Answer 2: Bhopal Gas Tragedy
The Bhopal gas tragedy (2nd December, 1984) is a world’s worst industrial catastrophe that killed over 3500 people in a single night and overall 15,000 people and still continued to endanger the lives of residents of Bhopal. Government agencies and voluntary groups have not learnt any lesson after this much disaster. Tragedy was that extensive that water around the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal is still contaminated due to the leaching of continuous leaked toxic chemicals and heavy metals in aquifers; and not suitable for consumption in daily use by human- beings and animals. Since it’s almost 20 years, but toxic poison have not cleaned up till now. To this date, 20,000 people still living the toxic affected areas and inhaling it through groundwater and soil contaminated products.
Union Carbide welcomesUnion Carbide Corporation started trying to dissociate itself from the Bhopal gas tragedy from the much started time by manipulating and making complicated scientific data. Union Carbide, an American Corporation has refused to clean the site/ to provide compensation for those who have been injured or made ill by poison; fund medical care, health monitoring and information of leaked gases and their medical consequences; and livelihood opportunities for the exposure-induced persons for their usual trade. UCC denied the presence of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) but it has a valid point in having the HCN in tragedy. Because Methyl Isocynate (MIC) contains more deadly HCN if exposed to 200° heat; and the tragedy is possible only after this much of temperature rise in storage tank. This careless attitude accompanied with following factors leaded to catastrophe:
1. Lack in regular maintenance operations
2. Staff ab...
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...ntries). India is also one of them and Bhopal gas tragedy was result of the same phase.
Another factor is the research institutions which are under government sponsorship and the adequate research is not carrying out at any of the environment relevant and occupational health hazard aspect. There are a number of projects on capacity building in livelihood security, environment conservation and pollution control etc but nothing is implemented in actual exercise and this is majorly because of the excessive control of government on such projects which led to the political issues and bureaucracy only.
So these are the major issues I found for environmental crisis in developing countries. Government, non government agencies and the whole system involved in handling such practices need to be aware of all the consequences and mitigation strategies of such catastrophe.
The reason because environmental issues were not take in consideration before, in the economic field, was due to the absence of their costs from the calculation of GNI. However, it has to be consider that future growth and in general, quality of life are strongly related to environment. Therefore, environment’s long term implications has to be taken in consideration in the economy.
The effects of the nuclear disaster that occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Soviet Union are still experienced today even though more than thirty years have passed since the event. The event is known as “Chernobyl” and has gone down in history as one of the worst nuclear disasters to have ever occurred. (Hjelmgaard) Approximately 120,000 people lived within a 30- km radius but the radioactive release spread causing even more people to continue to experience effects in the present day. (Chemistry in Context) Extreme health issues, extreme environmental contamination, and health promoting organizations remain prevalent as a result of devastating Chernobyl.
Brown gives concise, but very informative, summaries of what he regards the key issues facing civilization as a consequence of the stress we put on our environment which is a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate. For example, in chapter five Brown discusses the emerging politics of food on scarcity. Food prices soared rapidly between the years 2007 and 2008 and the social order in many countries begin to break down. He goes on to describe many different places that go through this process. One of Brown’s most important topics is that he explains how the world’s governments and social movements can still avoid the threat of worldwide disaster, on every continent this century, if we can act in this decade with the degree of urgency required by our situation. Brown understands why we have reached this point of worldwide crisis. He states that the interests of the fossil fuel and defense industries in maintaining the status quo are strong. Although Brown does not de...
The other reason is that there are not enough environmental inspectors to cover so many plants in India. Besides, those inspectors have a record of loose enforcement. Consequently, danger emerged just as the saying goes, “Nothing comes of nothing”. As for the management of Union Carbides Bhopal plant, some steps needed to be improved. Let us take a look at the whole process of the gas leak and see what actions can be taken to improve it.
and is existing surely because of humans themselves- overpopulation. “Overpopulation is the problem” and causes other externalities such as pollution, deforestation, and a greater handful of biodiversity losses. In addition, overpopulation causes economic and political factors such as more consumption per person and the reduction of resources that can be provided per person. This contributes to the strain on ecological systems and the economic and population growth. With overpopulation, many resources become finite and an umpteen amount of ecosystems are being destroyed. Overpopulation relates to the impact of humans on pollution. Obviously with more human life, there is more necessity for jobs such as factories that give off fumes, automobiles, and the use for burning fossil fuels. In greater extent, this leads to an environmental factor in that it accumulates chemicals in food chains such as mercury, arsenic, and copper. It can lead to political problems as well, when trying to interact with other countries and stop the problem of global pollution and eventually endin...
