List of environmental disasters
This page is a list of environmental disasters. In this context it is an annotated list of specific events caused by human activity that results in a negative effect on the environment.
Environmental disasters by category
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Agricultural
- Salinity in Australia
- Salinization of the Fertile Crescent
- The Dust Bowl in Canada and the United States (1934-1939)
- The Great sparrow campaign; sparrows were eliminated from Chinese farms, which caused locusts to swarm the farms and resulted in a famine which killed 38 million people.
- Africanized bees, known colloquially as "killer bees"
- Central Plains Water scheme in New Zealand
- The Osborne Reef and other similar artificial reefs made of tires
- Aral Sea mismanagement
- Dirty dairying in New Zealand
- Hedgerow removal
Biodiversity
- Extinction of American megafauna
- Extinction of Australian megafauna
- Deforestation of Easter Island
- Destruction of the old growth forests
- Rabbits in Australia
- Red imported fire ants
- Reduction in the number of the American Bison
- Introduction of the Nile perch into Lake Victoria in Africa, decimating indigenous fish species
- The Saemangeum Seawall
- Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef
- 2006 Zakouma elephant slaughter
- Invasive species in New Zealand
- Ghost nets
- Grounding of SS Makambo on Lord Howe Island
Coal
Human health
- Introduction of infectious diseases by Europeans causing the death of indigenous people during European colonization of the Americas
- Health effects arising from the September 11 attacks
- Goiânia accident, human deaths resulting from dismantling a scrapped medical machine containing a source of radioactivity
Industrial
- Minamata disease - mercury poisoning in Japan (1950s & 1960s)
- Ontario Minamata disease in Canada
- Itai-itai disease, due to cadmium poisoning in Japan
- Love Canal toxic waste site
- Seveso disaster (1976), chemical plant explosion, caused highest known exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) in residential populations
- Bhopal disaster
- Sandoz chemical spill into the Rhine river (1986)
- United States Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites in the United States
- AZF Explosion at a Toulouse chemical factory (2001)
- 2005 Jilin chemical plant explosions
- The Sydney Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens sites in the city of Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, known as the largest toxic waste site in North America.
- Release of lead dust into Esperance Harbour.
- Release of cyanide, heavy metals and acid into the Alamosa River, Colorado from the Summitville mine, causing the death of all marine life within a 17 mile radius.
- Release of 20,000 gallons of lethal chemicals (metam sodium, tradename Vapam) into the Upper Sacramento River near Dunsmuir, causing the death of all marine life within a 38 mile radius.
- Release of CFC's resulting in ozone depletion
- Release of sulfer dioxide after a fire at the Al-Mishraq plant in Iraq
- The Phillips Disasters
- Villa Parisi (Brazil)
- Health issues on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation due to chemical factories
- Environmental issues with the Three Gorges Dam
- Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill
Mining
- Sulfur wastes in Chañaral, Chile
- The Ok Tedi environmental disaster in Papua New Guinea
- Collapse of a colliery waste tip in Aberfan, Wales
- Mining at Cerro de San Pedro in Mexico by Minera San Xavier
- Lead dust from the Magellan Metals mine in Australia
- Failure of a toxic waste dam at the Aznalcollar mine in Spain
- Uranium mining controversy in Kakadu National Park
- The proposed Cypress Mine in New Zealand
- The tailings dam from the now abandoned Tui mine
Oil industry
- Environmental issues in the Niger Delta relating to the oil industry
- Lago Agrio oil field issues
- Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
Nuclear
- Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- Chernobyl disaster
- Three Mile Island accident
- Nuclear testing at Moruroa and Fangataufa
- Windscale fire
- Fallout from the Castle Bravo nuclear test
- The health of Downwinders
Pollution
- Proliferation of plastic shopping bags
Air
- The Donora Smog of 1948 in Donora, Pennsylvania in the United States
- The Great Smog of 1952, which killed 4,000 Londoners
- The 1983 Melbourne dust storm
- The 1997 Southeast Asian haze
- The 2005 Malaysian haze
- The 2006 Southeast Asian haze
- Yokkaichi asthma in Japan
- Health problems due to the Jinkanpo Atsugi Incinerator in Japan
- Kuwaiti oil fires
Land
- The Dust Bowl of Canada and the United States
- Contaminated soils in Mapua, New Zealand due to the operation of an agricultural chemicals factory
- Basin F, a disposal site in the United States for contaminated liquid wastes from the chemical manufacturing operations of the Army and its lessee Shell Chemical Company
- 2006 Côte d'Ivoire toxic waste spill
- Atari video game burial
Water
Freshwater
- Selenium poisoning of wildlife due to farm runoff used to create Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, an the artificial wetland
- The Jiyeh Power Station oil spill in the Mediterranean region
- Effects of polluted water in the Berkeley Pit in the United States
- Cheakamus River derailment which polluted a river with caustic soda
- Draining and development of the Everglades
Marine
- The artificial Osborne Reef
- Dumping of conventional and chemical munitions in Beaufort's Dyke
- Marine debris
- Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef
- Nurdles
- Friendly Floatees
- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch