History Section 2:
Energy and the Environment
Roots of the Modern US
environmental Movement
• Silent Spring Rachel Carson
– 1962
– Exposed harmful effects of DDT
– Opened the public’s eyes
Population Bomb Paul Ehrlich
- 1968
- Argue overpopulation cause of world’s environment problems
- Made family planning, contraception, and abortion important
Santa Barbara Oil Spill
- 90,000 barrels of crude oil contaminated beeches
- Early 1969
More Roots of the Modern US
environmental Movement
• Partial Meltdown of 3 Mile Island Nuclear Plant 1979
• Exxon Valdez tanker spilled over 11 million gallons of Oil 1989
– Largest oil spill in US at the time
– Second largest even today
• 1973 Arab-Israeli War- awareness for energy independence
• Discover of Chlorofluorocarbons as harmful
- used as refrigerants
- could destroy ozone layer
• Hooker Chemical Company
- dumped about 20,000 tons of toxic waste into neighborhood canal
-caused miscarriages, birth defects, abnormalities in children
Question
Name one root of the environmental
movement.
P.S. If you really can’t name one, you really suck
Federal Protection of the Environment
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Before 60’s, entirely for benefit of states
Changed w/ environmental movement
Passed series of laws ( yes a lot)
Responsibility moved from local to national
Clean Air Act
October 1948, thick cloud of pollution kills 20 people
1952, “Killer Fog” formed over city of London, cause thousands of premature
deaths
Clean Air Act passed 1963( made stronger in 1970)
Allocated 95 mil to study air pollution, allow gov’t to reduce air pollution, set
emissions standards, invest in sulfur-removing tech
Same year, Environmental Protection Agency established(EPA)
- to oversee enforcement
Revised AGAIN 1990, to focus more on setting limits for certain air pollutants,
monitor air quality, enforce regulations
Question
What did the 1990 revisal of the Clean Air Act
do?
National Environmental Policy Act
• Jan 1, 1970
• Advocated for environmental protection, but regarding social
and economic matters
• required federal agencies to incorporate environmental values
in decisions
– Have to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for all
legislative actions
Clean Water Act
• 1972, amendation of Federal Pollution Control
Act
• Eliminate water pollution
• Limits on water quality
• Implement National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System
• Requires permits to discharge pollutants into
waters
Endangered Species Act
• To protect and recover at-risk species and
ecosystems
• Plants and animal species may be listed as
threatened/endangered
• Their habitat is protected by Fish and Wildlife
and National Marine Fisheries Service
Northern
Spotted
Owl
Other acts and Stuff
Montreal Protocol 1987: called for total
elimination of ozone-depleting CFCs
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
1988: conduct balanced, scientific studies on
climate change
The Atmosphere and Statistics
• Basically anything greenhouse effecty
• Greenhouse gases comprise small part of
atmosphere
• Amount of CO2 in atmosphere increased 35 %
since industrial revolution, b/c of burning
fossil fuels on large scale
• Debate moved from existance to
consequences
International Panel on Climate Change
• Formed 1988 by UN environment Program to provide
knowledge on climate change and impacts
• 195 countries currently members of IPCC
• Does not do own research but reviews it to develop
reports to inform the international community about
it to help them make well informed decisions
• Has released 5 assessment reports on climate change
so far
Mitigation and Adaptation
Mitigation: reducing or eliminating underlying
drivers of climate change
Adaptation: not changing climate change, but
reducing damage
United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change
• International treaty to work against climate change
• Created 1992, has 194 countries as members
• Designed to provide a framework of shared goals, procedures,
and organizations for member countries
• Goal is to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the
atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous
anthropogenic interference with the climate system”
• Recognizes Common but Differentiated Responsibility, that:
– Industrialized countries have emitted large amounts of
greenhouse gases and are primary culprits of current
environmental problems
– Developing countries need to grow
UNFCCC Part 2
• Makes sense: developed countries cant stop
climate change on their own
• Only way possible is for all major emitters to
work together
• Recently, China surpassed US in emitting, India
will soon pass within a decade or so
Question
Summarize Common but Differentiated
Responsibility in your own words
The Kyoto Protocol
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Dec 11, 1997 in Kyoto
Began Feb 16, 2007 after ratification by Canada and Russia
Established specific and binding commitments
Participating INDUSTRIALIZED nations agree to reduce
emissions by 5.2% (1990’s levels) by 2012
• Currently 192 parties, but Canada, Russia, and Japan
withdrew 2011
• 2 groups: Annex I and Annex II
– Annex I are developed and are bound by reduction targets
– Annex II are developing and not required to reduce
Why is the US not part of the Kyoto
Protocol?
• We suck
• 1997, Al Gore signed on behalf of US, but never submitted to
Senate for ratification
– Why? Because senate unanimously opposed to treaty
5 months before Al Gore signed, Senate issued Byrd-Hagel
resolution, stating that US wouldn’t b/c of economic reasons
- 95-0 vote in senate
2001, George W Bush renounced treaty as potentially
harmful to US economy
Question
What do Annex I countries agree to by becoming
part of the Kyoto Protocol?