-
The Love Canal
It officially covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, along 99th Street and Read Avenue. Two bodies of water define the northern and southern boundaries of the neighborhood. In the mid-1970s Love Canal became the subject of national and international attention after it was revealed in the press that the site had formerly been used to bury 21,000 tons of toxic waste by Hooker Chemical Company (now Occidental Petroleum Corporation). -
The Panama Canal
During construction, ownership of the territory that is now the Panama Canal was first Colombian, then French, and then American. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for handover to Panama. -
Libby, Montana Asbestos Contamination
Libby, Montana, is the story of a 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, but their story is ongoing. -
The Great Smog of 52
A period of cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants mostly from the use of coal to form a thick layer of smog over the city. It lasted from Friday 5 to Tuesday 9 December 1952, and then dispersed quickly after a change of weather. -
Castle Bravo
This was the code name given to the first United States test of a dry fuel hydrogen bomb. Castle Bravo had the greatest yield of any U,S. nuclear test. -
Minamita Disease
A neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Minamata disease was first discovered in Minamata city in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan, in 1956 -
Silent Spring
This book documented the detrimental effects on the environment. Silent spring brought environmental concerns to the american public. -
The Palomares Incident
The B-52G began its mission from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, carrying four Type B28RI hydrogen bombs on a Cold War airborne alert mission named Operation Chrome Dome. The flight plan took the aircraft east across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea towards the European borders of the Soviet Union before returning home . -
Tragedy of the Commons
The tragedy of the commons is an economics theory, according to which individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one's self-interest, behave contrary to the whole group's long-term best interests by depleting some common resource. -
The Shrinking of the Aral Sea
The primary effect of the Aral Sea desiccation has been the significant loss of water in the sea. The water level has dropped approximately 23 meters since the onset of its primary sources of water being diverted. -
Environmental Protection Agency
By the mid-1990s the EPA was enforcing 12 major statutes, including laws designed to control uranium mill tailings; ocean dumping; safe drinking water; insecticides, fungicides, and rodenticides; and asbestos hazards in schools. -
Eccocide in Vietnam
The term ecocide refers to any extensive damage or destruction of the natural landscape and disruption or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory to such an extent that the survival of the inhabitants of that territory is endangered. An organism might inflict ecocide directly by killing enough species in an ecosystem to disrupt its structure and function. -
1st Earth Day
The first Earth Day family had participants and celebrants in two thousand colleges and universities, roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States. More importantly, it "brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform. -
Fukushima Daiichi
A disabeled BWR nuclear power plant.
Suffered major damage from the earthquake and tsunami that hit japan on March 11 2011. -
Door to Hell
The Door to Hell is a natural gas field in Derweze. The Door to Hell is noted for its natural gas fire which has been burning continuously since it was lit by Soviet petrochemical engineers in 1971. -
Gulf Of Mexico Dead Zone
The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is an area of hypoxic (link to USGS definition) (less than 2 ppm dissolved oxygen) waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Its area varies in size, but can cover up to 6,000-7,000 square miles. -
The Seveso Disaster
The Seveso disaster was so named because Seveso, with a population of 17,000 in 1976, was the community most affected. The factory building had been built many years earlier and the local population did not perceive it as a potential source of danger. Moreover, although several exposures of populations to dioxins had occurred before, mostly in industrial accidents, they were of a more limited scale. -
Amoco Cadiz
The French Navy announced 30 ships are working to contain the oil slick. The Amoco Cadiz caused the world's worst oil tanker spill at the time.
Devastating scenes of marine life dying under a film of oil were broadcast around the world. -
The Three Mile Island Explosion
Three mile island nuclear power plant in USA. A cooling malfunction caused part of the core to melt in the #2 reactor. There were no injuries or health effects. -
The Bhopal Disaster
The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak incident in India, considered the world's worst industrial disaster. -
The Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion
An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe.The Chernobyl disaster was the worst nuclear power plant accident in history in terms of cost and casualties. -
The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
This occured in Prince William Sound, Alaska.
This was the largest spill ever in the US until the 2010 deepwater horizon oil spill. -
The Kuwait Oil Fires
Caused by iraqi military forces setting fire to a 605 to 732 oil wells along with an unspecified number.
People believe iraq decided to destroy oil fields to achieve a military advantage. -
Baia Mare Cyanide Spill
The polluted waters eventually reached the Tisza and then the Danube, killing large quantities of fish in Hungary and Serbia. The spill has been called the worst environmental disaster in Europe since Chernobyl. -
The Al-mishraq Fire
At its height, the fire was putting 21,000 tonnes of sulfur dioxide a day into the atmosphere. The pollution at Mosul city which is about 45 km from Mishraq reached a catastrophic level. -
E-waste in Guiyu, China
Guiyu, in Guangdong Province, China, is made up of four small villages. It is the location of what may be the largest electronic waste (e-waste) site in the world. Many of the primitive recycling operations in Guiyu are toxic and dangerous to workers' health with 80 % of children suffering from lead poisoning.[ -
Jilin Chemical Plant Explosion
The cause of this blast was determined 2 days after.
It was so powerful that it shattered windows at least 100 to 200 meters away from the scene. -
An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth focuses on Al Gore and on his travels in support of his efforts to educate the public about the severity of the climate crisis. Gore says, "I've been trying to tell this story for a long time and I feel as if I've failed to get the message across.The film documents a Keynote presentation (which Gore refers to as "the slide show") that Gore has presented throughout the world. -
Sidoarjo Mud Flow
The Sidoarjo Mudflow is an ongoing eruption of gas and mud in East Java, Indonesia. Hot mud has been flowing since May 2006 and it appears that the flow will continue indefinitely. So far all efforts to stem the flow have failed. -
TVA Kingston Fossil Plant Coal Fly Ash Slurry Pill
Largest fly ash release in United States history.
Slurry traveled across the emory river and covered up to 300 acres of surrounding land. -
Deep water horizon BP oil spill
It claimed eleven lives and is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. Following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a sea-floor oil gusher flowed for 87 days, until it was capped on 15 July 2010. -
The Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, China -
Pacific Gyre Garbage Patch
This extends over an interdetermine area.
Was predicted in a 1988 paper published by the NOAA of the United States.
