The Environment Chronicle

A defective tank at the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal leaks methylisocyanate, resulting in 3,400 deaths and c. 200,000 serious injuries.

BUND's youth section, BUNDjugend, is founded in Bad Ems.

The Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in England contaminates the sea by releasing radioactive water.

New York's Statue of Liberty sports a banner: "Give me Liberty from Nuclear Weapons Testing".

A banner reading " Time to Stop Nuclear Testing" flies from the face of Big Ben.

To warn about acid rain, activists occupy coal-fired power station chimneys simultaneously in Denmark, England, Holland, Belgium, France, Austria, Czechoslovakia and West Germany.

Greenpeace steps up protests against dumping spent acid: on the loading pier for Kronos Titan in Nordenham, in Duisburg at Pigment-Chemie Sachtleben, in Tracy (Quebec) at Tioxide of Canada. At the end of the year, Kronos Titan and Pigment Chemie announce recycling plants and promise to end marine dumping in 1988.

The European WHA accepts the "health for all" strategy. The recognition that public health also depends on environmental factors led to 38 new resolutions, seven of which addressed environmental health issues, both direct and indirect, such as the psychosocial effects of the environment on health and well-being.

The conference stresses the need for social research into improving the provision of family planning, as well as individual and national reproductive rights.

Flower of the Year 1984 is the Pheasant's Eye (Adonis aestivalis).

Bird of the Year 1984 is the White Stork (Ciconia ciconia).

The first Germany-wide report on the state of the environment "Environmental Data 1984" starts a series of 7 reports to date. With a print run of over 10,000 per edition, it becomes one of the FEA'S best-sellers. Ten years later, the Environmental Information Act requires regular publication of such a report.

Greenpeace divers reveal that radioactive oil sludge is leaking from the waste pipes of the British reprocessing plant at Sellafield. 40 km of coastline are cordoned off.

The Spanish supertanker "Castillo de Bellver" spills c. 155,000 t oil, before it is sunk, still holding c. 100,000 t.

Greenpeace demonstrates against atomic weapons testing with a balloon ("Trinity") over Berlin. After landing in the GDR, the balloonists are interrogated for five hours before being deported. In 1985, the GDR returns the balloon in exchange for "storage fees" of $4250.

Six activists sail in rubber dinghies to Lorino beach on the Chukshen peninsula, where the meat of illegally harpooned whales has long been used as feed in mink farms. Shortly after filming the whaling station, the activists are arrested, except for one member, who escapes with the film. This material is presented to the Whaling Commission.

Leaks in some 20 fuel elements allow radioactive iodine 131 into the cooling water, with which it reacts. Since the iodine filters were not designed to remove some of the compounds now present in the exhaust gas, emissions of iodine 131 exceed permitted levels (source: Greenpeace).

Four activists break into the US atomic test site in Nevada, and demand an immediate halt to tests.

World Consumer Rights Day is an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity within the international consumer movement. World Consumer Rights Day was first observed on 15 March 1983.

The London Dumping Convention adopts a worldwide moratorium on atomic waste dumping at sea. Great Britain alone refuses to participate.

After lengthy preparation, with much involvement by the FEA, the ordinance comes into force. It regulates in particular permitted emissions from motor vehicles and large industrial furnaces. It is one of the most successful environmental measures in the history of federal Germany. In the former West Germany alone, emissions of sulphur dioxide fall by 89% by 1993. Emissions of nitrogen oxides and dust fall by 72% and 80%.

Bird of the Year 1982 is the Sand Martin (Riparia riparia).

The "Assimi" loses 53,000 t oil near Muscat, off the coast of Oman.

Flower of the Year 1983 is the Wild Tulip (Tulipa sylvestris).

Bayer halts its dumping of spent acid in the North Sea.

The Greenpeace ship "Sirius" visits Leningrad to protest against Soviet atomic tests. The Sirius is forcibly towed out of the harbour.

The European Community starts its third Environmental Action Programme

Flower of the Year 1982 is the Red Helleborine (Cephalanthera rubra).

Fish stocks die due to lack of oxygen in the Baltic Sea.

Bird of the Year 1982 is the Curlew (Numenius arquata).

The DBV founds a separate youth group, "DBV-Jugend", in 1987, the group is renamed Naturschutzjugend im DBV".

The entire world sees pictures of the dramatic Greenpeace protest against atomic dumping vessels. On 22nd September, the Dutch government announces a halt to its atomic dumping at sea.

In 1982 a dozen environmentalists, inspired by the legend of Robin Hood, formed ROBIN WOOD, "the avengers of the defoliated", dedicated to non-violent direct action to protect the forests. The society now has c. 2,300 members and is supported primarily by volunteers. Its core issues are acid rain, destruction of the rain forests, energy waste, waste management and traffic policy.

Greenpeace's seal campaigns, in which Brigitte Bardot participates in 1977, and other factors stimulate resistance to the slaughter of baby seals to the level where the EU bans the import of baby seal products.

The "Globe Asami" loses c. 16,000 t oil on the Memel in Russia. Several thousand birds die.

"It's good to walk!" The public is encouraged to take part in sport, organised walks and other car-free activities - although the oil crisis has long been over. After three years, the event is shelved, not least because environmental groups lose interest. A new car-free Sunday takes place in 2000 (18th June), and a Europe-wide day is inaugurated on 22nd September.

Greenpeace activists occupy the chimney of the Boehringer pesticide factory in Hamburg for 26 hours, ushering in a long-term chemicals campaign.

Flower of the Year is the 1981 Wild Daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus).

Bird of the Year 1981 is the Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius).

Fish stocks die due to lack of oxygen in the Baltic Sea.