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Libby, Montana Asbestos Contamination
In the town of Libby and how the people mined for vermiculite wich they then learned to be toxic -
Great Smog of 52
The Great Smog of '52 or Big Smoke was a severe air pollution event that affected London during December 1952. 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
Castle Bravo was a code name for a dry fuel bomb the US made and tested on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands. This event gave many people radiation sickness cause they didnt controll the bomb correctly -
Minamata Disease
Minamata disease is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision, and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma, and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A congenital form of the disease can also affect foetuses in the womb. -
The Shrinking of the Aral Sea
Since 1960, when the Aral Sea was the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea has lost 75% of its water volume. This loss is due to the agricultural diversion of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, the Aral's main sources of inflowing water. The Aral Sea is bounded by Kazakhstan on the north and Uzbekistan on the south. -
Silent Spring
Book about how pestisides affect the enviroment -
The Palomares Incident
A tanker and a bomber colided during a mid air refueling, 2 of the 4 hydro bombs exploded contaminating 490acres in Spain -
Amoco Cadiz
The neologism ecocide can be used to refer to any extensive destruction of the natural environment 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. [1][2] Ecocide can be irreversible when an ecosystem suffers beyond self healing. It is generally associated with damage caused by a living agent whether directly or indirectly. An organism might inflict ecocide directly by killing enough species in an -
1st Earth Day
The idea came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the na -
The Love Canal
21,000 tons of Chemical waste were burried in it. -
Environmental Protection Agency
The United States Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the U.S. federal government which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. -
Door to Hell
The Door to Hell is noted for its natural gas fire which has been burning continuously since it was lit by Soviet petrochemical scientists in 1971 -
The Seveso Disaster
The Seveso disaster was an industrial accident that occurred around 12:37 pm July 10, 1976, in a small chemical manufacturing plant approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) north of Milan in the Lombardy region in Italy. It resulted in the highest known exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) in residential populations[1] which gave rise to numerous scientific studies and standardized industrial safety regulations. The EU industrial safety regulations are known as the Seveso II Directive. -
Amoco Cadiz
The oil tanker Amoco Cradiz stearing mechanisms went out and it ran aground spilling 227,000 tons of oil off the Coast of France -
The Three Mile Island Nuclear Explosion
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown which occurred in one of the two Three Mile Island nuclear reactors -
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. It occurred on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals. The toxic substance made its way in and around the shanty towns located near the plant.Estimates vary on the death toll.Around 30,000 -
Chernobyl
The Chernobyl disaster (Ukrainian: Чорнобильська катастрофа, Chornobylska Katastrofa – Chornobyl Catastrophe) was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then officially the Ukrainian SSR), which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe. -
Pacific Gyre Garbage Patch
The patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre, basically its a huge trash pile in the middle of the pacific -
The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
The Exxon Valdez struck the Blight Reef off the coast of Alaska casue the tanker to spill 245,000-750,000 barrels of crude oil into the ocean -
The Kuwait Oil Fires
The Kuwaiti oil fires were caused by Iraqi military forces setting fire to more than 600 oil wells -
Baia Mare Cyanide Spill
The 2000 Baia Mare cyanide spill was a leak of cyanide near Baia Mare, Romania, into the Someş River by the gold mining company Aurul, a joint-venture of the Australian company Esmeralda Exploration and the Romanian government.The polluted waters eventually reached the Tisza and then the Danube, killing large numbers of fish in Hungary and Yugoslavia. The spill has been called the worst environmental disaster in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster -
The Al-mishraq Fire
Al-Mishraq is a state run sulfur plant near Mosul, Iraq. In June 2003, it was the site of the largest human-made release of sulfur dioxide ever recorded when a fire (thought to have been deliberately started) gained control and burned for almost a month.[1] 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. For over 48 hours the white smoke from sulfur dioxide c -
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
Dead zones are hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in the world's oceans and large lakes, caused by "excessive nutrient pollution from human activities coupled with other factors that deplete the oxygen required to support most marine life in bottom and near-bottom water. (NOAA)."[2] In the 1970s oceanographers began noting increased instances of dead zones. These occur near inhabited coastlines, where aquatic life is most concentrated. (The vast middle portions of the oceans, which naturally have little -
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 on earth.In 2005 there were 60,000 e-waste workers in Guiyu who processed the more than 100 truckloads that were transported to the 52 square kilometre area every day. Guiyu is nicknamed the "electronic graveyard" -
Inconventional Truth
From director Davis Guggenheim, An Inconvenient Truth is a passionate and inspirational look at former Vice President Al Gore's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. In this intimate portrait of Gore and his "travelling global warming show," Gore comes across as never before in the media - funny, engaging, open and intent on alerting citizens to this "planetary emergency" before it's too late. -
Sidoarjo Mud Flow
A natural gas drillburst causing a mud volcano to errupt -
TVA Kingston Fossil Plant Coal Fly Ash Slurry Spill
A dike broke at a coal mine floading the nearby ponds lakes rivers and homes nearby with slurry wich is (a mixture of fly ash and water) -
Deep water horizon BP oil spill
One of the BP oil drills exploded and wasnt capped for 86 days and spilled 4,5 millions barrels of oil -
The Three Gorges Dam
the dam flooded archaeological and cultural sites and displaced some 1.3 million people, and is causing significant ecological changes, including an increased risk of landslides.The dam has been a controversial topic both domestically and abroad. -
Fukushima Daiichi
highly radioactive water at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was crushed by a Tsunami and leaked radiation -
Tragedy of the Commons
the tragedy of the commons is the depletion of a shared resource by individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one's self-interest, despite their understanding that depleting the common resource is contrary to the group's long-term best interests.
