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Kyshtym Disaster
It was a radiation contamination disaster in Russia, and it was a level 6 disaster. Mayak was a name for multiple nuclear facilities, at least 200 people died from radiation sickness, more than 400,000 people were escorted out of their homes and cities. The radioactive cloud reached 300 to 350 kilometers from the accident, but the fallout resulted in long-term contamination from more than 800 square kilometers. -
Minamata Disaster
• The first record of the Minamata disease was in 1959 in Japan. At the time most people relied on fish, and it was discovered that the fish were contaminated with Methylmercury. A large petrochemical plant in Minamata was dumping Methylmercury into the water causing severe illness, signs being Brain damage, Difficulty in hearing walking and seeing, and numbness in their limbs and lips. After this disaster the factories and government realized that they can’t just dump chemicals into the water. -
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring Published
The book talked about the damage to the environment pesticides were causing and how dangerous pesticides were to humans, animals, and plants. This book made the EPA realize that they needed to stop using DDT due to the amount of damage it caused to the environment, wildlife, and health risks to humans. -
Love Canal
Located in Niagara Falls, New York. The abandoned Love Canal was used to dump over 21,000 chemicals contaminating the soil and groundwater. The EPA collected the contaminated material and discovered the chemicals contaminated houses and schools and they had to demolish them and rehabilitate the affected properties -
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act was passed for organizations like zoos and people to list certain animals as endangered or threatened, and nobody can buy, sell, trade, or move any type or species of animals that are listed as endangered or threatened. It helps the environment because people come together to try and save these animals from hunters, it also helps humans and professionals understand that not having these animals can affect the earth. -
Italy’s Seveso dioxin cloud
At a chemical plant in Meda just north of Milan, Italy a valve broke at the Industrie Chimiche Meda Società Azionaria. This caused a highly toxic cloud of TCDD to contaminate land, vegetation, and other communities, forcing people to evacuate from their homes. After this disaster there was an immediate protest against the industry for better safety regulations. -
France’s Amoco Cadiz Tanker spill
Off the coast of Britany on March 16th, 1978. A steering gear failure caused the cargo ship to crash and released over 220,000 tons of oil in the water and extended as far as the east Channel Islands. After this incident there were clean-up activities on rocky shores that took several years but still failed to fully collect the oil. -
Bhopal Disaster
The Bhopal Disaster was caused by Union Carbide's Pesticide Plant a serious gas leak that happened in India and spread over a big population killing at the minimum 2,000 people at the time of the accident which caused 15 to 20,000 to get ill from the gases. The disaster spread into local rivers, and lakes, which then made the water undrinkable and poisoned a lot of fish, which caused a decline in the shipping and selling of fish in India. -
Chernobyl Meltdown
The Chernobyl meltdown was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. It resulted in two plant workers dying and a further 28 people died within a few weeks of the accident. There is no evidence of a major public health impact 20 years after the accident. -
Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol was put into place to protect the Ozone layer from depleting chemicals which also destroyed the production of products that was killing the ozone layer. It helped the environment because it eliminated a bad contributor to climate change, which made the globe come together to fix a problem in the environment. -
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto protocol is an international agreement that is linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It was adopted in 1997 but not but into force until 2005. It was put into place to reduce the use of six gases responsible for global warming. -
Stockholm Conference
The Stockholm Conference currently regulates 29 POPs. Requires parties to reduce and eliminate the release of POPs. It’s a global treaty that protects the environment and human health. -
Documentary film An Inconvenient Truth released
An Inconvenient Truth is a film that raised public awareness of climate change. It won an academy award and became the fourth highest grossing documentary of all time. It helped the public understand the dangers of climate change. -
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant exploded and spread radiation throughout the land and ocean. The cause of this was a 15-metre tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors causing 3 of 6 to explode. After this the government set out a debris removal team to clean up the debris around the reactors and stored the dangerous chemicals from the ocean into separate tanks. Government now realizes that we can’t have nuclear plants so close to cities and oceans. -
Paris Climate Agreement
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. Its main goal was to hold the increase in the global average temperature, to reach the long-term goal the Paris Agreement invites countries to form a Long-term low greenhouse gas emissions development strategies. We have achieved some things and are working on a lot such as low-carbon solutions and new markets, establishing carbon neutrality targets, and zero-carbon solution, but there are many others in progress.