The Environment Chronicle

The European Community starts its second Environmental Action Programme

Scientific studies by the FEA prove the dangers of fibrous asbestos dust in the environment as well. Despite early resistance, industry then halts the use of sprayed asbestos. Sprayed asbestos has been banned in Germany since 1979.

Bird of the Year 1977 is the Barn Owl (Tyto alba).

The European Community publishes its first "Report on the State of the Environment"

Robert Jungk's book attacks the use of nuclear power, strengthening its opponents.

The Argo Merchant ran aground on Fishing Rip (Nantucket Shoals), 29 nautical miles southeast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts in high winds and ten foot seas. On December 21, the ship broke apart and spilled its entire cargo of 7.7 million gallons of No. 6 fuel oil.

Under the act, and the subsequently decreed Heat Insulation Ordinance of 16.08.1994, energy conservation and insulation measures must be used in new buildings or installing heating or air conditioning systems.

In the northern Italian town of Seveso, c. 2.5 kg dioxins (2,3,7,8 TCDD) escape from a chemicals factory producing TCP, resulting in 183 cases of chloracne, 70,000 animals needing to be destroyed, with uncertain long-term consequences (e.g. cancer).

After several explosions on board, the Spanish ship "Urquiola" strikes a rock off the Spanish coast. 95,000 t oil pollute the bay of La Coruna.

Expeditions begin in March to prevent seal culling on the ice off Newfoundland in Canada. Activists blockade an icebreaker, others protect seals from the hunters' clubs with their own bodies. They are fined by the Canadian authorities.

With its book on air quality criteria, dealing with lead, the FEA comes into serious conflict with the car lobby for the first time. However, the FEA's warnings have an effect: lead content in petrol is fixed by law and leaded normal petrol has been banned in Germany since 1988.

Bird of the Year 1976 is the Hoopoe (Upupa epops).

The Council of the European Communities has adopted the DIRECTIVE of 8 December 1975 concerning the quality of bathing water. Directive 76/160/EEC concerns the quality of bathing water, with the exception of water intended for therapeutic purposes and water used in swimming pools. It lays down the minimum quality criteria to be met by bathing water: the physical, chemical and microbiological parameters; the mandatory limit values and indicative values for such parameters; the minimum sampling frequency and method of analysis or inspection of such water. Member States fix the values that they apply to bathing water in accordance with the guidelines of Directive 76/160/EEC. Member States may fix more stringent values than those laid down in the Directive. Where it does not give any values for certain parameters, Member States are not obliged to fix any.

The Association for Nature and Environment Protection Germany (BUND), subsequently Association for Environment and Nature Protection Germany (BUND) is founded by Horst Stern, Bernhard Grzimek, Herbert Gruhl and 19 other founding members.

The Council of the European Communities has adopted the Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste. Known as the Waste Framework Directive, the Directive establishes a framework for the management of waste across the European Community.

The first protest is aimed at the Soviet whaling fleet. Greenpeace members in rubber dinghies place themselves between the whales and the harpoons. Film of the protest alarms the entire world.

The purpose of the act is in particular 1. to maintain forests because of their usefulness and significance for the environment, extending them where necessary, and ensuring an orderly sustainable management. 2. to support forestry. 3. to balance the interests of the public good and the owners of forests.

The Jacob Maersk loses 88,000 t oil off the Atlantic coast of Portugal.

Herbert Gruhl (1921 - 1993), at the time a CDU member of parliament, publishes his (sometimes controversial) book.

Bird of the Year 1975 is the Eurasian Golden Plover (Pluvialis apricaria).

Objective proof of the connection between the destruction of the ozone layer and the release of aerosol propellants.

The World Food Council is set up on the recommendation of the Rome World Food Conference. It is the highest committee directing and coordinating various UN organisations in solving world hunger.

The conference seeks to coordinate measures for combating hunger and malnourishment. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and a world food council are called into being.

On 9 August 1974, the Netherlands tanker Metula ran aground on the Satellite Patch Shoal in the Straits of Magellan, Chile. Approximately 53,000 tons crude oil ran out.

Within the portfolio of the Environment Minister, an independent federal authority is set up, the Federal Environmental Agency.

Within the portfolio of the Home Affairs Minister, an independent federal authority is set up, the Federal Environmental Agency. After the Chernobyl reactor disaster, the FEA is transferred to the Environment Ministry.

§1 It is the purpose of this Act to protect human beings, animals and plants, the soil, water, the atmosphere as well as cultural assets and other material goods against harmful effects on the environment and, to the extent that this concerns installations subject to licensing, also from hazards, considerable disadvantages and considerable nuisance caused in any other way, and to take precautions against the emergence of any such harmful effects on the environment. The act forms the legal basis for numerous regulations on air quality, noise abatement and industrial safety in subsequent years.

L. S. Rowland and M. J. Molina demonstrate the likelihood that the chemically stable, and therefore persistent, CFC compounds are destroying stratospheric ozone.

The "Metula" loses 50,000 t oil in the Straits of Magellan between Tierra del Fuego and Chile.

Bird of the Year 1974 is the House martin (Delichon urbica).

The conference recommends a world population action plan for governments, in order to better understand the problem of population growth.

The Club of Rome's second report appears: "Mankind at the Turning-Point" by Mihailo Mesarovic and Eduard Pestel.

81 environmental and conservation organisations make up the European Environmental Bureau, which aims to leverage the influence of these groups in improving EU environmental and conservation policy, especially with regard to UNCED decisions.

The Advisory Scientific Council, a committee of experts reporting to the German government, produces its first report.

Greenpeace sail to the French atoll for a second time. French soldiers enter their yacht, beating up one protester, McTaggart. Others manage to smuggle photographs of the attack from board. These are published all around the world. France abandons the test series.

The European Community starts its first Environmental Action Programme

Bird of the Year 1973 is the Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis).

CITES aims to protect specific species of flora and fauna from excessive exploitation by international trade. It is legally binding in civil law.

On 19 December 1972 in Oman Sea the South Korean Sea Star supertanker collided with Brazilian tanker Horta Barbosa and spilled about 115000 tons of crude oil into the Gulf of Oman.

The convention's chief aims are to conserve globally important natural heritage (unique landscapes and geological formations), cultivated landscapes and cultural heritage. It is legally binding in civil law.