10/18/2019 List of environmental disasters - Wikipedia

List of environmental disasters

This page is a list of environmental disasters. In this context it is an annotated list of specific events caused by human
activity that results in a negative effect on the environment.

Environmental disasters by category

Contents
Agricultural Environmental disasters by category
Agricultural
Mismanagement and shrinking of the Aral Sea
Biodiversity
Salinity in Australia
Human health
Salinization of the Fertile Crescent
Industrial
The Dust Bowl in Canada and the United States (1934–1939)
Mining
The Great sparrow campaign; sparrows were eliminated from Chinese farms,
Oil industry
which caused locusts to swarm the farms and contributed to a famine which
killed 38 million people. Nuclear
Africanized bees, known colloquially as "killer bees" Air/land/water
"Dirty dairying" in New Zealand Air
Salton Sea California, U.S. Land
Water
Marine
Biodiversity See also
Chestnut blight References
Extinction of American megafauna
Extinction of Australian megafauna
Deforestation of Easter Island
Destruction of the old growth forests
Rabbits in Australia
Red imported fire ants
Dutch Elm Disease
Devil facial tumour disease
Reduction in the number of the American Bison
Introduction of the Nile perch into Lake Victoria in Africa, decimating indigenous fish species

The Saemangeum Seawall

Emerald Ash Borer
Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef
2006 Zakouma elephant slaughter
Invasive species in New Zealand
The loss of biodiversity of New Zealand
Ghost nets
Grounding of SS Makambo on Lord Howe Island
Shark finning
Decline of vultures in India due to Diclofenac leading to increased incidence of rabies
Extinction of the Tasmanian tiger (thylacine)
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Human health
Introduction of the bubonic plague (the Plague of Justinian) in Europe from Africa in the 7th century resulting in the
death of up to 60% (100 million) of the population.
Introduction of the bubonic plague (the Black Death) in Europe from Central Asia in the 14th century resulting in the
death of up to 60% (200 million) of the population and recurring until the 18th century.
Introduction of infectious diseases by Europeans causing the death of indigenous people during European colonization of the
Americas
Health effects arising from the September 11 attacks
Goiânia accident, human deaths resulting from dismantling a scrapped medical machine containing a source of radioactivity
Agent Orange use by the United States during the Vietnam War, resulting in lasting serious health effects on the
Vietnamese population, such as cancer, nervous system disorders, and countless related fatalities.

Industrial
Coordinates of the Industrial Environmental Disasters (https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ms
id=202977755949863934429.0004a0b6a2c06d38562b9&t=h&z=0) found on this page, shown in Google. Complete with
the Wikipedia descriptions listed below built into each location.

Spring Valley, a neighborhood in Washington, D.C. which was used as a chemical weapons testing ground during World War I.
Minamata disease – mercury poisoning in Japan (1950s and 1960s)
Ontario Minamata disease in Canada
Itai-itai disease, due to cadmium poisoning in Japan
Love Canal toxic waste site
Seveso disaster (1976), chemical plant explosion, caused highest known exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
(TCDD) in residential populations
Times Beach, Missouri (1983) the town was completely evacuated due to a dioxin contamination
Bhopal disaster (December 3, 1984, India), leak of methyl isocyanate that took place in 1984 resulted in more than
22,000 deaths.
Sandoz chemical spill into the Rhine river (1986)
United States Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites in the United States
AZF Explosion at a Toulouse chemical factory (2001)
2005 Jilin chemical plant explosions
The Sydney Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens sites in the city of Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, known as the largest toxic waste
site in North America.
Release of lead dust into Esperance Harbour.
Release of cyanide, heavy metals and acid into the Alamosa River, Colorado from the Summitville mine, causing the death of
all aquatic life 17 miles downstream.
Release of 20,000 gallons of lethal chemicals (metam sodium, tradename Vapam) into the Upper Sacramento River near
Dunsmuir, causing the death of all aquatic life within a 38-mile radius.
Release of CFCs resulting in ozone depletion
Release of sulfur dioxide after a fire at the Al-Mishraq plant in Iraq
The Phillips Disasters
Health issues on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation due to chemical factories
Environmental issues with the Three Gorges Dam
Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill
The Great Smog in London in 1952
1948 Donora smog

Mining
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Phosphate mining in Nauru, from 1906 to the 1990s

