Vadim Karelin

It is believed that environmental law in the world appeared in the XIII century. The first act was an edict by King Edward forbidding the use of coal for home heating price London | The first surviving environmental document is considered to be a stone stele 1.6 m high, found in China and dating back to 1549. 700 hieroglyphs carved on it prohibit deforestation and urge citizens to plant forests in deserted areas. The decree engraved on the stele states that anyone who disobeys the order not to cut down forests will be exiled to remote places of the empire.

The first legislative acts in Russia on environmental law were the decrees of Peter I on the protection of forests and animals.

In the nineteenth century Almost every self-respecting state paid attention to nature protection. Man still managed to balance on the edge, beyond which - the irreplaceable. In the twentieth century We have successfully crossed that line. Second half of the twentieth century. historians are likely to call it a period of ecological catastrophes. Judge for yourself.

September 29, 1957
A container with radioactive waste. The area of ​​the contaminated territory was 23,000 km2. It is estimated that more than 8,000 people died from radiation sickness. About 3,000 people still live in the danger zone. The accident made this area the dirtiest place on the planet.

December 2, 1984
The catastrophe at a chemical plant in Bhopal (India) that occurred on the night of December 2-3 became one of the largest man-made accidents of the 20th century. As a result of the accident, 3,000 people died, about 20,000 were blinded, and 200,000 people had serious brain damage, paralysis, etc. An area 5 km long and 2 km wide was infected. The disaster caused incalculable damage nature. The fields and roads were littered with dead animals and birds. The toxic gas completely destroyed crops within a radius of 100 miles (167 km). For a long time, the affected remained barren.

April 26, 1986
Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Explosion at the fourth power unit. As a result of an explosion in external environment 50 million curies of various radionuclides were released, 70% of these substances went to Belarus. According to official figures, 31 people died immediately, about 2,000 died later. The total number of infected people is estimated by Greenpeace at 1,700,000 people.

March 25, 1989
The 987-foot oil tanker Walde ran aground in Prince William Sound off the coast of Alaska, spilling over 30,000 tons of oil into the water. More than 2400 km of the coast suffered from pollution. Oil spilled from a punctured tanker, polluting one of the most pristine and clean ecosystems in the world. According to the Guinness Book of Records, this ecological catastrophy with oil pollution that caused the most damage to the coast.

1991
During the first Iraqi war, before retreating from Kuwait, the Iraqis set fire to most of the oil wells in Kuwait. As a result of the Iraqi attack on Kuwait in 1991 and the subsequent Operation Desert Storm, 732 oil wells. It took almost a year to extinguish them, the total cost was about $ 2 billion. Specialists from 16 countries, including the USSR, fought the fire. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ordered the pumping of crude oil produced in the Persian Gulf from the Sea Island terminal in Kuwait and seven large oil tankers. By preliminary estimates, 816,000 tons (40 times more than from the Prestige tanker) of oil were poured into the sea.

Add to this the almost dried-up Aral Sea, acid rain, clearing rainforest, and reservoirs growing ozone holes, and we will see that in 50 years mankind has managed to do with the Planet what was not possible in the entire previous history. The question that is asked by every person for whom the concept of "world" is wider than his apartment or cottage: "Why are we so methodically destroying the world in which we live?"

Many books have been devoted to trying to answer it. From them we can learn about imperfection environmental law, predatory destruction of nature for the sake of commercial interests and Russia's stubborn unwillingness to sign the Kyoto Protocol2. Common to all these books is the position of a person who proudly, “from top to bottom”, looks at the world in which he lives, and sees in it only the source of his own prosperity. G.T. Miller of St. Andrew's Presbyterian College:

1. Man is the source of all values ​​(anthropocentrism).
2. Nature exists for our use.
3. Our first goals are the production and consumption of material goods.
4. Material and energetic resources limitless, because human ingenuity will always provide them.
5. The production and distribution of material goods must increase, because everyone has the right to live according to a certain standard of living.
6. We do not need to adapt to the natural environment, because we ourselves can adapt it to meet our needs through science and technology.
7. Main function societies - helping individuals and corporations to develop the environment to increase wealth and power.
8. The ideal of personality is an independent individual who avoids trouble for his own benefit.

Here, in fact, is the “creed” of our modern materialistic society, and there is nothing to be surprised that the “amateur individual”, “avoiding trouble for his own benefit”, continues and will continue to “master” environment».

