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Major Events That Impacted Our Environment
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The Panama Canal
To avoid the need to sail around the southern tip of South America, a canal was built through Panama. The project took much longer than was expected. Workers were exposed to new disease, unfavorable weather, and the trouble of having two different water levels on either side of the canal. There was an attempt at a mosquito genocide, and a system of locks was built. The dam was completed in 1914. -
The Love Canal Tragedy
The Love Canal was meant to become an ideal community, with a location between two rivers so that it would use less energy that came from fossil fuel. However, the city was never built. In the 1940's the Hooker Electrochemical Company began to dump large amounts of waste. -
The Great Smog of 1952
Fom 5 December to 9 December in 1952, a thick fog fell upon the city of London, England. Black smoke from homes and factories mixed with the fog, and a toxic smog was born. Aboug 12,000 people died by breathing this smog, and this event is believed to be the beginning of the environmental movement. -
Castle Bravo
1st US dry fuel, hydrogen bomb test on the Marshall Islands. One of the most powerful nuclear bombs ever denotated by the US with a yield of 15 megatons of TNT. However also one of the most significant accidental radioactive contamination caused by the US -
Ecocide in Vietnam
The American army's "scorched earth policy" during the Vietnam War (1955-1975) enatiled troops bruning the fields and resources of the territories as they advanced. The use of Agent Orange and Napalm were also detrimental to the health of the Vietnamese jungles. -
Minamata Disease
Minamata disease is a neurological condition that results from mercury poisoning. Lack of muscle control, weakness, and numbness are common symptoms of the disease, but, in rare cases, paralysis and death are possible. The disease was first discovered in Japan in 1946 near a site of chemical dumping. -
Shrinking of the Aral Sea
in the 1960's, the Soviet Union started a project to take the Aral Sea, which was the fourth largest lake in the world at the time, and use the rivers that fed it to irrigate the surrounding desert area to transform it into farm lands. Farmlands were developed, but the lake began to die, and with it went the communities that depended on it. The waters grew saltier and became polluted with pesticides. -
Silent Spring
Rachael Carson's Silent Spring is a novel published in 1962 that exposed the dangers of a pesticide called DDT. -
Palomeres Incident
A B-52 plane carrying hydeogen bombs collided with KC-135 plane, killing some of the crew members instantly. The remants of the bombs scattered into the Medditterean Sea and parts of Spain. When it hit Spain, the ground immediately became contaminated with plutonium. -
Tragedy of the Commons
The Tragedy of the Commons is an economic theory by Garrett Hardin. It states that the trouble with having common resource that does not have one owner is that people will take as much as they can, propelled by the idea that if they don't take it, someone else will. Hardin states that the solution to this problem is breaking up a common resource into smaller, individually owned pieces. This way, people are more likely to take care of and preserve the resource. -
First Earth Day
The first ever Earth Day occured in a time when America had lost sight of the importance of a healthy environment. Factory polution was unrestricted. The EPA did not exist yet. Senator Gaylord Nelson took action to create an Earth Day dedicated to spread awareness and taking action to protect the planet. -
Environmental Protection Agency
Also known as the EPA, the Environmental Portection Agency is a United States governmental agency. Its purpose is to protect human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations that come from laws that Congress has passed. President Nixon was president when the EPA was established. -
Door To Hell
A natural gas field located in Turkmenistan. The natural gas field has been burning continiously since 1971 when Soviet Petrochemical engineers lit the area. Door To Hell is notorious for the foul smell of sulfur that can be noticed from miles away. -
The Seveso Disaster
An Industrial Plant experianced a leak in Seveso, Italy exposed the population of the city to large amounts of TCDD. A very common effect of exposure to the chemical is chlorancne, which is an erruption of acne, blackheads, etc. Birthdefects occurred in the offspring of the exposed people, too. -
Amoco Cadiz
A crude oil ship that was sailing sea until it hit some rocks causing it to sink and split in three. This resulted in an extensive oil spill into the seas surrounding France. -
The Three Mile Island Nuclear Explosions
Partial nuclear meltdown from a plant in PA. Techinal errors caused a massive amount pf nuclear plant coolant to release. It is one of the worst accidents of US commercial nuclear plant history. -
The Bhopal Disaster
A pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, leaked a chemical mixture, including 40 tons of methyl isocynate. The leak created a large toxic cloud, and it killed 8,000 people over the span of only a few days, mainly from cardiac and respiratory arrest. Because the area was never properly cleaned after the leak, people who live in the area all these years later are also being exposed to the toxic chemicals. -
