. Fortunately, Costa Rican government officials championed Carr's cause, and Tortuguero National Park was established in 1975. The turtle-tagging program that Carr began there in 1955 continues today, and recently, record numbers of turtles have nested at Tortuguero."

Through the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, which he helped found in 1959, Carr came to be recognized as the world's greatest authority on sea turtles. Subsequent studies took him to eastern African, Papua New Guinea, Australia and numerous other locales across the globe, where his message of international cooperation to save endangered species gained popularity.

A gifted nature writer, Carr wrote 10 books, some of which ("The Windward Road: Adventures of a Naturalist on a Remote Caribbean Shore," 1955, and "Ulendo: Travels of a Naturalist In and Out of Africa," 1964, in particular) were quite successful among general audiences and helped spread the message of conservation to the masses.

"For all of his many accomplishments, Archie Carr's greatest talent may have been his ability to build consensus," Davis said. "He conveyed a folksy, non-threatening demeanor that enabled him to interact with local fishermen and even sea turtle poachers, but he also was able to build successful sea turtle conservation alliances with governments around the Caribbean and the globe."

Additional information about "The Man Who Saved Sea Turtles: Archie Carr and the Origins of Conservation Biology" is available from Oxford University Press.

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FSU professor documents work of Carr, "The Man Who Saved Sea Turtles" - Florida State University News

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To those in the conservation movement, Archie Carr was one of the great heroes of the 20th century. A pioneering biologist, ecologist and nature writer, he launched an international campaign to protect various species of migratory sea turtles all over the world. In so doing, Carr, who died in 1987, created the template for many [...]

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1901- 1909: Now called The Golden Age of Conservation, Theodore Roosevelt made it a personal goal of his to protect as much nature and wildlife as possible. He worked for new conservation laws, and publicly spoke about the importance of nature to American citizens.

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Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, United Kingdom. He studied geology and biology. His contributions were largely in evolutionary biology. His theory of darwinism was that species can change over time, that new species come from preexisting species, and that all species share a common ancestor. His theories are still used today. His work applies to environmental science in the evolution of populations and biodiversity.

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Upton Sinclair was born on September 20th, 1878 in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1897 and did graduate work at Columbia University. He had a job writing jokes for newspapers and cartoonists and adventure stories for pulp magazines until he began writing his own books in 1901.

In 1905, he published a novel, The Jungle, intended to create sympathy for the exploited and poorly treated immigrant workers in the meatpacking industry, and instead exposed the horrific practices of processing meats in the meatpacking industry. This sparked widespread public indignation at the low quality of and impurities in processed meats and thus helped bring about the passage of federal food-inspection laws.
He addresses the sustainable practices that are now put in place in our society with food inspection laws which is part of our course description in APES.

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Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury England on February 12, 1809. He studied in a traditional Anglican Shrewsbury school from 1818-1825. He studied in medicine at Edinburgh university and theology. Charles is known for his contribution in developing evolution theories of natural selection. He stated that an organism is better adapted to the environment where it can change over time. Charles Darwin fits our study of the APES by the diversity of evolution systems in the biology and populations of species.

-Isabel Benitez

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Born in New York, Teddy Roosevelt attended Harvard and was an environmental advocate growing up. Teddy Roosevelt became the 26th president of the United States after the assassination of President William McKinley. Teddy Roosevelt helped preserve the lands of America by creating the National Park Service. He established the foundation for preserving the land of America. Teddy Roosevelts contributions helped to promote sustaining the natural beauty of the earth.

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1912: U.S. National Park service founded.  Seth Kaminsky 

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1912: U.S. National Park service founded.  Seth Kaminsky 

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The National Park Service was founded by Teddy Roosevelt helping to preserve the lands of the United States

https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/national-park-service

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Jimmy Carter was born in 1924 and is still currently living. His native country is the United States and went through multiple years of schooling. This included the US Naval Academy, GA Tech, Union college and Southwestern State University. He was a military officer, farmer, governor, and became president in 1977. He contributed many things to science/ the environment by his establishment of the department of energy in 1977, he improved the industrial growth through deregulation, and took multiple measures to counter the adverse effects on the environment. Jimmy Carters philosophy plays into one of our main topics of Earth systems and resources by owning a very successful peanut farm and making way for many future GA farmers to follow his footsteps and how he successfully used energy in our world today.

-Sophia Cominos

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Jimmy Carter - U.S. Presidents - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of Jimmy Carter, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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Jimmy Carter was born October 1st 1924, in Plains, Georgia. Carter attended United States Naval Academy, Georgia Tech, Georgia Southwestern State University, Union College. Jimmy Carter was a military officer, farmer, author, novelist, statesmen, and last but not least the 39th president of the United States from 1977-1981.Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders by issuing Proclamation 4483. During his term, two new cabinet-level departments—the Department of Energy and the Department of Education—were established. He created a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II). On the economic front he confronted stagflation, a persistent combination of high inflation, high unemployment and slow growth. Carter fits into the Energy Resources and Consumption unit of APES.

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Ruth Patrick was born November 27th, 1907 in Topeka, Kansas. Ruth eventually passed away on September 23rd in 2013. Her native country is the United States.

Her studies focused on limnology, which is the study of freshwater. Regarding her occupation, Ruth worked as a botanist.
During her studies she discovered that biodiversity with streams and freshwaters, depends on the health of the stream (the Ruth Patrick Principle). Not only did Ruth focus on research, but she also helped others have a further understanding about water pollution and how it doesn’t only affect the water, but it also affects the contents within the water.
Within our study of APES, Ruth fits within the category "Earth is a diverse interconnected system that is affected by ecological processes". Regarding our units, it relates to Land and Water Use as well as, Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution.

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He was born on February 6, 1911 at Illinois, U.S and died on June 5, 2004. He went to high school in "Dixon High School" and proceded to attend Eureka College. He had many occupations such as, politician, unionist, actor, author, and broadcaster. While he served as the 40th president of the United States, he dismissed proposal to halt acid rain finding them burdensome to industry. This was significant since when halt acid attacks it can damage surfaces. It begins to be part of the global change portion of APES.

- Joana D.

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The Taylor Grazing Act ended open grazing on public rangelands and established the Division of Grazing in the Department of Interior to regulate entry and practices on around 80 million acres of previously unreserved federal lands.

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TAYLOR GRAZING ACT

Public agency management of the federal grazing lands began with the passage of the Taylor Grazing Act on June 28, 1934, as dust from the worst storms in the nation's history settled on Washington DC. Enacted after decades of rangeland deterioration, conflicts between cattle ranchers and migratory sheepherders, jurisdictional disputes, and states' rights debates, the act and its amendments ended free access to the range. The purposes of the act were to stop injury to the public lands; provide for their orderly use, improvement, and development; and stabilize the livestock industry dependent on the public range. The new law effectively closed the rangelands to homesteading in the Dakotas and western states.

The act as amended in 1936 established grazing districts on the vacant, unappropriated and unreserved lands of the public domain: fifty-nine districts encompassing 168 million acres of federal land and 97 million acres otherwise owned. The act, as amended in 1939, established grazing advisory boards, primarily composed of livestock owners. Board duties included the allocation of permits and the determination of boundaries, seasons of use, and the carrying capacity of the range. This gave rise to the Federal Range Code and the criticism by some commentators that the advisory boards constituted a private government.

A new permit system granted grazing privileges by preference to ranchers who had actually used a grazing district's land during a priority period before 1934. Owners of land or water rights who could support livestock on base ranches during seasons when herds were not on the grazing districts were favored; those without property were not. Technically, the grazing permit is a revocable license under the law, not creating any right, title, interest, or estate in or to land, but it is considered by many to be a unique form of ownership, constituting a property right of the utmost importance.

The act created the Grazing Service, but inadequate funding prevented effective observation and evaluation of range use. Permitted animal unit months were set at preexisting 1934 stock levels. Efforts to reduce stock levels inevitably failed. The Grazing Service and General Land Office were consolidated in 1946 to form the Bureau of Land Management, which continues today to administer grazing lands not in the national forests.

The basis for grazing fees has always been controversial. Initially fees were set to cover only administrative costs. Western senators have opposed increasing the fees, despite obvious shortages of administrative resources, arguing that costs are higher on lower quality lands and fees comparable to those charged by the Forest Service would be unfair. Other legislators and groups interested in conservation and recreation have called for increased fees as a condition for larger appropriations. The 1970 Public Land Law Review Commission and a 1986 study by the General Accounting Office recommended raising the fee to fair market value. Efforts in the Department of the Interior to increase fees, however, were abandoned after the 1994 election.

Subchapter IV of the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act of 1976 and the Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978 have superceded the Taylor Grazing Act. Measuring carrying capacity, determining a viable basis for grazing fees, incorporating public participation into land management decisions, and balancing competing demands for access all continue to challenge rangeland policymakers.

See also POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT: New Deal.

Laurence A. Clement Jr. Kansas State University

Clawson, Marion, and Burnell Held. The Federal Lands: Their Use and Management. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1957.

Coggins, George Cameron, and Robert L. Glicksman. Public Natural Resources Law. St. Paul: West Group, 1998.

Foss, Phillip O. Politics and Grass: The Administration of Grazing on the Public Domain. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1960.

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Public agency management of the federal grazing lands began with the passage of the Taylor Grazing Act on June 28, 1934, as dust from the worst storms in the nation's history settled on Washington DC. Enacted after decades of rangeland deterioration, conflicts between cattle ranchers and migratory sheepherders, jurisdictional disputes, and states' rights debates, the act and its amendments ended free access to the range.

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Born in April 3, 1934 in London, England. and is still alive to this day. Jane goes to secretarial school, gets a job at Oxford university. A friend invites her to visit their family farm in Kenya. She goes back to school in Cambridge university and becomes a primatologist and anthropologist. Jane Goodall cleared the misunderstandings of chimpanzees and discovering new things about them: omnivorous, make tools, high developed social behaviors. This person fit into the biodiversity of APES as chimpanzees are apart of a ecosystems diversity of animals.

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Jane Goodall was born in Bournemouth, England on April 3, 1934, she spent a lot of her time outdoors with animals. Jane was unable to afford college after graduation but got accepted into South Kensington, since a child she had a dream of going to Africa and living among the animals and learning from them. In 1957 she got on ship called the Kenya Castle and went to Africa to stay with a friend.  While there she was able to interact with the environment and began to study chimpanzees and their interactions with each other an the terrain, years later Jane wrote a book on her studies that was published by the National Geographic which ended receiving multiple rewards. This fits into the biodiversity aspect of Apes.

- Milan Nelson

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Ansel Adams was born in San Fransisco in February of 1902. He was a Landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black and white photos of the American West. He is known as one of, if not the greatest, photographers of all time. He was a huge advocate for the environment and used his incredible photos to raise awareness and conservation for the environment. He is relevant to our study of APES because he inspired the environmentalist movement and helped to pass environmental legislation.

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Upton, who majored in journalism at City College of New York, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1878. He became a Muckraker as a result of his career. a reporter who exposes unethical corporate practices. The Jungle, which he published in 1906 and which exposed the abhorrent commercial methods of the meat packing industry, is his most well-known work. His work shocked the country and sparked support for tighter control of the meat processing sector. The Pure Food and Drug Act, which regulated the food processing industry, was passed in 1906 largely to Upton Sinclair's efforts.

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Lester brown born in 1934 and is still around today. Brown earned his degree in agricultural science in 1955 at Rutgers University. He earned his master’s degree in agriculture at Maryland. In May 2001, he founded the Earth Policy Institute to provide a vision and a road map for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy. He believed that no one has the right to claim the earth and that we should be trying to protect the earth from misuses.

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Going green is the thing to do these days. The buzzwords include "sustainability," "eco-friendly," and "carbon footprint." For many, it may seem like the environmental movement started with Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth. But the first research institute devoted to the analysis of global environmental issues-the Worldwatch Institute-was founded by Lester Brown in 1974. On Thursday, June 18, Brown will speak about his life and work as an environmentalist and author.

Lester Brown had a strong influence on the early environmental movement. He has focused on such problems as the food/population equation, eroding soils, falling water tables, disappearing species, and more. In 2001, Brown founded the Earth Policy Institute to provide a vision and a road map for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy.

Brown comes to the museum as part of the "Portrait of Invention" series put on by the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. We've had a longstanding interest in environmental history and practice at the Lemelson Center. In 1998 we presented a symposium on "Inventing for the Environment" and published a book on the subject in 2003. Our director, Arthur Molella, blogged about eco-cities in April. This program gives us a chance to examine the innovation required to solve today's environmental problems and record the oral history of Lester Brown, an innovator himself.

We're fortunate that Marc Pachter, former director of the National Portrait Gallery, will host the program. A cultural historian, Pachter is an innovator in the field of biography through his "Living Self Portraits" public interview series.

Hosting a renowned environmentalist like Lester Brown has challenged the Lemelson Center and the museum to be innovative in how we present the event. There will be no bottled water at the event and we're trying to be as paperless as possible-invitations went out by email and the program booklets have been printed on recycled paper with soy ink. Brown has inspired us to be more eco-friendly. Come on Thursday, June 18, and let him inspire you.
Kate Wiley is the communications assistant for the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History.

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Inspired by environmentalist Lester Brown

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Going green is the thing to do these days. The buzzwords include "sustainability," "eco-friendly," and "carbon footprint." For many, it may seem like the environmental movement started with Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth. But the first research institute devoted to the analysis of global environmental issues-the Worldwatch Institute-was founded by Lester Brown in 1974.

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Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York, New York on Oct. 27 1858.
He attended Harvard for 4 years and shortly after that attended Colombia Law for a short period of time before he left to pursue a career in politics.
Teddy at the age of 43 became the 26th President of the United States
Teddy Roosevelt was a huge Environmental advocate and during his presidency established many National Parks that we know and love today such as the famous Wind Cave in Oregon.
He relates to our Land and Water use topic because he made sure to set land aside to preserve the natural state of our environment.

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Upton was Born in Baltimore Maryland in 1878 and attended the city college of New York majoring in journalism. His career led him to become a Muckraker. A journalist that exposes poor business practices. His most renowned work was the publication of the Jungle in 1906; in which he exposed the horrendous business practices of the meat packing industry. His work took the nation by surprise and drew support for more regulation of the meat packing industry. In 1906; thanks to the work of Upton Sinclair the pure food and drug act was passed regulating the food processing industry.

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Allowed for the regulation of grazing on public lands to prevent overgrazing and soil deterioration. Meant to help the livestock industry dependent on public ranges. https://livingnewdeal.org/glossary/taylor-grazing-act-1935/
-Samantha Londe

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The National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (1968) - Ellen Evangelista 

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The National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (1968) - Ellen Evangelista 

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The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created (in 1968) in order to preserve the natural, cultural, and recreational values of certain rivers, for the enjoyment of people now and in the future.
rivers.gov/wsr-act.php

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Dr.Seuss' Lorax was written and published (1971) ETHAN VAYLE

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Dr.Seuss' Lorax was written and published (1971) ETHAN VAYLE

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The Lorax was a book published and written by Dr.Seuss. It raises awareness of the destruction of the environment since the book is about a character named "Lorax" who "speaks for the trees" and the plot surfaces around trees being cut down for money. The main message is that it's up to us to make a change in the environment.
https://electrek.co/2021/08/12/50-years-on-the-lorax-still-has-valuable-messages-for-us-here-are-3/

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(1979) 3 Mile Island Nuclear Accident - Eva Serotta

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(1979) 3 Mile Island Nuclear Accident - Eva Serotta

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This nuclear accident was the largest and most serious accident in the US regarding a commercial nuclear power plant. It occurred on a man-made island in rural Pennsylvania because of the plant's Unit 2 reactor meltdown. It led to major reforms in nuclear energy laws and protection like enhanced safety and training.
(Link in picture)

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Allows individuals or organizations to petition to have species listed as endangered or threatened and requires protection of species in danger.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/the-us-endangered-species-act
- Samantha Londe

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This law allows for petitions to be created and promoted through public support. These petitions will go through a thorough evaluation and decisions will be made to determine if the species will be protected.

