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| April 26, 1986. unauthorized safety test leads to fire and explosion at nuclear power plants-->millions exposes to unsafe levels of radiation |
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| Three-Mile Island, Pennsylvania |
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| March 29, 1979. nuclear power plant loses cooling water 50% of core melts, radioactive materials escape into atmosphere, near meltdown |
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| controversial as proposed site for permanent storage of high-level nuclear waste, 70-miles northwest of Las Vegas, near volcano and earthquake faults |
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| Aral Sea, Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan(former Soviet Union) |
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Definition
| large inland sea is drying up as a result of water diversion |
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| chemicals buried in old canal, school and homes built over it led to birth defects and cancers |
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| silt that made the Nile region fertile fills the reservoir, lack of irrigation controls causes waterlogging and salinization, parasitic disease schistosomiasis thrives in stagnant water of reservior |
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| world's largest dam on Yangtze River will drown ecosystems, cities, archeological sites, fragment habitats, and displace 2 million people |
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| world's largest aquifer; under parts of Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. hold enough water to cover US with 1.5 feet of water, being depleted for agricultural and urban use |
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Definition
| mental impairments, birth defects, deaths caused by mercury dumped in Minamata Bay by factory-->entered humans through fish diet |
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Definition
| December 2, 1984. methyl isocyanate released accidentally by Union Carbide pesticide plants kills over 5000 |
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Definition
| March 24, 1989. tanker Exxon Valdez hits submerged rocks in Prince William Sound-->worst oil spill in US waters (until BP) |
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