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Minimita bay
between 1932 and 1968, 24 tonnes of mercury were released methylmercury into minimita bay. in the 1950s thousands of people started to suffer from mercury poisoning. the methylmercury spread into the water and was also absorbed by bacteria which was eaten by small species like shrimps, which spread the methylmercury to other species, and eventually, to humans. it took 30 years for the people to realise what they were sick from. The mercury release stopped in 1968. -
DDT and malarial mosquitoes
malaria kills 2.7 million people a year. DDT prevents many deaths. It was banned in 1972 because it was killing populations of birds, but it is not banned in areas where malaria is endemic. DDT kills and repels mosquitos, other chemicals could be used, but DDT is cheap and persistent. The mosquitos that survive it breed and create more resistant populations of mosquitos. Malaria incidence is increasing because of resistance and changes in land uses. -
EIA
- report made before development project to alter natural area
- often used to plan large developments by government
- created: 1969 by US (NEPA made protecting environment priority)
- no specific way to write an EIA
- many countries request: identifies the impact, predicts scale of the potential impacts and limits the effect of impacts to acceptable limits.
- hard to identify weaknesses: different countries, different requirements.