Environmental disasters are different: accidents at nuclear power plants, the release of chemicals into the atmosphere, the death of rivers and seas, the disappearance of nature reserves and entire species of animals and plants. The spill of oil products and the dumping of toxic waste into the water also added to the mournful list of nature's ills over the last century of technological progress.
An ecological catastrophe is called an event that leads to irreversible changes in nature and the mass death of a large number of living organisms. Local disasters cause the death of one or several ecosystems, and global disasters - of all nature completely.
Accidents at nuclear power plants
The most serious environmental disasters over the past 100 years were two accidents at nuclear power plants: in Chernobyl in the Ukrainian SSR and on the island of Fukushima in Japan.
In 1986, the city of Pripyat, located on the territory of Ukraine, was evacuated. A violent explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was provoked by improper actions of technical personnel during the experiment.
As a result of the accident, a nuclear reactor was destroyed, and thousands of tons of radioactive fuel were poured onto the ground. People who did not know about the danger of radioactive contamination led ordinary life for several days.
The evacuation of residents still took place, but they all received a strong dose of radiation. All station personnel and rescuers subsequently died from radiation sickness.
Soil and water, plants and animals were contaminated. For many thousands of kilometers from the Soviet nuclear power plant, radioactive fallout fell. For several decades, all agricultural land in the district became unusable and unsuitable for living.
Until now, Pripyat exists only as a ghost town, the memory that even a peaceful atom can have a destructive force for the environment. As a result of the accident, all ecosystems in a huge area were affected.
In Japan, on March 11, 2011, power outages occurred on Fukushima Island as a result of an earthquake and tsunami. As a result, the active parts of several reactors melted.
The overheated reactors were constantly in need of cooling, and rescuers used huge amounts of water to dispose of it at sea. As a result, the coastal areas of the marine area were affected.
The international community has restricted fishing and banned the export of seafood from parts of Japan. The dosimeters went off scale for a long time in the disaster area, a complete evacuation of residents from the affected areas was carried out.
Accidents at nuclear power plants are local environmental disasters that disrupt the normal operation of several ecosystems at once. Air, water and land are heavily contaminated with radioactive waste and remain unsuitable for human and animal life for a long time.
Chemical plant accidents and oil spills
Disasters of this level were national disasters with human casualties and great loss of animals in many countries of the world. The release of chemicals into the atmosphere of the Indian city of Bhopal led to the death of 3 thousand people immediately and 15 thousand later.
In Switzerland in 1986, an accident at a chemical plant led to the release of 30 tons of pesticides into the water. Millions of tons of fish have died, and drinking water has become completely unusable.
The spill of oil products from tankers of oil carriers destroys all life in the seas and oceans for many tens of kilometers around. Unfortunately, environmental disasters have become constant companions of progress. People and animals suffer and because of them lose the possibility of normal existence for decades to come.