When will it stop? Two possibilities appear. The "environment" is not infinite, and the limit of its exploitation may come, but I really don't want to imagine this moment. Another possibility is to take, as banal as it sounds, a step towards nature. This step "down" a person must take in his mind; man and nature must be on an equal footing, on the same level. Not on paper, but with mother's milk, a person must absorb that he is not a "king", but a part of Nature. Damaging nature will then be analogous to self-mutilation and will be no less unnatural. This path seems much more desirable, but it requires the revival of many forgotten knowledge about Man and his place in the world around him. And this is a completely different conversation.

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The largest man-made disasters XX-XXI centuries - page №1/1

The largest man-made disasters of the XX-XXI centuries .

Emergencies caused by man-made factors pose a huge threat not only human society, but also environmental situation generally. Man is part of the global ecosystem, and any negative change in it is harmful to his health and quality of life. Technical emergencies strike at all vital natural environments: pollution airspace, impact on the hydrosphere, poisoning and degradation of the surface cover of the Earth, destruction biological systems, as well as the destruction of buildings, communications, communications and other large-scale disasters.

A man-made disaster is dangerous because in the process of its climax, uncontrollable forces are released that bring colossal destruction. Such cataclysms develop rapidly and are of extreme coloring. As a result of a man-made emergency, as a rule, there is a lot of loss of life and destruction. The consequences of cataclysms are sometimes irreversible. Technogenic disasters are usually classified depending on their destructive factors. Allocate emergencies with:

fires;

Explosions;

Release of hazardous poisonous and toxic substances into the environment;

Destruction of immovable structures and structures;

Flooding;

Destruction of transport

Breakage and destruction of communications and messages.

AT various programs on civil defense more detailed classifications of emergencies can be distinguished:

Transport accidents.K traffic accidents accidents should be attributed to railway transport, including freight trains, metro, as well as conventional and high-speed trains and commuter trains. In addition, these are emergencies in road transport, including in tunnels, at crossings and bridges. This group includes sea and river disasters involving cargo and passenger ships, any displacement, and air crashes. Accidents on pipelines should also be included in this group. Transport accidents are considered to be accidents that occurred at airfields, berths. With the participation of means of transport.

Disasters accompanied by explosions, fires, as well as their threat. These include explosions and fires in immovable household and industrial facilities, as well as accidents involving equipment and stationary machines, detection or loss of military ammunition and weapons of an explosive nature.

Chemical accidents. Here we mean any accidents associated with the release of chemical reagents that have dangerous properties, or the threat of such a release.

Radioactive disasters. This group includes any extreme situations at the facilities nuclear power, as well as the application nuclear weapons, its testing or detection, including the threat of such accidents.

Emergencies of a biological nature. These are catastrophes associated with the release and uncontrolled spread of hazardous biological components of the environment, as well as the threat of their release and spread.

Destruction of real estate objects. Destruction of single standing structures for domestic or industrial purposes or an array of buildings, as well as the threat of such a cataclysm. This category includes the destruction of highways, bridges, tunnels, and other structures. transport communication as well as communications.

Catastrophes in the electric power industry. This group of emergencies includes accidents at substations, breakage and destruction of electric power transmission lines, as a result of which the population long time unable to receive it.

Utility accidents. This type of disaster is represented by a break in communications, sewer emissions, as well as the loss of water supply systems and depressurization of other utility systems, and others.

Technogenic disasters involving treatment facilities. Such disasters include the release of polluted effluents into the environment, the threat of such a release, as well as the malfunction of treatment facilities, resulting in the systematic discharge of contaminated or contaminated objects.

Accidents of hydrotechnical origin. The main ones are the destruction and breakthroughs of dams and dams, which caused flooding, flooding, accompanied by erosion of the fertile surface layers of the soil, as well as the destruction of buildings and communication networks. This group also includes flooding without the indicated consequences.

List of the largest and most expensive man-made disasters .

Catastrophes often occur due to an absurd coincidence of events and lead to irreparable consequences. Recent times most often occur environmental disasters, leaving huge scars on the body of our planet. So, to your attention a list of the largest and most expensive man-made disasters, most of of which occurred during the last century.

