600 BCE

Construction of Rome’s Cloaca Maxima sewer to drain surrounding marshes and f lush waste into the Tiber River (sewer expanded over the years and still in use). 

960–1279

Earliest use of inoculations against smallpox, spreads to Ottoman Empire (becomes widespread post-1721 when Mary Wortley Montagu – wife of British Ambassador to Turkey – inoculates her own children). 

1142

Iroquois Confederacy allegedly created by the ‘Peacemaker’ bringing together five nations south of the Great Lakes, North America: Constitution integrates consideration for the ‘Seventh Generation’ in governance. 

1348

Bubonic plague (Black Death) sweeps across Europe. Many cities restrict movement of residents. 

Venice, Florence and Lucca impose quarantine. 

1366

City of Paris forces butchers to dispose of animal waste outside of the city. 

1388

English Parliament forbids throwing of garbage into ditches, rivers and waters. 

1690

Gov. William Penn requires Pennsylvania settlers to preserve one acre of trees for every five acres cleared 

c. 1713

Hanns Carl von Carlowitz suggests Nachhaltiger Ertrag (sustained yield) for timber supply.

1720

In India hundreds in Khejadali killed trying to protect trees from the Maharaja of Jodphur (considered origins of 20th century Chipko movement).  

1775

Percival Pott, an English surgeon, observes that chimney sweeps develop cancer through contact with soot (first recognition of environmental factors and cancer). 

1798

Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principles of Population.  

1831

UK Game Act protects game birds by establishing closed hunting seasons.  

1848

Public Health Act, Britain begins waste regulation (amended 1875 assigning duty to local authorities). 

1854

Chief Seattle’s famous open letter (speech), including, “Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself”. 

John Snow produces London’s ‘ghost map’ linking cholera to contaminated water source. 

1858

Year of the ‘Great Stink’ Parliament commissions Joseph Bazalgette to build London’s sewer system (completed 1875 – London never experiences another cholera epidemic).  

1872

Yellowstone Park established (Yosemite in 1890).  

1885

Banff Park established. 

1886

George Grinnell founds the Audubon Society.  

1892

Sierra Club starts (Henry Senger of Berkeley and John Muir).  

1898

Gifford Pinchot, US Secretary of Interior encourages ‘wise use’.  

1909

President Theodore Roosevelt convenes North American Conservation Conference (US, Canada, Newfoundland, Mexico).  

1915

Ecological Society of America – Ecologists Union (1946) – Nature Conservancy (1950).  

1923

Cayuga Chief Deskaheh, Six Nations of the Iroquois, travels to the League of Nations, Geneva to plead the case of his people (waited a year, was not received).  

1930s

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal includes strong ecological component (designed to overcome soil erosion).  

1942

Oxfam founded. 

1948

IUCN founded in Fontainebleau. 

1949

Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (introduces ‘land ethics’). 

1965

Oxfam launches “Helping-by-Selling”.  

1968

Aureilio Pueccei founds the Club of Rome. 

First UN Biosphere Conference in Paris (hosted by UNESCO). 

1969

Friends of the Earth.  

Pollution Probe, Toronto.  

1971

Greenpeace starts in Vancouver – replaces Don’t Make a Wave Committee, 1970. 

UN Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm (114 countries participate, 109 recommendations including creation of UNEP).  

1972

UNCHE held in Stockholm launches UN Environment Program (Maurice Strong chairs UNCHE and first Executive Director of UNEP).  

1973

Women in Himalayan villages begin the Chipko movement to protect trees from commercial logging.  

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) adopted. 

MARPOL Convention (pollution from shipping).   

1974

TERI, Tata Energy Research Institute, established in Delhi by Dabari Seth.  

1975

UN Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation. 

1976

Eric Hoffer publishes, The Ordeal of Change; Body Shop founded by Anita Roddick.  

1977

Green Belt Movement starts in Kenya (Wangari Muta Maathai, founder, is awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2004).  

1978

Lester Brown’s The Twenty Ninth Day published. 

UN Habitat established (replaces UN HHSF, 1975).  

1982

World Resources Institute (Gus Speth starts with a $15 million grant from MacArthur Foundation).  

1985

‘Responsible Care’, Canadian Chemical Producers. 

1987

Montreal Protocol for ozone protection. 

Our Common Future (the Brundtland Report). 

1988

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) created. 

E.O. Wilson, Biodiversity published. 

1989

Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). 

‘Endangered Earth’, Time magazine’s ‘Planet of the Year’. 

1990

Canada’s Green Plan for a Healthy Environment (with $3 billion over five years funding). 

‘Dolphin safe’ labelling for tuna introduced. 

1993

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) founding assembly held in Toronto. 

1995

First Conference of the Parties (COP1) UNFCCC, Berlin. 

1997

Kyoto Protocol adopted 11 December. 

2002

Global Reporting Initiative. 

2012

Rio+20 strives (unsuccessfully) for an agreement to ‘greening’ the world’s economies.  

2015

Launch of SDGs. 

COP21 Paris climate agreement. 

Ladito si’ authored by Pope Francis ‘on care of our common home’. 

2016

SDGs take effect (goals to 2030). 

2025

Global renewable energy surpassed coal for first time, driven by solar (+31%) and wind growth 

EVs account for more than one-quarter of all sales 

COP30 yields compromise agreement sidestepping explicit fossil-fuel phase-out commitments (global temperature increase expected to exceed 2.6°C this century)