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List Of Environmental Disasters
This article is a list of environmental disasters. In this context it is an annotated list of specific events caused by human activity that results in a negative effect on the environment. Environmental disasters by category Agricultural * Mismanagement and shrinking of the Aral Sea * Salinity in Australia * Salinization of the Fertile Crescent * The Dust Bowl in Canada and the United States (1934–1939) * The Great sparrow campaign; sparrows were eliminated from Chinese farms, which caused locusts to swarm the farms and contributed to a famine which killed 38 million people. * Africanized bees, known colloquially as "killer bees" * " Dirty dairying" in New Zealand * Salton Sea California, U.S. Biodiversity * 2006 Zakouma elephant slaughter * Chestnut blight * Decline of vultures in India due to Diclofenac leading to increased incidence of rabies * Deforestation of Easter Island * Destruction of the old growth forests * Devil facial tumour disease * Dutch Elm Disease * Eme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Environment (biophysical)
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale from microscopic to global in extent. It can also be subdivided according to its attributes. Examples include the marine environment, the atmospheric environment and the terrestrial environment. The number of biophysical environments is countless, given that each living organism has its own environment. The term ''environment'' can refer to a singular global environment in relation to humanity, or a local biophysical environment, e.g. the UK's Environment Agency. Life-environment interaction All life that has survived must have adapted to the conditions of its environment. Temperature, light, humidity, soil nutrients, etc., all influence the species within an environment. However, life in turn modifies, in various forms, its conditions. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Devil Facial Tumour Disease
Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is an aggressive non-viral clonally transmissible cancer which affects Tasmanian devils, a marsupial native to Australia. DFTD was first described in 1996. In the subsequent decade the disease ravaged Tasmania's wild devils. Affected high-density populations had up to 100% mortality in 12–18 months. Between 1996 and 2015, DFTD wiped out 95% of affected populations. Clinical signs There is often more than one primary tumour. Visible signs of DFTD begin with lumps of soft tissue around the mouth, which ulcerate. Tumours are locally aggressive, destroying the underlying bone of the jaw which interferes with feeding. Tumours may also cover the eyes. Devils usually die within six months from organ failure, secondary infection, or metabolic starvation. DFTD is rare in juveniles. It affects males and females equally. Transmission The most plausible route of transmission is through biting, particularly when canine teeth come into direct contact with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rabbits In Australia
European rabbits (''Oryctolagus cuniculus'') were first introduced to Australia in the 18th century with the First Fleet, and later became widespread likely because of Thomas Austin (pastoralist), Thomas Austin. Such wild rabbit populations are a serious mammalian Pest (organism), pest and invasive species in Australia causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage to crops. Their spread may have been enhanced through the emergence of strong crossbreeds. Various methods in the 20th century have been attempted to control the Australian rabbit population. Conventional methods include shooting rabbits and destroying their warrens, but these had only limited success. From 1901 to 1907, a rabbit-proof fence was built in Western Australia in an unsuccessful attempt to contain the rabbits. The'' myxoma virus'', which causes myxomatosis, was introduced into the rabbit population in the 1950s and had the effect of severely reducing the rabbit population. However, the survivors have since a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercury Contamination In Grassy Narrows
Mercury contamination in Grassy Narrows, was the man-made contamination of the Wabigoon River in Ontario, Canada. The contamination was described as "one of the worst cases of environmental poisoning in Canadian history" and is linked to an uncontrolled discharge of between and of mercury from the Dryden Mill's chloralkali plant in Dryden into the headwaters of the -long Wabigoon River on Lake Wabigoon in the Kenora District of Northwestern Ontario from 1962 until 1970. The Wabigoon River forms a vast river system English River— which includes many lakes and tributaries— together they flow west to the Winnipeg River. Numerous lakes in rivers in the aquatic ecosystem had "extensive mercury contamination" by 1970, leading to the closure of the commercial fishery and some tourism related businesses. The glacial clay of the area is believed to have facilitated the bioaccumulation of mercury in rivers and lakes in the ecosystem. The first major lake downstream from the Dryde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after Lake Superior in North America. In terms of volume, Lake Victoria is the world's ninth-largest continental lake, containing about of water. Lake Victoria occupies a shallow depression in Africa. The lake has an average depth of and a maximum depth of .United Nations, ''Development and Harmonisation of Environmental Laws Volume 1: Report on the Legal and Institutional Issues in the Lake Victoria Basin'', United Nations, 1999, page 17 Its catchment area covers . The lake has a shoreline of when digitized at the 1:25,000 level, with islands constituting 3.7% of this length. The lake's area is divided among three countries: Kenya occupies 6% (), Uganda 45% (), and Tanzania 49% (). Though having multiple local language names ( luo, Nam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nile Perch
The Nile perch (''Lates niloticus''), also known as the African snook, Goliath perch, African barramundi , Goliath barramundi, Giant lates or the Victoria perch, is a species of freshwater fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. It is widespread throughout much of the Afrotropical realm, being native to the Congo, Nile, Senegal, Niger and Lake Chad, Volta, Lake Turkana, and other river basins. It also occurs in the brackish waters of Lake Maryut in Egypt. The Nile perch is a fish of substantial economic and food-security importance in East Africa. Originally described as ''Labrus niloticus,'' among the marine wrasses, the species has also been referred to as ''Centropomus niloticus''. Common names include African snook, Victoria perch (a misleading trade name, as the species is not native to Lake Victoria, though they have been introduced there), and many local names in various African languages, such as the Luo name ''mbuta'' or ''mputa''. In Tanzania, it is called '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invasive Species In New Zealand