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1976 RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act)- Mollie Binderman

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1976 RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act)- Mollie Binderman

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The RCRA was published in October 1976. It was amended from the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965. The public law sets boundaries and rules of how to manage hazardous and non-hazardous waste.
https://www.epa.gov/rcra/resource-conservation-and-recovery-act-rcra-overview

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The Clean Water Act was initially published in October 1972. This act established the basic structure for regulating pollutants as they go into the waters of the US. This would regulate the quality standards to ensure water remains as fresh as possible.
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-water-act

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Jimmy Carter was born in Georgia on October 1, 1924. He attended Union College, United States Naval Academy, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Georgia Southwestern State University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science. He was president from 1977 to 1981. Carter was the first president to acknowledge that we have a climate crisis. His work applies to the energy resources and consumption unit because he created the department of energy.
- Samantha Londe

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William T. Love began digging a canal between upper and lower Nigeria Rivers in 1892 but the canal shattered in 1910 and would later be turned into a municipal and Industrial chemical dumpsite. The Hooker Chemical Company would operate that property badly until 1953 when they sold it to the city for $1. Many years after that in 1978 and article same out revealing that these landfills where ticking bombs and just a couple months later the Love Canal exploded. This would cause trees and gardens to turn black and the there were puddle of toxins.
Article: https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/love-canal-tragedy.html
- Michelle Garcia

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Love Canal, NY (1978) - Ellen Evangelista 

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Love Canal, NY (1978) - Ellen Evangelista 

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The love canal was originally just an abandoned canal. Over time, it became a dumping ground for about 22,000 TONS of chemical waste, which had been produced in the 1940s and 1950s by the Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corporation. It was found out that around 82 different compounds (11 being carcinogens) had been making its way up to the surface through means of the soil, causing drum containers to rot and contents leaked into the basements and backyards of about 100 homes. In 1978 the state health commissioner declared a state of emergency and they closed down schools and relocated pregnant women and young children further from the canal.
https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/love-canal-tragedy.html

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3 Mile Island Nuclear Accident (1979) ETHAN VAYLE

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3 Mile Island Nuclear Accident (1979) ETHAN VAYLE

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The 3 Mile Island Nuclear Accident was a meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. It is known as the worst accident in the history of the U.S nuclear power industry. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28th but killed no one immediately. It did indirectly kill many in the future due to radiation.
Three Mile Island accident | nuclear accident, Pennsylvania, United States [1979] | Britannica

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Table of Contents

This article was most recently revised and updated by

Three Mile Island accident, accident in 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station that was the most serious in the history of the American nuclear power industry. The Three Mile Island power station was named after the island on which it was situated in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pa. At 4:00 am on March 28, an automatically operated valve in the Unit 2 reactor mistakenly closed, shutting off the water supply to the main feedwater system (the system that transfers heat from the water actually circulating in the reactor core). This caused the reactor core to shut down automatically, but a series of equipment and instrument malfunctions, human errors in operating procedures, and mistaken decisions in the ensuing hours led to a serious loss of water coolant from the reactor core. As a result, the core was partially exposed, and the zirconium cladding of its fuel reacted with the surrounding superheated steam to form a large accumulation of hydrogen gas, some of which escaped from the core into the containment vessel of the reactor building. Very little of this and other radioactive gases actually escaped into the atmosphere, and they did not constitute a threat to the health of the surrounding population. In the following days adequate coolant water circulation in the core was restored.

The accident at Three Mile Island, though minuscule in its health consequences, had widespread and profound effects on the American nuclear power industry. It resulted in the immediate (though temporary) closing of seven operating reactors like those at Three Mile Island. A moratorium on the licensing of all new reactors was also temporarily imposed, and the whole process of approval for new plants by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was significantly slowed for years after the accident. No new reactors were ordered by utility companies in the United States from 1979 through the mid-1980s. The accident increased public fears about the safety of nuclear reactors and strengthened public opposition to the construction of new plants. The unharmed Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island did not resume operation until 1985. The cleanup of Unit 2 continued until 1990; damage to the unit was so severe, however (52 percent of the core melted down), that it remained unusable.

Erik Gregersen.

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Three Mile Island accident | 1979, Pennsylvania, US

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Three Mile Island accident, accident in 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station that was the most serious in the history of the American nuclear power industry. The Three Mile Island power station was named after the island on which it was situated in the Susquehanna River near

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Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act March 16, 1934

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Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act March 16, 1934

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The Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act requires waterfowl hunters who are 16+ to purchase and possess a valid Federal water flow hunting stamp before taking migratory water flow.

- Joana D.

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Ken Saro-Wiwa was a powerful activist October 10th, 1941 through November 10, 1995. He is originally from Nigeria, and passed away there as well. Saro-Wiwa gained an education from Government College, Umuahia, and the University of Ibadan. The University of Lagos came to employ this well renowned leader, and eventually started getting involved in environmental struggles through an organization he led called the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People.

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Clean Water Act establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the U.S and regulating quality standards for surface waters.

- Joana D.

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The Wilderness act was established in 1964 it is a national network of 800 federally designated wilderness areas. The Wilderness Act was a landmark victory for the environmental movement. Since 1964 more than 100 million acres have been made part of the wilderness system. The point is to preserve and protect certain lands in their natural condition and thus secure for present and future generations the benefits of wilderness.

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The 1964 Wilderness Act, written by The Wilderness Society's Howard Zahniser created the National Wilderness Preservation System, which protects nearly 112 million acres of wilderness areas from coast to coast.

What Did The Wilderness Act Achieve?

The Wilderness Act is considered one of America's greatest conservation achievements. The act created our National Wilderness Preservation System and provided the means for Americans to induct unspoiled areas into the system.

The Wilderness Society played an instrumental role in passing the Wilderness Act, and has since utilized this tool to contribute a total of nearly 112 million acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System.

The Wilderness Act created the National Wilderness Preservation System and immediately placed 54 areas into the system. Those areas included 9.1 million acres in 13 states, including some of our most iconic wilderness areas:

Among some of the very first wilderness areas created by the act were:

Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota

Bridger Wilderness, Wyoming

Bob Marshall Wilderness, Montana

Ansel Adams Wilderness, California

Today the wilderness system contains nearly 112 million acres of lands enjoyed by all Americans. These wilderness lands all exist within our national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges and Bureau of Land Management lands.

Today's wilderness system includes:

More than 750 wilderness areas from coast to coast

111,706,287 million acres of protected wilderness

Wilderness areas in all but six U.S. states

A Quick History of the Wilderness Act

Former Wilderness Society Executive Director Howard Zahniserdrafted the bill in 1956 to protect some of the nation's last remaining wilderness.

By 1955, Zahniser had grown disillusioned with piecemeal attempts at preservation. "Let us be done with a wilderness preservation program made up of a sequence of overlapping emergencies, threats, and defense campaigns," he said. He sat down and composed the first draft of what later became the Wilderness Act.

After eight years and 66 revisions, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law on Sept. 3, 1964. Sadly Zahniser died four months earlier. He was not able to see his dream signed into action, but the legacy he left will be enjoyed by Americans for generations to come.

Instrumental figures in creating the Wilderness Act

Howard Zahniser (February 25, 1906 - May 5, 1964)

Howard Zahniser was the legendary leader of The Wilderness Society who authored the original Wilderness Act. Zahniser led The Wilderness Society through two decades of wilderness battles and landmark accomplishments.

Zahniser wrote 66 drafts of the Wilderness Act between 1956 and 1964 and steered it through 18 hearings. Its passage in 1964 stands in testament to the dedication and perseverance of this man who deeply felt the worth of wilderness.

"I believe we have a profound fundamental need for areas of the earth where we stand without our mechanisms that make us immediate masters over our environment."

Bob Marshall (January 2, 1901 - November 11, 1939)

Robert (Bob) Marshall, principal founder of The Wilderness Society, set an unprecedented course for wilderness preservation in the United States that few have surpassed.

Marshall shaped the U.S. Forest Service's policy on wilderness designation and management. He wrote passionately on all aspects of conservation and preservation and was among the first to suggest that large tracts of Alaska be preserved.

One of the first wilderness areas protected as a result of the Wilderness Act was the Bob Marshall Wilderness in western Montana, affectionately referred to as "the Bob."

Harvey Broome (July 15, 1902 - March 8, 1968)

Harvey Broome, revered for his conservation work in the Smoky Mountains, was president of The Wilderness Society for nine years.

Broome worked closely with Executive Director Howard Zahniser to persuade Congress to create the National Wilderness Preservation System. That finally happened in 1964 when Congress passed the Wilderness Act. Broome stood proudly with other conservationists to watch President Lyndon Johnson sign this important bill into law.

Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 - April 21, 1948)

A Yale-educated professor of wildlife management and founder of The Wilderness Society, Aldo Leopold worked with the Forest Service to protect the nation's first wilderness area. He also wrote A Sand County Almanac, the seminal book on the land ethic.

With degrees in hand, Leopold joined the Forest Service in 1909, advancing swiftly as a ranger and supervisor in New Mexico. By 1919, his thinking had evolved from a narrow focus on forestry and wildlife management to an expanded awareness of the need to protect wilderness in America.

In 1924, Leopold convinced the Forest Service to protect 500,000 acres of New Mexico's Gila National Forest as wilderness. It was the National Forest System's first officially designated wilderness area.

Sigurd F. Olson (April 4, 1899 - January 13, 1982)

Sigurd F. Olson, former president and governing council member of The Wilderness Society, was an American author, environmentalist and lifelong advocate for wilderness.

Olson helped write The Wilderness Act of 1964 and his lifelong dedication to preserving wilderness resulted in permanent protection for the Boundary Waters of Minnesota.

Olson was president of The Wilderness Society from 1963 to 1971. His work was critical to gaining protection for the Boundary Waters, Voyageurs National Park, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Point Reyes National Seashore.

Mardy Murie (August 18, 1902 - October 19, 2003)

Margaret "Mardy" Murie learned to love wilderness on the windswept Alaskan tundra during a youth in Fairbanks. After her marriage to renowned biologist Olaus Murie, Mardy plunged into environmental politics.

Mardy was a powerful conservationist in her own right, leading the crusade to protect Alaskan wilderness after Olaus' death.

Mardy attended the signing of the Wilderness Act by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 after Olaus' death. She continued the work that she and Olaus had begun together, joining the governing council of The Wilderness Society and working for the protection of wild Alaska until the end of her life.

Olaus Murie (March 1, 1889 - October 21, 1963)

Scientist, visionary and former governing council member and president of The Wilderness Society, Olaus Murie's vision helped establish the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and shaped a new way of thinking about predators and ecosystems.

In 1937, Murie joined the governing council of the young Wilderness Society. Murie's greatest quest became protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. In 1950, The Wilderness Society named Murie its president.

Although he did not live to see the Wilderness Act passed, its enactment was in part attributable to his work and convictions.

Wallace Stegner (February 18, 1909 - April 13, 1993)

Former Wilderness Society governing council member Wallace Stegner was best known as a Pulitzer Prize-winning literary giant, but he was also a committed conservationist.

Stegner joined the conservation movement in the 1950s while fighting the construction of a dam on Dinosaur National Monument's Green River. In 1960, he wrote his famous Wilderness Letter on the importance of federal protection of wild places. This letter was used to introduce the Wilderness Act, which established the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1964.

Wilderness today

The 21st century has been a mixed bag for wilderness. In the early years, measures such as the Roadless Area Conservation Rule served notice that America had not forgotten its bedrock stewardship values. Later, hundreds of thousands of acres were protected through dedicated pieces of legislation in Utah, Nevada, California and elsewhere, culminating with President Barack Obama's 2009 passage of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which added over 2 million acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System.

However, since then, Congressional partisanship has led to an inertia that belies our conservation legacy. As we prepare to commemorate the 1964 passage of the Wilderness Act, we're also facing an era in which lawmakers have sparsely used the framework of that bill to protect public land. Indeed, would-be wilderness areas throughout the country now find themselves in a precarious position despite the mandate of ordinary Americans, who made their love of public lands abundantly clear during the two-week government shutdown of 2013.

Fortunately, progress may be on the horizon: in the current Congress, millions of acres' worth of land has been proposed for protection as Wilderness Area. Some of the bills intended to protect these special places boast bipartisan sponsorship, a rarity in the current political climate.

Why wilderness designations matter

The Wilderness Act has ultimately allowed Americans to preserve more than 750 wilderness areas in states from Alaska to Florida. The benefits of this land conservation are profound:

Wilderness areas:

Provide habitat for wildlife and havens for threatened species

Filter and clean the air we breathe

Protect watershed and provide clean drinking water to communities

Boost nearby economies with tourism and recreation dollars

Provide outstanding places to recreate and to escape the bustle of the modern world

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The 1964 Wilderness Act, written by The Wilderness Society's Howard Zahniser created the National Wilderness Preservation System, which protects 111 million acres of wilderness areas from coast to coast.

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Environmental Protection Agency Founded (1970) - Tyler Currivan

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Environmental Protection Agency Founded (1970) - Tyler Currivan

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The EPA was founded in 1970 to establish more clear guidelines and rules about the US environment. Two of its most notable acts were the clean air act and the clean water act.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Environmental-Protection-Agency

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Passed with bipartisan support in 1973, the law allows individuals and organizations to petition to have a species listed as endangered or threatened. These listing petitions undergo rigorous scientific evaluation and public review before a final decision is made on whether a species should be protected.

-Monaco Wilkerson

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Endangered Species Day - May 20, 2022

Endangered Species Day is celebrated every year on the third Friday in May, encouraging people to learn about and take action to help endangered species. WWF highlights endangered wildlife every day, working to build awareness and partnerships with local communities, governments, businesses, and the rest of the world to take action to protect them.

The US Endangered Species Act (ESA) is our nation's most effective law to protect at-risk species from extinction, with a stellar success rate: 99% of species listed on it have avoided extinction.

Passed with bipartisan support in 1973, the law allows individuals and organizations to petition to have a species listed as endangered or threatened. These listing petitions undergo rigorous scientific evaluation and public review before a final decision is made on whether a species should be protected. The law requires protection for critical habitat areas and the development and implementation of recovery plans for listed species. It also allows for flexibility in its implementation, requiring coordination among federal, state, tribal, and local officials on efforts to prevent extinction.

Populations are monitored over time to determine whether a given species is recovering. When species are considered recovered, they are removed from the list. Viewed as the gold standard for conservation legislation, the ESA is one of the world's most effective laws for preventing and reversing the decline of endangered and threatened wildlife. In 2016, more listed species were found to be partially or completely recovered than in any previous year since the ESA became law.

The rebound of a species is a gradual process that requires a long-term commitment dependent on many factors such as habitat, food availability, reproduction rate, and climate. The longer a species remains listed, the more likely it is to be recovering. Unfortunately, new regulations put in place by the Trump administration undermine the ESA, weakening the United States' most powerful-and in some cases, only-tool to save species from extinction.

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Endangered Species Day is celebrated every year on the third Friday in May, encouraging people to learn about and take action to help endangered species. WWF highlights endangered wildlife every day, working to build awareness and partnerships with local communities, governments, businesses, and the rest of the world to take action to protect them.

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1979: 3 Mile Island Nuclear accident - Scott Currivan

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1979: 3 Mile Island Nuclear accident - Scott Currivan

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At 4:00 am, on March 28th, 1979, TMI-2 reactor on 3 Mile Island melted down. This was caused by a pressure release valve getting stuck open, which stopped coolant from getting to the reactor. The reactor kept getting hotter and failed. There were know health effects but this disaster changed the way nuclear plants are used.

https://www.history.com/topics/1970s/three-mile-island#:~:text=TMI%20Impact,-After%20the%20Three&text=There%20are%20no%20known%20health,regulated%20in%20the%20United%20States.

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Three Mile Island is the site of a nuclear power plant in south central Pennsylvania. In March 1979, a series of mechanical and human errors at the plant caused the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history, resulting in a partial meltdown that released dangerous radioactive gasses into the atmosphere. Three Mile Island stoked public fears about nuclear power-no new nuclear power plants have been built in the United States since the accident.

The China Syndrome

Construction of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant began in 1968, in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania, on a small island in the Susquehanna River just south of the state capital in Harrisburg. Construction ended in 1978 when the second of two nuclear reactors at the site came online to produce electricity.

A thriller film, called The China Syndrome, hit theaters in March of 1979. The film, starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas, dealt with the aftermath of a fictional nuclear meltdown at a reactor outside of Los Angeles.

The nuclear industry, at the time, dismissed The China Syndrome plot as far-fetched. Many experts said nuclear meltdowns-where a nuclear reactor overheats causing radioactive fuel to melt-were almost impossible, calling them "black swan" events.

Three Mile Island Accident

In the early morning hours of March 28, 1979, a mechanical or electric failure set off an unlikely series of events that led to a partial meltdown at the Unit 2 reactor. Water pumps that helped to cool the radioactive fuel in the reactor core malfunctioned.

Plant staff didn't realize the reactor was experiencing a loss of coolant and took a series of actions that made the problem worse. These further starved the reactor core of water flow and caused it to overheat.

The nuclear fuel began to melt through its metal container-about half the reactor core melted. Trace amounts of radioactive gasses escaped into the surrounding community as a geyser of steam erupted from the top of the plant.

The melting fuel created a large hydrogen bubble inside the unit that officials worried might cause an explosion, releasing even larger amounts of radioactive material.

Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornburgh advised pregnant women and pre-school-age children within a five-mile radius of the plant to evacuate the area. The crisis ended three days later when experts determined the hydrogen bubble could not burn or explode.

TMI Impact

After the Three Mile Island (or TMI) accident, public support for nuclear energy fell from an all-time high of 69 percent in 1977 to 46 percent in 1979.

