POV

70 Years of Environmental Change

This visual timeline from The New York Times covers key environmental events and news stories under the last 13 presidencies. From the deadly smog in Donora, Pennsylvania that killed 20 people in 1948 to Al Gore's 2006 Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, about the ever-worsening evidence of global warming, the timeline covers both landmark initiatives by the government and devastating environmental disasters.

Earth Days: Modern Environmental Movement

This American Experience timeline covers the American environmental movement post-World War II. Items include books that placed environmental issues at the forefront of national dialogue and information about the foundation of major environmental organizations.

Environmental History Timeline

Probably the oldest timeline in our roundup (it was first published online in 1996!), this independent project produced by an American scholar at Radford University details the history of environmentalism from the rise of civilization in Babylon to the 21st century. It offers insight into the environmental movement's key players and the nation's most harrowing ecological disasters.

Milestones in Environmental Protection

This Infoplease timeline offers a comprehensive listing of government and non-governmental organizations' attempts at preserving the environment from as early as 1849.

Organization Histories

The Greenpeace Book: Greenpeace History

In 1970, a handful of U.S. expatriates and Canadian ecology activists set sail off the coast of Alaska, in a boat named "Greenpeace," to investigate underground nuclear testing on the island of Amchitka. This detailed chronology of Greenpeace's early years (1968 to 1975) shows how the group's founders came to form one of the world's most visible environmental organizations.

History: Sierra Club Timeline

This list is comprised of events from the beginning of the Sierra Club's formation in 1892 under the guidance of naturalist John Muir to the present time. At the bottom of the page there is a link to a video illustrating the group's major successes.

Wikipedia: "Timeline of Earth Liberation Front Actions"

Although this article is unverified and disputed by Wikipedia editors, it is an interesting compendium of the guerilla group's acts of eco-sabotage over the past 14 years.

The Future of Forests

The Guardian: The World's 10 Most Threatened Forests

A slideshow depicts the world's most at-risk rainforests and describes their ecosystems, the economies of surrounding villages and endangered animals that inhabit them.