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Minamata 1908
Japan lost WW2 and therefore decided to boost up their economy and becoming one of our leading powers of the world. Chisso company opened: Chemical company for nitrogenous fertilizers -
Story of Minamata Bay (small factory town in Japan, dominated by the Chisso Factory)
- Chisso factory makes petrochemical-based subtances from fertilizer to plastics
- the waste water containing chemicals was released into the Bay
- 24 tonnes(mercury) = released in the Bay (1932-1968)
- Death (ppl near the lake) = mercury posoning
- HOW? mercury reacts and becomes methilmercury= absorbed by organisms such as shrimps
- fish eat shrimp = fish poisoned = same thing with humans = MERCURY BIOACCUMULATED
- mercury released stoppe din 1968
- check the food chain on the book
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Minamata 1956
refrigeration , washing machine, television → = chemical waste -
Minamata 1957
Cause of Minamata disease: poisoning from methylmercury from food -
Minamata 1957
Cause of Minamata disease: poisoning from methylmercury from food -
Minamata 1962
Linked the chemical industry with methylmercury poisoning -
Rachel Carson warns the US about the effects of the use of DDT
She wanted to make the US population aware of the detrimental effects DDT and other pesticides had on the environment. She wanted the whole nation understand that the chemical industry didn't tell the whole story when introducing DDT. -
Minamata 1968
Chisso stopped dumping mercury -
EIA
An EIA is a report prepared before a development project to change the use of land. EIAs differ from country to country. The EIA's come from the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) set in 1969 in the US. An EIA needs to be able to 1. identify impacts 2. predict scale of potential impacts 3. limit the effect of impacts to acceptable limits. Unfortunately, EIAs have weaknesses such as different countries having different standards which makes it hard to compare and many more... -
DDT and malarial mosquitoes
-the use of DDT (insecticide) was banned in 1970 by the World Health Org.
-Still used in small quantities in the tropics
-Anopheles=malaria mosquito
-Banning DDT good or bad?
-DDt prevented million of deaths due to malaria
-It is believed that DDT reduces the number of birds of prey's pop. number
-Banned in most MEDC's
-DDT=spraying the walls to repel the malaria mosquito, cheap and persistent BUT TOXIC
-mosquitoes are becoming resistant to it (due to:changes in land use and ppl migration) -
DDT banned in the US
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The Montreal Protocol
Organized by the UN over 30 countries signed to cut CFC (Coral floral carbon) emissions by half by 2000 CFC found in spray cans as well as refrigerating technology\ HCFC= solution they found but increases the greenhouse gas effect greenhouse gas= heat
CFC creates holes in the ozone layer which can cause cancer as more short wave radiation are emitted -
Minamata 1997
Water in minamata bay clean -
Kyoto Protocol
- Signed the 11 December 1997 and implemented in 2005
- Aim: set mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emission
- 6 main gases: Carbon dioxide (CO2) Methane (CH4); Nitrous oxide (N2O) Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)
- 192 countries have signed
- 3 countries didn't --> Afghanistan, Sudan, and the US
- Ciriticism: --> Canada pulled
- the ocuntries that didnt sign increased their emission it took 7 years to get implemented
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Minamata 2002
1st UNEP report: issues related to mercury -
Minamata 2009
Legally binding document is needed -
Minamata 2013
Minamata convention is established -
Paris Agreement
check image with explanation -
Minamata 2017/2018
Waste, transport, labour, WHO etc (100 + partners) (COP1, COP2)