Pacific Gyre Garbage Patch
It is a slew of garbage and chemicals trapped in the currents of the Pacific Ocean. Estimates of waste could be from 700,000 to 15,000,000 square kilometers trapped with the currents and it still acculmates to this day. -
The Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion
A nuclear reaction facility called Chernobyl in the Soviet Union city of Pripyat experianced a meltdown in one of its reactors and an explosion. The release of radiation has killed thousands, and is reponsible for the ailments of about 70,000 people (exact statistics vary). The area nearest to Chernobyl is still not habitable, and the effects that the radiation has had on the offspring of the exposed organisms is astounding.. -
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
An oil Tanker headed to CA hit Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, causing approx. 750,000 volumes of crude oil to be released into the waters of Alaska. It is considered one of the most tragic human-caused environomental disasters. -
Kuwait Oil Fires
Iraqi military forces were setting ablaze oil wells within their own country. It was because of the Coalition forces taking part in the Persian Gulf War. These fires lasted from Janurary to November of 1991. -
Libby, Montana Abestos Contamination
Town discovering and then coping with toxic asbestos dust from the vermiculite mines that supplied jobs to more than 200 residents and helped Libby prosper for decades.Libby residents have suffered with asbestos-related diseases like MESOTHELIOMA, and the cleanup is still ongoing. -
Baia Mare Cyanide Spill
In Bozinta Mare, Romania, a dam burst. About 100,000 cubic meters of water were released. The water was contaminated with cyanide. The water flooded farmland and some got into the Somes river. From there, the waters reached water in Hungary and Serbia, killing large amounts of fish. -
The Al-mishraq Fire
In June 2003, a park called sulfur mine near Mosul, Iraq, called Al-mishraq, caught fire and burned for about a month. The fire caused levels of sulfur oxide to dangerously high levels in fields surrounding the plant. -
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
Dead zones exist in other bodies of water, but the one in the Gulf of Mexico is the biggest in the world. Dead zones happen as a result of increaced nitrogen and phosphorous levels that can come from runoff from fertilizers and sewage. The inbalance of chemicals fosterst the growth of algae, which disrupts the food chain and depletes oxygen levels. -
E-Waste in Guiyu, China
About 70% of E-waste, or electronic waste, that is produced globally ends up in China. Despite UN bans on transporting E-waste to developing nations, such as China, for the past ten years, hundreds of thousands of people in the Chinese city have become very good at taking apart the junk and salvaging the valuable parts. This is the stuff of science fiction, and it is the real lives of our fellow human beings. -
Jilin Chemical Plant Explosions
A nuclear plant explosion that killed thousands, killied dozens, and caused mandatory evacuation of residents impacted. The blast created an 80km toxic slick that contaminated the Songhua River. -
An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth is a documentry directed by Davis Guggenheim that tells the story of former Vice President Al Gore's attempt to stop global warming, and expose the truths surrounding it. The film won an Academy Award. -
Sidoarjo Mud Flow
A mud volcano in Indonesia that has been in eruption since May 2006. It was caused by a blowout of natural gas due to an Indian Oil Company drilling there, but they blame an earthquake. The mud volcano spews around 180,000 cubic meters of mud per day, -
TVA Kingston Fossil Plant Coal Fly Ash Slurry Spill
An ash dike ruptured at a solid waste containment area, causing 1.1 billion gallons of coal fly ash slurry to release into the area. It traveled into the Emory and Clinch River, contaminating wildlife and polluting human water sources. -
The Three Gorges Dam
China's most powerful dam in Shanghai has endured heavy critisism for several decades. It has caused many large landslides that are capable of altering ecosystems. These landslides are also a threat to the Chinese people living at the bottom of the cliffs where the dam is suspended. The dam provides a source of renewable energy, and prevents flooding, but it is not in a safe area. -
Deep Water Horizion BP Oil Spill
An underwater oil rig exploded, releasing tons of oil polluting the sea floor. Cnsidered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. It flowed for 87 days, until it was capped on 15 July 2010. The US Government estimated the total discharge at 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 cubic meters). After several failed efforts to contain the flow, the well was declared sealed on 19 September 2010 -
Fukushima Daiichi
A Nuclear plant meltdown caused by a tsunami that hit Japan. This caused radiation to scatter around the vincinity of the plant, affecting neighborhoods and people evacuating their homes. To this day, the meighborhoods around the plant has become ghost towns.