Phosphate mining in St. Pierre Island from 1906 to 1972
1947 Centralia mine disaster, a coal mine in Illinois
Centralia mine fire, Pennsylvania, burning since 1962
Mountaintop removal mining in the US since the 1960s
Aberfan disaster, collapse of a coal mining waste pile in Wales, 1966
The tailings dam from the now abandoned Tui mine in New Zealand, 1966 to 2013
Darvaza gas crater in Derweze, Turkmenistan, burning since 1971
Uranium mining controversy in Kakadu National Park in Australia, 1981 to 2009
Ok Tedi environmental disaster in Papua New Guinea beginning in 1984
Omai gold mine tailing dam breach in Guyana, 1995
Marcopper mining disaster in the Philippines, March 1996
Doñana disaster, tailing dam breach of the Los Frailes zinc/silver mine in Spain, April 1998
2000 Baia Mare cyanide spill of a gold mine in Romania, January 2000
Martin County sludge spill in Kentucky, October 2000
Lead dust from the Magellan Metals mine in Australia, 2006
Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in West Virginia, April 2010
Padcal tailings spills of August-September 2012
Talvivaara gypsum pond leak, Finland, 2012
Obed Mountain coal mine spill in Alberta, Canada, October 2013
Mount Polley mine disaster, British Columbia, 2014
2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill in Colorado, August 2015
Mariana dam disaster, Samarco iron ore mine tailings dam failure, Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo to the Atlantic sea.
Brazil, November 2015
Brumadinho dam disaster of an iron ore mine in Brazil, January 2019

Oil industry
Lakeview Gusher oil spill in California, 1910 –1911
Leaded gasoline introduced 1920s; phased out globally by 2012.
Greenpoint oil spill in Brooklyn, New York, 1940s- 1980
Mississippi River oil spill (1962–63)
Torrey Canyon oil spill off the SW coast of the United Kingdom, February 1967
Lago Agrio oil field spills in Ecuador, since 1972 (possibly the worst of all)
MV Sea Star and Horta Barbosa tankers collision and oil spill into the Gulf of Oman, December 1972
Jakob Maersk oil spill off the coast of Portugal, January 1975
Environmental issues in the Niger Delta relating to the oil industry, 1976 – 1996
Arctic Refuge drilling controversy, since 1977
Amoco Cadiz shipwreck and oil spill off the coast of Brittany, France, March 1978
Ixtoc I oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico, June 1979
SS Atlantic Empress collision and spill near Trinidad and Tobago, August 1979
MT Independența collision and spill near Istanbul, November 1979
Nowruz oil spills into the Persian Gulf, March 1983
Castillo de Bellver oil spill off the coast of South Africa, August 1983
Odyssey tanker shiprwreck and oil spill, off the coast of Nova Scotia, November 1988
Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Prince William Sound, Alaska, March 1989
Gulf War oil spill into the Persian Gulf, January 1991
MT Haven explosion and oil spill of the coast of Italy, April 1991
ABT Summer explosion and oil spill off the coast of Angola, May 1991
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Mingbulak oil spill in Uzbekistan, March 1992

MV Braer shipwreck and oil spill at the Shetland Islands, January 1993
Taylor oil spill off the coast of Louisiana, since 2004
Sidoarjo mud flow triggered by Lapindo Brantas gas exploration in 2006; East Java, Indonesia
Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, April to July 2010
2010 ExxonMobil oil spill in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, May 2010
Jebel al-Zayt oil spill in the Red Sea, June 2010
Xingang Port oil spill into the Yellow Sea, July 2010
Sanchi oil tanker collision in the East China Sea, January 2018

Nuclear
Chernobyl disaster in 1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine killed 49 people and was
estimated to have damaged almost $7 billion of property".[1] Radioactive
fallout from the accident concentrated near Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and
at least 350,000 people were forcibly resettled away from these areas.
After the accident, "traces of radioactive deposits unique to Chernobyl were
found in nearly every country in the northern hemisphere".[1]
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster: Following an earthquake, tsunami, and
failure of cooling systems at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and issues Mushroom-shaped cloud and water
concerning other nuclear facilities in Japan on March 11, 2011, a nuclear column from the underwater nuclear
emergency was declared. This was the first time a nuclear emergency had explosion of July 25, 1946, which was
been declared in Japan, and 140,000 residents within 20 km of the plant
part of Operation Crossroads.
were evacuated.[2] Explosions and a fire have resulted in dangerous levels of
radiation, sparking a stock market collapse and panic-buying in
supermarkets.[3]
Mayak nuclear waste storage tank explosion, (Chelyabinsk, Soviet Union, 29
September 1957), 200+ people died and 270,000 people were exposed to
dangerous radiation levels. Over thirty small communities had been removed
from Soviet maps between 1958 and 1991.[4]
Windscale fire, United Kingdom, October 8, 1957. Fire ignites plutonium piles
and contaminates surrounding dairy farms.[5]
Soviet submarine K-431 accident, August 10, 1985 (10 people died and 49
suffered radiation injuries).[6]
Soviet submarine K-19 accident, July 4, 1961. (8 deaths and more than 30
people were over-exposed to radiation).[7]
Nuclear testing at Moruroa and Fangataufa in the Pacific Ocean November 1951 nuclear test at the
Fallout from the Castle Bravo nuclear test at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Nevada Test Site, from Operation
Islands Buster, with a yield of 21 kilotons. It
The health of Downwinders was the first U.S. nuclear field
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Within the first two to four exercise conducted on land; troops
months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in shown are 6 mi (9.7 km) from the
Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths blast.
in each city occurring on the first day.
Hanford Nuclear, 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 Pacific Ocean). In 2014, the Hanford legacy continues with billions of dollars spent annually in a seemingly
endless cleanup of leaking underground

