The Environment Chronicle

The Russian tanker Nachodka capsizes off the coast of Japan with 17,000 t oil.

Flower of the Year 1997 is the Stemless carline thistle (Carlina acaulis).

The Federal Environmental Agency publishes "Sustainable Germany - roads to environmentally sustainable development". This combination of environmental, social and economic criteria into a vision of the future challenges environmentalists to define their goals. The FEA's experts draw up scenarios for sustainable development in an industrial country like Germany up to the year 2010.

Orchid of the Year: Bug orchid (Orchis coriophora)

Landscape of the Year: the Maas.

Fish of the Year: Grayling (Thymallus vulgaris)

Tree of the Year is the Mountain Ash (Sorbus aucuparia).

Environmental protection was made a formal goal of the European Union in the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam.

In 1997, the International Coral Reef Initiative, a partnership among governments and nongovernment organizations, declared the first International Year of the Reef with the purpose of raising awareness of the state of the coral reefs of the world, and to encourage their conservation. IYOR 1997 stimulated national and international actions that helped lead to establishment of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force in 1998, and the passage of the Coral Reef Conservation Act in 2000.

Animal of the Year: Alpine ibex (Capra ibex)

Bird of the Year 1997 is the Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major).

Fungus of the Year 1997 is the Charcoal burner (Russula cyanoxantha).

The summit issues the "Rome Declaration on World Food Security" and the "World Food Summit Plan of Action".

§1a (1) As a part of the ecobalance the waters are to be managed in such a way that they serve the general well-being and, in harmony with this, also serve the purposes of an individual and in such a way that any avoidable damage does not occur.

This guideline provides measures avoid and, where this is impossible, reduce emissions ... to air, water and soil - including measures affecting waste - in order to achieve a high level of protection for the environment, without prejudice to other relevant community regulations.

Reactor block 2 must be shut down when the sealing rings on one of the four pumps in the main cooling system overheats (source: Greenpeace).

The second United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COP 2) took place from 8 to 19 July 1996 in Geneva, Switzerland. In December 1995 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its second Assessment Report. A key statement of the report was that "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate". COP 2 accepted this report, which highlighted the urgent need for a binding protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gases. The Climate Change Conference in Geneva saw the United States take a major step in this direction by abandoning, for the first time, its opposition to a legally binding Protocol.

April 24, 1996, marked the first Noise Awareness Day spearheaded by the League for the Hard of Hearing in New York City. Today the celebration of this day takes place in more than 40 countries around the World. In Germany this day is organized by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Akustik e.V. (DEGA) since 1998. Usually it is celebrated on one of the two last Wednesday of April.

The Renewable Energy Day is a German-wide initiative launched on the occasion of the anniversary of the Chernobyl reactor disaster and aimed at presenting the different utilisation possibilities offered by sustainable energy management. This event was initiated by the city of Oederan (Saxony) on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1996. On 20 April 1996, 27 house owners in the federal state of Saxony presented their wood heating systems as well as their solar, wind and water energy systems to the public. In the following years, activities within the scope of the day of renewable energy sources spread throughout Germany.

Fungus of the Year 1996 is the Sarcodon imbricatus, commonly known as the shingled hedgehog or scaly hedgehog.

Disastrous fire caused by improper welding work. The fire kills 17, injures about 20 and impairs the health of a further 100.

Animal of the Year: Common hamster (Cricetus cricetus)

Flower of the Year 1996 is the Pasque flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris).

Vynilchloride released in a rail accident. At least 328 suffer impaired health: irritation of the eyes, nose and skin, also gastrointestinal problems.

Tree of the Year 1996 is the Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus).

Bird of the Year 1996 is the Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus).

Biotope of the Year: the stream

Fish of the Year 1996 is the Sea trout (Salmo trutta trutta).

The "Sea Empress" strikes a rock off the Welsh coast and spills c. 70,000 t crude, killing dolphins, seals, rare sea birds and crustaceans.

Orchid of the Year 1996 is the Lady's slipper (Cypridedium calceolus).

Sodium circulating in the secondary system (loop C) breaks the casing of the cylindrical thermometer, which explodes and cause the sodium to burn in the main system. Sodium escaped from loop C (source: Greenpeace).

§1 The purpose of this Act is to ensure the effective implementation of an EU directive ... on the voluntary participation of commercial companies in a common system for environmental management and inspection.

Since 1995, on 16 September each year, the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer is celebrated. This date has been designated by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 49/114, to commemorate the signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This commemoration around the world offers an opportunity to focus attention and action at the global, regional and national levels on the protection of the ozone layer.

Greenpeace members from Europe and the USA unfurl a banner on Tian an Men Square in Beijing, reading "Stop all atomic testing, stop atomic testing in China". They are arrested, interrogated and deported.

Shell announces that it will not, after all, sink the defunct oil platform Brent Spar. Prominent artists, politicians of all parties and the Church in Germany had condemned Shell's plans. The multinational ignored the criticism, until a boycott of petrol stations forced it to give way. The Brent Spar remained at anchor in a Norwegian bay until the issue was resolved: the platform was cleaned up, its support cut into rings and dismantled completely. The rings were used to build a quay in the harbour near Stavanger in Norway.

The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) is the largest of its kind developed so far under CMS. It was concluded on 16 June 1995 in the Hague, the Netherlands and entered into force on 1 November 1999. The AEWA covers 255 species of birds ecologically dependent on wetlands for at least part of their annual cycle. The agreement covers 118 countries and the European Community (EC) from Europe, parts of Asia and Canada, the Middle East and Africa. Of the 118 Range States and the EC currently 62 countries have become a Contracting Party to AEWA.

Despite worldwide protests, France restarts its atomic testing on Moruroa. When a Greenpeace ship enters the 12 mile exclusion zone, it is entered by French marines and confiscated. The ship's instruments are destroyed.

The first United Nations Climate Change Conferences took place from 28 March to 7 April 1995 in Berlin, Germany. Delegates of the 116 UNFCC signatory states agree to the "Berlin Mandate", in which they commit themselves to develop a protocol by 1997, aimed at limiting and reducing greenhouse emissions beyond the year 2000. It is decided to locate the UN Secretariat for the FCC in Bonn from 1996.

During the Berlin Climate Conference, Greenpeace climbers occupy a chimney stack at an RWE coal-fired power station. An attempt to remove them fails. The pictures are broadcast live to the Conference.

The "Red list of endangered biotope types of the Federal Republic of Germany" has been published by the BfN. For the first time, this list does not cover species but habitats in their contextual endangerment.