Today in History – April 29, 1998 – Ten percent of the Amazon rain forest is preserved. On this day, Brazil agreed to set aside about 25 million ha (62 million ac) of the Amazon rain forest for conservation in cooperation with the World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund. This initiative will  protect 10% [...]

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Today in History – April 26, 1986 – The Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded in the Ukraine and parts of Belarus, Russia; it was the world’s worst civil nuclear catastrophe. The steam explosion and fire sent a cloud of radioactive dust over much of Europe, releasing at least five percent of the radioactive core of the [...]

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Today in history – February 16, 2005 – the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change goes into effect. In 1992 the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in order to meet the looming concerns of global warming. As greenhouse gas levels rose around the world it became clear that [...]

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Today in History – February 3, 1958 -  Rachael Carson publishes the Silent Spring. Rachel Carson, a writer, scientist and ecologist, worked seventeen years for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, where she learned about the problems of pesticides on the environment. She is best known for her book called Silent Spring, which is often [...]

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The 7.0 Magnitude Earthquake in Haiti struck a highly populated region of this impoverished Caribbean island approximately 17 km from the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of thousands died,  many more injured, many buildings were  destroyed or seriously damaged, infrastructures collapsed and millions became homeless and without food and water. The Haiti earthquake created a [...]

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