An estimated two million people were exposed to small amounts of radiation as a result of the TMI accident. There are no known health impacts. Several government agencies and independent groups conducted studies, but no adverse effects could be found to correlate to these exposures.

Careful analysis of the accident led to sweeping changes in the way nuclear plants are regulated in the United States. Federal requirements for safety controls and emergency response planning became more stringent, and officials imposed a temporary moratorium on the licensing of all new reactors.

Required design changes after the Three Mile Island accident resulted in higher costs and longer construction times for new nuclear plants. As a result, construction of nuclear reactors steeply declined. No nuclear plants started after 1974 have been completed in the United States.

Three Mile Island Cleanup

The cleanup effort lasted 14 years and cost an estimated 1 billion dollars. The damaged reactor was permanently closed and entombed in concrete after the accident.

Radioactive fuel and water were removed, and workers eventually shipped 15 tons of radioactive waste to a nuclear waste storage facility in Idaho.

Anti-Nuclear Movement

The Three Mile Island incident helped to galvanize the anti-nuclear movement in the United States. The anti-nuclear movement emerged as a social movement against the global nuclear arms race in the early 1960s at the height of the Cold War.

High profile protests in response to the events at Three Mile Island took place around the country, including one in New York City in 1979 involving 200,000 people.

Three Mile Island Today

Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station today generates power from its Unit 1 reactor. The Unit 1 reactor is owned and operated by Exelon Corporation.

Exelon announced in 2017 that it would close the plant in 2019. Dismantling the remaining reactor could take up to 10 years.

SOURCES

Backgrounder on the Three Mile Island Accident. U.S. NRC.
14-Year Cleanup at Three Mile Island Concludes. The New York Times.
A brief history of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant known for 1979 reactor accident. ABC News.

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Three Mile Island is the site of a nuclear power plant in south central Pennsylvania. In March 1979, a series of mechanical and human errors at the plant caused the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history, resulting in a partial meltdown that released dangerous radioactive gasses into the atmosphere.

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-Located in Ukraine, a nuclear power plant exploded releasing harsh nuclear radiation killing multiple people who were not able to leave in time.
- scientists study the affects that happen to humans and animals, they found out that it causes psychological and mental health problems. People exposed to the radiation also experience high anxiety levels and more likely to report unexplained physical symptoms, and poor health.
-People and scientists have learned the different human behavior and actions,The accident caused the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever recorded for any civilian operation.
- (syllabus reference) Environmental problems and issues have a social and cultural text, Chernobyl has had a massive problem due environmental problems, hurting the area and the people living there, now is a "ghost town"
- The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the environment. 30 people died in the moment and another 30 after being exposed by radiation. Link: https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx#:~:text=The%20Chernobyl%20accident%20in%201986,in%20many%20parts%20of%20Europe.
- On April 26, 1986, a sudden surge of power during a reactor systems test destroyed Unit 4 of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in the former Soviet Union. The accident and the fire that followed released massive amounts of radioactive material into the environment.
- Why Chernobyl is significant is because Immediate impact of the Chernobyl accident. The accident caused the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever recorded for any civilian operation, and large quantities of radioactive substances were released into the air for about 10 days. It made people and scientists realize how dangerous a power plant really is when a mistake is made.

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Nuclear reactor meltdown in the Ukraine. Made area uninhabitable and it still contains dangerous levels of radiation 36 years later.

- Ms. Stew

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In February 2022, Russia launched a military offensive against Ukraine. For further information see page on Russia-Ukraine War and Nuclear Energy.

The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel.

The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the environment, with the deposition of radioactive materials in many parts of Europe.

Two Chernobyl plant workers died due to the explosion on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation syndrome.

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation has concluded that, apart from some 5000 thyroid cancers (resulting in 15 fatalities), "there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20 years after the accident."

Some 350,000 people were evacuated as a result of the accident, but resettlement of areas from which people were relocated is ongoing.

On 24 February Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that Russian forces had taken control of all facilities at Chernobyl (see below).

On 9 March the Chernobyl nuclear plant was disconnected from the electricity grid. The IAEA stated that it did not see a critical impact on safety as a result.

The April 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine was the product of a flawed Soviet reactor design coupled with serious mistakes made by the plant operators. It was a direct consequence of Cold War isolation and the resulting lack of any safety culture.

The accident destroyed the Chernobyl 4 reactor, killing 30 operators and firemen within three months and several further deaths later. One person was killed immediately and a second died in hospital soon after as a result of injuries received. Another person is reported to have died at the time from a coronary thrombosis. Acute radiation syndrome (ARS) was originally diagnosed in 237 people onsite and involved with the clean-up and it was later confirmed in 134 cases. Of these, 28 people died as a result of ARS within a few weeks of the accident. Nineteen more workers subsequently died between 1987 and 2004, but their deaths cannot necessarily be attributed to radiation exposure. Nobody offsite suffered from acute radiation effects although a significant, but uncertain, fraction of the thyroid cancers diagnosed since the accident in patients who were children at the time are likely to be due to intake of radioactive iodine fallout. Furthermore, large areas of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and beyond were contaminated in varying degrees. See also sections below and Chernobyl Accident Appendix 2: Health Impacts.

The Chernobyl disaster was a unique event and the only accident in the history of commercial nuclear power where radiation-related fatalities occurred. The design of the reactor is unique and in that respect the accident is thus of little relevance to the rest of the nuclear industry outside the then Eastern Bloc. However, it led to major changes in safety culture and in industry cooperation, particularly between East and West before the end of the Soviet Union. Former President Gorbachev said that the Chernobyl accident was a more important factor in the fall of the Soviet Union than Perestroika - his program of liberal reform.

The Chernobyl site and plant

The Chernobyl Power Complex, lying about 130 km north of Kiev, Ukraine, and about 20 km south of the border with Belarus, consisted of four nuclear reactors of the RBMK-1000 design (see information page on RBMK Reactors). Units 1 and 2 were constructed between 1970 and 1977, while units 3 and 4 of the same design were completed in 1983. Two more RBMK reactors were under construction at the site at the time of the accident. To the southeast of the plant, an artificial lake of some 22 square kilometres, situated beside the river Pripyat, a tributary of the Dniepr, was constructed to provide cooling water for the reactors.

This area of Ukraine is described as Belarussian-type woodland with a low population density. About 3 km away from the reactor, in the new city, Pripyat, there were 49,000 inhabitants. The old town of Chornobyl, which had a population of 12,500, is about 15 km to the southeast of the complex. Within a 30 km radius of the power plant, the total population was between 115,000 and 135,000 at the time of the accident.

The RBMK-1000 is a Soviet-designed and built graphite moderated pressure tube type reactor, using slightly enriched (2% U-235) uranium dioxide fuel. It is a boiling light water reactor, with two loops feeding steam directly to the turbines, without an intervening heat exchanger. Water pumped to the bottom of the fuel channels boils as it progresses up the pressure tubes, producing steam which feeds two 500 MWe turbines. The water acts as a coolant and also provides the steam used to drive the turbines. The vertical pressure tubes contain the zirconium alloy clad uranium dioxide fuel around which the cooling water flows. The extensions of the fuel channels penetrate the lower plate and the cover plate of the core and are welded to each. A specially designed refuelling machine allows fuel bundles to be changed without shutting down the reactor.

The moderator, the function of which is to slow down neutrons to make them more efficient in producing fission in the fuel, is graphite, surrounding the pressure tubes. A mixture of nitrogen and helium is circulated between the graphite blocks to prevent oxidation of the graphite and to improve the transmission of the heat produced by neutron interactions in the graphite to the fuel channel. The core itself is about 7 m high and about 12 m in diameter. In each of the two loops, there are four main coolant circulating pumps, one of which is always on standby. The reactivity or power of the reactor is controlled by raising or lowering 211 control rods, which, when lowered into the moderator, absorb neutrons and reduce the fission rate. The power output of this reactor is 3200 MW thermal, or 1000 MWe. Various safety systems, such as an emergency core cooling system, were incorporated into the reactor design.

One of the most important characteristics of the RBMK reactor is that it can possess a 'positive void coefficient', where an increase in steam bubbles ('voids') is accompanied by an increase in core reactivity (see information page on RBMK Reactors). As steam production in the fuel channels increases, the neutrons that would have been absorbed by the denser water now produce increased fission in the fuel. There are other components that contribute to the overall power coefficient of reactivity, but the void coefficient is the dominant one in RBMK reactors. The void coefficient depends on the composition of the core - a new RBMK core will have a negative void coefficient. However, at the time of the accident at Chernobyl 4, the reactor's fuel burn-up, control rod configuration, and power level led to a positive void coefficient large enough to overwhelm all other influences on the power coefficient.

The 1986 Chernobyl accident

On 25 April, prior to a routine shutdown, the reactor crew at Chernobyl 4 began preparing for a test to determine how long turbines would spin and supply power to the main circulating pumps following a loss of main electrical power supply. This test had been carried out at Chernobyl the previous year, but the power from the turbine ran down too rapidly, so new voltage regulator designs were to be tested.

A series of operator actions, including the disabling of automatic shutdown mechanisms, preceded the attempted test early on 26 April. By the time that the operator moved to shut down the reactor, the reactor was in an extremely unstable condition. A peculiarity of the design of the control rods caused a dramatic power surge as they were inserted into the reactor (see Chernobyl Accident Appendix 1: Sequence of Events).

The interaction of very hot fuel with the cooling water led to fuel fragmentation along with rapid steam production and an increase in pressure. The design characteristics of the reactor were such that substantial damage to even three or four fuel assemblies would - and did - result in the destruction of the reactor. The overpressure caused the 1000 t cover plate of the reactor to become partially detached, rupturing the fuel channels and jamming all the control rods, which by that time were only halfway down. Intense steam generation then spread throughout the whole core (fed by water dumped into the core due to the rupture of the emergency cooling circuit) causing a steam explosion and releasing fission products to the atmosphere. About two to three seconds later, a second explosion threw out fragments from the fuel channels and hot graphite. There is some dispute among experts about the character of this second explosion, but it is likely to have been caused by the production of hydrogen from zirconium-steam reactions.

Two workers died as a result of these explosions. The graphite (about a quarter of the 1200 tonnes of it was estimated to have been ejected) and fuel became incandescent and started a number of fires, causing the main release of radioactivity into the environment. A total of about 14 EBq (14 x 10 ¹⁸ Bq) of radioactivity was released, over half of it being from biologically-inert noble gases.*
* The figure of 5.2 EBq is also quoted, this being "iodine-131 equivalent" - 1.8 EBq iodine and 85 PBq Cs-137 multiplied by 40 due its longevity, and ignoring the 6.5 EBq xenon-33 and some minor or short-lived nuclides.
About 200-300 tonnes of water per hour was injected into the intact half of the reactor using the auxiliary feedwater pumps but this was stopped after half a day owing to the danger of it flowing into and flooding units 1 and 2. From the second to tenth day after the accident, some 5000 tonnes of boron, dolomite, sand, clay, and lead were dropped on to the burning core by helicopter in an effort to extinguish the blaze and limit the release of radioactive particles.
The damaged Chernobyl unit 4 reactor building
The 1991 report by the State Committee on the Supervision of Safety in Industry and Nuclear Power on the root cause of the accident looked past the operator actions. It said that while it was certainly true the operators placed their reactor in a dangerously unstable condition (in fact in a condition which virtually guaranteed an accident) it was also true that in doing so they had not in fact violated a number of vital operating policies and principles, since no such policies and principles had been articulated. Additionally, the operating organization had not been made aware either of the specific vital safety significance of maintaining a minimum operating reactivity margin, or the general reactivity characteristics of the RBMK which made low power operation extremely hazardous.

Immediate impact of the Chernobyl accident

The accident caused the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever recorded for any civilian operation, and large quantities of radioactive substances were released into the air for about 10 days. This caused serious social and economic disruption for large populations in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Two radionuclides, the short-lived iodine-131 and the long-lived caesium-137, were particularly significant for the radiation dose they delivered to members of the public.

It is estimated that all of the xenon gas, about half of the iodine and caesium, and at least 5% of the remaining radioactive material in the Chernobyl 4 reactor core (which had 192 tonnes of fuel) was released in the accident. Most of the released material was deposited close by as dust and debris, but the lighter material was carried by wind over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and to some extent over Scandinavia and Europe.

The casualties included firefighters who attended the initial fires on the roof of the turbine building. All these were put out in a few hours, but radiation doses on the first day caused 28 deaths - six of which were firemen - by the end of July 1986. The doses received by the firefighters and power plant workers were high enough to result in acute radiation syndrome (ARS), which occurs if a person is exposed to more than 700 milligrays (mGy) within a short time frame (usually minutes). Common ARS symptoms include gastrointestinal problems ( e.g. nausea, vomiting), headaches, burns and fever. Whole body doses between 4000 mGy and 5000 mGv within a short time frame would kill 50% of those exposed, with 8000-10,000 mGy universally fatal. The doses received by the firefighters who died were estimated to range up to 20,000 mGy.

The next task was cleaning up the radioactivity at the site so that the remaining three reactors could be restarted, and the damaged reactor shielded more permanently. About 200,000 people ('liquidators') from all over the Soviet Union were involved in the recovery and clean-up during 1986 and 1987. They received high doses of radiation, averaging around 100 millisieverts (mSv). Some 20,000 liquidators received about 250 mSv, with a few receiving approximately 500 mSv. Later, the number of liquidators swelled to over 600,000, but most of these received only low radiation doses. The highest doses were received by about 1000 emergency workers and onsite personnel during the first day of the accident.

According to the most up-to-date estimate provided by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), the average radiation dose due to the accident received by inhabitants of 'strict radiation control' areas (population 216,000) in the years 1986 to 2005 was 31 mSv (over the 20-year period), and in the 'contaminated' areas (population 6.4 million) it averaged 9 mSv, a minor increase over the dose due to background radiation over the same period (about 50 mSv).

Initial radiation exposure in contaminated areas was due to short-lived iodine-131; later caesium-137 was the main hazard. (Both are fission products dispersed from the reactor core, with half lives of 8 days and 30 years, respectively. 1.8 EBq of I-131 and 0.085 EBq of Cs-137 were released.) About five million people lived in areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine contaminated (above 37 kBq/m ² Cs-137 in soil) and about 400,000 lived in more contaminated areas of strict control by authorities (above 555 kBq/m ² Cs-137). A total of 29,400 km ² was contaminated above 180 kBq/m ².

The plant operators' town of Pripyat was evacuated on 27 April (45,000 residents). By 14 May, some 116,000 people that had been living within a 30-kilometre radius had been evacuated and later relocated. About 1000 of these returned unofficially to live within the contaminated zone. Most of those evacuated received radiation doses of less than 50 mSv, although a few received 100 mSv or more.

In the years following the accident, a further 220,000 people were resettled into less contaminated areas, and the initial 30 km radius exclusion zone (2800 km ²) was modified and extended to cover 4300 square kilometres. This resettlement was due to application of a criterion of 350 mSv projected lifetime radiation dose, though in fact radiation in most of the affected area (apart from half a square kilometre close to the reactor) fell rapidly so that average doses were less than 50% above normal background of 2.5 mSv/yr. See also following section on Resettlement of contaminated areas.

Long-term health effects of the Chernobyl accident

Video: Experts talk about the health effects of Chernobyl (Recorded 2011)

Several organizations have reported on the impacts of the Chernobyl accident, but all have had problems assessing the significance of their observations because of the lack of reliable public health information before 1986.

In 1989, the World Health Organization (WHO) first raised concerns that local medical scientists had incorrectly attributed various biological and health effects to radiation exposure. Following this, the Government of the USSR requested the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to coordinate an international experts' assessment of accident's radiological, environmental and health consequences in selected towns of the most heavily contaminated areas in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Between March 1990 and June 1991, a total of 50 field missions were conducted by 200 experts from 25 countries (including the USSR), seven organizations, and 11 laboratories. In the absence of pre-1986 data, it compared a control population with those exposed to radiation. Significant health disorders were evident in both control and exposed groups, but, at that stage, none was radiation related.

In February 2003, the IAEA established the Chernobyl Forum, in cooperation with seven other UN organisations as well as the competent authorities of Belarus, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. In April 2005, the reports prepared by two expert groups - "Environment", coordinated by the IAEA, and "Health", coordinated by WHO - were intensively discussed by the Forum and eventually approved by consensus. The conclusions of this 2005 Chernobyl Forum study (revised version published 2006) are in line with earlier expert studies, notably the UNSCEAR 2000 report which said that "apart from this [thyroid cancer] increase, there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 14 years after the accident. There is no scientific evidence of increases in overall cancer incidence or mortality or in non-malignant disorders that could be related to radiation exposure." There is little evidence of any increase in leukaemia, even among clean-up workers where it might be most expected. Radiation-induced leukemia has a latency period of 5-7 years, so any potential leukemia cases due to the accident would already have developed. A low number of the clean-up workers, who received the highest doses, may have a slightly increased risk of developing solid cancers in the long term. To date, however, there is no evidence of any such cancers having developed. Apart from these, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) said: "The great majority of the population is not likely to experience serious health consequences as a result of radiation from the Chernobyl accident. Many other health problems have been noted in the populations that are not related to radiation exposure."