Bang on Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This catastrophe cost the world 200 billion dollars, despite the fact that the liquidation work is not even half completed. April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in former USSR the worst nuclear accident in history. More than 135,000 people who lived within a 30 kilometers (19 miles) radius of the destroyed reactor - and 35,000 livestock - were evacuated; around the station, located near the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, an exclusion zone of unprecedented size was created. In this forbidden territory, nature itself had to cope with the high levels of radiation caused by the disaster. As a result, the exclusion zone essentially turned into a giant laboratory where an experiment was set up - what happens to plants and animals in conditions of catastrophic nuclear contamination of the area? Immediately after the disaster, when everyone was worried about the dire consequences radioactive fallout for people's health, few thought about what would happen to wildlife inside the zone - and even more so about monitoring what is happening

Explosion at the oil Piper platform Alpha - occurred on July 6, 1988, which is recognized as the most terrible disaster throughout the history of the oil industry. The accident cost $3.4 billion. Piper Alpha is the world's only burned-out oil platform. As a result of a gas leak and subsequent explosion, as well as as a result of ill-considered and indecisive actions of the personnel, 167 people out of 226 who were on the platform at that moment died, only 59 survived. Immediately after the explosion, oil and gas production was stopped on the platform, however, due to the fact that the pipelines of the platform were connected to common network, through which hydrocarbons flowed from other platforms, and for those production and supply of oil and gas to the pipeline long time did not dare to stop (they were waiting for permission from the top management of the company), a huge amount of hydrocarbons continued to flow through pipelines, which supported the fire.

Explosion at the Ajkai Timfoldgyar Zrt Alumina Refinery of MAL Zrt October 4, 2010, which is located in Hungary under the city of Kolontar, 160 kilometers west of Budapest. The explosion destroyed the dam of the tank with toxic waste - the so-called red mud. After the explosion, about 1.1 million cubic meters of toxic substances poured out of the tank, which flooded several nearby settlements. As a result of the disaster, 10 people died, about 150 received various injuries and burns.

The death of the drilling platform deepwater horizon. On April 22, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana (USA), after a 36-hour fire that followed a powerful explosion that killed 11 people, the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform sank.

It was only by August 4 that the oil leak was stopped. Into the water Gulf of Mexico about five million barrels of crude oil spilled. The platform on which the accident occurred belonged to the Swiss company Transocean. British Petroleum operated the platform at the time of the accident.

A ship collects oil after the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 28, 2010. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

NPP "Fukushima-1". March 11, 2011 in the northeast of Japan at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant after strongest earthquake the largest accident in the last 25 years after the Chernobyl disaster occurred. After tremors magnitude 9.0 came to the coast huge wave tsunami that damaged 4 of the 6 reactors of the nuclear power plant and disabled the cooling system, which led to a series of hydrogen explosions, a meltdown core.The total emissions of iodine-131 and cesium-137 after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant amounted to 900,000 terabecquerels, which does not exceed 20% of the emissions after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which then amounted to 5.2 million terabecquerels.

Experts estimated the total damage from the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant at $74 billion. The complete elimination of the accident, including the dismantling of the reactors, will take about 40 years.

The process of measuring the level of radiation.

disaster on Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP .On August 17, 2009, a man-made disaster occurred at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, located on the Yenisei River. This happened during the repair of one of the HPP's hydroelectric units. As a result of the accident, the 3rd and 4th water conduits were destroyed, the wall was destroyed and the engine room was flooded. 9 out of 10 hydraulic turbines were completely out of order, the hydroelectric power station was stopped.

The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP is considered one of the most significant in the history of the world's hydropower industry. 75 people died. The consequences of the accident affected the ecological situation in the water area adjacent to the HPP, social and economic spheres region.

Bhopal disaster. In the early morning of December 3, 1984, an accident occurred at a chemical plant in the Indian city of Bhopal. Bhopal disaster named Hiroshima chemical industry. In just one hour, more than half a million people were poisoned. About 4,000 people died on the day of the accident, 8,000 within two weeks. This is according to official statistics, but according to unofficial estimates, eight to ten thousand died in the first days of the accident. Nature was dying and poisoned, leaves fell from the trees, the grass turned yellow, and the corpses of animals lay everywhere. Over the next few years, nearly 16,000 more people died. Tens of thousands went blind. And today, twenty-nine years later, thousands of people are suffering from the consequences of the world's largest man-made disaster.

The cause of the terrible disaster in Bhopal has not yet been officially established. Versions are dominated gross violation safety precautions and intentional sabotage of the enterprise. It is known for certain that on the fateful night of December 2-3, a lethal gas leak occurred at the Union Carbide chemical plant, which specialized in the production of pesticides. A poisonous cloud passed through the neighboring territories, sleeping residents woke up from an unbearable burning sensation in their throats and eyes.

A series of explosions at a mine in Kemerovo region. On March 19, 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovsk mine in the Kemerovo region killed 110 people. Following the first explosion, four more explosions followed in 5-7 seconds, which caused extensive collapses in the workings in several places at once. perished Chief Engineer and almost all the management of the mine. This accident is the largest in Russian coal mining over the past 75 years.

