This is a short chronology of major events affecting sustainable development efforts over the past half century. It will
be periodically updated as we add more social, political, economic, and cultural events which helped shape our successes, failures, and
the sustainability movement itself. At the moment, the timeline is primarily composed of environmentally-oriented events.
|
Year
|
Events
|
US NGOs
|
|
1950
|
|
|
|
1951
|
|
Nature Conservancy
|
|
1952
|
|
|
|
1953
|
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|
|
1954
|
|
|
|
1955
|
Clean Air Act
|
|
|
1956
|
|
|
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1957
|
|
|
|
1958
|
|
|
|
1959
|
|
|
|
1960
|
Clean Water Act
|
|
|
1961
|
|
World Wildlife Fund
|
|
1962
|
Silent Spring
White House Conservation Conference
|
|
|
1963
|
Clean Air Act amended
|
|
|
1964
|
Wilderness Act
|
|
|
1965
|
Northeast US blackout
Water Quality Act
Solid Waste Disposal Act
Clean Air Act amended
|
|
|
1966
|
|
|
|
1967
|
Clean Air Act amended
|
Environmental Defense Fund
|
|
1968
|
Population Bomb
National Wild and Scenic Rivers
Act
National Trails Act
|
Zero Population Growth
|
|
1969
|
Santa Barbara oil spill
Cuyahoga River bursts into flames
Cyclamates banned
National Environmental Policy Act
|
Council on Economic Priorities
Friends of the Earth
Union of Concerned Scientists
|
|
1970
|
First complete gene synthesis
EPA established
Clean Air Act amended
Water Quality Control Act
Occupational Safety and Health Act
Earth Day (April 22)
National Industrial Pollution Control
Council
|
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Environmental Action
League of Conservation Voters
Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC)
Public Interest Research Groups
(PIRG)
|
|
1971
|
Cigarette ads banned from TV
|
Greenpeace
Public Citizen
|
|
1972
|
UN Stockholm Conference on Human Environment
First returnable bottle law (Oregon)
Limits to Growth (Club of Rome)
Water Pollution Control Act
UN Environment Programme
|
|
|
1973
|
“Energy crisis†– OPEC oil embargo
Endangered Species Act
Small is Beautiful
|
Cousteau Society
|
|
1974
|
Karen Silkwood killed
CFC danger reported
World population reaches 4 billion
Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act
Safe Drinking Water Act
|
Environmental Policy Institute
|
|
1975
|
FMC corporation dumped 3,000 pounds of
toxic waste into Ohio River
|
Food First
Worldwatch Institute
|
|
1976
|
Seabrook anti-nuclear demonstration
Federal Land Policy and Management
Act
National Forest Management Act
Toxic Substances Control Act
Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act
Fishery Conservation Act
|
|
|
1977
|
Blackout in New York City
North Seal oil spill (8.2 million
gallons)
Clean Air Act amended
Ocean Dumping Act amended
|
|
|
1978
|
Love Canal contamination reported
Three Mile Island radioactivity
leak
First test-tube baby
Amoco Cadiz oil spill off France
(70 million gal)
Oil drilling begins off New Jersey
shore
|
|
|
1979
|
World population reaches 5 billion
|
Greenpeace
|
|
1980
|
Global 2000 Report to President Carter
World Conservation Strategy (IUCN)
Overshoot
(Catton)
Superfund (Comprehensive Environment
Response Act)
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act
Alaska National Interest Lands Act
Low-level Radioactive Waste Act
Alternative Motor Fuels Act
|
Earth First!
|
|
1981
|
Reagan Administration begins
|
Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes
|
|
1982
|
UN World Charter for Nature
Nuclear Waste Policy Act
|
Co-op America
Earth Island Institute
Rocky Mountain Institute
|
|
1983
|
Green Party elected in West Germany
|
|
|
1984
|
Bhopal disaster in India
Brundtland Commission appointed
Famine in the Sahel, Africa
First Worldwatch State of the World
report
Resource Conservation Act amended
|
US Greens (Committees of Correspondence)
National Toxics Campaign
|
|
1985
|
Rainbow Warrior blown up by French government
Ozone hole discovered in Antarctic
FDA approves bovine somatotropin
|
|
|
1986
|
Chernobyl nuclear plan explosion (Ukraine)j
Safe Drinking Water Act amended
|
|
|
1987
|
Our Common Future (Brundtland Report)
First debt-for-nature swap
First US Greens meeting (Amherst)
Montreal CFC Protocol
Clean Water Act amended
|
Conservation International
|
|
1988
|
Alternative Motor Fuels Act
|
Student Environmental Action Committee
(SEAC)
|
|
1989
|
Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska (11 million
gal)
Valdez Principles
|
Coalition for Environmentally Responsible
Economics (CERES)
|
|
1990
|
“Big Green†proposition in California
defeated
Coastal Zone Management Act amended
Clean Air Act amended
Northern Forest Appropriation Action
|
US Network for UNCED, later Citizens Network
for Sustainable Development (CitNet)
Alliance of Northern Peoples for
Environment & Development (ANPED), later becomes Northern Alliance
for Sustainability
|
|
1991
|
Persian Gulf war
Global Assembly of Women and the
Environment and World Women’s Congress (Miami)
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
bill ended by threat of filibuster
|
Women’s Environment and Development Organization
(WEDO)
|
|
1992
|
UN Conference on Environment and Development
(Earth Summit) in Riode Janeiro
Agenda 21 Programme of Action
World population reaches 5.5
billion
|
Integrative Strategies Forum (ISF)
|
|
1993
|
UN Commission on Sustainable Development
(CSD)
President’s Council on Sustainable
Development
|
|
|
1994
|
|
|
|
1995
|
UN Social Summit
|
|
|
1996
|
CSD5
UN General Assembly Special Session
to review progress on Agenda 21
|
NGO Taskforce on Business & Industry
(ToBI)
|
|
1997
|
CSD6 (industry, fresh water)
|
|
|
1998
|
CSD7 (SPAC, tourism, oceans)
|
|
|
1999
|
CSD8 (agriculture, land, finance)
|
|
|
2000
|
CSD9 (energy, atmosphere)
|
|
|
2001
|
CSD10 (Rio+10 assessment of progress)
|
International Coalition for Sustainable
Production & Consumption (ICSPAC)
|
|
2002
|
World Summit on Sustainable Development
|
|