One of the most significant environmentally damaging instances in history was the Chernobyl incident. In 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Ukraine exploded. It became one of the most significant disasters in the engineering community. There are different factors that contributed to the disaster. The personnel that were tasked with operating the plant were unqualified. The plant’s design was a complex one. The RBMK reactor was Soviet design, and the staff had not be acquainted with this particular design. As the operators performed tests on the reactor, they disabled the automatic shutdown mechanism. After the test, the attempt to shut down the reactor was unsuccessful as it was unstable. This is the immediate cause of the Chernobyl Accident. It later became the most significant nuclear disaster in the history of the
In an effort to create a sustainable global environment a significant area of focus needs to be on the interrelationships that contribute to this goal. As with the relationships associated with globalization our actions are interconnected with one another, one nations decisions in a particular geographical area can often times impact those in another geographical areas. The same cause and effect theory applies to environmental interrelationships. An area that this can be most prevalent...
Every day when looking out a window, people see a beautiful earth. The earth is intriguing, but hinges on a delicate balance. Many natural resources keep the grass green and the sky blue. Man has made quite an impression on our world, and has transformed the earth's resources into tools to make life easy. However, mans' manipulation on earth has become detrimental to the health of our planet and the safety of mankind. Through the use and production of resources such as oil and energy, man is gradually poisoning the earth. Pollution has become such a dilemma in society; there is no real control or a feasible solution to society's recklessness. Without complete change, our system will collapse. The earth will eventually retaliate with disaster, or corporate control of our economy will cause hysteria and depression. Evaluation of the consequences and repercussion of worldwide pollution, may give people a better idea of what the future holds.
Economic growth and social development are complementary and they have a close but complex relationship. With the economic growth, it is clear that there are many environmental concerns in today’s society. Air, water, and land pollution have worsened; the environment of wild animals and plants has been seriously damaged; many species are threatened with extinction, deforestation and over-exploitation of mineral resources.
Solving problems on the global level is certainly no small task. Some of the issues at hand include: access to clean water, food supplies, energy, climate change, air pollution and biodiversity loss. In order to go about solving any problem, an individual must think critically. In order to think critically, an individual m...
Harris. J.M. 2000 Basic Principles of Sustainable Development, Global and Environment Institute Working Paper 00-04, USA
The environment today is not in a good condition, Climate change is evident, and oceans are getting polluted. Rainforrest's are decreasing in size due to deforestation and illegal logging. Animals are getting extinct due to the destruction of their habitats. Natural resources are being consumed at very large amounts, and get wasted. There are different ways these problems can be addressed, one option is environmental management. Environmental management focuses on conservation of natural resources, protection of habitats, and impact of humans on the environment. Conservation of natural resources is the smart use of the world's resources by humans, through this waste production is limited, and there will be less garbage in the world. By conserving
Today talking about environmental issues lately to be like a common topic discussion until people take it for granted. However, the world facing a complex environmental problems related to each trouble that connected to one another and come out with greater impacts to the environment and humans. This is because the effects of environmental only can be seen in long term period rather than immediately result show up. Environmental issues must become one of the controversial matters in the society in order to make people know the truth what the world currently facing. There were a lot of environmental disaster happened such as climate change, global warming, various of pollutions, earthquake and etc. the rise of environmental issues begin with this urban development occur through several countries following with the technologies equip along. For sure, development will cause a huge negative impact to the environment if it deals without a care. Besides, the environment is the place in the ecosystem to hold and use in finding resources to continuously survive in this world. Thus, the finding and digging for the resources which happening extensively without preservation will not restore the surrounding similar with before. But then, the change cannot be refuse and people need to take an action to save the threaten the world and the ecosystem from being extinct. If each country has own output in causing an environmental problem, then consider the world to hold all the damage occurred. Exposing the effects of environmental issues throughout the world, make people realize the important to take care the environment.
Are you aware of the detrimental impacts that we have had on our environment? Every second, the Earth is being polluted by poisonous gases, waste products and due to human activities, the world’s climate is dramatically changing. In other words, these impacts do not only harm our environment but also our health. It has been scientifically proven that air pollution causes respiratory diseases and cancer, due to the inhalation of all the harmful chemicals. Water pollution can also lead to typhoid, diarrheal diseases and other waterborne disease, due to the intake of bacteria and parasites. Many people have died due to these health-related illnesses. So why are we still living in this awful condition? Air sustains us and water is a basic necessity, so we should do what we can to prevent pollution. In short, we should protect our environment to ensure a healthy life a...
The environment around us gives us the habitat to live, is a condition for our existence and development so that protecting environment which is one of today’s most serious issues means protecting our lives. But almost every day we hear a new problem badly affecting the environment. The list of the new difficulties seems to be endless. We are all aware of these concerns and can admit that we caused them. Now, environmental protection is not the work of a single individual as it is the responsibility of the whole community, of every single person exists on this planet. The measures range from each citizen to the government.