The Chernobyl Forum report says that people in the area have suffered a paralysing fatalism due to myths and misperceptions about the threat of radiation, which has contributed to a culture of chronic dependency. Some "took on the role of invalids." Mental health coupled with smoking and alcohol abuse is a very much greater problem than radiation, but worst of all at the time was the underlying level of health and nutrition. Apart from the initial 116,000, relocations of people were very traumatic and did little to reduce radiation exposure, which was low anyway. Psycho-social effects among those affected by the accident are similar to those arising from other major disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and fires.

A particularly sad effect of the misconceptions surrounding the accident was that some physicians in Europe advised pregnant women to undergo abortions on account of radiation exposure, even though the levels concerned were vastly below those likely to have teratogenic effects. Robert Gale, a hematologist who treated radiation victims after the accident, estimated that more than 1 million abortions were undertaken in the Soviet Union and Europe as a result of incorrect advice from their doctors about radiation exposure and birth defects following the accident.

Some exaggerated figures have been published regarding the death toll attributable to the Chernobyl disaster, including a publication by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). However, the Chairman of UNSCEAR made it clear that "this report is full of unsubstantiated statements that have no support in scientific assessments", and the Chernobyl Forum report also repudiates these claims.

The number of deaths resulting from the accident are covered most fully in the account of health effects provided by an annex to the UNSCEAR 2008 report, released in 2011. The report concluded: "In summary, the effects of the Chernobyl accident are many and varied. Early deterministic effects can be attributed to radiation with a high degree of certainty, while for other medical conditions, radiation almost certainly was not the cause. In between, there was a wide spectrum of conditions. It is necessary to evaluate carefully each specific condition and the surrounding circumstances before attributing a cause."

According to an UNSCEAR report in 2018, about 20,000 cases of thyroid cancer were diagnosed 1991-2015 in patients who were 18 and under at the time of the accident. The report states that a quarter of the cases (5000 cases) were "probably" due to high doses of radiation, and that this fraction was likely to have been higher in earlier years, and lower in later years. However, it also states that the uncertainty around the attributed fraction is very significant - at least 0.07 to 0.5 - and that the influence of annual screenings and active follow-up make comparisons with the general population problematic. Thyroid cancer is usually not fatal if diagnosed and treated early; the report states that of the diagnoses made between 1991 and 2005, 15 proved to be fatal.

Progressive closure of the Chernobyl plant

In the early 1990s, some $400 million was spent on improvements to the remaining reactors at Chernobyl, considerably enhancing their safety. Energy shortages necessitated the continued operation of one of them (unit 3) until December 2000. (Unit 2 was shut down after a turbine hall fire in 1991, and unit 1 at the end of 1997.) Almost 6000 people worked at the plant every day, and their radiation dose has been within internationally accepted limits. A small team of scientists works within the wrecked reactor building itself, inside the shelter.

Workers and their families now live in a new town, Slavutich, 30 km from the plant. This was built following the evacuation of Pripyat, which was just 3 km away.

Ukraine depends upon, and is deeply in debt to, Russia for energy supplies, particularly oil and gas, but also nuclear fuel. Although this dependence is gradually being reduced, continued operation of nuclear power stations, which supply half of total electricity, is now even more important than in 1986.

When it was announced in 1995 that the two operating reactors at Chernobyl would be closed by 2000, a memorandum of understanding was signed by Ukraine and G7 nations to progress this, but its implementation was conspicuously delayed. Alternative generating capacity was needed, either gas-fired, which has ongoing fuel cost and supply implications, or nuclear, by completing Khmelnitski unit 2 and Rovno unit 4 ('K2R4') in Ukraine. Construction of these was halted in 1989 but then resumed, and both reactors came online late in 2004, financed by Ukraine rather than international grants as expected on the basis of Chernobyl's closure.

Chernobyl today

Russian military operation 2022

On 24 February 2022, Russian forces took control of all facilities of the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Control levels of gamma radiation dose rates in the Chernobyl exclusion zone were exceeded. The SNRIU said that the rise in radiation levels was likely due to "disturbance of the top layer of soil from movement of a large number of heavy military machinery through the exclusion zone and increase of air pollution." It added: "The condition of Chernobyl nuclear facilities and other facilities is unchanged." Radiation readings from the site were assessed by the IAEA to be low and in line with near background levels.

On 9 March at 11.22 the Chernobyl plant lost connection to the grid. The SNRIU said that backup diesel generators were running and had 48 hours of fuel. The IAEA stated that, based on the heat load of spent fuel in the ISF-1 storage pool, and the volume of cooling water it contained, there would be sufficient heat removal without electrical supply. It said that it saw no critical impact on safety as a result of the loss of power, but said that the loss of power would likely create additional stress for the about 210 staff who have not been able to rotate for the past two weeks.

Professor Geraldine Thomas, director of the Chernobyl Tissue Bank, said: "They [the used fuel bundles] will not be producing significant amounts of heat, making a release of radiation very unlikely. In the unlikely event of a release of any radiation, this would be only to the immediate local area, and therefore not pose any threat to western Europe - there would be no radioactive cloud."

On 13 March Energoatom reported that transmission system operator Ukrenergo had succeeded in repairing a power line needed to restore external electricity supplies to Chernobyl. The site was due to be reconnected to the grid a day later, but Ukrenergo reported in the morning of 14 March that the line had sustained further damage "by the occupying forces". Later on 14 March Ukrenergo said that external power had been restored at 13.10 local time, and at 16.45 the plant was reconnected to Ukraine's electricity grid.

On 31 March control of the site was returned to Ukrainian personnel.

For more detailed information, see page on Russia-Ukraine War and Nuclear Energy.

Unit 4 containment

Chernobyl unit 4 was enclosed in a large concrete shelter which was erected quickly (by October 1986) to allow continuing operation of the other reactors at the plant. However, the structure is neither strong nor durable. The international Shelter Implementation Plan in the 1990s involved raising money for remedial work including removal of the fuel-containing materials. Some major work on the shelter was carried out in 1998 and 1999. About 200 tonnes of highly radioactive material remains deep within it, and this poses an environmental hazard until it is better contained.

The New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure was completed in 2017, having been built adjacent and then moved into place on rails. It is an arch 110 metres high, 165 metres long and spanning 260 metres, covering both unit 4 and the hastily-built 1986 structure. The arch frame is a lattice construction of tubular steel members, equipped with internal cranes. The design and construction contract for this was signed in 2007 with the Novarka consortium and preparatory work onsite was completed in 2010. Construction started in April 2012. The first half, weighing 12,800 tonnes, was moved 112 metres to a holding area in front of unit 4 in April 2014. The second half was completed by the end of 2014 and was joined to the first in July 2015. Cladding, cranes, and remote handling equipment were fitted in 2015. The entire 36,000 tonne structure was pushed 327 metres into position over the reactor building in November 2016, over two weeks, and the end walls completed. The NSC is the largest moveable land-based structure ever built.

The hermetically sealed building will allow engineers to remotely dismantle the 1986 structure that has shielded the remains of the reactor from the weather since the weeks after the accident. It will enable the eventual removal of the fuel-containing materials (FCM) in the bottom of the reactor building and accommodate their characterization, compaction, and packing for disposal. This task represents the most important step in eliminating nuclear hazard at the site - and the real start of dismantling. The NSC will facilitate remote handling of these dangerous materials, using as few personnel as possible. During peak construction of the NSC some 1200 workers were onsite.

The Chernobyl Shelter Fund, set up in 1997, had received €864 million from international donors by early 2011 towards this project and previous work. It and the Nuclear Safety Account (NSA), set up in 1993, are managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The total cost of the new shelter was in 2011 estimated to be €1.5 billion. In November 2014 the EBRD said the overall €2.15 billion Shelter Implementation Plan including the NSC had received contributions from 43 governments but still had a funding shortfall of €615 million. The following month the EBRD made an additional contribution of €350 million in anticipation of a €165 million contribution by the G7/European Commission, which was confirmed in April 2015. This left a balance of €100 million to come from non-G7 donors, and €15 million of this was confirmed in April 2015.
Chernobyl New Safe Confinement under construction and before being moved into place (Image: EBRD)
Funding other Chernobyl work

The Nuclear Safety Account (NSA), had received €321 million by early 2011 for Chernobyl decommissioning and also for projects in other ex-Soviet countries. At Chernobyl it funds the construction of used fuel and waste storage (notably ISF-2, see below) and decommissioning units 1-3. In April 2016 the European Commission pledged €20 million to the NSA, the largest part of €45 million expected from the G7 and the European Commission. A further €40 million was expected from the EBRD in May 2016.

In total, the European Commission has committed around €730 million so far to Chernobyl projects in four ways. First, €550 million for assistance projects, out of which €470 million were channelled through international funds, and €80 million implemented directly by the European Commission. Secondly, power generation support of €65 million. Thirdly, €15 million for social projects. And finally, €100 million for research projects.

Chernobyl used fuel: ISF-1 & ISF-2

Used fuel from units 1-3 was stored in each unit's cooling pond, and in an interim spent fuel storage facility pond (ISF-1). A few damaged assemblies remained in units 1&2 in 2013, with the last of these removed in June 2016. ISF-1 now holds most of the spent fuel from units 1-3, allowing those reactors to be decommissioned under less restrictive licence conditions. Most of the fuel assemblies were straightforward to handle, but about 50 are damaged and required special handling.

In 1999, a contract was signed with Framatome (now Areva) for construction of the ISF-2 radioactive waste management facility to store 25,000 used fuel assemblies from units 1-3 and other operational waste long-term, as well as material from decommissioning units 1-3 (which are the first RBMK units decommissioned anywhere). However, after a significant part of the dry storage facility had been built, technical deficiencies in the concept emerged in 2003, and the contract was terminated amicably in 2007.

Holtec International became the contractor in September 2007 for the new interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility (ISF-2 or SNF SF-2) for the state-owned Chernobyl NPP. Design approval and funding from the NSA was confirmed in October 2010, and the final €87.5 million of €400 million cost was pledged in April 2016. Construction was completed in January 2020. Hot and cold tests took place during 2020, and the facility received an operating licence in April 2021.

ISF-2 is the world's largest dry used fuel storage facility, accommodating 21,217 RBMK fuel assemblies in dry storage for at least a 100-year service life.

The project includes a processing facility, able to cut the RBMK fuel assemblies* and to put the material in double-walled canisters, which are then filled with inert gas and welded shut. They will then be transported to concrete dry storage vaults in which the fuel containers will be enclosed for up to 100 years. This facility, treating 2500 fuel assemblies per year, is the first of its kind for RBMK fuel.
* According to Holtec: "Unique features of the Chernobyl dry storage facility include the world's largest 'hot cell' for dismembering the conjugated RBMK fuel assembly and a (Holtec patented) forced gas dehydrator designed to run on nitrogen."
Other Chernobyl radwaste

Industrial Complex for Radwaste Management (ICSRM): In April 2009, Nukem handed over this turnkey waste treatment centre for solid radioactive waste. In May 2010, the State Nuclear Regulatory Committee licensed the commissioning of this facility, where solid low- and intermediate-level wastes accumulated from the power plant operations and the decommissioning of reactor blocks 1-3 is conditioned. The wastes are processed in three steps. First, the solid radioactive wastes temporarily stored in bunkers is removed for treatment. In the next step, these wastes, as well as those from decommissioning reactor blocks 1-3, are processed into a form suitable for permanent safe disposal. Low- and intermediate-level wastes are separated into combustible, compactable, and non-compactable categories. These are then subject to incineration, high-force compaction, and cementation respectively. In addition, highly radioactive and long-lived solid waste is sorted out for temporary separate storage. In the third step, the conditioned solid waste materials are transferred to containers suitable for permanent safe storage.

As part of this project, at the end of 2007, Nukem handed over an Engineered Near Surface Disposal Facility for storage of short-lived radioactive waste after prior conditioning. It is 17 km away from the power plant, at the Vektor complex within the 30-km zone. The storage area is designed to hold 55,000 m ³ of treated waste which will be subject to radiological monitoring for 300 years, by when the radioactivity will have decayed to such an extent that monitoring is no longer required.

Another contract has been let for a Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant (LRTP), to handle some 35,000 cubic metres of low- and intermediate-level liquid wastes at the site. This will be solidified and eventually buried along with solid wastes on site. Construction of the plant has been completed and the start of operations was due late in 2015. LRTP is also funded through EBRD's Nuclear Safety Account (NSA).

Non-Chernobyl used fuel

The Central Spent Fuel Storage Facility (CSFSF) Project for Ukraine's VVER reactors is being built by Holtec International within the Chernobyl exclusion area, between the resettled villages Staraya Krasnitsa, Buryakovka, Chistogalovka, and Stechanka, southeast of Chernobyl and not far from ISF-2. This will not take any Chernobyl fuel, though it will become a part of the common spent nuclear fuel management complex of the state-owned company Chernobyl NPP.

Decommissioning units 1-3

After the last Chernobyl reactor shut down in December 2000, in mid-2001 a new enterprise, SSE ChNPP was set up to take over management of the site and decommissioning from Energoatom. (Its remit includes eventual decommissioning of all Ukraine nuclear plants.)

In January 2008, the Ukraine government announced a four-stage decommissioning plan which incorporated the above waste activities and progresses towards a cleared site.

In February 2014 a new stage of this was approved for units 1-3, involving dismantling some equipment and putting them into safstor condition by 2028. Then, to 2046, further equipment will be removed, and by 2064 they will be demolished.

See also official website.

Resettlement of contaminated areas

In the last two decades there has been some resettlement of the areas evacuated in 1986 and subsequently. Recently the main resettlement project has been in Belarus.

In July 2010, the Belarus government announced that it had decided to settle back thousands of people in the 'contaminated areas' covered by the Chernobyl fallout, from which 24 years ago they and their forbears were hastily relocated. Compared with the list of contaminated areas in 2005, some 211 villages and hamlets had been reclassified with fewer restrictions on resettlement. The decision by the Belarus Council of Ministers resulted in a new national program over 2011-15 and up to 2020 to alleviate the Chernobyl impact and return the areas to normal use with minimal restrictions. The focus of the project is on the development of economic and industrial potential of the Gomel and Mogilev regions from which 137,000 people were relocated.

The main priority is agriculture and forestry, together with attracting qualified people and housing them. Initial infrastructure requirements will mean the refurbishment of gas, potable water and power supplies, while the use of local wood will be banned. Schools and housing will be provided for specialist workers and their families ahead of wider socio-economic development. Overall, some 21,484 dwellings are slated for connection to gas networks in the period 2011-2015, while about 5600 contaminated or broken down buildings are demolished. Over 1300 kilometres of road will be laid, and ten new sewerage works and 15 pumping stations are planned. The cost of the work was put at BYR 6.6 trillion ($2.2 billion), split fairly evenly across the years 2011 to 2015 inclusive.

The feasibility of agriculture will be examined in areas where the presence of caesium-137 and strontium-90 is low, "to acquire new knowledge in the fields of radiobiology and radioecology in order to clarify the principles of safe life in the contaminated territories." Land found to have too high a concentration of radionuclides will be reforested and managed. A suite of protective measures was set up to allow a new forestry industry whose products would meet national and international safety standards. In April 2009, specialists in Belarus stressed that it is safe to eat all foods cultivated in the contaminated territories, though intake of some wild food was restricted.

Protective measures will be put in place for 498 settlements in the contaminated areas where average radiation dose may exceed 1 mSv per year. There were also 1904 villages with annual average effective doses from the pollution between 0.1 mSv and 1 mSv. The goal for these areas is to allow their re-use with minimal restrictions, although already radiation doses there from the caesium are lower than background levels anywhere in the world.

The Belarus government decision was an important political landmark in an ongoing process. Studies reviewed by UNSCEAR show that the Chernobyl disaster caused little risk for the general population. A UN Development Program report in 2002 said that much of the aid and effort applied to mitigate the effects of the Chernobyl accident did more harm than good, and it seems that this, along with the Chernobyl Forum report, finally persuaded the Belarus authorities. In 2004 President Lukashenko announced a priority to repopulate much of the Chernobyl-affected regions of Belarus, and then in 2009 he said that he "wants to repopulate Chernobyl's zone quickly".

In 2011 Chernobyl was officially declared a tourist attraction, with many visitors.

In 2015 the published results of a major scientific study showed that the mammal population of the exclusion zone (including the 2162 sq km Polessian State Radiation-Ecological Reserve - PSRER in Belarus) was thriving, despite land contamination. The "long-term empirical data showed no evidence of a negative influence of radiation on mammal abundance." The data "represent unique evidence of wildlife's resilience in the face of chronic radiation stress." ( Current Biology, Elsevier) . Other studies have concluded that the net environmental effect of the accident has been much greater biodiversity and abundance of species, with the exclusion zone having become a unique sanctuary for wildlife due to the absence of humans.

