Interesting environmental facts in America (source: Mother Nature Network; edited with additional links)
1972: The Environmental Protection Agency bans DDT. A large part of this ban can be attributed to the success of Rachael Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ which documents the chemical pollution of pesticides and insecticides in the U.S.
1977: The U.S. adds the first plants to its endangered species list.
1980: Congress creates the Superfund program to clean up toxic waste sites.
1985: Scientists discover a giant hole in Earth’s ozone layer.
1989: The Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
1998: Earth has its warmest year since record-keeping began in 1880.
2001: The U.S. formally rejects the Kyoto treaty.
2006: An Inconvenient Truth is released, winning Al Gore an Oscar, a Nobel Prize, and a lifetime of being criticized every time it snows.
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