7 Deadly Environmental Disasters
Human beings have so altered the Earth that many scientists feel weve
entered a new geological epoch, which they call the Anthropocene
(recent age of man). Our impact becomes particularly noticeable during
environmental disasters, from oil spills and nuclear meltdowns to toxic
waste leaks and suffocating smog clouds. Below, explore seven
environmental disasters of the last century that proved deadly to people.
Dust Bowl
A dust storm approaches Stratford, Texas in April, 1935. (Credt:
NOAA/MCT/MCT/Getty Images)
Around World War I, homesteaders flocked in mass to the southern Great
Plains, where they replaced the native grasses that held the topsoil in place
with wheat and other crops. Eschewing sustainable agricultural practices,
such as crop rotation, they managed to reap big harvests during the wet years
of the 1920s. But when a prolonged drought struck in the 1930s, the now
eroded and nutrient-poor soil began blowing up into huge dust clouds that
ravaged the landscape. As one black blizzard hit after another, harmful dust
particles accumulated in peoples lungs, causing hundreds of deaths and
sickening thousands. Dead livestock and wildlife littered the ground. By the
time the drought ended, up to one-third of the most affected homesteaders
had fled the Southern Plains for greener pastures.
Great Smog
Credit: Keystone/Getty Images
As a bitter cold snap gripped London late in 1952, its inhabitants used
unusually large quantities of coal to heat their homes. Soot poured out of their
chimneys, mixing with factory and power plant emissions to form an acridsmelling fog that hovered over the city from December 5 to December 9.
Trapped in by a high-pressure weather system, as well as the lack of wind, this
toxic stew reduced visibility to near zero. Abandoned cars dotted the roads,
movie theaters closed because no one could see the screen and some people
even accidentally stumbled into the Thames River. Worst of all, about 4,000
Londoners died of respiratory ailments over those few days, and up to 8,000
more would succumb in the weeks that followed. Recent research shows that
those in the womb at the time of the so-called great smog grew up performing
worse in school and were less likely to hold a job than their peers.
Minamata Disease
Memorial at the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum. (Credit: Public
Domain)
In the early 1950s, the residents of Minamata, a small coastal city in southern
Japan, began observing some startling animal behavior. Cats would suddenly
foam at the mouth, dance around wildly and throw themselves into the sea,
whereas birds would crash land and fish would inexplicably go belly up. Before
long, humans too were suffering from what became known as Minamata
Disease, slurring their speech, stumbling about and having trouble with simple
tasks, such as buttoning buttons. The culprit finally emerged in 1959, when it
was determined that the chemical company Chisso Corporation, one of
Minamatas biggest employers, was dumping mercury into the sea as part of
its manufacturing process and that this toxin was poisoning people (and
animals) who ate the local seafood. Chisso continued releasing mercurytainted wastewater until 1968, reportedly causing at least 2,000 deaths, as
well as birth defects, paralysis and other maladies.
Bhopal
Bhopal memorial for those killed and disabled by the 1984 toxic gas release.
(Credit: Luca Frediani)
In the predawn hours of December 3, 1984, a toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate
gas escaped from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, and
quickly spread throughout the city. Vomiting and gasping for air, those who
didnt die in their sleep poured into unprepared area hospitals or desperately
attempted to outrun the fumes. Dog, bird, cow and water buffalo corpses
reportedly lined the streets. Investigations later uncovered a slew of safety
violations at the plant, including broken and outdated equipment. Lax
management also played a role; a supervisor, for example, allegedly broke for
tea at the moment of crisis, believing it was only a water leak. Though
estimates vary, roughly 15,000 Bhopal residents are believed to have died in
whats often referred to as historys worst industrial accident. Hundreds of
thousands of additional inhabitants suffered afflictions ranging from memory
loss and nerve damage to blindness and organ failure. To this day, the site of
the plant, now owned by Dow Chemical Company, remains highly
contaminated.
Chernobyl
An abandoned school in Pripyat, Ukraine.
On April 26, 1986, a turbine test on one of the reactors at the Chernobyl
nuclear power station went horribly awry, leading to a series of explosions that
spewed massive amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere. The
accident, which the Soviet authorities attempted to cover up, initially claimed
only 31 lives: two plant workers who died in the blasts, a third who reportedly
keeled over of a heart attack and 28 first responders who contracted acute
radiation syndrome during the frantic early stages of the cleanup. However,
Chernobyl also unleashed a thyroid cancer epidemic and likely caused
additional cancer cases as well. In 2005, a United Nations-backed panel
calculated the eventual death toll at up to 4,000, whereas other organizations
put this number significantly higher. For perhaps centuries to come, an
exclusion zone, set up around the plant following the forced evacuation of tens
of thousands of area residents, will be off limits to human habitation.
Kuwaiti Oil Fires
Burning oilfield during Operation Desert Storm, Kuwait. (Credit: Public
Domain)
Seeking revenge for his imminent defeat, Saddam Hussein ordered retreating
Iraqi troops to set fire to about 650 Kuwaiti oil wells at the tail end of the 1991
Persian Gulf War. Oily smoke plumes shot high up into the sky, darkening the
sun and making breathing difficult for those who ventured outside. One U.S.
environmentalist compared it to standing behind the exhaust pipes of
hundreds of malfunctioning diesel trucks. Meanwhile, black rain, a mix of
natural precipitation and smoke particles, fell as far away as the Himalayas;
hundreds of oil lakes up to four inches deep blotted the landscape, fatally
luring in birds who confused them for water; and a layer of tarcrete, sand and
gravel combined with oil and soot, covered almost 5 percent of Kuwaits
territory. By the time the last of the blazes was extinguished that November, an
estimated 1 billion to 1.5 billion barrels of oil had spilled out and more than
100 people were dead, including 92 Senegalese soldiers whose transport
plane crashed in the smoke-blackened skies. Immediately thereafter, Hussein
initiated another environmental disaster, draining the vast marshlands of
southern Iraq in order to suppress a Shiite rebellion.
BP Oil Spill
Dark clouds of smoke and fire emerge as oil burns during a controlled fire in
the Gulf of Mexico. (Credit: Public Domain)
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, located far out in the Gulf of
Mexico, exploded into flames, killing 11 workers and injuring several others.
The rig, owned by offshore drilling contractor Transocean and under lease to
oil giant BP, then sank two days later, causing a petroleum leak that would
gush out of control for nearly three months. According to the U.S. government,
around 4.2 million barrels of oil ultimately escaped, contaminating at least
43,300 square miles of ocean and 1,300 miles of shoreline from Texas to
Florida. Considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, it
temporarily decimated the Gulfs fishing and tourism industries and killed
thousands of birds, sea turtles and dolphins. BP has since shelled out tens of
billions of dollars in cleanup costs, fines and legal settlements.
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