What has been learned from the Chernobyl disaster?

Leaving aside the verdict of history on its role in melting the Soviet 'Iron Curtain', some very tangible practical benefits have resulted from the Chernobyl accident. The main ones concern reactor safety, notably in eastern Europe. (The US Three Mile Island accident in 1979 had a significant effect on Western reactor design and operating procedures. While that reactor was destroyed, all radioactivity was contained - as designed - and there were no deaths or injuries.)

While no-one in the West was under any illusion about the safety of early Soviet reactor designs, some lessons learned have also been applicable to Western plants. Certainly the safety of all Soviet-designed reactors has improved vastly. This is due largely to the development of a culture of safety encouraged by increased collaboration between East and West, and substantial investment in improving the reactors.

Modifications have been made to overcome deficiencies in all the RBMK reactors still operating. In these, originally the nuclear chain reaction and power output could increase if cooling water were lost or turned to steam, in contrast to most Western designs. It was this effect which led to the uncontrolled power surge that led to the destruction of Chernobyl 4 (see Positive void coefficient section in the information page on RBMK Reactors). All of the RBMK reactors have now been modified by changes in the control rods, adding neutron absorbers and consequently increasing the fuel enrichment from 1.8 to 2.4% U-235, making them very much more stable at low power (see Post accident changes to the RBMK section in the information page on RBMK Reactors). Automatic shut-down mechanisms now operate faster, and other safety mechanisms have been improved. Automated inspection equipment has also been installed. A repetition of the 1986 Chernobyl accident is now virtually impossible, according to a German nuclear safety agency report.

Since 1989, over 1000 nuclear engineers from the former Soviet Union have visited Western nuclear power plants and there have been many reciprocal visits. Over 50 twinning arrangements between East and West nuclear plants have been put in place. Most of this has been under the auspices of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), a body formed in 1989 which links 130 operators of nuclear power plants in more than 30 countries (see also information page on Cooperation in the Nuclear Power Industry).

Many other international programmes were initiated following Chernobyl. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety review projects for each particular type of Soviet reactor are noteworthy, bringing together operators and Western engineers to focus on safety improvements. These initiatives are backed by funding arrangements. The Nuclear Safety Assistance Coordination Centre database lists Western aid totalling almost US$1 billion for more than 700 safety-related projects in former Eastern Bloc countries. The Convention on Nuclear Safety adopted in Vienna in June 1994 is another outcome.

The Chernobyl Forum report said that some seven million people are now receiving or eligible for benefits as 'Chernobyl victims', which means that resources are not targeting those most in need. Remedying this presents daunting political problems however.

Notes & references

Notes

a. Chernobyl is the well-known Russian name for the site; Chornobyl is preferred by Ukraine. [ Back]

b. Much has been made of the role of the operators in the Chernobyl accident. The 1986 Summary Report on the Post-Accident Review Meeting on the Chernobyl Accident (INSAG-1) of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA's) International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group accepted the view of the Soviet experts that "the accident was caused by a remarkable range of human errors and violations of operating rules in combination with specific reactor features which compounded and amplified the effects of the errors and led to the reactivity excursion." In particular, according to the INSAG-1 report: "The operators deliberately and in violation of rules withdrew most control and safety rods from the core and switched off some important safety systems."

However, the IAEA's 1992 INSAG-7 report, The Chernobyl Accident: Updating of INSAG-1, was less critical of the operators, with the emphasis shifted towards "the contributions of particular design features, including the design of the control rods and safety systems, and arrangements for presenting important safety information to the operators. The accident is now seen to have been the result of the concurrence of the following major factors: specific physical characteristics of the reactor; specific design features of the reactor control elements; and the fact that the reactor was brought to a state not specified by procedures or investigated by an independent safety body. Most importantly, the physical characteristics of the reactor made possible its unstable behaviour." But the report goes on to say that the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group "remains of the opinion that critical actions of the operators were most ill judged. As pointed out in INSAG-1, the human factor has still to be considered as a major element in causing the accident."

It is certainly true that the operators placed the reactor in a dangerous condition, in particular by removing too many of the control rods, resulting in the lowering of the reactor's operating reactivity margin (ORM, see information page on RBMK Reactors). However, the operating procedures did not emphasize the vital safety significance of the ORM but rather treated the ORM as a way of controlling reactor power. It could therefore be argued that the actions of the operators were more a symptom of the prevailing safety culture of the Soviet era rather than the result of recklessness or a lack of competence on the part of the operators.

In what is referred to as his Testament - which was published soon after his suicide two years after the accident - Valery Legasov, who had led the Soviet delegation to the IAEA Post-Accident Review Meeting, wrote: "After I had visited Chernobyl NPP I came to the conclusion that the accident was the inevitable apotheosis of the economic system which had been developed in the USSR over many decades. Neglect by the scientific management and the designers was everywhere with no attention being paid to the condition of instruments or of equipment... When one considers the chain of events leading up to the Chernobyl accident, why one person behaved in such a way and why another person behaved in another etc, it is impossible to find a single culprit, a single initiator of events, because it was like a closed circle." [ Back]

c. The initial death toll was officially given as two initial deaths plus 28 from acute radiation syndrome. One further victim, due to coronary thrombosis, is widely reported, but does not appear on official lists of the initial deaths. The 2006 report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group "Health", Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident and Special Health Care Programmes, states: "The Chernobyl accident caused the deaths of 30 power plant employees and firemen within a few days or weeks (including 28 deaths that were due to radiation exposure)." [ Back]

d. Apart from the initial 31 deaths (two from the explosions, one reportedly from coronary thrombosis - see Note c above - and 28 firemen and plant personnel from acute radiation syndrome), the number of deaths resulting from the accident is unclear and a subject of considerable controversy. According to the 2006 report of the UN Chernobyl Forum's 'Health' Expert Group: "The actual number of deaths caused by this accident is unlikely ever to be precisely known."

On the number of deaths due to acute radiation syndrome (ARS), the Expert Group report states: "Among the 134 emergency workers involved in the immediate mitigation of the Chernobyl accident, severely exposed workers and fireman during the first days, 28 persons died in 1986 due to ARS, and 19 more persons died in 1987-2004 from different causes. Among the general population affected by the Chernobyl radioactive fallout, the much lower exposures meant that ARS cases did not occur."

According to the report: "With the exception of thyroid cancer, direct radiation-epidemiological studies performed in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine since 1986 have not revealed any statistically significant increase in either cancer morbidity or mortality induced by radiation." The report does however attribute a large proportion of child thyroid cancer fatalities to radiation, with nine deaths being recorded during 1986-2002 as a result of progression of thyroid cancer. [ Back]

e. There have been fatalities in military and research reactor contexts, e.g. Tokai-mura. [ Back]

f. Although most reports on the Chernobyl accident refer to a number of graphite fires, it is highly unlikely that the graphite itself burned. Information on the General Atomics website (but now deleted) stated: "It is often incorrectly assumed that the combustion behavior of graphite is similar to that of charcoal and coal. Numerous tests and calculations have shown that it is virtually impossible to burn high-purity, nuclear-grade graphites." On Chernobyl, the same source stated: "Graphite played little or no role in the progression or consequences of the accident. The red glow observed during the Chernobyl accident was the expected color of luminescence for graphite at 700°C and not a large-scale graphite fire, as some have incorrectly assumed."

A 2006 Electric Power Research Institute Technical Report states that the International Atomic Energy Agency's INSAG-1 report is
...potentially misleading through the use of imprecise words in relation to graphite behaviour. The report discusses the fire-fighting activities and repeatedly refers to "burning graphite blocks" and "the graphite fire". Most of the actual fires involving graphite which were approached by fire-fighters involved ejected material on bitumen-covered roofs, and the fires also involved the bitumen. It is stated: "The fire teams experienced no unusual problems in using their fire-fighting techniques, except that it took a considerable time to extinguish the graphite fire." These descriptions are not consistent with the later considered opinions of senior Russian specialists... There is however no question that extremely hot graphite was ejected from the core and at a temperature sufficient to ignite adjacent combustible materials.

There are also several referrals to a graphite fire occurring during the October 1957 accident at Windscale Pile No. 1 in the UK. However, images obtained from inside the Pile several decades after the accident showed that the graphite was relatively undamaged. [ Back]

g. The International Chernobyl Project, 1990-91 - Assessment of Radiological Consequences and Evaluation of Protective Measures, Summary Brochure, published by the International Atomic Energy Agency, reports that, in June 1989, the World Health Organization (WHO) sent a team of experts to help address the health impacts of radioactive contamination resulting from the accident. One of the conclusions from this mission was that "scientists who are not well versed in radiation effects have attributed various biological and health effects to radiation exposure. These changes cannot be attributed to radiation exposure, especially when the normal incidence is unknown, and are much more likely to be due to psychological factors and stress.Attributing these effects to radiation not only increases the psychological pressure in the population and provokes additional stress-related health problems, it also undermines confidence in the competence of the radiation specialists." [ Back]

h. Image taken from page 31 of The International Chernobyl Project Technical Report, Assessment of Radiological Consequences and Evaluation of Protective Measures, Report by an International Advisory Committee, IAEA, 1991 (ISBN: 9201291914) [ Back]

i. A 55-page summary version the revised report, Chernobyl's Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts and Recommendations to the Governments of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, The Chernobyl Forum: 2003-2005, Second revised version, as well as the Report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group "Environment" and the Report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group "Health" are available through the IAEA's webpage on the Chernobyl accident ( https://www.iaea.org/topics/chornobyl) [ Back]

j. The United Nations Scientific Commission on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) is the UN body with a mandate from the General Assembly to assess and report levels and health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation. Exposures and effects of the Chernobyl accident , Annex J to Volume II of the 2000 United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation Report to the General Assembly, is available at the UNSCEAR 2000 Report Vol. II webpage (www.unscear.org/unscear/en/publications/2000_2.html). It is also available (along with other reports) on the webpage for UNSCEAR's assessments of the radiation effects of The Chernobyl accident (www.unscear.org/unscear/en/chernobyl.html). The conclusions from Annex J of the UNSCEAR 2000 report are in Chernobyl Accident Appendix: Health Impacts

k. The quoted comment comes from a 6 June 2000 letter from Lars-Erik Holm, Chairman of UNSCEAR and Director-General of the Swedish Radiation Protection Institute, to Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations. [

l. A reinforced concrete casing was built around the ruined reactor building over the seven months following the accident. This shelter - often referred to as the - was intended to contain the remaining fuel and act as a radiation shield. As it was designed for a lifetime of around 20 to 30 years, as well as being hastily constructed, a second shelter - known as the New Safe Confinement - with a 100-year design lifetime is planned to be placed over the existing structure. See also ASE keeps the lid on Chernobyl , World Nuclear News (19 August 2008). [

m. The UNSCEAR committee in 2018 estimated that the fraction of the incidence of thyroid cancer attributable to radiation exposure among non-evacuated residents of Belarus, Ukraine and the four most contaminated oblasts of the Russian Federation, who were under 18 at the time of the accident, is in the order of 0.25 . The committee states that the uncertainty range of the fraction is large, at least from 0.07 to 0.5. [ Back]

References

1. 7. The Accident and the Safety of RBMK-Reactors, Gesellschaft für Anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) mbH, GRS-121 (February 1996) [9. Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident and Special Health Care Programmes, Report of the UN Chernobyl Forum, Expert Group "Health", World Health Organization, 2006 (ISBN: 9789241594172)
2. Appendix D, Graphite Decommissioning: Options for Graphite Treatment, Recycling, or Disposal, including a discussion of Safety-Related Issues , EPRI, Palo Alto, CA, 1013091 (March 2006)
The International Chernobyl Project, 1990-91 - Assessment of Radiological Consequences and Evaluation of Protective Measures, Summary Brochure , International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA/PI/A32E, 1991; The International Chernobyl Project, An Overview , Assessment of Radiological Consequences and Evaluation of Protective Measures, Report by an International Advisory Committee , IAEA, 1991 (ISBN: 9201290918); The International Chernobyl Project Technical Report , Assessment of Radiological Consequences and Evaluation of Protective Measures, Report by an International Advisory Committee , IAEA, 1991 (ISBN: 9201291914) [
4. Mikhail Balonov, Malcolm Crick and Didier Louvat, Update of Impacts of the Chernobyl Accident: Assessments of the Chernobyl Forum (2003-2005) and UNSCEAR (2005-2008) , Proceedings of the Third European IRPA (International Radiation Protection Association) Congress held in Helsinki, Finland (14-18 June 2010) [
5. UNSCEAR, 2011, UNSCEAR 2008 Report, vol II, annex D (lead author: M. Balanov) [
6. Chernobyl - A Continuing Catastrophe, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 2000 [

8. Deryabina, T.G. Long-term census data reveal abundant wildlife populations at Chernobyl Health Effects due to Radiation from the Chernobyl Accident, , Current Biology, Volume 25, Issue 19, pR824-R826, Elsevier (5 October 2015) [
Back] Evaluation of data on thyroid cancer in regions affected by the Chernobyl accident, UNSCEAR (2018) [ Back]

General sources

INSAG-7, The Chernobyl Accident: Updating of INSAG-1, A report by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group, International Atomic Energy Agency, Safety Series No. 75-INSAG-7, 1992, (ISBN: 9201046928)

Chernobyl's Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts and Recommendations to the Governments of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, The Chernobyl Forum: 2003-2005, Second revised version, International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA/PI/A.87 Rev.2/06-09181 (April 2006)

Environmental Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident and their Remediation: Twenty Years of Experience, Report of the Chernobyl Forum Expert Group 'Environment', International Atomic Energy Agency, 2006 (ISBN 9201147058)

Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident and Special Health Care Programmes, Report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group "Health", World Health Organization, 2006 (ISBN: 9789241594172)

The Chernobyl accident, UNSCEAR's assessments of the radiation effects on the UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) radiation website

Exposures and effects of the Chernobyl accident, Annex J of Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation, UNSCEAR 2000 Report to the General Assembly Vol. II

Ten Years after Chernobyl: what do we really know? (based on the proceedings of the IAEA/WHO/EC International Conference, Vienna, April 1996), International Atomic Energy Agency

Chernobyl: Assessment of Radiological and Health Impacts - 2002 Update of Chernobyl: Ten Years On, OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (2002).

Zbigniew Jaworowski, Lessons of Chernobyl with particular reference to thyroid cancer, Australasian Radiation Protection Society Newsletter No. 30 (April 2004). The same article appeared in Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), Volume 31, Number 18 (7 May 2004). An extended version of this paper was published as Radiation folly, Chapter 4 of Environment & Health: Myths & Realities, Edited by Kendra Okonski and Julian Morris, International Policy Press (a division of International Policy Network), June 2004 (ISBN 1905041004). See also Chernobyl Accident Appendix 2: Health Impacts

The chernobyl.info website www.chernobyl.info - out of date but some useful information

Chernobyl Forum information on IAEA website

Mikhail Balonov, The Chernobyl Forum: Major Findings and Recommendations, presented at the Public Information Materials Exchange meeting held in Vienna, Austria on 12-16 February 2006

GreenFacts webpage on Scientific Facts on the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident (www.greenfacts.org/en/chernobyl)

European Centre of Technological Safety's Chernobyl website (www.tesec-int.org/Chernobyl) and its webpage on Sarcophagus and Decommissioning of the Chernobyl NPP

Chernobyl Legacy website (www.chernobyllegacy.com)

David Mosey, Looking Beyond the Operator, Nuclear Engineering International, 26 Nov 2014

Chernobyl 25th anniversary, Frequently Asked Questions, World Health Organization (23 April 2011)

Environmental Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident and their Remediation: Twenty Years of Experience, Report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group "Environment", STI/PUB/1239, International Atomic Energy Agency (2006)

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Chernobyl | Chernobyl Accident | Chernobyl Disaster - World Nuclear Association

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Chernobyl accident information. The Chernobyl RBMK reactor design faults and how they were addressed. The Chernobyl New Safe Confinement. Lessons learnt from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Health impacts of Chernobyl.

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The Chernobyl disaster was an accident in which the #4 nuclear reactor exploded due to human error and design flaws. Radiation was spread in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, and even made it as far as France and Italy.  There is still high radiation levels there today.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Chernobyl-disaster

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Gifford Pinchot was born August 11, 1865 in Simsbury, Connecticut. He was born into an upper-class family where he was met with many opportunities that allowed him to achieve a good education. Upon entering Yale, he was met with a particular question from his father that made him evert towards the study of forestry. After finishing his studies in university, he returned to the US to focus on his interest in the environment.

He went on to work as a residential forester where he and some assisted partners explored forest areas for forest reserves, and he ended up becoming the chief of the Division of Forestry. He led many organizations to fight for the protection, health and conservation of forests. His constant activism and motivation for the preservation of American Forests soon allowed him to earn the title of the “father” of American conservation.

