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Scars of our PlanetR O B E R T O B O C A
Bhopal, Chernobyl, Fukushima,
Exxon Valdez, Prestige, Hiroshima,
Nagasaki, BP/Gulf of Mexico,
Bento Rodrigues/Brazil, are a collection
of man made environmental disasters
that changed forever huge areas
of our planet.
The aftermath of all of these
disasters shows the neglect way
which we take care of our planet,
always treated as an infinite good.
The tragic effects of these disasters
were never restricted to the places
where they occurred. The scope of its
destruction were so wide that today
they can be considered a collection
of scars of the Earth planet.
As in the explosion of an atomic bomb, the more immediate tragedy is the loss of life,
counted in numbers or just turned into estimates. But the horrors that succeed compromise
for ever the quality of general life beyond ground zero boundaries. The magnitude of this
kind of accidents perpetuate the destructive effect of the event itself.
The spill of at least 40 tons of methyl isocyanate from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide (Dow Chemicals) in the city of Bhopal in India in 1984, caused approximately 3.000 deaths.
It is estimated that over 10.000 occurred later as a result of diseases caused by the inhalation of gas, more 50.000 became incapacitated for work.
The water table and the entire basement of this region are forever doomed, and even today, cause severe health problems.
Bhopal India
The melting of the reactor at the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant in Ukraine in 1986, as well
cause immediate deaths, triggering what might
be called the exodus of panic in the nearby
towns. They became ghost towns. A gigantic
”sarcophagus” of concrete was built on the plant
for sealing it and isolate it from the rest of the
world. All equipment used in its construction,
trucks, cranes, tractors, helicopters and all the
remaining materials were buried in giant pits
after its completion in an attempt to halt
the spread of the contamination. Thousands
of people directly involved in the ”sarcophagus”
construction died as a result of the enormous
exposition to the radiation around.
The aerosols dispersed into the atmosphere
spread to much of the northeast of Europe,
reaching too many Eastern European countries.
Large amount of the population of Ukraine
contracted thyroid cancer, especially.
To this day, many children are born without
hands as a result of the malformation of
foetuses of pregnant women in the region.
The ”sarcophagus” already shows cracks
and infiltration of rainwaters carry their
contaminated waste underground. Chernobyl
is a immortalised threat.
Chernobyl Ukraine
The Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011,
caused by a tisunami that struck Japan, gave
us a painful lesson about the irresponsible
use of nuclear energy. Even with the high-tech
employed in the design stage, construction and
monitoring operations, the decision to building
a nuclear plant in a region of high incidence of
geological occurrences is a clear certificate of
stupidity. A huge portion of Japanese territory
was affected by the radiation.
The ocean that bathes that coast now shares
with the rest of the planet the ills generated
by the accident.
Fukushima Japan
Exxon Valdez and Prestige, two oil tankers that broke apart, releasing their loads of crude oil causing giant devastation and condemned huge amount marine life nurseries and shores close to the tragedy.
Exxon Valdez destroyed a good part of the Alaska’s coast line, and the Prestige the Galicia’s coast line in Spain. Like all the others tragedies, these two didn’t cause just localised destruction.
The dividend is global. It Is the planet and life as a whole that have being punished, losing what can no longer be repaired.
Exxon Valdez and PrestigeAlaska and Spain
The accident, which occurred in the deep water of Gulf of Mexico in 2010, caused by a leaking probe of the DeepWhater Horizon, a subsidiary of BP-British Petroleum, was so gigantic that even was not necessary to use special features on satellite photo reproduction to understand the size and severity of the damage.
A lot of marine life was lost. Many marine nurseries were destroyed and never will gonna be again what they were.
BP-British Petroleum Gulf of Mexico
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in 1945, represents a two shots from the civilisation in their own feet.
The tenfold ability to decimate achieved by the bomb will never compensated the perpetuation of its evil effects.
The planet is too small for such destruction. No victory can justify their use. There is a lack of courage to do it
again, unless some fanatic decide using their ”dirty” version, loaded in a suitcase seemingly harmless, they can
easily circumvent the most sophisticated means of detection and enter the target country. This version, has no
use as a bomb, but the effect of nuclear contamination is quite awesome.
Hiroshima and NagasakiJapan
Like an atomic bomb detonation, Bento Rodrigues was wiped out from Brasil’s map, as the Fundão and Santarem dams
broke up in 5 nov 2015, claiming 17 life by the mud tsunami that cover the entire village. The most immediate effect
of the brake up of the Fundão dams belonging to Samarco, a joint-venture between Vale S.A, a giant Brazilian mining
company and the anglo-australians BHP Billiton, counts 17 loss of life so far, but that is not the only aftermath.
Bento Rodrigues Brazil
Today, 5 June 2016 is the seventh month anniversary of the tragedy. 214 days have passed, and although many efforts have been made to minimize the suffering of those affected by the environmental damage, life never will gonna be what one day it was.
Since the event, it has been treat as simple disaster, although reports had shown that the mismanagement of the ore tailing dam by Samarco S.A., a giant Brazilian mining company, triggered what has been called a giant social environmental crime that added another scar to our planet.
An entire river, Rio Doce, from Bento Rodrigues, in the Minas Gerais state, and Regência city, its Atlantic Ocean mouth in the Espírito Santo state, the environment was altered forever. Profound changes in the lives of those sustained by the river have been severely compromised for ever.
Environmental crime dimension: ore tailings from Samarco’s collapsed dam reaches the Atlantic Ocean
The world need to pressure Brazilian authority despite the country sovereignty to minimise the negative environmental
impact and repair what is possible. As the ore tailings reach the Atlantic Ocean it is no just a social environmental
Brazilian problem anymore. As the disaster add up another huge scar on our planet, it also became a global issue.
The only way to share the responsibility between all the countries on keeping safe our planet,
is the immediate establishing of an international agency with the political power as the IAEA -
International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor all the activities that could put in risk the life
as a whole in our planet, like extracting, mining, logging, fishing, deforestation, etc. And this
is something that need to be put on the table right now. There is no time to spare in this issue.
In the case of the Rio Doce, definitely not. His metaphor doesn’t even apply to that.
A concluding thought of Gandhi, can now be remembered. He said:
”A man never enters twice into the same river”