Collision of a fuel tanker and passenger car - happened on August 26, 2004 on the Wiehltal bridge in Germany. This catastrophe, which occurred on August 26, 2004, can be attributed to accidents on the roads. They happen often, but this one surpassed everything in scale. The car, passing over the bridge at full speed, crashed into a full fuel truck going to the meeting, an explosion occurred, which practically destroyed the bridge. By the way, the restoration work of the bridge took 358 million dollars.

Explosion in Toulouse (France) at the AZF chemical plant - September 21, 2001, the consequences of which are considered one of the largest man-made disasters. Exploded 300 tons of ammonium nitrate, which were in the warehouse finished products. By official version, the blame for the disaster was placed on the management of the plant, which did not ensure the safe storage of an explosive substance.

As a result of the incident, 30 people were killed, the total number of injured exceeded 3.5 thousand, thousands of residential buildings and many institutions were destroyed or seriously damaged, including 79 schools, 11 lyceums, 26 colleges, two universities, 184 kindergartens, 27 thousand apartments, 40 thousand people were left homeless, 134 enterprises actually stopped their activities. to authorities and Insurance companies received 100,000 claims for damages. total amount damage amounted to three billion euros.

Disaster at the Petrobras refinery - In July 2000, in Brazil, the Iguazu River leaked over a million gallons of oil. The resulting stain moved downstream, threatening to poison drinking water for several cities at once. The liquidators of the accident built several protective barriers, but they managed to stop the oil only at the fifth. One part of the oil was collected from the surface of the water, the other went through specially constructed diversion channels. The Petrobras company paid a $56 million fine in the state budget and 30 million to the state budget.

Explosion at a naval base near Limassol, Cyprus July 11, 2011, which claimed 13 lives and brought the island nation to the brink economic crisis, destroying the island's largest power plant.

Investigators accused the President of the Republic, Dimitris Christofias, of negligently handling the problem of storing ammunition confiscated in 2009 from the Monchegorsk ship on suspicion of arms smuggling to Iran. In fact, the ammunition was stored directly on the ground in the territory naval base and detonated due to high temperature.

August 12, 2000 - death nuclear submarine"Kursk". During the naval exercises of the Russian fleet in the Barents Sea, the nuclear submarine K-141 "Kursk" with cruise missiles sank. According to the official version, on the submarine, which was launched in May 1994, a torpedo exploded due to a leak of fuel components. The fire that arose two minutes after the first explosion led to the detonation of torpedoes located in the first compartment of the boat.

The second explosion caused even more damage. As a result, all 118 crew members died. As a result of the operation of lifting the submarine, completed a year later, 115 bodies of dead sailors were found and buried. "Kursk" was considered the best submarine Northern Fleet. Among other versions of the death of the Kursk, it was argued that it could have been torpedoed by an American submarine.

The death of the Titanic. The tragedy occurred on April 15, 1912 and claimed 1523 human lives. The cost of building the ship amounted to $ 7 million (in today's exchange rate - $ 150 million).

Shuttle "Columbia" was the first operational reusable orbiter. It was made in 1979 and transferred to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The Columbia shuttle was named after the sailing ship on which Captain Robert Gray explored in May 1792. inland waters British Columbia. The space shuttle Columbia died in a crash on February 1, 2003, while entering the Earth's atmosphere, before landing. It was the 28th space trip Columbia. The information from Columbia's hard drive was recovered, the causes of the crash were identified, which made it possible to avoid such disasters in the future.

Information sources used: lifeglobe.net, ria.ru, planeta.moy.su, www.bbc.co.uk, www.katastrofa-online.ru.

AZERBAIJAN STATE OIL ACADEMY

Faculty of Chemical Technology

Department of Labor Protection

INDEPENDENT WORK №2

On the topic: The largest man-made disasters of the XX-XXI centuries.

Student: Kazymly Aidan Mehman Ph.

Group: 360.1

Head: Assoc. Isaev A.

Head departments: prof. Rasulov S.R.

Environmental disasters have their own specifics - not a single person may die during them, but very significant damage to the environment will be inflicted. In our time, the culprit of environmental disasters is mainly a person. The growth of industrial and agricultural production brings not only wealth but is also slowly killing our habitat. Therefore, the biggest environmental disasters in the world are imprinted in human memory for a long time.