Air/land/water
Proliferation of plastic shopping bags
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Hong Kong Plastic Disaster

Air
The Donora Smog of 1948 in Donora, Pennsylvania in the United States
The Great Smog of 1952, which killed 4,000 Londoners
The 1983 Melbourne dust storm
The 1997 Southeast Asian haze
The 2005 Malaysian haze
The 2006 Southeast Asian haze
The Great Smog of Delhi in November 2016
Yokkaichi asthma in Japan
Health problems due to the Jinkanpo Atsugi Incinerator in Japan
Kuwaiti oil fires
Burning of the Amazon forest-2019

Land
The Dust Bowl of Canada and the United States in the 1930s
Contaminated soils in Mapua, New Zealand due to the operation of an agricultural chemicals factory from 1932 to 1989
Basin F, a disposal site in the United States created in 1956 for contaminated liquid wastes from the chemical
manufacturing operations of the Army and its lessee Shell Chemical Company
Nigeria gully erosion crisis, since before 1980
Exide lead contamination at seven locations in the United States, since 1989
Electronic waste in Guiyu, since the 1990s
2006 Côte d'Ivoire toxic waste dump

Water
Sandoz chemical spill, severely polluting the Rhine in 1986
Selenium poisoning of wildlife due to farm runoff used to create Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, and the artificial
wetland
The Jiyeh Power Station oil spill in the Mediterranean region
Effects of polluted water in the Berkeley Pit in the United States
Ignition and conflagration (13 times from 1868 to 1969) of the Cuyahoga River in Ohio, United States
Cheakamus River derailment which polluted a river with caustic soda
Draining and development of the Everglades
Loss of Louisiana Wetlands due to Mississippi River levees, saltwater intrusion through manmade channels, timber
harvesting, subsidence, and hurricane damage.
Lake Okeechobee is heavily polluted and during extreme events releases large volumes of polluted water into the St. Lucie
River estuary and the Caloosahatchee River estuary.
Amoco Cadiz oil spill off the coast of France in 1978
Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes in the 1990s

Marine
Coral bleaching
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone due to high-nutrient fertilizer runoff from the Midwest that is drained through the Mississippi
River.
The artificial Osborne Reef off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the United States
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Dumping of conventional and chemical munitions in Beaufort's Dyke, a sea trench between Northern Ireland and Scotland
Marine debris
Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef
Nurdles, plastic pellet typically under 5mm in diameter
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Minamata disease, mercury poisoning in Japan
Mercury in fish
Ocean acidification due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions
Industrial waste dumping in Central Vietnam from Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, which kills tons of marine creatures and
destroys the ecosystem

Millions of metric tons of plastic entering the ocean each year for decades due to China's attempt to recycle the world's
plastic waste.[8]

See also
Natural disaster
List of environmental issues
Timeline of environmental events
Index of environmental articles
Ecophagy, the consuming of an ecosystem
List of Superfund sites in the United States

References
1. Benjamin K. Sovacool. The costs of failure: A preliminary assessment of major energy accidents, 1907–2007, Energy Policy
36 (2008), p. 1806.
2. Weisenthal, Joe (11 March 2011). "Japan Declares Nuclear Emergency, As Cooling System Fails At Power Plant" (http://ww
w.businessinsider.com/fukushima-nuclear-plant-2011-3). Business Insider. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
3. "Blasts escalate Japan's nuclear crisis" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110407005125/http://www.sbs.com.au/news/arti
cle/1500862/Blasts-escalate-Japan%27s-nuclear-crisis). World News Australia. March 16, 2011. Archived from the
original (http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1500862/Blasts-escalate-Japan's-nuclear-crisis) on April 7, 2011.
4. Samuel Upton Newtan. Nuclear War I and Other Major Nuclear Disasters of the 20th Century (https://books.google.com/
books?id=3_2ILEQQqpIC&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&dq=mayak+nuclear+disaster+1957&source=bl&ots=kwLJcvP77S&sig=
lig2rLrAYFsf6DoiuQFBV2e-b2I&hl=en&ei=8BarStKnCMP_kAWMmKCVBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#v=
onepage&q=mayak%20nuclear%20disaster%201957&f=false) 2007, pp. 237–240.
5. Benjamin K. Sovacool and Christopher Cooper. Nuclear Nonsense: Why Nuclear Power is no Answer to Climate Change and
the World's Post-Kyoto Energy Challenges, William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review, Vol 33:1, 2008, p. 109.
6. The Worst Nuclear Disasters (http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1887705,00.html)
7. Strengthening the Safety of Radiation Sources (http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Magazines/Bulletin/Bull413/article1.pd
f) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20090326181428/http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Magazines/Bulletin/Bull4
13/article1.pdf) 2009-03-26 at the Wayback Machine p. 14.
8. J. R. Jambeck, "Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean," Science, February, 2015.

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