Humans have been responsible for numerous environmental disasters throughout history. Examples include Fukushima, Three Miles Island, Chernobyl, Deep Water Horizon, Exxon Valdez, Hudson River, Love Canal, Times Beach, Minamata, Bhopal, Seveso, Flint Water Crisis, and the Dust Bowl, to name a few.
Research one environmental disaster and briefly describe what happened, when and where it happened, what it was caused by, what effects it had/has on human health and the environment, and what – if anything – we learned from it to prevent a recurrence. Could this disaster be prevented by better environmental and risk management decisions?
In addition to major environmental disasters, there are also potential risks to human health resulting from exposure to chemicals in the environment, which was discussed in TED Talk “Toxic Baby” with Tyrone Hayes and Penelope Jagessar Chaffer.
What was the most surprising or interesting new thing you learned from this TED Talk? Have you heard of the issues discussed in this talk previously?
