The Worst Man Made Disaster In History?

Fukushima? BP Oil Spill? Chernobyl? Monika Lewinsky?? Each year the latest disaster seems to be the biggest yet, but could it be that a seemingly benign amphibian could hold the title?

I nominate the Cane Toad Invasion of Australia.





Released in 1935 to control Cane Beatles, they didn't seem to have much impact on those pests while posing an existential risk to the balance of the entire food chain down under. Marching onward across the continent they've reached todays estimated 200 million toads covering over a million square kilometers, they've apparently even evolved longer legsa during their time their allowing them to travel even further than their ancestors first released in 1935.




So could it be that peoples desire for sweet sugar has proven far more destructive to ecology than peoples thirst for energy and transportation?

Saddam polluted the atmosphere by setting fire to oilfields. This has been said to be the worst man made disaster. He wanted to get the attention of the world and it worked. Few know that it was in retaliation for slant drilling.

It happened a few generations ago now. Most that there were there, or managed to live through it have passed on now or are very old.

It had a death toll of between 48 million and over 60 million. That doesn't even begin to touch the environmental damage.

WWII - apporox 60million dead. I'd give this my vote as the greatest man made disaster.

reply to post by earthdude

?? We must have been watching a different war... I saw Saddam's forces on CNN, torch the fields in a literal scorched earth policy as they realized Kuwait was lost regardless and it was time to take the booty and burn the rest.


Man made disaster for all time though, I have to say Chernobyl for what has actually happened and been documented in a real world way. Fukushima for the all time, no challenge record for what can be reasonably expected to happen based on past events.

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


Not the biggest disaster, its not a worldwide issue. I'd nominate the japanese earthquake/nuclear meltdown. On topic of cane toads though they must be one of the most resilient creatures in the world, in 80 years they have gone from a small pocket on the east side of australia to being found over 3000km away. They also have the poison gland which means that animals that eat them perish and a single batch of eggs can have hundreds of offspring. They are reasonably fun to hunt though I spent many evenings with a cricket bat clobbering when I was a child.

Originally posted by earthdude
Saddam polluted the atmosphere by setting fire to oilfields. This has been said to be the worst man made disaster. He wanted to get the attention of the world and it worked. Few know that it was in retaliation for slant drilling.

There was this sickening act as well..

articles.cnn.com...:WORLD

Environmental disasters? I'm going with Fukushima, based on long term damage and widespread effects. IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE ANOTHER FUKUSHIMA. We're screwed.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Hey dude
As a poster I usually pay a little more attention to you as your post are generally very insightfull and educated
However the poster above was correct to a certain extent
Kuwait was indeed cross border drilling
The rigs were on the Kuwait side of the border however the wells were drilled at such an angle as to access oil reserves on the Iraq side of the border and indeed these were destroyed in the retreat

I have also heard that similar events are taking place now through Azerbaijan and BP cross drilling into Iran

I am no longer within certain circles however my source is very trustworthy

The Worst Man Made Disaster In History?

As far as man-made disasters to date? I'd have to nominate WW2... that left so much of Europe and Asia decimated that it took almost 40 years for it to completely recover... if it ever truly has.

WW2 now thats a quantifiable example!

I encourage you Fukushima people to watch that Chernobyl documentary I posted part 1 of. It shows animals flourishing there in the absense of humans. THere are other documentaries like it including "Chernobyl A Natural History" and "Radioactive Wolves". I argue that the cane toad is already leaving a trail of very quantifiable ecosystem destruction for which there appears to be no recovery. They're not even finished trouncing arcoss the continent there. Chernobyl caused no extinction, instead that area is one of the final refuge for several near-extinct species that are both introduced and have appeared spontaneously.

Its quite the opposite with the cane toad theres no telling how many species may go exinct as they eat all the food their contemporaries eat, they eat their contemporaries, and when predators try to eat them for the first time they dont live on to learn their lesson. Most of those cool large snakes, crocodiles and monitor lizards we grew up watching Steve Irwin capture with his hands die when they try and eat this creature which are in swarms quite literally everywhere they've made it to.

The USA having a government is going to be the worst man made disaster in history.
Mark my words people.

I'm gonna go with THE GREAT DEPRESSION (1930 - 1945). Those people had it BAD!!!

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s. It was the longest, most widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century.[2]

I thought this was pretty interesting, regarding Nazi Germany:

In July 1933, the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring calling for compulsory sterilization of the "inferior" was passed. This major eugenic policy led to over 200 Hereditary Health Courts (Erbgesundheitsgerichte) being set up, under whose rulings over 400,000 people were sterilized against their will during the Nazi period.

During that time there was also: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Holocaust. Talk about a combination of disasters?

Yeah....i'd say THE GREAT DEPRESSION! HANDS DOWN!!! Toads???? REALLY??????

Where is the PANIC button?

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


The Bhopal Disaster has to rank among the worst man made disaters. The Union Carbide plant was the cause. Hundreds of thousands people effected and it's still on going:-

en.wikipedia.org...

WWII probably, but Chernobyl and the combined Kuwati Oil fires and the big oil spill into the Persian Gulf during that war (which utterly dwarfs the BP disaster) are up there.

The ecological disasters that accompanied China's Great Leap Forward backyard steel production fiasco, which denuded much of the countryside of its trees to feed furnaces producing steel of little or no value, as well as the Four Pests Campaign, which led to the killing off of millions of sparrows, however the sparrows ate insects, which in turn ate crops, so without the sparrows the insects feasted on crops that year greatly contributing to a famine that killed 30 million people.

speaking from a purely biblical and/or christian perspective, it would be the moment that eve ate of the forbidden fruit.

Originally posted by Lawgiver
speaking from a purely biblical and/or christian perspective, it would be the moment that eve ate of the forbidden fruit.

I dont think that qualifies. Sin was brought forth by DISOBEDIENCE, and not by the act! She just didn't listen, and Adam didn't take authority over her. Instead, he listened to her voice; and disobeyed God's. THAT was the sin!

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


The beginning and continuation of the industrial age has been the worst thing humans collectively have done to this planet. Before the industrial age you could drink from all rivers in north America, now you can't drink from any.

My vote is the election of the last two US. Presidents GWB and BHO. The destruction and cost won't be fully realized for at least 10 years.

That's in recent times I think of all time it would have to be the European conquest of the new world.

Funny how some of these disasters were caused by one person. In Chernobyl one supervisor did something stupid. Saddam gave the order to pollute, Mao was shortsighted, and I once talked to a guy on the Exxon Valdez who drove her onto the rocks.

Originally posted by Neocrusader
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Hey dude
As a poster I usually pay a little more attention to you as your post are generally very insightfull and educated
However the poster above was correct to a certain extent
Kuwait was indeed cross border drilling
The rigs were on the Kuwait side of the border however the wells were drilled at such an angle as to access oil reserves on the Iraq side of the border and indeed these were destroyed in the retreat

I have also heard that similar events are taking place now through Azerbaijan and BP cross drilling into Iran

I am no longer within certain circles however my source is very trustworthy

A very polite and educated response to a controversial part of history. At one time you could see the slant drilling rigs on Google Earth, I failed to save them. My sources are not trustworthy, but the logic behind all that transpired is sound. It seems the disasters that make land areas uninhabitable are the worst and making the clouds around the entire planet sooty, was sort of a prank.