– chemical, nuclear, basic garbage, electronic waste – have seriously ruined our environment. Many locations have been so drastically impacted that living in them is a near impossibility. Chernobyl, Ukraine is a great example, the town witnessed the worst nuclear power plant accident in human history and since then has been an uninhabitable ghost town.
Although this list doesn’t feature
any locations in the United States, they do exist. There are a number of
sites that have been declared extremely toxic such as Love Canal, New
York, Tar Creek, Oklahoma, and Gowanus Canal, New York. A recent case
for alarm is a practice called Hydraulic Fracturing, or Fracking, which
is a perfect example of modern day methods that have been linked to
pollution of water and air. Mountaintop Removal is another controversial
practice that is known to tarnish local water and wildlife.
Linfen, China: Los
Angeles smog would be considered a ‘good day’ compared to the air
pollution in Linfen and it’s considered the “most polluted city in the
world.” The reason behind the pollution is credited to industrial
manufacturing and automobile pollution. The air here is apparently so
bad that leaving your clothes out to air dry can turn them black.
The Great Pacific Garage Patch:
Mainly consisting of plastic waste, an island over two times the size
of Texas and over thirty feet deep floats in the Pacific Ocean.
Rondonia, Brazil: This
is the most deforested region of the Amazon Rainforest. Trees in
thousands upon thousands of acres of area have been slashed and burned
down. The once green area has now been replaced with cattle.
Yamuna River: Although
serious attempts have been made by the government to clean it up, the
Yamuna River in India continues to be tarnished by waste. The city of
New Dehli alone contributes about 3,296 MLD of sewage per day. An amount
too much for the underfunded treatment facilities to handle.
La Oroya, Peru: The lead
smelter in this town, run by a North American company Doe Run, is
responsible for the huge amounts of lead that has polluted the city.
About all children living in the neighborhood have been tested and there
has been lead found in their bloodstream, at very unacceptable levels.
Lake Karachay, Russia:
The amount of radiation from nuclear waste dumping is so strong that a
person can get a lethal dose within an hour of being in the area. Cancer
is a huge issue amongst the workers in the nuclear facility. There are
many cases of childbirth defects and leukemia in the surrounding area.
There is also a concern regarding the spread of radioactivity in distant
areas air and river water.
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