Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston, the seminal utopian novel by Ernest Callenbach was published. The society described in the book is one of the first ecological utopias and was influential on the counterculture, and the green movement in the 1970s and thereafter.
The Monkey Wrench Gang novel was published. The influential book, about the use of sabotage to ensure environmental protection, lead to the use of the term "monkeywrenching" to describe the technique.
The Jakob Maersk oil spill occurred when the Danish oil tanker struck a sand bank while entering the port of Leixões, Portugal, causing a major oil spill.
The Ramsar Convention (The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat), an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, entered into force.
