WORSE ECOLOGICAL HUMAN CAUSED DISASTERS

1. WORSE ECOLOGICAL HUMAN CAUSED DISASTERS HOPEFULLY NOT TO BE CONTINUED

2. CHERNOBYL The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western Russia and Europe. It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history

4. ARAL SEA • Formerly one of the four largest lakes in the world with an area of 68,000 square kilometres (26,300 sq mi), the Aral Sea has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet Union irrigation projects.

5. ARAL SEA • The region's once prosperous fishing industry has been virtually destroyed, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The Aral Sea region is also heavily polluted, with consequent serious public health problems. The retreat of the sea has reportedly also caused local climate change, with summers becoming hotter and drier, and winters colder and longer.[5]

8. 3 MILE ISLAND • The Three Mile Island accident was a coremeltdown in Unit 2 (a pressurized water reactor manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox) of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979

10. OGALLALA AQUIFER • Withdrawals from the Ogallala Aquifer for irrigation amounted to 26 cubic km (21 million acre feet) in 2000. As of 2005, the total depletion since pre-development amounted to 253 million acre-feet (312 cubic km).[5] Some estimates say it will dry up in as little as 25 years. Many farmers in the Texas High Plains, which rely particularly on the underground source, are now turning away from irrigated agriculture as they become aware of the hazards of overpumping.[6]

12. EXXON VALDEZ • The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 to 750,000 barrels (41,000 to 119,000 m3) of crude oil.[1][2] It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters.[3] As significant as the Valdez spill was—the largest ever in U.S. waters until the 2010 'Deepwater Horizonoil spill—in terms of volume released.[4] Prince William Sound's remote location, accessible only by helicopter, plane and boat, made government and industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing plans for response. The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds. The oil, originally extracted at the Prudhoe Bay oil field, eventually covered 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of coastline,[5] and 11,000 square miles (28,000 km2) of ocean.[

13. Oil Pollution Act of 1990 In response to the spill, the United States Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA). The legislation included a clause that prohibits any vessel that, after March 22, 1989, has caused an oil spill of more than 1 million US gallons (3,800 m3) in any marine area, from operating in Prince William Sound.[40] The Oil Pollution Act (101 H.R.1465, P.L. 101-380 [1]) was passed by the 101st United States Congress, and signed by President George H. W. Bush, to mitigate and prevent civil liability for future oil spills off the coast of the United States. The law stated that companies must have a "plan to prevent spills that may occur" and have a "detailed containment and cleanup plan" for oil spills. The law also includes a clause that prohibits any vessel that, after March 22, 1989, has caused an oil spill of more than one million U.S. gallons (3,800 m³) in any marine area, from operating in Prince William Sound.[1

16. COLORADO RIVER PROJECT • Large diversions of water for irrigation, and to a much lesser extent to supply cities combined with significant evaporation losses from its reservoirs have dewatered the lower course of the river downstream of Yuma, AZ, above the Colorado River Delta, resulting in it no longer consistently reaching the Gulf of California. More than 20 major dams have been built on the Colorado River and its tributaries.

19. BHOPAL INDIA • The Bhopal disaster is the world's worst industrial catastrophe. It occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madh • Others estimate that 3,000 died within weeks and that another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases.[ya Pradesh, India.

21. LOVE CANAL • Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, which became the subject of national and international attention, controversy, and eventual environmental notoriety following the discovery of 21,000 tons of toxic waste that had been buried beneath the neighborhood by Hooker Chemical.

22. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1979, residents exhibited a "disturbingly high rate of miscarriages...Love Canal can now be added to a growing list of environmental disasters involving toxics, ranging from industrial workers stricken by nervous disorders and cancers to the discovery of toxic materials in the milk of nursing mothers." In one case, two out of four children in a single Love Canal family had birth defects; one girl was born deaf with a cleft palate, an extra row of teeth, and slight retardation, and a boy was born with an eye defect.[19] A survey conducted by the Love Canal Homeowners Association found that 56% of the children born from 1974-1978 had at least one birth defect.[20]

24. DEAD ZONE GULF OF MEXICO • Dead zones are hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in the world's oceans, the observed incidences of which have been increasing since oceanographers began noting them in the 1970s. These occur near inhabited coastlines, wherCurrently the most notorious dead zone is a 22,126 square kilometre (8,543 mi²) region in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Mississippi River dumps high-nutrient runoff from its vast drainage basin, which includes the heart of U.S. agribusiness, the Midwest. The drainage of these nutrients are affecting important shrimp fishing grounds. This is equivalent to a dead zone the size of New Jerseyeaquatic life is most concentrated.

27. LAKE VICTORIA AFRICA • The Nile Perch is one of the Invasive species located in Lake Victoria, Africa. It was introduced as a sporting fish, but it soon became one of the 100 Worst Invasive Species by the IUCN's (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Invasive Species Specialist Group. Other invasive species include the Nile Tilapia and the Water Hyacinth, which is a water-type weed.

30. DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL • The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the BP oil disaster, or the Macondo blowout)[4][5][6] is an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed for three months in 2010. The impact of the spill continues even after the well has been capped. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.[

34. JAPAN NUCLEAR PROBLEM • Japan raised the severity level of its nuclear crisis to the maximum level seven on Tuesday, putting the Fukushima Daiichi power plant disaster on a par with the Chernobyl accident in 1986. • The decision to raise the crisis level up from five to seven came after a review of the amount of radiation released in the month since the plant was severely damaged by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, says Japan's official nuclear watchdog, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).