A number of introduced species, some of which have become invasive species, have been added to New Zealand's native flora and fauna. Both deliberate and accidental introductions have been made from the time of the first human settlement, with several waves of Polynesian people at some time before the year 1300, followed by Europeans after 1769. Almost without exception, the introduced species have been detrimental to the native flora and fauna but some, such as farmed sheep and cows and the clover upon which they feed, now form a large part of the economy of New Zealand. Registers, lists and indexes of species that are invasive, potentially invasive, or a threat to agriculture or biodiversity are maintained by Biosecurity New Zealand. Animal species Many invasive animal species are listed in schedules 5 and 6 of the Wildlife Act 1953. Those in Schedule 5 have no protection and may be killed. Those in Schedule 6 are declared to be noxious animals and subject to the Wild A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island (; formerly Lord Howe's Island) is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, northeast of Sydney, and about southwest of Norfolk Island. It is about long and between wide with an area of , though just of that comprise the low-lying developed part of the island. Along the west coast is a sandy semi-enclosed sheltered coral reef lagoon. Most of the population lives in the north, while the south is dominated by forested hills rising to the highest point on the island, Mount Gower (). The Lord Howe Island Group comprises 28 islands, islets, and rocks. Apart from Lord Howe Island itself, the most notable of these is the volcanic and uninhabited Ball's Pyramid about to the southeast of Howe. To the north lies a cluster of seven small uninhabited islands called the Admiralty Group. The first repo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SS Makambo
SS ''Makambo'' was a steamship first owned by Burns Philp & Co. Ltd. She was built in Port Glasgow in Scotland and named after an island in the Solomon Islands. She carried both passengers and cargo and was principally used on routes between eastern Australia and islands in Melanesia and the Tasman Sea. In November 1908 Jack and Charmian London travelled from Guadalcanal to Sydney on the ''Makambo'' after abandoning their ill-fated circumnavigation of the world on the ''Snark'', a 45' sailing yawl. Between 1910 and 1931, she travelled a regular route between Sydney and Port Vila in the New Hebrides, with stops at Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. On 1 August 1921, the ''Makambos captain sent, by radio, the first report that flotsam from the missing cargo steamer SS ''Canastota'' had washed ashore at Lord Howe Island. She was acquired in 1939 by Okada Gumi KK of Osaka, Japan, and renamed ''Kainan Maru''. She was torpedoed and sunk on 12 June 1944 by the British sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Net
Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded in the ocean. These nets, often nearly invisible in the dim light, can be left tangled on a rocky reef or drifting in the open sea. They can entangle fish, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, dugongs, crocodiles, seabirds, crabs, and other creatures, including the occasional human diver. Acting as designed, the nets restrict movement, causing starvation, laceration and infection, and suffocation in those that need to return to the surface to breathe. It's estimated that around 48,000 tons of ghost nets are generated each year, and these may linger in the oceans for a considerable time before breaking-up. Description Some commercial fishermen use gillnets. These are suspended in the sea by flotation buoys, such as glass floats, along one edge. In this way they can form a vertical wall hundreds of metres long, where any fish within a certain size range can be caught. Normally these nets are collecte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four Pests Campaign
The Four Pests campaign (), was one of the first actions taken in the Great Leap Forward in China from 1958 to 1962. The four pests to be eliminated were rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. The extermination of sparrows is also known as the smash sparrows campaign () or eliminate sparrows campaign (), which resulted in severe ecological imbalance, being one of the causes of the Great Chinese Famine. In 1960, the campaign against sparrows was ended and redirected to bed bugs. Campaign The "Four Pests" campaign was introduced in 1958 as a hygiene campaign aimed to eradicate the pests responsible for the transmission of pestilence and disease: * the mosquitos responsible for malaria * the rodents that spread the plague * the pervasive airborne flies * the sparrows—specifically the Eurasian tree sparrow—which ate grain seed and fruit Sparrows Sparrows were suspected of consuming approximately 2 kg (4 pounds) of grain per sparrow per year. Sparrow nests were destroyed, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Megafauna
The term Australian megafauna refers to the megafauna in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch. Most of these species became extinct during the latter half of the Pleistocene, and the roles of human and climatic factors in their extinction are contested. There are similarities between the prehistoric Australian megafauna and some mythical creatures from the Aboriginal Dreamtime. Causes of extinction Many modern researchers, including Tim Flannery, think that with the arrival of early Aboriginal Australians (around 70,000~65,000 years ago), hunting and the use of fire to manage their environment may have contributed to the extinction of the megafauna. Increased aridity during peak glaciation (about 18,000 years ago) may have also contributed, but most of the megafauna were already extinct by this time. Others, including Steve Wroe, note that records in the Australian Pleistocene are rare, and there is not enough data to definitively determine the time of extinction of many o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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