1. Leakage of oil products from the tanker "Prestige"

The Bahamian-flagged single-hull tanker Prestige was built by the Japanese shipyard Hitachi to carry crude oil and launched in 1976. In November 2002, passing through Bay of Biscay, the tanker got into a strong storm near the coast of Galicia, as a result of which it received a crack 35 m long, from which about a thousand tons of fuel oil began to flow out per day.
The Spanish coast guards refused to allow the dirty ship to enter the nearest port, so they tried to tow it to Portugal, but a similar refusal was received there. In the end, the restless tanker was towed to the Atlantic. On November 19, it sank completely, splitting into two parts, which sank to the bottom to a depth of about 3,700 m. Since it was impossible to fix the breakdown and pump out oil products, more than 70,000 cubic meters of oil got into the ocean. On the surface along the coastline, a spot more than a thousand kilometers long was formed, which caused enormous damage to the local fauna and flora.
For Europe, it was the most catastrophic oil spill in history. The damage from it was estimated at 4 billion euros, 300,000 volunteers worked to eliminate its consequences.

2. The collapse of the tanker "Exxon Valdez"

On March 23, 1989, the Exxon Valdez tanker, fully loaded with oil, sailed from the terminal in the Alaskan port of Valdez, bound for the Californian port of Long Beach. Having taken the ship out of Valdez, the pilot handed over control of the tanker to Captain Joseph Jeffrey, who was already “drunk” by that time. There were icebergs in the sea, so the captain was forced to deviate from the course, notifying coast guard. Having received permission from the latter, he changed course, and at 23 o'clock left the wheelhouse, leaving the control of the ship to the third mate and the sailor, who had already defended their watches and needed a 6-hour rest. In fact, the tanker was controlled by an autopilot guided by a navigation system.
Before leaving, the captain instructed the assistant that two minutes after passing the traverse of the island, you need to change course. The assistant conveyed this order to the sailor, but either he himself was late, or his execution was late, but at half past midnight on March 24, the tanker crashed into Blythe Reef. As a result of the disaster, 40,000 cubic meters of oil spilled into the ocean, and environmentalists believe that much more. 2,400 km of coastline were contaminated, making this accident one of the most significant environmental disasters in the world.

A tornado (in America this phenomenon is called a tornado) is a fairly stable atmospheric vortex, most often occurring in thunderclouds. He is a visa...

3. Chernobyl disaster

All people born in the USSR are notorious for the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Its consequences are still active today, and will remind of themselves for many years to come. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, completely destroying the reactor, and tons of radioactive materials were released into the environment. At the moment of the tragedy itself, 31 people died, but this is only the tip of the iceberg - it is simply impossible to calculate the number of victims and victims of this accident.
About 200 people who directly took part in its liquidation are officially considered dead from the accident, all of them were killed by radiation sickness. The nature of all Eastern Europe suffered enormous damage. Dozens of tons radioactive uranium, plutonium, strontium and cesium were dispersed in the atmosphere and began to slowly settle to the ground, carried by the wind. The desire of the authorities not to give wide publicity to what happened, so that panic would not start among the population, made its share in the tragedy of the unfolding events around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Therefore, many thousands of residents of cities and villages who did not fall into the alienated 30-kilometer zone, carelessly remained in their places.
In subsequent years, there was a surge of cancer among them, mothers gave birth to thousands of freaks, and this is still observed. In total, due to the spread of radioactive contamination of the area, the authorities had to evacuate over 115,000 people who lived inside the 30-kilometer zone around the nuclear power plant. More than 600,000 people took part in the liquidation of this accident and its protracted consequences, and colossal funds were spent. The territory immediately adjacent to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is still restricted area because it is uninhabitable.

Throughout the history of mankind, the strongest earthquakes have repeatedly caused enormous damage to people and caused a huge number of casualties among the population ...

4. Accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant

But the biggest environmental disaster in human memory happened on March 11, 2011. It all started with a massive earthquake powerful tsunami, it was they who disabled the backup diesel generators and the power supply system of the nuclear power plant. This led to dysfunction of the reactor cooling system, core meltdown in three power units of the station. During the accident, hydrogen was released, which exploded, destroying the outer shell of the reactor, but the reactor itself survived.
Due to a leak radioactive substances the level of radiation quickly began to grow, because the depressurization of the shells of the fuel elements caused the leakage of radioactive cesium. Water samples were taken 30 kilometers from the station in the ocean on March 23, which showed an excess of the norms for iodine-131 and cesium-137, but the radioactivity of the water kept increasing and by March 31 exceeded normal level almost 4400 times, because even after the accident, water contaminated with radiation continued to seep into the ocean. It is clear that after some time local waters animals began to come across with outlandish genetic and physiological changes.
The spread of radiation contributed to the fish themselves, and other marine animals. Many thousands had to be relocated from the radiation-contaminated area. local residents. A year later, on the coast near the nuclear power plant, radiation exceeded the norm by 100 times, so decontamination work will be carried out here for a long time.

