World

Worst American Disasters

by YankeeJim | June 22, 2010 at 08:30 am

593 views | 4 Recommendations | 9 comments

There is a great story in the Washington Post print edition today with a graphic identifying America’s worst disasters.

I think they left some things out, probably many, many disasters about which we are unaware or only locally cognizant. Here is what WP has on its list:

· BP oil spill is among the worst.

· Dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay

· Exxon Valdez

· Three Mile Island

· DDT

· The Dust Bowl

· Bison Slaughter

Notably absent about which I am aware, is the United States Navy’s trashing of San Francisco Bay that will take 10 million years of natural restoration to recover. Of course, there was the Love Canal too. Then there is the cleaning stuff I use to get the scum off of the bathtub, and the Cascade dish powder that we use so liberally.

Don't forget the Conan O'Brien disaster, and the Michael Richards disaster.

Then Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan...etc.

“Historians debate designation of 'worst environmental disaster' in U.S.
So, was he right?

Historians, predictably, say that depends on what he meant by "worst" and "disaster." The Dust Bowl of the 1930s caused more social upheaval. The Exxon Valdez spill had a higher wildlife death toll. The pesticide DDT affected a wider swath of the country.

But just asking the question reveals a depressing truth about the current catastrophe. It has a great deal in common with the others: private interests that took risks in search of a payoff; a government that wasn't trying hard enough to stop them.

The Deepwater Horizon rig sank on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. That was a special irony: It happened on a day that promised that Americans had learned from their mistakes.”

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batvette

at 10:00 on June 22nd, 2010

I've been pondering that once the actual leak curtails, cleaning up the gulf will only be a couple of Katrinas away...

as oil IS a naturally occuring substance, I wonder how many times in pre-human history large quantities of it mixed into the non-fossil fuels environment and damaged wildlife filled areas, yet man and his cameras were not there to record the suffering?

Anyway I keep thinking now I know why the Los Angeles tourist attraction, the La Bea Tar Pits, has a fence around it. So visitors do not become part of the exhibit.

YankeeJim

at 10:30 on June 22nd, 2010

I can point to the La Brea tar pits, for instance, in Los Angeles.

LCoastMom

at 10:48 on June 22nd, 2010

A couple weeks ago I watched a special on one of the LA news channels. Scientists have collected DNA from several prehistoric animals (including CA's woolly mammoth) in the hopes of someday cloning them and bringing them back to life.

That sounds to me like a huge accident in the making. Our overextended planet is fighting a losing battle at supporting the "animals" who roam free today.

While studying the existence and finding what caused the extinction of animals who had free reign for hundreds of thousands of years is interesting and beneficial; bringing them back sits wrong with me on every level.

Maybe Jurassic Park (the book) was just too well written.

YankeeJim

at 10:55 on June 22nd, 2010

Oh, don't worry. It was Nordstrom's that wanted the Woolies back. They want to create a new line of winter coats. Their plan is to recreate and recreate over and over, harvesting and keeping us all comfy. It's a green thing to do.

batvette

at 13:13 on June 22nd, 2010

Imagine Ringling Bros/Barnum and Bailey coming to town with a group of Wooley Mammoths and Sabre Tooth Tigers... got to shore up a fading industry there.

Or maybe those two Las Vegas guys (Hans and Franz?) will finally meet their maker with one of those cats.

Genetic engineering. Good until it goes bad, or Monsanto owns it.

YankeeJim

at 14:18 on June 22nd, 2010

Excellent comments batvette. I call them Fliden and Diden.

LCoastMom

at 12:40 on June 22nd, 2010

Hmmm imagine that campaign! Family sized coats and woolly rugs that can cover your full floor plan. Interesting, smelly but interesting.

Remember when cows were being blamed for the loss of ozone? Just think what a herd of WM could do!

YankeeJim

at 14:19 on June 22nd, 2010

I saw them advertised by Target last Christmas. You could move the whole family down by the river and live in those blankets. Don't bother with the electric ones. Made in China and will burn out if they don't set your house on fire.