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Archie Carr was born June 16, 1909 in Alabama. He grew up very fond of language and mastered many different ones. He wrote many books and scientific papers, while he also studied zoology and ecology. He received a doctorate in zoology from The University of Florida and went on to study at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. On a break, he  went to learn biology in Spanish at Wilson Popenoe’s Escuela Agricola Panamericana in Honduras. He continued to travel and study biology wherever he could. He was also a involved member of the Marine Turtle Specialist Group of IUCN’s Survival Service Commission, and fought to protect turtles. Around 1960, he created "Operation Green Turtle" with the US Navy which goal aimed to continue reproduction of turtles. Archie cared for the environment and the protection of species. He put in efforts to keep ecosystems consistent and wanted the best for the Earth.

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The dust bowl was a period of severe dust storms that damaged ecology. It was caused by economic depression and extended drought. (1930's).

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Julian Simon was born on February 12, 1932 in New Jersey and would pass away on February 8,1998.  Simon went on to receive his Ph.D in economics at the University of Chicago and proceeded to teach Business Administration to students at University of Maryland. He also wrote many books in which he would argue that the improvement of technology and new resource findings could be accomplished with population growth. Simon fits into the study of APES thought population.
-Michelle Garcia

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Ted was born in 1938 in Ohio and attended Brown university. He made a lot of money in the broadcasting business and owned CNN and TBS. He bought almost 2 million acres of land in Montana and helped to bring back the North American bison. He fits in with our study in APES because he helped to restore 2 million acres of land back to it's natural state, while also preventing further development of it. He also created a sanctuary for many animals like the bison, elk, and wolves.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882. Roosevelt attended Harvard University in 1900. He also attended Law school at Colombia University. He spent most of his time on extracurricular activities and a strenuous social life. FDR was the only president that was elected 4 times. He led the United States through the Great Depression and World War II.

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- Lived from January 11, 1887 to April 21, 1948
- His native country was the USA
- He went to Yale School of Environment and Sheffield Scientific School
- He was an author and philosopher
- Considered the father of wildlife ecology
- Contributed to the development of fields and soil conservation
- Wrote a book called A Sand County Almanac about conservation and the need for a human conscience towards land use
- His book wanted to bring awareness to how humans affect natural Earth systems

- Will Giesler

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Rachel Louise Carson was born May 27, 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania, and died April 14, 1964. She was an American biologist mainly known for her writings on environmental pollution. In 1931, she began teaching at the University of Maryland. From 1929-36, she pursued postgraduate studies at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts. Her book, Silent Spring (1962), became one of the most influential pieces of media in the environmental movement. The book is known for its scientific accuracy along with its use of prose writing. She defended the idea that indiscriminate pesticides had large consequences, which caused a lot of backlash and accusations from the chemical industry. Her book is still considered influential today.

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Pete Seeger was born on may 3 1919 in New York city. Pete Seeger studied Marxism, music, and journalism at Harvard. He became a singer and social activist. He contributed to the environment by finding sloop Clearwater to advocate for cleaning up the Hudson River, Pete Seeger also wrote book which shaped both Seeger’s music and the gathering American folk song revival. thanks to his contributions Hudson River is clean.

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FIFRA stand for the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. It was created in 1969 by president Harry S Truman. It allows for federal regulation and control over all sales and production of Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide. The act was created as a result of several plants and animals dying from toxic resides and non-target distributions.
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On this page

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is the Federal statute that governs the registration, distribution, sale, and use of pesticides in the United States. With certain exceptions, a pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, or intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant, or desiccant, or any nitrogen stabilizer.

Key Federal Facility Responsibilities Under FIFRA

In brief, under FIFRA, Federal Facilities are required to:

Sell or distribute pesticides only as set forth in §12 of FIFRA

Properly follow pesticide labeling instructions

Use any pesticide under an experimental use permit consistent with the provisions of the permit

Ensure that applicators are properly trained and, wherever necessary, certified to use restricted use pesticides and are using appropriate personal protective equipment

Properly manage pesticide storage facilities

Dispose of pesticide residues and waste in accordance with required and recommended procedures

Maintain records of applications of restricted use pesticides, except when applied by a certified applicator who is a private contractor.

At facilities where pesticides are produced, sold or distributed, allow entry, inspection, copying of records or sampling authorized by FIFRA

Basics of FIFRA

FIFRA enforcement is focused on the sale, distribution, and use (which can include disposal) of pesticides. Generally, before a pesticide may be sold or distributed in the United States, it must be registered (licensed) with the EPA. Before EPA may register a pesticide under FIFRA, the applicant must show, among other things that using the pesticide according to specifications "will not generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment." Taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide, FIFRA defines the term "unreasonable adverse effects on the environment" to mean the following:

Any unreasonable risk to man or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide.

Any human dietary risk from residues that result from use of a pesticide in or on any food inconsistent with the standard under section 408 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

The version of FIFRA, enacted in 1947, required that persons register pesticides distributed in interstate commerce with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and established a rudimentary set of labeling provisions. Concerns regarding the toxic effects of pesticides and residues on applicators, non-target species, the environment, and food prompted significant changes in the original FIFRA legislation. Subsequent amendments, some of which occurred as a result of the current statute. In 1972, the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act amended FIFRA, as did the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of 2003. These amendments:

Strengthened the enforcement provisions of FIFRA

Broadened the legal emphasis on protecting health and the environment

Regulated the use of pesticides

Extended the scope of Federal law to cover intrastate registrations, and,

Streamlined the administrative appeals process

Originally, USDA administered FIFRA, which monitored the efficacy claims of manufacturers through a registration program. FIFRA's initial intent was to protect farmers by requiring accurate labeling of pesticide contents, thereby enabling farmers to make informed choices regarding the product's effectiveness. In 1970, with the formation of EPA, responsibility for administering FIFRA transferred from USDA to EPA.

The primary objective of FIFRA is to ensure that, when applied as instructed, pesticides will not generally cause unreasonable risk to human health or the environment. To reach this objective, FIFRA includes provisions that require EPA to establish several programs. Below is a summary of those programs.

Labeling (40 CFR Part 156)

All registered pesticide products must display labels that show the following information clearly and prominently:

Name, brand, or trademark product sold under

Name and address of the producer or registrant

Net contents

Product registration number

Producing establishment's number

Ingredient statement

Warning or precautionary statements

Directions for use

Use classification

By regulation, EPA promulgated various requirements pertaining to pesticide labels. These regulations have requirements for warning statements and mandate that pesticide products have adequate use directions. Labels may include, for example, instructions requiring the wearing of protective clothing, handling instructions, and instructions setting a period before workers may re-enter fields after the application of pesticides. For more information on labeling requirements, see 40 CFR Section 156.10(h) and (i).

Packaging (40 CFR Part 157)

Since 1981, FIFRA has required most residential-use pesticides with a signal word of "danger" or "warning" to be in child-resistant packaging (CRP). CRP is designed to prevent most children under 5 years old from gaining access to the pesticide, or at least delay their access. FIFRA §25(c)(3) authorizes EPA to establish standards with respect to the package, container, or wrapping in which a pesticide or device is enclosed to protect children and adults from serious injury or illness resulting from accidental ingestion or contact with pesticides or devices regulated under FIFRA. Additionally, §25(c)(3) requires EPA's CRP standards to be consistent with those established under the Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970.

Worker Protection Standards (40 CFR Part 170)

Facilities that handle pesticides must adopt workplace practices designed to reduce or eliminate exposure to pesticides and must establish procedures for responding to exposure-related emergencies. FIFRA prohibits registration of pesticides that generally pose unreasonable risks to people, including agricultural workers, or the environment. EPA uses two primary resources to protect agricultural workers:

1. Pesticide-specific restrictions and label requirements

2. Broadly applicable Worker Protection Standards (WPS)

If EPA believes the risks to workers posed by a pesticide are excessive, it can take actions such as requiring additional label warnings or requiring labeling that mandates use of protective clothing. The WPS specifically address how to reduce the risk of illness or injury resulting from occupational exposures to pesticides used in the production of agricultural plants on farms, in nurseries, in greenhouses, and in forests, and from the accidental exposure of workers and other persons to such pesticides. The standards establish ventilation criteria, entry restrictions, personal protective equipment guidelines, and information display requirements.

Registration of Pesticides (§3)

No person in any State may distribute or sell to any person any pesticide that is not registered pursuant to §3 of FIFRA. EPA may, by regulation, limit the distribution, sale, or use in any State of any pesticide that is not registered and that is not the subject of an experimental use permit under §5 of FIFRA or an emergency exception under §18 of FIFRA.

Experimental Use Permits (§5)

EPA has the authority to issue permits to applicants for conducting tests that are needed to collect the information necessary to register a pesticide. States can submit a plan to EPA to receive authorization to issue experimental use permits. States cannot issue permits for pesticides suspended or canceled by EPA.

Use of Restricted Use Pesticides-Applicators (§11)

Another action that EPA may take is to classify a pesticide as a "restricted use" pesticide, which means that only certified pesticide applicators or those under the supervision of a certified pesticide applicator may use the pesticide. Only certified applicators may use restricted use registered pesticides. Certification is a statement by the certifying agency that the applicator is competent and authorized to use or supervise the use of restricted pesticides. EPA establishes the certification standards, but any State with a State Certification Plan approved by EPA can establish its own program, if the program meets EPA standards. Each State must submit a plan for applicator certification to the EPA Administrator for approval. If EPA does not approve the plan, then EPA conducts the certification program for all applicators of registered pesticides.

Unlawful Acts (§12) - Unlawful acts include, among other things, the following:

Distributing or selling to any person a pesticide that is not registered

Operating with a registration that has been canceled or suspended

Detaching, destroying or defacing any required labeling

Refusing to prepare, maintain or submit any required records

Refusing to allow any entry, inspection, copying of records or authorized sampling

Exemption of Federal and State Agencies (§18)

EPA may exempt any Federal or State agency from any provision of FIFRA if the EPA Administrator determines that emergency conditions that require such an exemption exist.

Storage, Disposal, Transportation, and Recall (§19)

FIFRA stipulates that EPA has the authority to establish regulations and procedures regarding pesticide storage and disposal. Section 19 of FIFRA authorizes EPA to collect information and establish requirements for the storage, disposal, transportation, and packaging of pesticides. The objective of the regulations and recommendations is to provide procedures for storage, disposal, and transportation that adequately protect public health and the environment. FIFRA disposal regulations are implemented rarely and only in the context of risk-based and time-limited cancellations. Pesticide wastes generally are subject to the requirements of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Authority of States (§24)

A State may regulate the sale or use of any registered pesticide within the State. However, the regulation on the sale and use of the pesticide must not permit any sale or use prohibited by FIFRA. In addition, the State shall not impose any requirements for labeling or packaging in addition to, or different from, those imposed by FIFRA.

A State may register additional uses of a federally registered pesticide within the State to meet local needs unless EPA previously denied, disapproved, or canceled such use.

Application of FIFRA to Federal Facilities

EPA has oversight responsibility for the regulation of pesticide use in most States and primary responsibility in those States where all or part of the pesticide program has not been delegated. Amendments to FIFRA have delegated responsibility and authority to States for training, registration, and enforcement. Any Federal agency which seeks relief from any FIFRA requirement in an emergency condition must request an exemption pursuant to §18 of FIFRA. Before federal employees may apply restricted use pesticides, they must be certified commercial applicators based on the type of application they will use. Situations where Federal facility staff might wish to apply a restricted use pesticide include the following:

A structure to limit the control of pests such as rodents or cockroaches

Ground areas or water to control weeds, insects, or mosquitoes

Food handling areas to control bacteria

Under the 1996 amendments to FIFRA, EPA instructed federal agencies to use Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques to promote IPM activities such as procurement and regulations. 40 CFR 171.9.

Government Agency Plan

Federal agencies that conduct pesticide applications in more than one State must prepare a Government Agency Plan (GAP) determining and attesting to the competency of Federal employees whose duties require them to use or supervise the use of restricted use pesticides. A GAP does not relieve Federal employees from meeting State certification requirements. The State lead agency will review credentials issued under a GAP and may issue reciprocal credentials or require the employees to go through the State certification process.

EPA Enforcement

EPA's enforcement authorities are set forth in FIFRA §13 and §14. Section 13 addresses EPA's authority to issue a "stop sale," use, or removal order whenever a pesticide or device is found to be in violation of FIFRA requirements. Section 14(b) of FIFRA pertains to the assessment of criminal penalties for violations of FIFRA and its implementing regulations. EPA prohibits the sale and distribution of unregistered, adulterated, or misbranded pesticides and the use of any registered pesticide in a manner inconsistent with its labeling. To enforce FIFRA requirements, EPA conducts producer establishment inspections, marketplace surveillance, and pesticide sampling and analysis.

Historically, EPA has not assessed civil penalties against Federal agencies for violations of FIFRA. As a matter of practice, given the current state of the law, EPA does not intend to pursue such penalties.

Federal Facility Compliance Agreements

Typically, EPA will negotiate a Federal Facility Compliance Agreement with Federal agencies that are in violation of FIFRA requirements. The compliance agreement contains several provisions including, but not limited to, a schedule for achieving compliance and dispute resolution.

Criminal Enforcement

§14(b)(1): Criminal Penalties: In general - Any registrant, applicant for a registration, or producer who knowingly violates any provision of FIFRA is subject to a fine of not more than $50,000 and/or imprisonment not to exceed 1 year. Any commercial applicator of a restricted use pesticide; or any other person not described previously who distributes or sells pesticides, and who knowingly violates any provision of FIFRA is subject to a fine of not more than $25,000 and/or imprisonment not to exceed 1 year.

§14(b)(2): Criminal Fines: Private applicator - Any private applicator who knowingly violates any provision of FIFRA is subject to a fine of not more than $1,000 and/or imprisonment not to exceed 30 days.

Federal employees also may be subject to other State and local criminal penalties. Additionally, criminal fines may be imposed under 18 U.S.C. §3571, the Alternative Fines Act.

Emergency Authority

Section 6(c) of FIFRA, provides for the suspension of a pesticide registration if the Administrator determines it is necessary to prevent an imminent hazard. Section 13(a) of FIFRA, provides for the issuance of a stop sale, use, removal, and seizure order under circumstances outlined in the statute.

FIFRA contains no emergency authority provision.

State Enforcement

Under FIFRA §26, a State shall have primary enforcement responsibilities for pesticide use violations if EPA determines that such State has adopted and is implementing adequate pesticide use laws and regulations, enforcement procedures, and recordkeeping and reporting requirements. Under FIFRA, States have broad authority to regulate pesticides; however, it is unlawful for States to impose or continue in effect any requirements for labeling or packaging in addition to or different from those required under FIFRA. For more information on this limitation, see 7 U.S.C. §136 v(b).

Tribal Enforcement

Citizen Enforcement

FIFRA contains no citizen enforcement provisions.

EPA FIFRA Policies and Guidance

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Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and Federal Facilities | US EPA

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The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is the Federal statute that governs the registration, distribution, sale, and use of pesticides in the United States. With certain exceptions, a pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, or intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant, or desiccant, or any nitrogen stabilizer.

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Caused by the erosion of soil, the dust storms impacted the Great plains and southern states. I was both manmade and a natural disaster: heavy drought and overharvesting of farmers.

link: What Caused the Dust Bowl? | Dust Bowl History & Location - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Dust Bowl - 1930 to 1936

The Dust Bowl was a series of dust storms that attacked the Southern Plains region within the United States. It was caused by the increased high temperatures, economic downfall (as it took place during the Great Depression), and the poor maintenance of agricultural lands/environments.

https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/dust-bowl

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The Dust Bowl was caused by multiple economic and agricultural factors. This included federal land policies, changes in regional weather, and farm economics. After the Civil War, multiple federal land acts effected civilians and pioneers westward by harming farming in the Great Plains. Huge dust storms came and went, and many people died because of the intensity of the dusty storms and climate became effected as well. Dust Bowl: Cause & Impact On Great Depression - HISTORY

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What Caused the Dust Bowl?

The Dust Bowl was caused by several economic and agricultural factors, including federal land policies, changes in regional weather, farm economics and other cultural factors. After the Civil War, a series of federal land acts coaxed pioneers westward by incentivizing farming in the Great Plains.

The Homestead Act of 1862, which provided settlers with 160 acres of public land, was followed by the Kinkaid Act of 1904 and the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909. These acts led to a massive influx of new and inexperienced farmers across the Great Plains.

Many of these late 19th and early 20th-century settlers lived by the superstition "rain follows the plow." Emigrants, land speculators, politicians and even some scientists believed that homesteading and agriculture would permanently affect the climate of the semi-arid Great Plains region, making it more conducive to farming.

Manifest Destiny

This false belief was linked to Manifest Destiny -an attitude that Americans had a sacred duty to expand west. A series of wet years during the period created a further misunderstanding of the region's ecology and led to the intensive cultivation of increasingly marginal lands that couldn't be reached by irrigation.

