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Significant Events

Significant Events. Agricultural Revolution. Before: Hunter-gatherers Nomadic Small populations Began ~10,000 years ago Domesticated animals Cultivated wild plants After: Established settlements Allowed for lager populations. Industrial Revolution. Began in the 1700s

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Significant Events

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  1. Significant Events

  2. Agricultural Revolution • Before: • Hunter-gatherers • Nomadic • Small populations • Began ~10,000 years ago • Domesticated animals • Cultivated wild plants • After: • Established settlements • Allowed for lager populations

  3. Industrial Revolution • Began in the 1700s • Shift from using wood/fire and flowing water to fossil fuels • Allowed for large-scale production of machine-made goods made in factories located in industrial cities • Sanitation and medical care improved • Effect: • Cities grew as people moved in to work in factories • Populations grew exponentially

  4. Love Canal • Meant to bypass Niagara Falls – never completed • 1920s – Became a dumping site for Niagara Falls area • Hooker Chemical Company drained and lined canal with clay • Dumped 21,000 tons of hazardous chemicals in it • Dump site closed in 1953 • Covered with a clay cap and layer of topsoil • Vegetation regrew on top • City bought the site for $1

  5. Love Canal • Local school board purchased site and began construction in 1954 • City began construction of sewage system for home development • Broke through clay cap, breached canal walls • Dirt moved • Holes punched to build water lines and highway • Community of 100 homes and schools established

  6. Love Canal • The Bad: Toxic waste escaped into surroundings (ex. Benzene – a carcinogen) • 1978 survey showed higher than normal number of birth defects and miscarriages near the dump • 56% of children born between 1974-1978 showed some signs of birth defects • Area evacuated in 1978 • Government relocated and reimbursed over 800 families • Led to the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA • Establishes funds to help the clean-up of toxic pollution in residential locations such as Love Canal  “Superfund” sites

  7. 3-Mile Island Nuclear Disaster • Nuclear reactor site in Pennsylvania • Worst nuclear accident in U.S. history • March 28, 1979 – partial core meltdown caused by a loss of reactor coolant • Released 13 million curies of radioactive gases • Crystallized the anti-nuclear movement in the U.S.  decline in new reactor construction • Resulted in better training, emergency procedures, radiation protection, etc.

  8. Cuyahoga River • River in Ohio • Was so polluted, it caught fire in 1969 and burned for 30 minutes • Previous fires occurred in 1868, 1883, 1887, 1912, 1922, 1936, 1941, 1948, and in 1952

  9. Cuyahoga River • On August 1, 1969, Time magazine stated, • Some River! Chocolate-brown, oily, bubbling with subsurface gases, it oozes rather than flows. "Anyone who falls into the Cuyahoga does not drown," Cleveland's citizens joke grimly. "He decays". . . The Federal Water Pollution Control Administration dryly notes: "The lower Cuyahoga has no visible signs of life, not even low forms such as leeches and sludge worms that usually thrive on wastes." It is also -- literally -- a fire hazard. • Helped lead to the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972

  10. Bhopal Chemical Disaster • Worst industrial environmental disaster • December 3, 1984 • Poisonous gas cloud escaped a pesticide factory – safety had been neglected due to budget cuts • 15 metric tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) • Covered an area of more than 30 square miles • Instantly killed >3,000 people, eventually caused >550,000 deaths and countless chronic health problems

  11. Bhopal Chemical Disaster • Indian government settled with the company for $470 million • Survivors got less than $500 each • Chemicals at the site continue to contaminate groundwater • Soil and water near the factory test toxic to fish • International efforts needed to clean up the site • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz-BfXLjQ9c&feature=related

  12. Biosphere II • Tucson, AZ  1991 • Goal was to study the interconnectedness of ecosystems • Created a closed, self-contained network of ecosystems • 8 people lived inside for 2 years

  13. Biosphere II • Interactions more complicated than expected • CO2 and NOx levels became toxic • Pollinators died off, extremely cloudy  lower rates of photosynthesis • Pest problems • Inhabitants had to supplement their diets • Illustrated the difficulty (impossibility?) of reproducing Earth’s natural systems • Now used for cutting-edge ecological studies

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