APES REVIEW12 days till the APES Exam

Do Now: Match up the Legislation Flash Cards at your table.

Agenda:• Legislation Flash Cards• Lecture: Most Important Legislation

Homework: “115 Ways to Go APE!”• 18 LAW flash cards (Due Thur)

• Flashcards #1 – 50 (Due Fri)• Flashcards #51 – 115 (Due Mon)

APES REVIEW11 days till the APES Exam

Do Now: 7 Multiple Choice questions

Agenda:• Lecture: Legislation • Legislation FlashCards• Silent Spring

Homework: Read “Silent Spring”excerpt; answer questions.• Flashcards #1 – 50 (Due Fri)• Flashcards #51 – 115 (Due Mon)

• What’s the difference between the Kyoto Protocol and the Montreal Protocol?

• Why would a country not ratify the Kyoto Protocol?

The Most Important Environmental Legislation

Early Days

• Why did early laws not mention the environment?– There was so much land and so

many resources in the US that it was unimaginable that they could be in danger

• After Civil War people continued to migrate West and realized that US did not have endless supply of land/resources.– First national park, Yellowstone

National Park, was established in 1872

Early Activists• Henry David

Thoreau (1817-1862) Walden– Studied nature at

Walden Pond• John Wesley Powell

(1834-1902)– First to pass through

Grand Canyon– First to advocate to

regulate land use

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

• Started own natural history museum as child became part of NYC’s AMNH– “Golden Age of Conservation”

– increased national forest lands by 400%, 150 new national forests, 51 bird reserves, established five national parks (Grand Canyon), 4 national reserves, 18 national monuments, 24 reclamation projects, etc.

Rachel Carson

• Silent Spring, 1962

• Awoke in many Americans an awareness of the state of the environment

1970s Environmental Legislation

• Most laws and policies enacted during Nixon era

• Earth Day (1970)• Nixon signed into the

law NEPA (1970)

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

• Required all federal agencies to provide Environmental Impact Statements for their activities– EIS: outlines all possible environmental effects and

steps it has taken to avoid environmental harm, and justification for why any unavoidable harm may be necessary

• Led to the creation of the EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

• Established by Nixon in 1970• Functions:– to protect human health– protect and preserve Earth’s

air, water, land, and endangered species

• EPA launched WaterSense in 2006: promotes water-efficient consumer products (like Energy Star program)

Water Quality

1969, Cuyahoga River, Cleveland OH

• Oil slick on the river caught on fire• Ignited national outrage• Soon after pressure was placed on government

leaders to pass legislation to reduce water pollution

Clean Water Act (CWA)• Passed by US Congress in 1972• Goal: Return all surface water in US to “fishable and

swimmable”• Act requires specific point sources of pollution to acquire a

permit and develop technology that would control output• Requires: best available, economically achievable

technology for limiting toxic discharge– allows NO discharge at all of 126 toxic pollutants

• Result: Surface water of US has improved dramatically– All surface water is not yet swimmable or fishable– Federal and State money allocated to build municipal sewage

treatment facilities

Opponents to Clean Water Act

• Farmers, developers, state/local movements feel hindered by the CWA

• Local/state governments are required to spend money implementing and enforcing the CWA, none of which is reimbursed by the federal government

Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

• Regulates water in municipal and commercial systems

• Some people say the regulations are too loose for rural communities (pesticides, herbicides, and lead)

Air Quality

Clean Air Act• Legislation passed in

1963• First legislation to

control air pollution • Amended in 1970 with

two goals: (1) Set standards to protect

human health (2) Protect materials,

climate, crops, visibility, and personal comfort

Clean Air Act • Clean Air Act has

been modified since• Now covers

standards for SUVs, water craft, ozone protection (phasing out CFCs), acid rain, and smog.

• Establishes a cap and trade program for SO2

Montreal Protocol (1987)

• One of greatest environmental success stories

• 180 nations agreed to cut CFC production in half– Today production and use

of CFCs decreased 95%– Ozone layer is recovering

Kyoto Protocol• Developed at a world summit in 1997 to

address measures for reducing GHG emissions

• Promises were made by many nations, but not real progress was made

• United States announced that it would not follow the protocol, and soon after, the whole movement lost support

• The US Emits 20% of world’s CO2

• China and India are rapidly increasing CO2 levels

• Failure to address global change will force us to be reactive rather than proactive

• This is not effective environmental planning

US-China Climate Agreement

• US & China produce over 1/3 of global greenhouse gas emissions

• Agreement made in November 2014:– Obama agreed to cut GHG emissions 26-28% below

2005 levels by 2025– Xi Jinping of China agreed to reach peak CO2 emissions

by 2030 & increase alternative energy to 20% of all energy by 2030

Bottom Line: VERY BIG DEAL (if they meet commitments)

Solid & Hazardous Waste

Love Canal, Niagara Falls, NY

• In 1970s, revealed that the site had been used to bury 21,000 tons of toxic waste

• Hooker Chemical sold the site to Niagara School Board in 1953 for $1, detailing the presence of waste

• Land was developed anyway

• Birth defects, enlarged head, feet, hands, miscarriages, etc.

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Reliability Act (CERCLA) (1980)

• AKA SUPERFUND• Identify parties responsible for

contaminated areas (solid/hazardous waste) and compel them to clean up the damage at their own expense

• Established trust fund, paid by taxes from polluting industries, to clean up abandoned sites where the responsible party cannot be found

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

• AKA “Cradle-to-Grave Act”

• Sets regulations about manufacture, transport, storage, use, and disposal of hazardous chemicals

• Requires extensive documentation at every step to ensure hazardous wastes are disposed of properly

Endangered Species

Endangered Species Act (ESA) • Bill written in 1874 to protect

American bison• US Congress failed to pass bill;

most people thought wild animals as abundant

• Wasn’t until 1973 when ESA was passed

• Sought to identify all endangered species and protect biodiversity, regardless of how useful a species is to humans

• ESA regulates harassing, harming, hunting, shooting, trapping, collecting, importing/exporting, possessing or selling endangered species

Lacey Act of 1900

• Law in the US that prohibits trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, possessed or sold.