Rising wheat prices in the 1910s and 1920s and increased demand for wheat from Europe during World War I encouraged farmers to plow up millions of acres of native grassland to plant wheat, corn and other row crops. But as the United States entered the Great Depression, wheat prices plummeted. In desperation, farmers tore up even more grassland in an attempt to harvest a bumper crop and break even.

Crops began to fail with the onset of drought in 1931, exposing the bare, over-plowed farmland. Without deep-rooted prairie grasses to hold the soil in place, it began to blow away. Eroding soil led to massive dust storms and economic devastation-especially in the Southern Plains.

When Was the Dust Bowl?

The Dust Bowl, also known as "the Dirty Thirties," started in 1930 and lasted for about a decade, but its long-term economic impacts on the region lingered much longer.

Severe drought hit the Midwest and southern Great Plains in 1930. Massive dust storms began in 1931. A series of drought years followed, further exacerbating the environmental disaster.

By 1934, an estimated 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land had been rendered useless for farming, while another 125 million acres-an area roughly three-quarters the size of Texas-was rapidly losing its topsoil.

Regular rainfall returned to the region by the end of 1939, bringing the Dust Bowl years to a close. The economic effects, however, persisted. Population declines in the worst-hit counties-where the agricultural value of the land failed to recover-continued well into the 1950s.

'Black Blizzards' Strike America

During the Dust Bowl period, severe dust storms, often called "black blizzards," swept the Great Plains. Some of these carried topsoil from Texas and Oklahoma as far east as Washington, D.C. and New York City, and coated ships in the Atlantic Ocean with dust.

Billowing clouds of dust would darken the sky, sometimes for days at a time. In many places, the dust drifted like snow and residents had to clear it with shovels. Dust worked its way through the cracks of even well-sealed homes, leaving a coating on food, skin and furniture.

Some people developed "dust pneumonia" and experienced chest pain and difficulty breathing. It's unclear exactly how many people may have died from the condition. Estimates range from hundreds to several thousand people.

On May 11, 1934, a massive dust storm two miles high traveled 2,000 miles to the East Coast, blotting out monuments such as the Statue of Liberty and the U.S. Capitol.

The worst dust storm occurred on April 14, 1935. News reports called the event Black Sunday. A wall of blowing sand and dust started in the Oklahoma Panhandle and spread east. As many as three million tons of topsoil are estimated to have blown off the Great Plains during Black Sunday.

An Associated Press news report coined the term "Dust Bowl" after the Black Sunday dust storm.

New Deal Programs

President Franklin D. Roosevelt established a number of measures to help alleviate the plight of poor and displaced farmers. He also addressed the environmental degradation that had led to the Dust Bowl in the first place.

As part of Roosevelt's New Deal, Congress established the Soil Erosion Service and the Prairie States Forestry Project in 1935. These programs put local farmers to work planting trees as windbreaks on farms across the Great Plains. The Soil Erosion Service, now called the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) developed and promoted new farming techniques to combat the problem of soil erosion.

Okie Migration

Roughly 2.5 million people left the Dust Bowl states- Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma-during the 1930s. It was one of the largest migrations in American history.

Oklahoma alone lost 440,000 people to migration. Many of them, poverty-stricken, traveled west looking for work. From 1935 to 1940, roughly 250,000 Oklahoma migrants moved to California. A third settled in the state's agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley.

These Dust Bowl refugees were called "Okies." Okies faced discrimination, menial labor and pitiable wages upon reaching California. Many of them lived in shantytowns and tents along irrigation ditches. "Okie" soon became a term of disdain used to refer to any poor Dust Bowl migrant, regardless of their state of origin.

Dust Bowl in Arts and Culture

The Dust Bowl, and the suffering endured by those who survived it, captured the hearts and imaginations of the nation's artists, musicians and writers.

John Steinbeck memorialized the plight of the Okies in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. Photographer Dorothea Lange documented rural poverty with a series of photographs for FDR's Farm Securities Administration, and artist Alexandre Hogue achieved renown with his Dust Bowl landscapes.

Folk musician Woody Guthrie, and his semi-autobiographical first album Dust Bowl Ballads of 1940, told stories of economic hardship faced by Okies in California. Guthrie, an Oklahoma native, left his home state with thousands of others looking for work during the Dust Bowl.

Sources

FDR and the New Deal Response to an Environmental Catastrophe. Roosevelt Institute.
About The Dust Bowl. English Department; University of Illinois.
Dust Bowl Migration. University of California at Davis.
The Great Okie Migration. Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Okie Migrations. Oklahoma Historical Society.
What we learned from the Dust Bowl: lessons in science, policy, and adaptation. Population and Environment.
The Dust Bowl. Library of Congress.
Dust Bowl Ballads: Woody Guthrie. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
The Dust Bowl. Ken Burns; PBS.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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Dust Bowl: Causes, Definition & Years - HISTORY

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The Dust Bowl refers to the drought-stricken southern plains of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

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The Taylor Grazing Act created districts in which grazing was allowed, and helped to slow degeneration of land.

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Programs: Natural Resources: Rangelands and Grazing: Livestock Grazing: About | Bureau of Land Management

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About Livestock Grazing on Public Lands During the era of homesteading, Western public rangelands were often overgrazed because of policies designed to promote the settlement of the West and a lack of understanding of how to care for these lands. In response to requests from Western ranchers, Congress passed the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 (named after Rep.

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Yellowstone is founded-1872 By Will Stevenson

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Yellowstone is founded-1872 By Will Stevenson

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President Grant signed the Yellowstone act in 1872 making it the first U.S. national park.

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Earth Day was celebrated in the United States for the first time on April 22, 1970. The first Earth Day indeed increased environmental awareness in America. Millions of Americans, including students from thousands of colleges and universities, participated in rallies, marches and educational programs across the country. The famous quote was " Save Your Earth YOU CAN'T GET OFF".

- Francisco Jacinto

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Earth Day, an event to increase public awareness of the world's environmental problems, is celebrated in the United States for the first time on April 22, 1970. Millions of Americans, including students from thousands of colleges and universities, participated in rallies, marches and educational programs across the country.

Earth Day was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, a staunch environmentalist who hoped to provide unity to the grassroots environmental movement and increase ecological awareness. "The objective was to get a nationwide demonstration of concern for the environment so large that it would shake the political establishment out of its lethargy," Senator Nelson said, "and, finally, force this issue permanently onto the national political agenda."

The 1962 publication of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring-about the effects of pesticides-is often cited as the beginning of the modern environmental movement in the U.S. Sustainability, organic eating and the "back-to-the-land" movement continued to gain steam throughout the 1960s.

The first Earth Day indeed increased environmental awareness in America, and in July of 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency was established by special executive order to regulate and enforce national pollution legislation. Earth Day also led to the passage of the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.

On April 22, 1990, the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, more than 200 million people in 141 countries participated in Earth Day celebrations. Senator Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton in September 1995. (He died in 2005.)

Earth Day has been celebrated on different days by different groups internationally. The United Nations officially celebrates it on the vernal equinox, which usually occurs about March 21.

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Earth Day, an event to increase public awareness of the world's environmental problems, is celebrated in the U.S. for the first time. Millions of Americans, including students from thousands of colleges and universities, participated in rallies, marches and educational programs across the country.

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The Lorax Publication - 1971 - Hailey Mannix

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The Lorax Publication - 1971 - Hailey Mannix

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Dr. Suess’ The Lorax was written and published - in 1971

The publication of The Lorax was one of the most important publications about environmental science as it was one of the first to discuss the problem of deforestation, urging for change, and a call to light on the importance of environmental caretaking.

https://les.mitsubishielectric.co.uk/the-hub/environmentaldrseuss#:~:text=The%20major%20catalyst%20to%20the,his%20turnover%20of%20tree%20harvesting!

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This act is supposed to protect animals made endangered by economic growth and development. It was passed in 1973. For a species to be considered endangered, it must meet one of the following criteria:
1. Its natural habitat must be in the process of being destroyed or threatened
2. It is being overused for commercial, scientific, or recreational purposes.
3. The population of the species is declining due to predation or disease
4. There are not enough regulatory mechanisms in place to protect this species.
5. There are other manmade or natural factors affecting the species population.
Endangered Species Act (ESA) | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute (cornell.edu)
-Ethan Berke

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-1973-1974
-Oil Shipments temporarally stopped coming from the middle east during the Yom Kippur War due to certain countries supporting Israel
-Gas became incredibly expensive and had to be limited to small amounts
-The picture above shows how gas stations were running out and there would be lines of cars just for gas.
Britannica link

-Noah Shafritz

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Endangered Species Act (1973) Lottie Chappell

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Endangered Species Act (1973) Lottie Chappell

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The Endangered Species Act allows individuals and organizations to petition to have a species listed as endangered or threatened. These listing petitions undergo rigorous scientific evaluation and public review before a final decision is made on whether a species should be protected.
https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/the-us-endangered-species-act#:~:text=Passed%20with%20bipartisan%20support%20in,a%20species%20should%20be%20protected.

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Endangered Species Day - May 20, 2022

Endangered Species Day is celebrated every year on the third Friday in May, encouraging people to learn about and take action to help endangered species. WWF highlights endangered wildlife every day, working to build awareness and partnerships with local communities, governments, businesses, and the rest of the world to take action to protect them.

The US Endangered Species Act (ESA) is our nation's most effective law to protect at-risk species from extinction, with a stellar success rate: 99% of species listed on it have avoided extinction.

Passed with bipartisan support in 1973, the law allows individuals and organizations to petition to have a species listed as endangered or threatened. These listing petitions undergo rigorous scientific evaluation and public review before a final decision is made on whether a species should be protected. The law requires protection for critical habitat areas and the development and implementation of recovery plans for listed species. It also allows for flexibility in its implementation, requiring coordination among federal, state, tribal, and local officials on efforts to prevent extinction.

Populations are monitored over time to determine whether a given species is recovering. When species are considered recovered, they are removed from the list. Viewed as the gold standard for conservation legislation, the ESA is one of the world's most effective laws for preventing and reversing the decline of endangered and threatened wildlife. In 2016, more listed species were found to be partially or completely recovered than in any previous year since the ESA became law.

The rebound of a species is a gradual process that requires a long-term commitment dependent on many factors such as habitat, food availability, reproduction rate, and climate. The longer a species remains listed, the more likely it is to be recovering. Unfortunately, new regulations put in place by the Trump administration undermine the ESA, weakening the United States' most powerful-and in some cases, only-tool to save species from extinction.

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Endangered Species Day is celebrated every year on the third Friday in May, encouraging people to learn about and take action to help endangered species. WWF highlights endangered wildlife every day, working to build awareness and partnerships with local communities, governments, businesses, and the rest of the world to take action to protect them.

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The Alaskan Lands Act was created to protect and conserve lands by creating national parklands and manage wildlife.

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Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act - Alaska (U.S. National Park Service)

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The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980 created most of the national parklands in Alaska and impacts the National Park Service in many ways. ANILCA stipulates the designation of wilderness, subsistence management, transportation in and across parklands, use of cabins, mi…

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The Chernobyl Disaster was a nuclear incident that happened on April 26th, 1986. It is considered the most severe nuclear accident that has ever occurred. During a test of one of the nuclear reactors, the reactor malfunctions due to a design flaw. This led to steam explosions and the core melting down. Although fewer than 100 people died in the accident itself, the long lasting effects of increased radiation could have resulted in many deaths after the fact. The WHO estimated that 4,000 deaths occurred from the radiation. Chernobyl disaster | Causes, Effects, Deaths, Videos, Location, & Facts | Britannica
-Ethan Berke

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The Lacey Act was enforced on May 25, 1990, to ban hunters from illegally attacking, trafficking, or taking any forms of wildlife. The consequences of breaking this law included up to 5 years of imprisonment and fine of $250,000 and up.

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Wilson served as curator in entomology at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. He was born in Birmingham. He received his early training at The University of Alabama, and then went to Harvard. He was an American biologist. He made a series of discoveries with ants about how they communicate through the transmission of chemical substances called pheromones. He fits into unit 4.

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World Population hits 6 billion 1999 By Will Stevenson

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World Population hits 6 billion 1999 By Will Stevenson

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World population is 6 billion people.

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Founded by John Muir in California in 1892. It was founded with the soul purpose of researching and exploring mountain ranges in the Pacific Coast. While today their goal is to make natural areas accessible to the public which can cause the areas to be destroyed or put under development.

https://www.sierraclub.org/maryland/chapter-history

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The Wilderness Act is considered one of America’s greatest conservation achievements. The act created our National Wilderness Preservation System and provided the means for Americans to induct unspoiled areas into the system. The Wilderness Act created the National Wilderness Preservation System and immediately placed 54 areas into the system. Those areas included 9.1 million acres in 13 states, including some of our most iconic wilderness areas. Today the wilderness system contains nearly 112 million acres of lands enjoyed by all Americans.

- Francisco Jacinto

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The 1964 Wilderness Act, written by The Wilderness Society's Howard Zahniser created the National Wilderness Preservation System, which protects nearly 112 million acres of wilderness areas from coast to coast.

What Did The Wilderness Act Achieve?

The Wilderness Act is considered one of America's greatest conservation achievements. The act created our National Wilderness Preservation System and provided the means for Americans to induct unspoiled areas into the system.

The Wilderness Society played an instrumental role in passing the Wilderness Act, and has since utilized this tool to contribute a total of nearly 112 million acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System.

The Wilderness Act created the National Wilderness Preservation System and immediately placed 54 areas into the system. Those areas included 9.1 million acres in 13 states, including some of our most iconic wilderness areas:

Among some of the very first wilderness areas created by the act were:

Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota

Bridger Wilderness, Wyoming

Bob Marshall Wilderness, Montana

Ansel Adams Wilderness, California

Today the wilderness system contains nearly 112 million acres of lands enjoyed by all Americans. These wilderness lands all exist within our national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges and Bureau of Land Management lands.

Today's wilderness system includes:

More than 750 wilderness areas from coast to coast

111,706,287 million acres of protected wilderness

Wilderness areas in all but six U.S. states

A Quick History of the Wilderness Act

Former Wilderness Society Executive Director Howard Zahniserdrafted the bill in 1956 to protect some of the nation's last remaining wilderness.

By 1955, Zahniser had grown disillusioned with piecemeal attempts at preservation. "Let us be done with a wilderness preservation program made up of a sequence of overlapping emergencies, threats, and defense campaigns," he said. He sat down and composed the first draft of what later became the Wilderness Act.

After eight years and 66 revisions, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law on Sept. 3, 1964. Sadly Zahniser died four months earlier. He was not able to see his dream signed into action, but the legacy he left will be enjoyed by Americans for generations to come.

Instrumental figures in creating the Wilderness Act

Howard Zahniser (February 25, 1906 - May 5, 1964)

Howard Zahniser was the legendary leader of The Wilderness Society who authored the original Wilderness Act. Zahniser led The Wilderness Society through two decades of wilderness battles and landmark accomplishments.

Zahniser wrote 66 drafts of the Wilderness Act between 1956 and 1964 and steered it through 18 hearings. Its passage in 1964 stands in testament to the dedication and perseverance of this man who deeply felt the worth of wilderness.

"I believe we have a profound fundamental need for areas of the earth where we stand without our mechanisms that make us immediate masters over our environment."

Bob Marshall (January 2, 1901 - November 11, 1939)

Robert (Bob) Marshall, principal founder of The Wilderness Society, set an unprecedented course for wilderness preservation in the United States that few have surpassed.

Marshall shaped the U.S. Forest Service's policy on wilderness designation and management. He wrote passionately on all aspects of conservation and preservation and was among the first to suggest that large tracts of Alaska be preserved.

One of the first wilderness areas protected as a result of the Wilderness Act was the Bob Marshall Wilderness in western Montana, affectionately referred to as "the Bob."

Harvey Broome (July 15, 1902 - March 8, 1968)

Harvey Broome, revered for his conservation work in the Smoky Mountains, was president of The Wilderness Society for nine years.

Broome worked closely with Executive Director Howard Zahniser to persuade Congress to create the National Wilderness Preservation System. That finally happened in 1964 when Congress passed the Wilderness Act. Broome stood proudly with other conservationists to watch President Lyndon Johnson sign this important bill into law.

Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 - April 21, 1948)

A Yale-educated professor of wildlife management and founder of The Wilderness Society, Aldo Leopold worked with the Forest Service to protect the nation's first wilderness area. He also wrote A Sand County Almanac, the seminal book on the land ethic.

With degrees in hand, Leopold joined the Forest Service in 1909, advancing swiftly as a ranger and supervisor in New Mexico. By 1919, his thinking had evolved from a narrow focus on forestry and wildlife management to an expanded awareness of the need to protect wilderness in America.

