13429886267 | Three Mile Island | Occurred in: Dauphin county PA What happened: Human error caused the melt down of a reactor. Nuclear material was released into the environment. Response: Was fuel for anti-nuclear activists and has been credited with being the primary cause of less nuclear-reactor construction projects. | 0 | |
13429886268 | Three Gorges Dam | Occurred in: Across the yangtze river in the town of sandouping. What happened: A Dam was constructed across the river to harvest energy. Response: The Dam causes horrilbe emissions, erosion, earthquakes, but, helps control flooding, helps farming, and is creating forest. | 1 | |
13429886269 | Chernobyl | Occurred: in Ukraine What happened: Power surges caused a vessel to rupture causing a plume of nuclear material which entered the atmosphere. Response: The future of the plant was called into question, but the 3 remaining reactors continued to work. In 2000 the last 3 reactors were shut off for good | 2 | |
13429886270 | Minamata | Occurred: In a bay What happened: The chemical company chisso pumped mercury and other chemicals into the bay. Response: The bay was dredged and this helped lessen the concentration of chemicals. Fishing nets were put up in order to stop fish from entering the bay. | 3 | |
13429886271 | Love Canal | Occurred in: A neighborhood In Niagra Falls NY. What happened: It was uncovered that 21000 tons of chemical and toxic waste were burried under the land when the land was sold to the school board in 1953. Response: Homes were destroyed and evacuated leaving vacant roads and land. The most toxic areas were secured. | 4 | |
13429886272 | Silent Spring | A book written by Rachel Carson which discussed the use of pesticides and the environmental impacts of them on birds. She brought awareness to the actions of chemical companies and rallied support for change. | 5 | |
13429886273 | Donora | Occurred in: Pennsylvania What happened: A wall of smog gradually built up in the town and caused the deaths of residents. the result of both warm and cold air and the addition of pollution from steel factories caused the pollution to be held in the air. Response: The steel company was sued, This event was the driving force behind the clean-air act. | 6 | |
13429886274 | London (1952) | Occurred in: England What happened:A period of cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants mostly from the use of coal to form a thick layer of smog over the city. Response: New regulations were implemented to stop the use of dirty fuels and of coal. legislation resulted in the decrease of air pollution. | 7 | |
13429886275 | Khian Sea (1986) | Occurred in: Haiti What happened: This ship was tasked with finding a place to dump waste. When they were turned down from all other places they dumped it in Haiti as "top soil" fertilizer. The remaining soil was later dumped in the indian and atlantic oceans. Response: The owners of the shipping company were arrested, The owners were also tasked with taking the waste back. | 8 | |
13429886276 | Agent Orange | Occurred in : Vietnam What happened: Was used by the U.S in order to defoliate trees. It ended up causing illness to many many people both vietmanesse, and American. Response: Clean up programs were put into place. | 9 | |
13429886277 | Times Beach | Occurred in: Missouri What happened: Dioxin contamination forced the town to shut down and was evacuated. It now serves as park for route 66. Response: ? | 10 | |
13429886278 | Aswan Dam | Occurred in: Across the Nile River in Egypt What happened: Dam was built across the Nile river. It controls flooding, provides water for irrigation, prevents droughts and more. The dam also flooded an area causing the forced relocation of many people. Response: ? | 11 | |
13429886279 | Prince William Sound | Occurred in: Outside of the port of Valdez What happened: The tanker spilled hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil in Alaska, killing wildlife and causing an environmental disaster. Response: Caused the oil pollution act of 1990, protecting this. Governor of alaska also made it so every oil tanker must have two tug boats with every oil tanker. | 12 | |
13429886280 | Hanford Nuclear Reservation | Occurred in: Washington along the Columbia River What happened: The Nuclear plant was decommissioned and nuclear waste was left over. Response: The waste was placed into stronger tanks for holding and the area is continually being cleaned up. Waste treatment plants were created. | 13 | |
13429886281 | Bhopal, India | Occurred In: India What happened: At a pesticide plant a gas leak released a chemical which killed thousands of people. Response: The company was sued, safe drinking water was needed for people around the leak. | 14 | |
13429886282 | Lake Erie (1960's) | Occurred in: U.S. lake What happened: Factories and places around this lake dumped their waste and pollutants into the lake. Fish washed up all over the shores. Rivers around the lake were actually set on fire. Cuyahoga River Response: Congress passed the clean water act which prevented the dumping of waste into the water. Canada and U.S passed acts to lower the pollution of the lakes. | 15 | |