5. Bhopal disaster

The catastrophe in Indian Bhopal turned out to be truly terrible, not only because it caused huge damage nature of the state, but also because it claimed the lives of 18,000 inhabitants. A subsidiary of the Union Carbide Corporation built in Bhopal Chemical plant, which, according to the original project, was to produce pesticides used in agriculture.
But in order for the plant to become competitive, it was decided to change the production technology towards a more dangerous and complex one, which would not require more expensive imported raw materials. But a series of crop failures led to the fact that the demand for the plant's products decreased, so the owners decided to sell it in the summer of 1984. The financing of the operating enterprise was curtailed, the equipment gradually wore out and ceased to meet safety standards. In the end, liquid methyl isocyanate overheated in one of the reactors, there was a sharp release of its vapors, which ruptured the emergency valve. In a matter of seconds, 42 tons of poisonous vapors entered the atmosphere, which formed a deadly cloud with a diameter of 4 kilometers over the plant and the surrounding area.
Residential areas and the railway station fell into the affected area. The authorities did not have time to inform the population about the danger in time, and there was a critical shortage of medical staff, so on the first day, 5,000 people died after inhaling poisonous gas. But even for a number of years after that, poisoned people continued to die, and the total number of victims of that accident is estimated at 30,000 people.

Under dangerous natural phenomena means extreme climatic or meteorological phenomena occurring naturally in that il...

6Sandoz Chemical Disaster

One of the worst environmental disasters that caused incredible damage to nature occurred on November 1, 1986 in prosperous Switzerland. The plant of the chemical and pharmaceutical giant Sandoz, built on the banks of the Rhine near Basel, produced a variety of chemicals used in agriculture. When a severe fire broke out at the plant, about 30 tons of pesticides and mercury compounds got into the Rhine. The water in the Rhine has turned an ominous red.
The authorities forbade the inhabitants who lived on its banks to leave their homes. Downstream, in some German cities the centralized water supply had to be cut off, and drinking water was brought to residents in cisterns. Almost all fish and other living creatures died in the river, some species were irretrievably lost. Later, a program until 2020 was adopted, the goal of which was to make the waters of the Rhine suitable for bathing.

7. Disappearance of the Aral Sea

Back in the middle of the last century, the Aral was the fourth largest lake in the world. But the active withdrawal of water from the Syr Darya and Amu Darya for irrigation of cotton and other crops led to the fact that the Aral Sea began to quickly become shallow, divided into 2 parts, one of which has already completely dried up, and the second will follow its example in the coming years.
Scientists have calculated that from 1960 to 2007 the Aral Sea lost 1,000 cubic kilometers of water, which led to its reduction by more than 10 times. Previously, 178 species of vertebrates lived in the Aral Sea, and now there are only 38 of them.
For decades, waste was dumped into the Aral and settled at the bottom Agriculture. Now they have turned into poisonous sand, which the wind carries fifty kilometers around, polluting the surroundings and destroying vegetation. Renaissance Island has long been turned into a part of the mainland, but once upon a time there was a testing ground on it bacteriological weapons. There are graves with such deadly dangerous diseases like typhus, plague, smallpox, anthrax. Some pathogens are still alive, so they can spread to habitable zones thanks to rodents.

Occasionally, tsunami waves occur in the ocean. They are very insidious open ocean completely invisible, but as soon as they approach the coastal shelf, g ...

8 Flixboro Chemical Plant Accident

AT British city Flixboro was the Nipro plant, which produced ammonium nitrate, and 4000 tons of caprolactam, 3000 tons of cyclohexanone, 2500 tons of phenol, 2000 tons of cyclohexane and many other chemicals were stored on its territory. But the various process tanks and spherical tanks were underfilled, which increased the danger of an explosion. In addition, under high pressure and at high temperatures, various flammable materials were in the factory reactors.
The administration sought to increase the productivity of the plant, but this reduced the effectiveness of fire extinguishing equipment. The company's engineers were often forced to turn a blind eye to deviations from the technological regulations, to neglect safety standards - a familiar picture. Finally, on June 1, 1974, the plant shuddered from powerful explosion. Instantly, the production premises were engulfed in flames, and shock wave from the explosion swept through the surrounding settlements, shattering windows, ripping roofs off houses and maiming people. Then 55 people died. The power of the explosion was estimated at 45 tons of TNT. But worst of all, the explosion was accompanied by the appearance big cloud toxic fumes, because of which the authorities had to urgently evacuate the inhabitants of some neighboring settlements.
The damage from this man-made disaster was estimated at 36 million pounds - it was the most expensive emergency for British industry.