In 1924, Leopold convinced the Forest Service to protect 500,000 acres of New Mexico's Gila National Forest as wilderness. It was the National Forest System's first officially designated wilderness area.

Sigurd F. Olson (April 4, 1899 - January 13, 1982)

Sigurd F. Olson, former president and governing council member of The Wilderness Society, was an American author, environmentalist and lifelong advocate for wilderness.

Olson helped write The Wilderness Act of 1964 and his lifelong dedication to preserving wilderness resulted in permanent protection for the Boundary Waters of Minnesota.

Olson was president of The Wilderness Society from 1963 to 1971. His work was critical to gaining protection for the Boundary Waters, Voyageurs National Park, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Point Reyes National Seashore.

Mardy Murie (August 18, 1902 - October 19, 2003)

Margaret "Mardy" Murie learned to love wilderness on the windswept Alaskan tundra during a youth in Fairbanks. After her marriage to renowned biologist Olaus Murie, Mardy plunged into environmental politics.

Mardy was a powerful conservationist in her own right, leading the crusade to protect Alaskan wilderness after Olaus' death.

Mardy attended the signing of the Wilderness Act by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 after Olaus' death. She continued the work that she and Olaus had begun together, joining the governing council of The Wilderness Society and working for the protection of wild Alaska until the end of her life.

Olaus Murie (March 1, 1889 - October 21, 1963)

Scientist, visionary and former governing council member and president of The Wilderness Society, Olaus Murie's vision helped establish the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and shaped a new way of thinking about predators and ecosystems.

In 1937, Murie joined the governing council of the young Wilderness Society. Murie's greatest quest became protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. In 1950, The Wilderness Society named Murie its president.

Although he did not live to see the Wilderness Act passed, its enactment was in part attributable to his work and convictions.

Wallace Stegner (February 18, 1909 - April 13, 1993)

Former Wilderness Society governing council member Wallace Stegner was best known as a Pulitzer Prize-winning literary giant, but he was also a committed conservationist.

Stegner joined the conservation movement in the 1950s while fighting the construction of a dam on Dinosaur National Monument's Green River. In 1960, he wrote his famous Wilderness Letter on the importance of federal protection of wild places. This letter was used to introduce the Wilderness Act, which established the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1964.

Wilderness today

The 21st century has been a mixed bag for wilderness. In the early years, measures such as the Roadless Area Conservation Rule served notice that America had not forgotten its bedrock stewardship values. Later, hundreds of thousands of acres were protected through dedicated pieces of legislation in Utah, Nevada, California and elsewhere, culminating with President Barack Obama's 2009 passage of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which added over 2 million acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System.

However, since then, Congressional partisanship has led to an inertia that belies our conservation legacy. As we prepare to commemorate the 1964 passage of the Wilderness Act, we're also facing an era in which lawmakers have sparsely used the framework of that bill to protect public land. Indeed, would-be wilderness areas throughout the country now find themselves in a precarious position despite the mandate of ordinary Americans, who made their love of public lands abundantly clear during the two-week government shutdown of 2013.

Fortunately, progress may be on the horizon: in the current Congress, millions of acres' worth of land has been proposed for protection as Wilderness Area. Some of the bills intended to protect these special places boast bipartisan sponsorship, a rarity in the current political climate.

Why wilderness designations matter

The Wilderness Act has ultimately allowed Americans to preserve more than 750 wilderness areas in states from Alaska to Florida. The benefits of this land conservation are profound:

Wilderness areas:

Provide habitat for wildlife and havens for threatened species

Filter and clean the air we breathe

Protect watershed and provide clean drinking water to communities

Boost nearby economies with tourism and recreation dollars

Provide outstanding places to recreate and to escape the bustle of the modern world

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The 1964 Wilderness Act, written by The Wilderness Society's Howard Zahniser created the National Wilderness Preservation System, which protects 111 million acres of wilderness areas from coast to coast.

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The first earth day occurred on April 22, 1970 where millions of people worldwide attended events and protests to advocate for the protection of the earth and it’s wellness. People like senator Gaylord Nelson spread awareness by collecting his students to fight for environmental causes and opposition of environmental degradation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v_2nTvAcSU (footage of what the protests were like)

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Yellowstone National Park Founded - 1872

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Yellowstone National Park Founded - 1872

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In 1872 president and former Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant founded and started the preservation of the area now famously known as Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is the worlds first national park founded and considered one of the most beautiful by many.

https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/historyculture/yellowstoneestablishment.htm#:~:text=On%20March%201%2C%201872%2C%20President,first%20national%20park%20was%20born.

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A. Marjorie was born in Boston but moved young to southwest Florida. She went to Florida State College for Women in 1936 and received a degree in Zoology. She also taught a course in Natural History as a part of the National Youth Administration. She got a job at a fish hatchery as a wildlife technician.

b. Marjorie was part of the Garden Club and had a leadership position. She worked to initiate the Payne Prairie Wildlife refuge which became part of the Florida state parks system. She was a part of Florida Defenders of the Environment and raised money for projects such as creating the Environmental Service Center.

c.She fits into the Humans alter natural Earth systems and Environmental problems and issues have a social and cultural context part of APES.

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Yellowstone National Park - 1872. Joseph Plange

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Yellowstone National Park - 1872. Joseph Plange

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The region that is now famously known as Yellowstone National Park was formed and started to be preserved in 1872 by president and former Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant. The first national park established in the world, Yellowstone, is regarded by many as being among the most magnificent.

(Link in caption)

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Marjorie Harris Carr - Ellen Evangelista 

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Marjorie Harris Carr - Ellen Evangelista 

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Marjorie Harris Carr was born on March 26th, 1915 and lived until October 10th, 1997. She lived in the US and she attended the Florida State College (now FSU) and got a BS in Zoology in 1936. She then went to the University of Florida, and in 1942 she got a Master of Science degree. She was an Environmentalist and a researcher, as well as a Conservation Biologist. Her early work was focused in Alachua county, including the preservation and restoration of Lake Alice located on the campus of the University of Florida in 1969. Marjorie also helped to establish the Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park in 1970. She worked with Florida Defenders of the Environment, until her death, to preserve the Ocklawaha River Valley. She helped halt the construction of the Cross Florida Barge Canal, and this area is now a recreation area and conservation that was named in her honor in 1998. She helped us by conserving land and wildlife and keeping the environment safe. I think that she fits well into our studies in the land and water use category as she worked to protect it and keep it safe from development and/or pollution.

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Barry Commoner was a cellular biologist born in Brooklyn in 1917. He got his bachelor's degree in zoology, and he received his master's and PhD from Harvard. As a professor, he founded the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, a center dedicated to studying the environment. He wrote multiple books, with varying topics, from the opposition of nuclear weapons testing, to the environmental crisis. He also studied the correlation between population growth and poverty. One of his major accomplishments is the discovery of Dioxin pollution originating from the United States. Since environmental science includes parts of biology, Commoner's work as a biologist directly relates to our class.
-Ethan Berke

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- Effective as of June 8, 1906
- The act was enacted to provide a general protection for any general kind of cultural or natural resource
- It blocks any and all historic and prehistoric sites on federal land from being destroyed or excavated
- The act has been used over 200 times to protect sites from being destroyed
- https://www.doi.gov/ocl/antiquities-act

-Will Giesler

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The Clean Water Act has the purpose to protect and restore the nation waters. That would include to eliminate the discharge of pollutants in the water and have the water get a quality where you can swim and fish.
- Michelle Garcia

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The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary Federal statute regulating the protection of the nation’s water. The CWA aims to prevent, reduce, and eliminate pollution in the nation's water in order to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters", as described in CWA section 101(a). A stated goal of the CWA is to eliminate discharge of pollutants into navigable waters, as that term is defined in CWA § 502(7) and corresponding case law.

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by Senator Edmund S. Muskie (D-Me.)
[EPA Journal - July/August 1978]

When Congress debated the 1972 Amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, mid-course corrections were promised.

The Clean Water Act of 1977 has fulfilled that promise--and it also maintains the original promise of the clean water for the American people.

More than seventy changes were made in the existing law. Most enhance the ability of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to deal with complex water pollution problems. We made some requirements more flexible, but we have not strayed from our basic goals.

We have maintained our goal to eliminate the discharge of pollutants by 1985.

We have maintained the policy that the public must be protected from cancer-causing pollutants and other toxic poisons.

We have maintained the concept that industry must use the best available technology to control pollution.

We have renewed our commitment to provide adequate funding to publicly-owned treatment plants.

The new law reflects needed compromise without diminishing our overall pollution control capability. As an example, the Administrator is given flexibility in determining treatment levels for well known conventional pollutants but is given little leeway in the enforcement of controls on the thousands of toxic chemicals that are dumped daily into America's rivers and lakes.

The success of the Federal Clean Water Law has been uneven. Programs affecting municipalities faltered because of uncertain funding and excessive red-tape. But the programs aimed at industrial compliance fared much better.

An estimated 90 percent of the Nation's industries met the July 1, 1977, deadline for use of best practicable technology. My home State of Maine was one of only three States where industry achieved total compliance with requirements to use the best practicable clean-up technology last July, and the improvement in water quality has been noticeable.

Despite this success, however, the 1977 Act makes some changes in the 1983 industrial requirements.

First, the concept of uniform application of the requirement to install the best available technology by 1983 was broadened by the creation of the three categories of pollutants--conventional, non-conventional, and toxic pollutants. Best available technology requirements in existing law will still generally apply to toxic and non-conventional pollutants, while a new level of treatment called "best conventional technology" is created to deal with conventional pollutants.

In creating this new level of treatment, which is somewhere between best practicable and best available treatment, Congress determined that for conventional pollutant discharges, best available control may require an unreasonable degree of treatment. In order to reduce the 1983 requirements in these cases, effluent guidelines for specified conventional pollutants are to be written to reflect a new level of treatment reflecting continued progress beyond what has already been achieved.

Congress has recognized that toxic substances have become the most serious water pollution problem in recent years. The 1977 Act strengthens EPA's authority to control toxic pollutants by:

requiring industry to meet best available technology standards for specified toxic pollutants by July 1, 1984. This action codifies EPA's existing toxics policy;

requiring compliance with best available technology standards for newly listed toxics within three years. The process of adding a toxic pollutant to the toxics list has been simplified.

The new non-conventional pollutant category created by the 1977 Act will include all those pollutants which have yet to be determined either toxic or conventional. Industry has been given until 1987 to comply with the best available technology requirement for non-conventional pollutants.

However, waivers from best available technology can be obtained if industry can provide proof that such non-conventional pollutants will not interfere with the attainment or maintenance of the national water quality standard, that is, water quality assuring protection of public water supplies, and the protection and propagation of a balanced population of shellfish, fish, and wildlife, and allow recreational activities, in and on the water.

Congress has given the Environmental Protection Agency further control over non-conventional pollutants suspected of toxicity by recognizing its responsibility to assure that such pollutants do not pose an "unacceptable risk to human health or the environment..."

The second major change affecting industrial compliance within the Clean Water Act of 1977 is the additional time given to meet the 1977 requirements for best practicable technology.

An extended deadline of April 1, 1979, is established for those industries acting in "good faith" in trying to comply with a July 1, 1977, deadline. However, as many as half of those who have failed to comply with pollution requirements may have done so because of a lack of good faith or a lack of interest in the success of the program. In these instances, the Agency should continue its enforcement policy of seeking court-imposed penalties for non-compliance in amounts related to the benefits of delayed compliance.

Third, the industrial pretreatment program established in the 1972 Act has been made more workable. This program has been designed to protect our municipal treatment plants from non-compatible industrial discharges and to keep our municipal sludge free of harmful toxic pollutants.

Congress applauds the success to date of a majority of our Nation's major industries for achieving the requirements of the 1972 Clean Water law. Through the enactment of the 1977 Amendments, we have effort to comply, and we have realistically adjusted certain industrial regulations accordingly.

The 1977 Act also addressed several other important provisions:

The Environmental Protection Agency, through Section 404, is mandated to develop an effective program for controlling the pollution of the Nation's 76 million acres of wetlands. The Agency is also required to monitor the protection of these water areas in coordination with other Federal agencies and the States through a permit program. Federal jurisdiction over the wetlands ha been retained, and I am hopeful this means the fragile wetlands environment will truly be protected.

Federal authority to clean up oil and hazardous substance pollution has been extended to 200 miles from the shoreline. The liability limits on tankers and facilities for spill clean-up have been raised. These amendments provide interim assurance that adequate authority exists to clean up most spills of oil and hazardous substances until separate legislation to create a "superfund" through a fee on oil transportation can be enacted.

Federal facilities now must comply with both procedural and substantive provisions of the clean water law.

The 1977 Clean Water Act continues the national goal of eliminating the discharge of pollutants into our water. It was not easy legislation to enact. The amendments to the Act took two years of hard work by Congress to develop.

But we have reached an important turning point in our struggle for clean water. Our emphasis must now shift from legislation to the implementation of regulations. We have a law capable of achieving our goals. We now must work toward regulations to match.

Six and a half years ago, I made the following remarks which I think are as relevant today as then in describing the nature of our environmental challenge:

"It is imperative that we attempt to stop pollution and to restore the quality of our environment. I suggest that we begin by adding to our approach some humble ideas about ourselves and our place upon the planet.

"It may be, as some argue, that man is the most adaptable of Earth's creatures. It may be that he can remain essentially the same, changing only slightly as he adjusts to higher levels of pollution.

"But what we do not know, and what we cannot predict accurately, are the long-range effects upon man of prolonged exposure to bigger and bigger doses of pollution. Man, no less than the peregrine falcon and the mountain lion, is an endangered species.

"He is also the principal danger to himself, the principal polluter of his environment. Foul air, dirty water, ravaged land, are more than complex problems in resource management. What must be managed, and properly managed for our own protection, are our activities within our environment.

"There is another humble idea that should be added to our approach: We live today in what an engineer might call a closed system. Some of our resources, once used, cannot be replaced. Others of our resources are renewable, but finite. No one is likely to invent more clean water, more clean air, more arable land."

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by Senator Edmund S. Muskie (D-Me.) [EPA Journal - July/August 1978] When Congress debated the 1972 Amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, mid-course corrections were promised. The Clean Water Act of 1977 has fulfilled that promise--and it also maintains the original promise of the clean water for the American people.

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It prohibits the exporting and transporting of endangered species. it also tries to restore healthy populations of all the species.

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The Clean Water Act that was created by Jimmy Carter and became a U.S. federal law. It was meant to contain the discharge or excess of pollutants into the nation's surface waters, including lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands, and coastal areas. It was passed in 1972 and was originally known as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The Clean Water Act is administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which sets water quality standards, handles enforcement, and helps state and local governments develop their own pollution control plans.
Clean Water Act (CWA) | Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (boem.gov)

-Sophia Cominos

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The Endangered Species Act allows organizations and individuals to petition for a species to be classified as endangered or threatened. The act also prohibits the transportation or exportation of endangered or threatened species along with designating a habitat necessary for their survival and recovery.
- Taylor Katz

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The Endangered Species Act is our nation’s most effective law to protect at-risk species from extinction, with a stellar success rate: 99% of species listed on it have avoided extinction.

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Gibbs lived in the late 20th century and spent most of her life living in Virginia and New York. Lois received her high school diploma and went on to become an environmental activist after fearing for her son’s safety at his school. She worked with her neighbors to form the Love Canal Homeowners Association which pushed the government to clean up the waterways around her son’s school. Later, she formed the US Environmental protection Agency’s superfund to clean up similar dangerous sites. There was vast support for her efforts and formed an environmental center called Citizens clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste. This connects to the idea of environmental problems having a societal context as the issue was created by business and irresponsible practices and then citizens collaborated to make the area safer.

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The Clean Water Act by Jimmy Carter is a U.S. Federal Law that regulates the protection of the nations bodies of water.  Originally passed in 1972, but amended in 1977 the acts purpose is to eliminate pollution to American waterways and make them safe for swimming and fishing. Since being passed, the act has significantly reduced the amount of pollution entering the nations waterways.
- Taylor Katz

https://www.epa.gov/cwa-404/clean-water-laws-regulations-and-executive-orders-related-section-404

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The Alaskan Land Act created most national parklands in Alaska. It works to conserve Alaska Native culture along with the environment. It works with protecting the environment and the people who depend on the land. https://www.nps.gov/locations/alaska/anilca.htm#:~:text=The%20Alaska%20National%20Interest%20Lands,Park%20Service%20in%20many%20ways.

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-The Act created most of the national parks in Alaska to help maintain/protect wildlife and nature.
-This map demonstrates the way people were allowed to travel, mine, and do other things in protected areas.
-Alaska national interest
-Noah Shafritz

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A reactor at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl exploded lifting its 1,000-ton roof into the sky. This released 400 times the amount of radiation than released in the bombing of Hiroshima. This has left all of eastern Europe riddled with radiation which the region still suffers and will continue to suffer for millions of years in the future.

\Chernobyl: Disaster, Response & Fallout - HISTORY