13429886283 | The Aral Sea | The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called "one of the planet's worst environmental disasters". The region's once-prosperous fishing industry has been essentially destroyed, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The Aral Sea region is also heavily polluted, with consequential serious public health problems. | 16 | |
13429886284 | BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico | Began on April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. Following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a sea-floor oil gusher flowed for 87 days, until it was capped on July 15, 2010. Eleven people went missing and were never found and it is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. | 17 | |
13429886285 | Kuwaiti Oil Fires | Were caused by Iraqi military forces setting fire to a reported 605 to 732 oil wells along with an unspecified number of oil filled low-lying areas, such as oil lakes and fire trenches, as part of a scorched earth policy while retreating from Kuwait in 1991 due to the advances of Coalition military forces in the Persian Gulf War. | 18 | |
13429886286 | Seveso Dioxin Cloud | An industrial accident that occurred around 12:37 pm on July 10, 1976, in a small chemical manufacturing plant approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Milan in the Lombardy region of Italy. It resulted in the highest known exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) in residential populations,[1] which gave rise to numerous scientific studies and standardized industrial safety regulations. | 19 | |
13429886287 | Minamata Disease | A degenerative neurological disorder caused by poisoning with a mercury compound in seafood from waters contaminated with mercury, characterized by burning or tingling sensations, poor articulation of speech, and the loss of coordination and peripheral vision. | 20 | |
13429886288 | The Dust Bowl | What: This regions was very subject to drought and dust storms, and inexperienced farmers let dry soil spread across the land by wind and storm. Where: Southern Plains region of the United States | 21 | |
13429886289 | Flint, Michigan Water Crisis | What: Flint, Michigan decided to change the drinking water to river water. Due to insufficient water treatment over 100,00 residents were exposed high levels of lead. , Where: Michigan 2014 | 22 | |
13429886290 | Cats in Borneo | What: Malaria-infested mosquitoes were sprayed with DDT, which caused an outbreak of rats. The WHO then air-dropped crates of cats to kill the rats. Where: Indonesia | 23 | |
13429886291 | Fukushima Nuclear Plant | What: An earthquake triggered a tsunami that destroyed a nuclear power plant. An explosion of hydrogen gas later destroyed all three power units, causing radioactive iodine, strontium, and cesium to be released into the air and inserted into the water and soil. Where: Japan | 24 | |
13429886292 | Hurricane Floyd, North Carolina | What: Flooding destroyed 8,000 homes and damaged 67,000, killed 52 people in, and caused almost 1,500 people to be rescued in North Carolina alone. Where: North Carolina | 25 | |
13429886293 | Mono Lake, California | What: As water levels dropped, the lake bed became the source of airborne particulate matter, violating the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Where: California | 26 | |
13429886294 | Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste | What: Caused the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987. Nuclear waste was being deposited into a river and pollution still needs to be fixed. Where: Nevada | 27 | |
13429886295 | Baia Mare | Aurul Gold mining company poor dam design in Jan. 30 2000 contaminated waters in Romania spilled 100,00 cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated water over into farmland. he spill has been called the worst environmental disaster in Europe since Chernobyl. | 28 | |
13429886296 | BP Horizon | April 20, 2010 in Gulf of Mexico. Largest marine oil spill. The well blew out killing 11 people discharging 4.9 million barrels of oil. | 29 | |
13429886297 | Great Pacific Garbage Patch | It is a gyre of marine debris particles in the central North Pacific Ocean discovered between 1985 and 1988. It contains high relative concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre | 30 | |
13429886298 | London Smog | 1952 the Big Smoke was severe air-pollution event that affect London in December. It from from use of coal and it lasted from Dec. 5th till Dec.9th. The smog penetrated even indoors. Government estimated 4,000 people had died as a direct result of the smog and 100,000 more were made ill by the smog's effects on the human respiratory tract. More recent research suggests that the total number of fatalities was considerably greater, about 12,000. | 31 |
APES Environmental Disasters to Know Flashcards
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