Today in History – April 22, 1970 – First Earth Day. Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day, says that the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. He wanted President Kennedy to give visibility to pollution and the environmental degradation that was appearing throughout the country, but [...]

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Today in History – March 22, 1985 – The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer is adopted in response to studies documenting the harm caused to the environment and our own health by ozone-depleting substances. Ozone is a colorless gas, closely related to the oxygen in the air we breathe. The ozone molecule [...]

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Today in History – February 21, 1994 -  Whirlpool begins production of refrigerators without freon. In the 1930s, refrigerators began to use freon as a refrigerant. However, the use of freon became an environmental concern once it was identified as a ozone-depleting chemical. Fortunately, household appliance manufacturers have since switched to a different refrigerant, HFC-134a, [...]

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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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