In April 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic melted down, releasing more radiation than the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Although hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated, it took more than a half million workers to get the situation under control. It’s estimated more than 4,000 people died from exposure to radiation, and hundreds of thousands of birth defects and cancers have been attributed to the accident. Chernobyl remains uninhabited, and will likely remain that way for the next 200 years.
The largest oil spill in history happened in April 2010, when 11 workers died in an explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Because the well spewing more than 100,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf was miles beneath the surface, it took 89 days to successfully cap it. The environmental repercussions of the spill are still to be determined. Efforts to clean up marine wildlife, coral, wetlands, and beaches continue, and the nearly 90,000 workers and volunteers involved in the cleanup may suffer health effects from being exposed to the toxic oil.
Though it was beat out by Deepwater Horizon for the biggest oil spill in history, Exxon Valdez put massive environmental oil spill disasters on the map in March 1989. An American oil tanker crashed into Bligh Reef off the coast of an Alaskan island, spilling more than 11 million gallons of oil over 500 miles. Birds and wildlife suffered even beyond the coastline, and it took more than 11,000 people to clean up the mess.
Dec. 20, 1987 marked the deadliest ferry disaster in history when the MV Doña Paz collided with an oil tanker on its way to Manila in the Philippines. The ferry was carrying 1,583 passengers and 58 crew, although some accounts have the number closer to 4,000. The crash caused the tanker to burst into flames and cut the lights on the Doña Paz. With no life jackets and no way to call for help, passengers fled to the “safety” of the water and waited more than 16 hours for a search-and-rescue operation to reach them. Just 26 survivors were rescued.
Although it was nowhere near the scale of Chernobyl, a partial core meltdown in the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1979 was one of the first nuclear accidents to stir fears about the dangers of nuclear energy. Although radiation released into the environment was less than it could have been had the containment system failed, it’s thought that hundreds of premature deaths and birth defects can be traced to the incident.
The Banqiao Dam was built in 1952 to control flooding in Henan province, China, as well as to provide energy to power the area. Nicknamed “the Iron Dam,” Banqiao was meant to withstand 300 millimeters of rainfall a day, a nearly unheard-of amount. However, August 1975 brought Typhoon Nina to the region, and resulted in 1060 millimeters of rainfall in 24 hours. Communications broke down, and urgent requests to open the dam went unheard. Banqiao Dam burst, sending nearly 16-billion tons of water flooding into the surrounding areas. More than 26,000 people died in the flooding, and millions were displaced.
On Dec. 2, 1984, the Union Carbide India Ltd. pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, sprang a gas leak, emitting methyl isocyanate and other poisonous chemicals into the atmosphere. More than 500,000 people were exposed. When inhaled, the poisons caused agonizing pain, vomiting, and burning in the lungs and eyes. At the time, it was estimated that 15,000 people died, but thousands of others suffered permanent illnesses or disabilities such as blindness or difficulties breathing. The Bhopal tragedy is considered the deadliest industry disaster in history.
Although London is notorious for its fog, it became more sinister in the frigid winter of 1952. Due to cold temperatures, Londoners began burning more coal in their fireplaces, emitting large amounts of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the environment. The result was a nearly black smog that covered the city for five days, forcing residents to breathe in the polluted air. It is estimated that anywhere from 12,000-to-14,000 people died from “The Great Smog of ’52.”
Despite improvements in technology and communication, bad things continue to happen on ships. A Norwegian ship crashed into the Mont-Blanc, a French cargo vessel, in the narrows of Halifax Harbor in December 1917. Unfortunately, the Mont-Blanc was carrying wartime explosives including wet and dry picric acid — an extremely explosive nitrated compound — along with some TNT, gun cotton, and benzoyl. Unable to control the blaze, the crew abandoned ship. About 20 minutes later, the Mont-Blanc exploded, creating a fireball more than two kilometers wide. Molten metal sprayed over the surrounding area and a tsunami battered the shoreline. The community of Richmond was obliterated. Close to 2,000 people died.
In late January, 2000, a dam in Baia Mare, Romania, sprung a leak, allowing cyanide-contaminated water from the Aurul gold mining company to flow into the Someş River. Nearly 100 tons of cyanide got into the water supply, killing thousands of fish and wildlife. It took some time before the leak was discovered, and unsuspecting residents continued harvesting and eating contaminated fish. More than 100 Romanians were hospitalized and some died from cyanide poisoning.
