what have we done?. 1984 – methyl isocyanate gas release from union carbide, india -3000 people...

What have we done?

1984 – methyl isocyanate gasRelease from Union Carbide,India-3000 people died that night, another 15 000 died later- thousands more suffered kidney and liver problems, blindess- 26 years later the water is still unfit to drink

1989 – Exxon ValdezOil spill, Alaska-11 million gallons of crude oil spilled-2000 km of shoreline affected-The ecosystem has not fully recovered

1995 – Acid Mine Tailings break damGuyana

2000 – Cyanide spill in Danube and Tisza Rivers

-100 000 litres of cyanideTainted water leaked from aGold mine in Romania- 80% of river life was killed

2001 – Tanker Jessica,Oil spill Galapagos Islands

1986 – Chernobyl NuclearPlant disaster, USSR-100x more radiation Released than the atomic Bombs dropped on Japan-A city of 50 000 people is a ghost town

Amoco Cadiz oil tanker wrecked off the coast of France spilling 1.6 million barrels of oil in 1978It took 10 years to fully remove all of the oil from shorelines

1952- London SmogCombo of smoke and fog, the air pollution in London from Dec. 1952 – March 1953 was so bad that it killed 12 000 people

April 2010 – Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill - Worst in American History

• China has 50 000 km of major rivers• According to UN 80% no longer support fish

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

• Convergence of currents in the North Pacific

• Garbage (plastic) patch > size of Texas

• ~ 3.5 million tonnes

Don’t worry its not all bad…

There are still millions of square kilometres of wilderness around the globe that remain relatively untouched by humans