The Worst Man-Made Disasters

Watching the series "Chernobyl" reminded me of what we have made of our surroundings. In the desire of more powerful we are forgetting the consequences of our own creation. From, time to time we hear natural disasters more often, but some of the deadliest disasters in the world are anthropogenic, yes correct that means created by human activity. Not only this the natural disasters nowadays are more intense due to deterioration of natural surroundings and environment. Today we will discuss the worst man-made disasters- 

1) Nuclear Incident Of Chernobyl

On April 26,1986, an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Kiev, Ukraine, caused high levels of radiation in the area. At that time government tried to keep the news under the wraps because Ukraine was part of the soviet union. 

Because of their lack of knowledge and irresponsibility, many plant workers and firefighters were exposed to radiation. Within few months, around 30 people died of acute radiation and sickness but thousands and thousands of people were affected. Officials evacuated the local residents of Kiev and Pripyat. It became the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history. The United Nations Chernobyl Forum reported estimated the total number of deaths from cancer caused by radiation exposure to be 4,000. 

2) Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Like Chernobyl, the Bhopal disaster has been called the worst industrial incident in history. On December 2nd, 1984, 45 tons of poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked from an insecticide plant in Bhopal, India. This poisonous gas spread all over the area and killed 3,000 people immediately. A total of 15,000 and 20,000 people died, and millions of people survived with respiratory and eye problems. In 2016, decades later, it was reported that the gas leak was not dealt properly, and more than 300 metric tons of waste remained at the site. Because of this, chemical runoff is believed to have contaminated the drinking water in the area which is still creating chronic health problems and birth defects in the area. Even after years and years victims and families protesting against the company CEO and for justice.

3)  Hirochima And Nagasaki- 

Many people won't agree with me keeping this on my list to call the man-made disaster, but In my vision, it is one of the first and soul-taking incidents of the decade. Bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki proved what human is capable of and what war will bring in future. On 6 (08:15 JST) and 9 August 1945 united stated detonated nuclear bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of them were civilians. 

The Hiroshima bomb, known as "Little Boy", contained the equivalent of 12,000 and 15,000 tons of TNT and destroyed an area of 13 sq km (5 sq miles). The survivors faced debilitating health effects and high rates of cancer, their children have high rates of genetic disease. Dr. Jordan's who is conducting research on health implications on the residents here stated that these bombings increase the cancer risk, and reduce the average lifespan of the survirors. 

4) Exxon Valdez Oil Spill-  

No people were harmed when Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by the company Exxon Shipping Company, struck Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and spilled 11 million gallons of oil, but the loss of wildlife was huge. This spread across 1,300 miles area. 

According to the National park report, 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, 22 killer whales, and billions of salmon died because of pollution from the spill. This incidents effectively ruined the habitats of herring and pink salmon. Even after 30 years, some animals population including birds and whales, have still not recovered. Although no human died of this accidents but has huge impacts on the fishermen in the area, they lost their livelihoods.

5) Dust Storm Of America- 

The land of America before the world war I, mostly been used to raise the cattles and other stock animals. Then, millions of acres were put under plow so that farmers could grow wheat. 

After a decade of healthy rainfall and intense plowing of virgin soil by people with little knowledge of land and environment conditions, hit by the severe drought in American plains. Dry eroded topsoil turned to dust, and when high winds went sweeping through it, creating devastating storms. This storm occurred on April 1935, nicknamed as Black Sunday because of dust storm- hundreds of miles and thousands of feet high that seemed to turn day into night and lasted for several hours. Caused by a combination of nature and human errors, this incident left an estimated people of 500,000 homeless and caused estimate of 2.5 million people to pack and move elsewhere. Pneumonia also spread in the area due to dust know an "brown plague" is also thought to have killed hundreds of people, infants and elderly. 

6) Nuclear Testing Sites In America-

Due to increase in fear for war, countries are making and doing nuclear tests to keep their enemies away. One such case is United states where they conducted 200 nuclear tests in several areas in South and west America including- Nevada, Arizona, Washington, and New Mexico from 1945-1962. Can you imagine 200 sites, which is just unimaginable bombing the area with nuclear powers in 17 years.

Afterwards they discovered that fallout from the tests severely compromised the health of those who worked directly with the hazardous materials, others who worked on-site, and even who lived nearby. The explosion from the radiation from the tests are linked to thyroid cancer and leukemia among people. The number of people died of the incidents always been hazy, so recently university of Arizona economists Keith Meyers put the numbers - 340,000 to 690,000. Congress In 1990 passed the radiation exposure compensation act to pay the tens of thousands of sick Americans and their families $50,000 to $ 100,000 each. But, this compensation can't return the harm to people and nature.

7) Seveso Disaster- 

In Meda, Italy in 1976 a cloudcontaining a kilogram of TCDD, a carcinogenic byproduct of the tricholorophenil used to produce hand soaps, leaked from a chemical plant.

This incidents killed around 77,000 animals as a precaution to prevent chemicals from poisoning the food chain. Over 700 people were evacauted from the nearby area. Children in the area developed chloracne, a skin condition caused by the overexposure to halogenated aromatic compounds often reported by military veterans.

8) Love Canal- 

Hokker chemical Company in New York used Love Canal from, to dispose 21,000 tons of toxic chemicals waste from 1942-1953. In 1978, the New York Times reported that chemicals from the canal has leaked into people's homes, yards, and school playgrounds after years of heavy rainy seasons created toxic puddles.

President Jimmy Carter declared a state of emergency that same year, relocated 239 families, and declared a second state of emergency in 1981 to evacuate the rest of Love Canal's residents, who had been experiencing high rates of miscarriage, birth defects, and diseases such as epilepsy, asthma, migraines, and nephrosis.

9) Asbestos in Montana- 

The toxic asbestors dust from vermiculite mining in Libby, Montana since 1919 killed around 400 people and almost 3,000 people become sick because of the dust of asbestos. The mining company W.R. Grace and Co, distributed vermiculite, which is often used as insulation for the construction of buildings, around playgrounds and backyards in Libby. This mine was shut down in 1990, and the EPA declared a public health emergency in 2008. Cleaning up the tainted vermiculite required deconstruction homes, buildings etc. 

10) The Flint's Water Crisis- 

Officials in Michigan decided to switch the source of Flint's drinking water to the Flint River rather than Detroit city water in 2013. The move was apparently intended to be temporary fix while they waited on the karegnondi water authority's system, which would provide water from Lake Huron.

Residents raised concerns about the new water source almost immediately, and a few months later this water tested positive for coliform bacteria.

Although officials in the city insisted the water level safe after a few months, doctors from the hurley Medical Centre found high level of lead in their blood. Virginia Tech discovered that the water from the flint river likely corroding the lead in pipes, which is the reason causing to poised the residents between- 2014-2015.

This is also blamed for increase in severe type of pneumonia known as Legionnaires Disease. This further was released by PBS in 2018, that 90 people were made sick and 12 people killed. Additonally, around 119 death were reported that year due to pneumonia caused by legionella bacteria in the water. 

Today the water has been reported to ve acceptable level, but many have expressed doubt over its safety. 

These are just some incidents that are reported and can be analyzed. But, there are so many cases of man-made disasters killing people and environment directly or indirectly on daily basis. The act of humans are continuously harming the wildlife and natural habitats, they are dying and the reasons are us. The act of human and number of disasters we created in history time to time are unmeasurable.