Worst Environmental Man Made Disasters

There are 1,060 hazardous waste sites on the list ofIn 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide manufacturing
the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S.A. Theyplant leaked 32 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate, in
have recently added a further 10 toxic waste sitesBhopal, India. Thousands died and thousands more
to the 527 contaminated properties which endangerwere deformed, blinded, and disabled. More than
life.2,000 bodies were cremated in one day. The soil and
Toxic contamination however, is a world-wide issuewater near the factory are toxic from the still leaking
and not restricted to any one country. Here are justplant. There has been no clean-up.
a few of the worst man-made disasters.Trying to clean up following nuclear tests in the
Picher, Oklahoma, the most toxic place in the U.S.A.Marshall Islands, in the late 1970s, the U.S.
has less than 25 residents remaining. It was once thegovernment dug up 111,000 cubic yards of
world's richest lead and zinc mining field, housingradioactive soil and deposited it on Runit Island, in a
20,000 people. Acidic water, sinking streets and350-foot wide crater left by the nuclear tests. An
mountains of lead contaminated waste fill the area.enormous, foot-and-a-half-thick, 100,000-square-foot
Fishing boats rust in a vast, contaminated desertdome made up of 358 gigantic concrete panels, was
wasteland, the Aral Sea, which was drained emptybuilt over the site. The area is still radioactive.
by Soviet irrigation.A Soviet drilling rig accidentally caused the ground to
Guiyu, China, is the world's second-most pollutedcave in and the entire drilling rig to fall in, when it
place on the planet. It is the largest e-waste village,punched into a massive underground natural gas
where electronic trash is pulled apart by hand, tocavern, in 1971. Poisonous fumes started leaking from
retrieve valuable parts and wires. Circuit boards arethe hole. The 328 ft. wide hole, in the Turkmenistan
burned, cooked and soaked in acid to extract scrapsdesert, has been continuously on fire, for 38 years,
of precious metals.since the Russians set the hole aflame, in order to
Twice the size of Texas, the Pacific Rubbish Vortexhead off a potential deadly catastrophe.
contains 3.5 million tons of rubbish, 90% of which isDue to health concerns Australia's Wittenoom, Pilbara,
plastic debris, swirls between California and Hawaii.was officially closed down in 1966. It was once the
Following gas drilling in Java, Indonesia, that createdarea's largest town in the asbestos mining area, but is
a'mud volcano', which killed 13 people, hot sulfuric mudnow a toxic ghost town.
gushes continually from the ground. The steamingCentralia, Pennsylvania's underground coal fire, ignited
mud pool covers over 25sq k and is growing at ansometime in 1962. In 1981 a 12-year-old boy fell into a
estimated 50,000 cubic meters per day. Scientists150-foot hole that suddenly appeared in his back
say the mud will continue erupting for another 30yard. In 1992 the entire town was condemned.
years.Decades of strip mining for phosphorus, Nauru is left
The Berkeley Pit Lake, a copper mine, is filled withwith just a 150-meter-wide strip of fertile land along
more than 40 billion gallons of acidic water and heavyone of its shores. The mining has devastated over
metals. It is a hazard to migrating birds.80 % of Nauru's land, leaving it a barren wasteland of
Exploding in 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Stationjagged limestone pinnacles up to 49 ft. high.
contaminated millions of square miles and releasedFinally we have the Mexico Gulf oil spill, which is as
radioactive material into the air. The entire area is ayet unmeasurable.
radioactive freeze frame of the old USSR.