For more general knowledge, also refer: http://general-knowledge-gk.blogspot.com/ (General Knowledge- GK) and http://products-all.blogspot.com/ (About Various Products)
Top 10 Worst Man Made Environmental/Ecological Disasters of the World1. Wars: Numerous wars between the nations and the people of the world which deploy dangerous weapons and war-ware are the single biggest cause of the worst ecological/environmental disasters. Quantification of enormous losses due to wars is extremely difficult.
2. Chernobyl, Russia: Nuclear power plant explosion; April 26, 1986; reactor at the Chernobyl plant, in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic had a meltdown and resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into atmosphere and over an extensive area.
3. Bhopal, India: Union Carbide gas leak, December 2-3, 1984 night; Union Carbide's pesticide plant at Bhopal, India released methyl
isocyanate (MIC) gas and other toxins; resulting in the exposure of over 500,000 people.
4. Seveso, Italy: Dioxin crisis; explosion on July 10, 1976 midday; in a
TCP (2,4,5-
trichlorophenol) reactor in
ICMESA chemical company in
Meda, Italy; resulting in a toxic cloud with high concentrations of
TCDD, a highly toxic form of dioxin being released into the atmosphere.
5. Exxon Valdez oil spill: American oil tanker Exxon Valdez clashed with Bligh Reef on March 24, 1989; causing a major oil leakage in pristine waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound. This 11 million gallon oil spill spread almost 500 miles polluting 1900 km of coastline.
6. Love Canal chemical waste dump, USA: On research of Love Canal it was found that the town was sitting over 21,000 tons of toxic industrial waste that buried underground since 1940s and 50s by a local company. The waste mainly consisted of pesticide residues and chemical weapons research refuse. The chemicals had entered homes, sewers and yards. More than 900 families were moved from the location.
7. Three Mile Island, USA: Nuclear nightmare; March 28, 1979, Three Mile Island nuclear reactor near Harrisburg partially melted down causing a near nuclear disaster. Fortunately, about 18 billion curies of radiation that could have been released was held by the containment structure around the reactor.
8. Death of the Aral Sea, Kazakhstan: It was once among the four largest lakes of the world with an area of 68,000 square kilometres (as big as Ireland). Aral Sea, however, has shrunk by 90% since the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet Union irrigation projects.
9. Oil fires, Gulf war: The largest oil spill in history happened during the Gulf War- when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Massive oil spill damaged wild life in Persian Gulf hugely. At closing of the war in 1991, Hussein ordered to set ablaze Kuwaiti oil wells. Some 600 oil wells blew up and burned for seven months.
10. Minimata Disease, Japan: Minamata disease was first discovered in
Minamata city in
Kumamoto prefecture, Japan in 1956. Release of methyl mercury in the industrial waste water from
Chisso Corporation's chemical factory, from 1932 to 1968 caused this disease. Local people ate the highly toxic chemical
bioaccumulated shellfish and fish in
Minamata Bay and
Shiranui Sea. It resulted in mercury poisoning.
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