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Environmental disaster

An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity.[2] This point distinguishes environmental disasters from other disturbances such as natural disasters and intentional acts of war such as nuclear bombings.

Environmental disasters show how the impact of humans' alteration of the land has led to widespread and/or long-lasting consequences.[3] These disasters have included deaths of wildlife, humans and plants, or severe disruption of human life or health, possibly requiring migration.[4] Some environmental disasters are the trigger source of more expansive environmental conflicts, where effected groups try to socially confront the actors responsible for the disaster.

1976 – Release of dioxin.

Seveso disaster

1978 - Neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York that was contaminated by 21,000 tons of toxic chemicals, including at least twelve that are known carcinogens (halogenated organics, chlorobenzenes, and dioxin among them), from a former chemical waste dump site. President Carter declared a state of emergency in 1978, and it eventually led to the destruction of homes and relocation of more than 800 families. The effects of the disaster led to the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, better known as Superfund. The Love Canal Disaster is also credited as the start of the environmental activism movement in the United States.

Love Canal

- Neighborhood in Buffalo, New York

Hickory Woods

1978 – the vessel broke in two, releasing its entire cargo of 1.6 million barrels (250,000 m3) of oil.

Amoco Cadiz oil spill

1984. As of 2006, mine operators have discharged about two billion tons of tailings, overburden and mine-induced erosion into the Ok Tedi river system. About 1,588 square kilometres (613 sq mi) of forest has died or is under stress.

Ok Tedi environmental disaster

1984 – Release of methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals. Some estimate 8,000 people died within two weeks. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.

Bhopal disaster

1986 – The official Soviet count of 31 deaths has been disputed. An UNSCEAR report places the total confirmed deaths from radiation at 64 as of 2008. The eventual death toll could reach 4,000. Some 50 emergency workers died of acute radiation syndrome, nine children died of thyroid cancer and an estimated total of 3940 died from radiation-induced cancer and leukemia.

Chernobyl disaster

1986 – The U.S. government declassifies 19,000 pages of documents indicating that between 1946 and 1986, the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington, released thousands of US gallons of radioactive liquids. Radioactive waste was both released into the air and flowed into the Columbia River (which flows to the ocean).

Hanford Nuclear

1989 – spilled 260–750 thousand barrels (41,000–119,000 m3) of crude oil.

Exxon Valdez oil spill

1991 - Iraqi forces set 600-700 oil wells ablaze in retailiation to Desert Storm, which lasted seven months.

Kuwait oil fires

2002 – spilled over 20 million US gallons (76,000 m3) of two different grades of heavy fuel oil.

Prestige oil spill

2006 – spilled up to 267,000 US gallons (1,010 m3; 6,400 bbl).

Prudhoe Bay oil spill

2008 – spilled 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m3) of slurry from a coal plant, covering 300 acres, flowing down several rivers, destroying homes and contaminating water. Volume spilled was over 7 times as much as the volume of oil spilled in the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill

2010 – An explosion killed 11 men working on the platform and injured 34 others. The gushing wellhead was capped, after it had released about 4.9 million barrels (780,000 m3) of crude oil.

Deepwater Horizon oil spill

2011 – was an energy accident, initiated primarily by the tsunami following the Tōhoku earthquake on 11 March 2011. Immediately after the earthquake, the active reactors automatically shut down their sustained fission reactions. The insufficient cooling led to three nuclear meltdowns, hydrogen-air explosions, and the release of radioactive material. Level 7 event classification of the International Nuclear Event Scale.

As of 2013, the Fukushima nuclear disaster site remains highly radioactive, with some 160,000 evacuees still living in temporary housing, and some land will be unfarmable for centuries. The difficult cleanup job will take 40 or more years, and cost tens of billions of dollars.[6][7]

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

- the contamination of river Oder led to a mass mortality event of the local sealife.

2022 Oder environmental disaster

2023 – A Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. The rail cars burned for several days, releasing chemicals into the air. Norfolk has been accused of mismanagement.

Ohio train derailment

— An 18 miles (29 km) long oil-spill during the United States–Houthi conflict in the Red Sea.

Red Sea crisis

Mitigation efforts[edit]

There have been many attempts throughout recent years to mitigate the impact of environmental disasters.[14] Environmental disaster is caused by human activity, so many believe that such disasters can be prevented or have their consequences curbed by human activity as well. Efforts to attempt mitigation are evident in cities such as Miami, Florida, in which houses along the coast are built a few feet off of the ground in order to decrease the damage caused by rising tides due to rising sea-levels.[15] Although mitigation efforts such as those found in Miami might be effective in the short-term, many environmental groups are concerned with whether or not mitigation provides long-term solutions to the consequences of environmental disaster.[15]

Anthropogenic hazard

List of environmental issues

Environmental hazard

Emergency management

Environmental emergency

Ecocide

Malthusian catastrophe

Davis, Lee (1998). . New York: Facts on File, Inc. ISBN 0-8160-3265-3.

Environmental Disasters