September seems to have brought with it a glimpse of the spring here in Cape Town. With spring come blossoming flowers, picnics and lush green grass.
Let’s celebrate this gorgeous September by looking back at Septembers past and what green events took place:
1769, 14 September. Alexander Von Humboldt was born in Germany. He noted in 1819 that the fluctuating levels of a Venezuelan lake were related to the surrounding deforestation.
1854, 7 September. John Snow, a London doctor, convinces the local authorities to allow him to shut down the water pump. After he opens the pump handle the spread of Cholera is dramatically reduced. Snow investigated the correlation between the drinking source and the spread of the disease and thus provided an early model of effective epidemiology.
1964, 3 September. American Congress creates the National Preservation System to secure their people the benefit of an enduring resource of wildlife. By 2001 90 million acres of wilderness were preserved in the United States as a result.
1971, 15 September. The Phyllis Cormack, renamed Greenpeace, leaves from Vancouver to protest US nuclear testing on the Aleutian Island of Amchitka. This action set off global environmental protests and a few months later the organisation Greenpeace is founded in Victoria, B. C.
1987, 16 September. The Montreal Protocol international agreement, signed by 24 countries including the US, Japan, Canada and EEC nations, is set out to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals.
1994, September. Tow American undercover wildlife agents mount a sting operation at Entebbe airport with the help of Ugandan journalist Ndyakira Ammoti. He put himself at great personal risk to expose the smuggling of endangered chimpanzees and African Great Grey parrots by airport personnel, game officers and businessman.
2002, September. In Johannesburg, South Africa the World Summit on Sustainable Development gathers. Sadly Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez noted that the summit ended up being a 10-day “dialogue of the deaf”. Some acknowledged that while the summit accomplished very little, the very act of dialogue was better than nothing. The summit did set a goal of halving by 2015 the 2.4 billion people without sanitation in the Third World. There was also an agreement brought about to minimise harmful effects from chemical production by 2020 as well as halting the decline in fish stocks by 2015.
2004, 9 September. A study showing that air pollution damages the Southern California children is published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study showed that children subjected to higher levels of air pollution had under performing lungs than those children in lower-pollution areas.
2006, 26 September. Earth’s overall temperature reaches its highest level in 12 000 years. This is according to research by James Hansen of the US’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Earth has been warming at a rate of 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade for the last 30 years. This is an acceleration of the previous century. Hansen warns that this increasing temperature may result in rising sea levels and the extinction of some animal and plant species.
2007, 20 September. The Arctic sea ice is much smaller than ever before with a loss of a million square miles.
2007, 27-28 September. George Bush, US president, hosts his own conference on climate change in Washington, D. C attended by mid-level representatives of 16 countries. The summit leads to very little.
2008, 30 September. The US EPA announces the new Clean Air Act regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plants.
2009, 16 September. The International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. This day is supposed to reflect the urgent need for the preservation of the ozone layer.
2009, 22 September. World Carfree Day is an annual celebration of cities and public life, free from the noise, stress and pollution of cars.
2010, 28 September. Advanced Biofuels Scale up Summit worldwide is being held in London today. The summit will examine how the advanced biofuels industry can be developed to full commercialisation globally. They will be focusing particularly on the regulatory environment for biofuels in Europe and Asia.
Photo by Geri-Jean Blanchard from here
Jade Scully is a copywriter excited about writing copy and stories, blogging about the world and editing. She currently and regularly publishes her stories on a number of blogs. Jade loves animals and hopes to begin writing copy for the animal rescue charity TEARS as her contribution to the cause.
