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Agent Orange use by the United States during the Vietnam War, resulting in lasting serious health effects on the Vietnamese population, such as cancer, nervous system disorders, and countless related fatalities; Cancer Alley; Goiânia accident, human deaths resulting from dismantling a scrapped medical machine containing a source of radioactivity
A natural disaster is the highly harmful impact on a society or community following a natural hazard event. The term "disaster" itself is defined as follows: "Disasters are serious disruptions to the functioning of a community that exceed its capacity to cope using its own resources.
Natural disasters avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides, tropical cyclones, volcanic activity Nuclear issues — Nuclear fallout • Nuclear meltdown • Nuclear power • Nuclear weapons • Nuclear and radiation accidents • Nuclear safety • High-level radioactive waste management
The World Scientists' Warning to Humanity in 1992 begins with: "Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course". About 1,700 of the world's leading scientists, including most Nobel Prize laureates in the sciences, signed this warning letter. The letter mentions severe damage to the atmosphere, oceans, ecosystems, soil productivity ...
Some scholars believe that the projected peak global population of roughly 9-10 billion people could live sustainably within the earth's ecosystems if humans worked to live sustainably within planetary boundaries. [6] [7] [8] The bulk of environmental impacts are caused by excessive consumption of industrial goods by the world's wealthiest ...
An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity. [2] This point distinguishes environmental disasters from other disturbances such as natural disasters and intentional acts of war such as nuclear bombings .
The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is all living and non-living things that occur naturally on Earth or some part of it (e.g. the natural environment in a country).
In hazard identification, sources of data on the risks associated with prospective hazards are identified. For instance, if a site is known to be contaminated with a variety of industrial pollutants, hazard identification will determine which of these chemicals could result in adverse human health effects, and what effects they could cause ...