9 Piper Alpha Oil Rig Fire

In July 1988, a major disaster occurred on the Piper Alpha platform, which was used for oil and gas production. Its consequences were exacerbated by the indecisive and ill-considered actions of the personnel, due to which 167 out of 226 people working on the platform died. For some time after the accident, oil products continued to flow through the pipes, so the fire did not die out, but flared up even more. This catastrophe ended not only human casualties but also great environmental damage.

Italy is classic example better holiday on the sea. This country has many excellent and diverse resorts. Her coastline about...

10. The explosion of an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico

April 20, 2010 at the Deep Water Horizon oil platform, owned company British Petroleum, and located in the Gulf of Mexico, there was an explosion, due to which for a long time from an uncontrolled well into the sea were thrown huge quantities oil. The platform itself plunged into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts were only able to roughly estimate the volume of spilled oil, but one thing is clear - this catastrophe has become one of the most terrible for the biosphere, not only the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, but also the waters Atlantic Ocean. Oil poured into the water for 152 days, 75,000 sq. km of the waters of the bay were covered with a thick oil film. All the states whose coast goes to the Gulf of Mexico (Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi) suffered from pollution, but Alabama got the most.
About 400 species of rare animals were endangered, and thousands of seabirds and amphibians died on the oil-filled shores. The Office of Specially Protected Resources reported that there was an outbreak of mortality among cetaceans in the bay following the oil spill.

Every year, dozens of terrible man-made disasters occur in the world, which cause substantial harm world ecology. Today I invite you to read about a few of them in the continuation of the post.

Petrobrice - Brazilian state oil company. The company headquarters is located in Rio de Janeiro. In July 2000, in Brazil, a disaster at an oil refinery spilled more than a million gallons of oil (about 3,180 tons) into the Iguazu River. For comparison, 50 tons of crude oil recently spilled near a resort island in Thailand.
The resulting stain moved downstream, threatening to poison the drinking water for several cities at once. The liquidators of the accident built several protective barriers, but they managed to stop the oil only at the fifth. One part of the oil was collected from the surface of the water, the other went through specially constructed diversion channels.
Petrobrice paid a $56 million fine to the state budget and $30 million to the state budget.

On September 21, 2001, an explosion occurred at the AZF chemical plant in Toulouse, France, the consequences of which are considered one of the largest man-made disasters. 300 tons of ammonium nitrate (salt nitric acid), which were in the warehouse of finished products. According to the official version, the management of the plant is to blame, which did not ensure the safe storage of an explosive substance.
The consequences of the disaster were gigantic: 30 people died, the total number of wounded was more than 300, thousands of houses and buildings were destroyed or damaged, including almost 80 schools, 2 universities, 185 kindergartens, 40,000 people were left without a roof over their heads, more than 130 enterprises have actually ceased their activities. The total amount of damage is 3 billion euros.

On November 13, 2002, off the coast of Spain, the oil tanker Prestige fell into a severe storm, in the holds of which there were more than 77,000 tons of fuel oil. As a result of the storm, a crack about 50 meters long formed in the ship's hull. On November 19, the tanker broke in half and sank. As a result of the disaster, 63,000 tons of fuel oil fell into the sea.

Cleaning the sea and coasts from fuel oil cost 12 billion dollars, the full damage to the ecosystem cannot be estimated.

On August 26, 2004, a fuel truck carrying 32,000 liters of fuel fell off a 100-meter-high Wiehltal bridge near Cologne in western Germany. After the fall, the tanker exploded. The culprit of the accident was a sports car that skidded on a slippery road, which caused the fuel tanker to skid.
This accident is considered one of the most costly man-made disasters in history - temporary repairs to the bridge cost $40 million, and full reconstruction - $318 million.

On March 19, 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovsk mine in the Kemerovo region killed 110 people. Following the first explosion, four more explosions followed in 5-7 seconds, which caused extensive collapses in the workings in several places at once. The chief engineer and almost all the management of the mine died. This accident is the largest in Russian coal mining over the past 75 years.

