there are a lot of things that happen on this planet that are simply out of our control
try as we might to dominate everything around us at the end of the day we are
constantly at the mercy of natural disasters but not all disasters are the fault of nature
in fact some of the most devastating disasters are simply the fault of human error and negligence had
a little more care been taken many of these catastrophes could have been avoided from oil
spills to chemical factories here are five of the worst man-made disasters in human history
the deepwater horizon was a decade-old semi-submersible drilling rig
that was stationed in the gulf of mexico the purpose of this structure was to drill an
exploratory well over eighteen thousand feet below sea level it was a fairly standard operation that
was running successfully for many years however everything took a turn for the worst on april 20th
2010 at 9 45 pm central time a burst of water erupted from the marine riser and onto the rig
this was followed by a combination of mud water and worst of all methane gas it wasn't long after
this that the methane gas caught fire and exploded during all of this 126 crew members were on board
they immediately knew something was wrong because they could feel too strong vibrations and the
electric lights on board began to flicker the crew members had less than five minutes
to evacuate the structure out of the 126 people on board 11 individuals lost their lives by the
time april 22nd came around the entire rig had sunk into the sea this was also the date in which
the coast guard discovered that oil continued to leak from the rig at a rate of roughly 8
000 barrels per day two remote operated underwater vessels were sent to try to cap the well but those
efforts proved to be unsuccessful next bp tried to place a 280 000 pound containment dome over
the leak while it is a technique that's useful in shallow water it too failed here it wasn't until
july 15th almost three months after the initial incident that the well was finally closed and the
leak stopped an investigation into the incident soon followed in june of 2010 the house committee
on energy and commerce said that bp should have used cement at the well it would have cost the
company 128 000 and would have taken between 8 and 12 hours to complete a more thorough investigation
found that six different operations equipment functions and tests ultimately led to the
blowout in the 32 hours preceding the explosion in july of 2015 bp agreed to pay 18.7 billion
dollars in fines making it the biggest corporate settlement in the history of the united states
on the night spanning december 2nd and 3rd 1984 one of the worst industrial disasters in the
history of the world took place it was on that evening an accident occurred at the union carbide
pesticide plant located in bhopal india this event released a minimum of 30 tons of an incredibly
toxic gas known as methyl isocyanate in addition to numerous other poisonous gases into the local
environment sadly many shanty towns were located in the immediate vicinity of the plant in total
over 600 000 people were exposed to a deadly cloud of gas that night these particular gases
tend to remain fairly low to the ground countless people reported feeling nauseous and that their
eyes and throats began to burn and unfortunately many people lost their lives in the aftermath
estimates of the gas leaks death toll range from 3 800 to 16 000 and many people still
suffer physical and emotional scars from that night however much of the health data related to
the incident is still not available the indian council of medical research was forbidden from
publishing data in regards to the gas leak until 1984. the disaster occurred as a result of water
entering a tank filled with methyl isocyanate this led to a chemical reaction causing the temperature
inside the tank to reach over 392 degrees fahrenheit there are two main arguments as to why
this happened the first is that the union carbide india limited chemical plant was already in
very poor condition was under-maintained and had broken dozens of safety regulations prior to this
incident the other side of the argument is that it is not physically possible for water to have
entered the tank on its own and that human effort had to have played a role criminal and civil cases
were filed in the united states against ucc and warren anderson who was the ceo of the company
at the time of the disaster however these cases were repeatedly redirected and dismissed to indian
courts several times from 1986 to 2012 as of 2018 efforts to clean up the area remain stagnant
plant explosions happen all over the world like this one that occurred at a texas chemical plant
back in 2013 but one of if not the worst to ever happen was the gillen chemical plant explosion the
gyllen chemical explosion actually consists of a series of blasts that took place on november 13
2005 in jillian city china over the period of a single hour numerous explosions occurred at the
number 101 petrochemical plant that resulted in six deaths and dozens of injuries two days after
the explosions it was determined that the accident site had a nitration unit for aniline equipment
one tower was jammed up and not handled properly which ultimately led to the
explosions these blasts were so powerful that they completely shattered windows that were at least
650 feet away fires built up from the blasts that were not put out until the following day
more than 10 000 individuals had to be evacuated out of fear that more explosions could have been
imminent while initial reports thought that the explosion could have occurred as a result of
terrorism the company stated that it was a result of a chemical blockage that had not been fixed
the fallout from the explosions lasted more than just that day it significantly polluted the nearby
sanggwa river an estimated 100 tons of pollutants including nitrobenzene and benzene entered the
river exposure to benzene has been linked with leukemia and reduced red blood cell counts
the contaminants gradually flowed into the strait of tartari and then eventually into
the sea of japan the effects of the explosion also made their way to russia on december 16th
of that year the toxic slick that had entered the water arrived in the city of kabarovsk
granted the slick was severely diluted by this point but russia prepared by digging
extra wells and storing clean water before the slick reached the city
the great smog of 1952 refers to a significant air pollution event that overtook the city
of london in early december of 1952. it was marked by a period of unusually cold weather
including windless and anti-cyclone conditions however those factors didn't create the event
all their own or else this entry wouldn't make it on the list of man-made disasters
much of the smog was due to collected airborne pollutants mostly due to the city's heavy
reliance on coal while there had been smog events in the past nothing was on the same scale as this
it resulted in a huge disruption by limiting people's visibility the smog even made its way
into indoor areas government reports that were made in the weeks that followed found that nearly
4 000 people died as a result of the smog while an additional 100 000 people suffered illnesses
it was the worst smog event in the country's history so much so that it led to many changes
in regulations and practices the most important item to come out of this event is the clean air
act of 1956 which introduced numerous measures to severely limit air pollution in the area
there were mandates calling for smokeless fuels particularly in high population regions the bill
has undergone modifications over the years as well as a full repeal when the clean air
act came into effect in 1993 luckily nothing like london's great smog has occurred since
the minamata disaster has one of the most ominous openings out of any man-made disaster ever in the
mid-1950s people in the small japanese town of minamata began to notice cats going crazy
and falling into the sea many believed the cats were intentionally committing suicide
however the ailment that afflicted the cats soon made its way to people residents reported feeling
numb in the lips and limbs many began to have problems seeing or hearing and just like the cats
many people appeared to be going crazy and shouting uncontrollably something was affecting
their nervous systems it took until july of 1959 for the source of these ailments to be located
it all came down to people developing high levels of mercury poisoning which has since been named
minamata disease the immediate attention turned to a huge petrochemical plant run by the chiso
corporation that was dumping large amounts of mercury into the minamata bay when the fishermen
protested the chiso corporation the corporation made people sign deals these documents stated that
the company would compensate individuals for their illnesses but they would not accept any
present or future liability a lot of townspeople assuming this would be the only way to receive
any amount of compensation signed the paperwork it took until 1968 for chiso to stop poisoning
the waters around minamata in 2004 japan's supreme court ordered the government to pay
71.5 million yen which comes out to about 703 000 american dollars to the disease victims of
minamata in 2010 chiso was ordered to pay an additional 2.1 million yen in monthly
medical allowances for those still suffering all those decades later and that small town
still feels the impact of one company's negligence if you enjoyed this video then
be sure to click the link on screen to check out our video about the five worst natural disasters
in human history as always thank you all for watching and we hope to see you in the next one
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