Top 10 Worst Man Made Environmental Disasters

March 24, 1989
On March 24th, 1989, an Exxon-owned oil tanker called the Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef off the coast of Alaska just after midnight. The collision occurred in Prince William Sound, a remote area nearly inaccessible to emergency response crews. In the days that followed, 10.8 million U.S. gallons of crude oil poured into the sea, in what is now the second most significant spill ever on U.S. territory after 2010’s Deepwater Horizon spill. Wildlife in the area was strongly affected, with hundreds of thousands of birds and mammals dying and the affect on sea life not even calculated. Decades later, the fauna of the area is still impacted by this environmental catastrophe.

1960s -
What was once one of Earth’s largest lakes has now been reduced to an almost entirely dry basin after Soviet irrigation projects rerouted the rivers that fed into it. This process began in the 1960s and steadily reduced the size of the lake to the point that the eastern basin is now known as the Aralkum Desert. Recently, efforts have been made to replenish the sea with water, but it will take many years to undo the damage that’s been done.

December 2-3, 1984
In December 1984, a gas leak at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, exposed over 500 thousand people to methyl isocyanate and other dangerous chemicals. The number of fatalities resulting from the incident has been disputed, with totals ranging from 4 thousand to over 16 thousand. Either way, the death toll makes this the number one most deadly industrial disaster in human history. It’s still unknown what caused this incident, but as of 2014 there were still hundreds of thousands of people reportedly suffering due to fallout from the leak.

1990s -
There’s a collection of villages in the Guangdong Province of China that’s known as the largest site of electronic waste in the world. Guiyu comprises a 20 square mile area, and as of 2005 there were over 60,000 people employed there. The processing and recycling of the electronics creates a hazardous environment for those in the area, with locals suffering from a battery of diseases and disorders including lead poisoning and high miscarriage rates. What was once a fertile rice-producing region is now incapable of food production because the water is so seriously contaminated.

December 5-9, 1952
Some people think of London’s weather as stereotypically gloomy, but it’s rarely been as bad as this. At the end of 1952, a mix of weather conditions and coal pollution caused the city of London to be enshrouded in a veil of smog for five days. Though the issue was relatively short-lived, modern historians estimate that approximately 12 thousand people perished as a direct result of the smog. However, this event did spur politicians to take air pollution more seriously, resulting in the Clean Air Act being enacted four years later.

April 20, 2010
In April of 2010, an explosion took place on an oil-drilling rig 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. The resulting disaster was the BP oil spill; also known as the Deepwater Horizon spill, which sent 210 million U.S. gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Of the 126-crew member, 17 were injured, with 11 never recovered and presumed dead. It’s thought to be the largest marine oil spill related to the oil industry in history. For the damage caused, BP paid $18.7 billion to the U.S. government, making it the most significant corporate settlement in U.S. history as well.

March 1, 1954
What was meant to be an innocuous secret trial of a then-untested hydrogen bomb turned into a serious problem on March 1, 1954. The U.S. chose the Marshall Islands region of Micronesia to test their experiment. Within moments of the bomb’s detonation, a fireball almost 4.5 miles wide was created and the resulting mushroom cloud toured 47 thousand feet in the air. The detonation of Castle Bravo was about one thousand times as powerful as the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII. With a serious amount of unforeseen radiation, the fallout affected almost 1,200 residents of the surrounding islands.

1960s - 1970s
During the 1960s and ‘70s, the environment was seriously impacted by the Vietnam War. In an operation called “Operation Ranch Hand,” the U.S. military sprayed a mix of chemicals referred to as “Agent Orange” to destroy forests in Vietnam. Exposure to these chemicals by humans can be toxic, with health problems like cancers, birth defects and nervous system disorders directly related to that exposure. These issues affected American soldiers, but the brunt of the damage was done to the Vietnamese people: it’s estimated that hundreds of thousands were either killed or made ill by Agent Orange.

January - April 1991
During the Persian Gulf War of the early 1990s, the U.S. and other coalition countries went to war with Iraq following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. In 1991, after the Coalition’s invasion, the retreating Iraqi military set fire to several hundred oil wells as well as oil lakes in Kuwait. The fires burned for months, causing massive environmental devastation. What’s more, the low air quality caused by the burning oil incited respiratory issues in both soldiers and civilians who were in proximity to the fires.


Before we unveil our pick for the worst man made environmental disaster, here are a few dishonorable mentions:
- Jilin Chemical Plant Explosions
November 13, 2005

- Three Mile Island Accident
March 28, 1979

- Baia Mare Cyanide Spill
January 30, 2000

April 26, 1986
On April 26th, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in what was then the USSR was undergoing tests where their backup safety systems were intentionally turned off. A faulty reactor malfunctioned and what ensued was a graphite fire that caused massive radiation to flood the surrounding areas. It’s still unknown what the long-term health effects will be for those in the area, but hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and relocated due to the catastrophe. It was only in 2011, 25 years later, that nearby areas became open for tourists.