Planetary Impacts
Introduction
Beginning as early as 1540 when pollution from silver mining in Peru and Bolivia is evident, the collective impact on planet earth from human activity is now staggering. Similar scale is evident, in events such as the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption that led to a year without summer. Discrete events that led to major impacts are visible in the historic record. For example, 1854 and the start of modern elevators, with the first metal-frame ‘skyscraper’ in 1885. Plastics were first produced in 1862 and in 2025 more than 250 Mn tonnes were likely produced. The impact on wildlife is overwhelming. In 1890 there were less than 1000 bison in North America, down from an estimated 60 Mn in 1491. More localized, herring stocks in Iceland collapsed in 1969. In 2008 the world surpassed the 50% urban level, leading to many of these impacts. For example, in 1985 the Antarctica ozone hole was discovered. And in 2013, for the first time in more than 2 million years, atmospheric concentration of CO₂ exceeded 400 ppm (in 2025 more than 58 Bn tonnes of CO₂ were generated by humans).
500 BCE
Noticeable ecological decline of the Fertile Crescent.
c. 1540
Evidence of atmospheric pollution from colonial mining in Peru and Bolivia.
1570–1620
Noticeable drop in CO₂ emissions linked to death of some 50 million indigenous Americans, triggered by arrival of Europeans, and forests reclaiming 65 million Ha of abandoned agricultural lands.
1662
Extinction of the dodo bird, Mauritius
1665–66
London’s ‘great plague’ kills 100,000.
1815
Mount Tambora, Indonesia erupts, killing 90,000, globally precipitating ‘year without a summer’.
1825
Work begins on Isambard Brunel’s first engineering project, Thames Tunnel, London (opens 1843).
1846
First mechanically drilled oil well, Baku, Azerbaijan (Oil Springs, ON dug by hand in 1858, and Titus, PN percussive drill and ‘oil gusher’ in 1859, led to today’s commercial oil industry).
1854
Elisha Otis demonstrates his ‘fail safe platform’ at the New York’s World Fair – start of modern elevators (first passenger elevator 488 Broadway, NY, 1857).
1862
First products made from plastic (widespread manufacture begins in the 1930s).
1863
London’s Underground opens (first in world).
1869
Suez Canal opens
1883
Krakatoa eruption, known for its devastating tsunamis and global atmospheric effects.
1885
Ten-storey Home Insurance Building opens in Chicago – world’s first skyscraper
1890
American bison face extinction, likely less than 1,000 animals (est. 60,000,000 in 1491).
1895
Gillette invents first disposable razor.
1902
Willis Carrier invents air conditioning.
1903
Wright Brothers inaugural flight.
1908
Ford’s first Model T.
1913
First household refrigerator.
1914
Panama Canal opens.
Last known passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, dies at Cincinnati Zoo.
First scheduled commercial passenger flight.
1918
Fritz Haber receives Nobel Prize for the synthesis of ammonia.
1937
Last known Balinese tiger shot.
1942
Invention of the computer.
1945
First test detonation of atomic bomb (Trinity site, New Mexico, July 16) – nuclear testing provides clear global stratigraphic marker between 1945 and 1963, when Nuclear Test Ban takes effect after some 500 nuclear blasts.
1946
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, ENIAC, announced (based on Alan Turing’s 1936 paper).
1950
Approximate start of ‘the great acceleration’ – massive increase in material use such as hydro-carbons, cement, and plastic.
Union Carbide staff invent polyethylene garbage bags.
1954
First nuclear power plant, Obninsk, USSR.
1957
Thalidomide first marketed in Germany (causes more than 10,000 birth defects worldwide before drug sales discontinued in 1962).
1958
China includes sparrows as one of “four pests” targeted for eradication. About 2 billion birds killed, leading eventually to about 2 million human deaths as well.
1964
Norman Borlaug director of International Wheat Improvement Program, Mexico (leads to ‘Green Revolution’, receives 1970 Nobel Peace Prize).
1967
Environmental Defense Fund (goes to court to stop Suffolk Co Mosquito Control Commission from spraying DDT).
1969
Cuyahoga River, OH catches on fire again (leads to Clean Water Act, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, US EPA).
Icelandic herring stock collapses.
Neal Armstrong steps on the moon.
First Boeing 747.
1974
Rowland and Moilna publish on CFC and ozone (Nobel Laureates 1995) – data on CFCs from James Lovelock.
1985
Antarctica ozone hole discovered.
1986
Chernobyl nuclear accident.
1989
Basel Convention (controlling shipping of hazardous waste).
Extinction of golden toad, Costa Rica.
1991
Canadian cod fishery collapses
1994
CEOs of seven largest tobacco companies state under oath before US House Subcommittee that they believe nicotine is not addictive.
1995
1995 to 2018 > half of all concrete ever produced.
2003
SARS traced to a doctor from Guangdong.
2004
HIV/AIDS pandemic peaks (started approx. 1960 in Congo Basin, traversing through Kinshasa, 30,000,000 dead).
2008
Some global food prices increase 43 per cent.
World passes 50 per cent urban mark.
2009
China overtakes US as world’s largest GHG emitter.
2013
May 9th daily average atmospheric CO₂ 400.03 ppm at Mauna Loa, HI (Ralph Keeling continuously measuring CO₂ concentrations since 1958 – first time concentration exceeds 400).
2014
WWF Living Planet report launched (states that between 1970-2014 half of all wildlife lost).
2017
Global solid waste generation 2.01 billion tonnes.
World energy supply is 15,046 Mtoe.
2019
COVID-19 pandemic begins in Wuhan, China.
US founds US Space Force.
2021
The Ever Given container ship obstructs Suez Canal for six days.
Leaded petrol phased out globally.
Russia creates a cloud of space debris following anti-satellite weapons test.
2022
Europe faces heatwaves and worse drought in 500 years (at least 53,000 deaths).
2023
Greece and Canadian wildfires.
2025
Severe heatwaves in India major floods in Pakistan, India, Thailand and Vietnam
Wildfires in California, Canada and Greece