Worst Man Made Disasters

The following post has 10 of the worst disasters made by man. At the end of this post are pics from the L.A. Times. Yes, the present Gulf oil spill is one of them.

1)Chernobyl in Russia happened 20 years ago.It resulted in a large severe release of radioactivity,which came after a massive power excursion that destroyed the nuclear reactor. People were killed from the accident at the scene because of radiation poisoning. It looks like after 20 years and for many more years this disaster will cost lives and pain for many people.

2)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, hit Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef and spilled an estimated minimum 10.8 million US gallons (40.9 million litres, or 250,000 barrels) of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters ever to occur in history. 3)Love Canal was first reported by a reporter in 1978.

3) 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. Love Canal officially covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, along 99th Street and Read Avenue.

4)Persian Gulf 1991- Iraqi forces opened valves at the Sea Island oil terminal and dumped oil from several tankers into the Persian Gulf. The apparent strategic goal was to foil a potential landing by US Marines.

5)The Bhopal Disaster of 1984 In the mid night of 2nd – 3rd December 1984, in a densely populated area of Bhopal, Central India, a poisonous vapor burst from the tall stacks of the Union Carbide pesticide plant. About forty tons of toxic gases had leaked from the Carbides Bhopal plant and spread throughout the city. The cause was the contamination of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) storage tank with water carrying catalytic material.2000 people died immediately,many were injured,but no one knows how many more died from the toxic gases.

6)The Aral Sea-Once among the four largest lakes of the world with an area of 68,000 square kilometres (26,000 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. By 2007 it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into three lakes. 6)The North Aral Sea and the eastern and western basins of the once far larger South Aral Sea. By 2009, the south-eastern lake had disappeared and the south-western lake retreated to a thin strip at the extreme west of the former southern sea. The maximum depth of the North Aral Sea is 42 metres (138 ft) (as of 2008).The Russians are trying to fix this disaster and have made some progress.

7)Times Beach-Plagued with a dust problem in the early 1970s due to its 23 miles (37 km) of dirt roads and lack of pavement funds, the city of Times Beach hired waste hauler Russell Bliss to oil the roads in the town in 1971. From 1972 to 1976, Bliss sprayed waste oil on the roads at a cost of six cents per gallon used. The roads were later paved.

Bliss had also taken a contract with Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Company (NEPACCO), which operated a facility producing hexachlorophene in Verona, Missouri. Some parts of the facility had been used for the production of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, and the waste clay and water contained levels of dioxin some 2,000 times higher than the dioxin content in Agent Orange. Bliss claimed he was unaware that the waste contained dioxin.
The town was bought out by the EPA in 1983 and everyone who lived their moved.

8) Plastic Trash Vortex-The plastic garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean.This is one of the worst messes we as human beings have ever made. The good news is we can change this because the most of this plastic trash came from beaches. Remember this the amount of trash floating in the Eastern Pacific is twice the size of Texas!

9) Gulf oil spill going on now.2010 Everyone has heard about this one.

10)The Polomares Incident-Jan. 7th,1966 a B-52 collided with KC-135 tanker while trying to refuel in mid-air,over the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain.The B-52 was carrying Four Hydrogen bombs.Three were found in a fishing village called Polomares in Spain. Two of the non-nuclear bombs exploded contaminating 490 acres of land with radioactive plutonium.The fourth bomb was found in the Mediterranean Sea a couple of months later.

Pictures: Worst Man-Made Environmental Disasters – latimes.com.
Most of the information from this post came from Wikipedia,the L.A.Times and my previous posts on this blog

Have a happy and safe summer this 2010 and if you are thinking of going green visit us at www.osarsproducts .com and we can help you!