On August 17, 2009, a man-made disaster occurred at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, located on the Yenisei River. This happened during the repair of one of the HPP's hydroelectric units. As a result of the accident, the 3rd and 4th water conduits were destroyed, the wall was destroyed and the engine room was flooded. 9 out of 10 hydraulic turbines were completely out of order, the hydroelectric power station was stopped.
Due to the accident, the power supply to the Siberian regions was disrupted, including the limited supply of electricity in Tomsk, and several Siberian aluminum smelters were cut off. As a result of the disaster, 75 people died and 13 were injured.

Damage from the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP exceeded 7.3 billion rubles, including environmental damage. The other day in Khakassia, a trial began on the case of a man-made disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station in 2009.

October 4, 2010 in the west of Hungary there was a major environmental disaster. At a large aluminum smelter, an explosion destroyed the dam of a reservoir of toxic waste - the so-called red mud. About 1.1 million cubic meters of caustic substance flooded the cities of Kolontar and Decever, 160 kilometers west of Budapest, with a 3-meter stream.

Red mud is a residue that forms during the production of alumina. When it comes into contact with the skin, it acts on it like an alkali. As a result of the disaster, 10 people died, about 150 received various injuries and burns.

April 22, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the US state of Louisiana, after an explosion that killed 11 people and a 36-hour fire, the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform sank.

The oil leak was stopped only on August 4, 2010. About 5 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The platform on which the accident occurred belonged to a Swiss company, and at the time of the man-made disaster, the platform was operated by British Petroleum.

On March 11, 2011, in the northeast of Japan, at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, after a strong earthquake, the largest accident in the last 25 years after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred. Following earthquakes of magnitude 9.0, a huge tsunami wave came to the coast, which damaged 4 of the 6 reactors of the nuclear power plant and disabled the cooling system, which led to a series of hydrogen explosions, melting the core.

The total emissions of iodine-131 and caesium-137 after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant amounted to 900,000 terabecquerels, which does not exceed 20% of the emissions after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which then amounted to 5.2 million terabecquerels.
Experts estimated the total damage from the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant at $74 billion. The complete elimination of the accident, including the dismantling of the reactors, will take about 40 years.

NPP "Fukushima-1"

On July 11, 2011, an explosion occurred at a naval base near Limassol in Cyprus, which claimed 13 lives and brought the island nation to the brink of economic crisis, destroying the island's largest power plant.
Investigators accused the President of the Republic, Dimitris Christofias, of negligently handling the problem of storing ammunition confiscated in 2009 from the Monchegorsk ship on suspicion of arms smuggling to Iran. In fact, the ammunition was stored right on the ground on the territory of the naval base and detonated due to the high temperature.

Destroyed Mari power plant in Cyprus

The new age has just begun major man-made disasters have shaken the world many times. Thousands of people died, colossal damage was done to the economy of different countries.

Part of the oil was collected, and the rest was taken out of the river with the help of special streams.

After the company crash "Petrobrice" had to pay a large fine to the state in the amount of fifty-six million dollars. The state of the country also received compensation of thirty million dollars.

But the damage caused to the flora and fauna of this amazing corner cannot be compensated by any means.

This technological disaster quite seriously hit the ecosystem of the river Iguazu and nearby natural regions.
Many species of plants and living organisms living in the water were completely destroyed.

September 21, 2001 France

Having damaged 6 reactors of the nuclear power plant, the water colossus disabled the cooling system, which led to a series of global hydrogen explosions and the melting of the core.

radioactive substances iodine-131 and cesium-137 were released into the atmosphere.

And although the volume of emissions was no more than 20% compared to the Chernobyl accident, the inhabitants of the Japanese island did not feel better.

The total damage from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant disaster was estimated by experts at $74 billion.

And the complete elimination of the consequences of the accident and the dismantling of the destroyed reactors will require about 40 years old!
And it is good that in the service of man there is now for such matters.

July 11, 2011 Cyprus

Cyprus, naval base, near the town of Limassol.
Another thunderous explosion destroyed the island's largest power plant and claimed lives 13 people.

This small island state is extremely dependent on a single source of energy supply. The accident at the power plant has put Cyprus on the brink of an economic crisis.

The perpetrators of the tragedy were found. It turned out to be the President of the Republic Dimitris Christofias. He was extremely negligent in the storage of ammunition, which was confiscated on suspicion of smuggling.
Ammunition was stored literally on the ground of the naval base. Heat did her job. Detonation has occurred.

February 28, 2012 China