20th Century Environment

By: Vijval Rajan, Noah Price, Lauren Victory, Kainat Aslam

Introduction

Cause For Construction

Disaster

Immediate Effects

Long Term Effects

Clean Up and Changes

Chemical Releases•The Bhopal Disaster occurred in Bhopal, India

•The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill occurred by Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska

•The Love Canal Incident happened in Niagara Falls, New York

On 12/2/84, a pesticide plant in

Bhopal, India leaked methyl isocynate gas.

Bhopal

The gases created a dense toxic cloud over the

region that killed more than 20,000

people.

Exxon ValdezIn March 1989, an Exxon supertanker hit a Reef, ruptured and spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into an Alaskan sound.

Love Canal22,000 tons of mixed chemical wastes were buried in the ground at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY in 1953. Then a school and houses were built on top of the site. The toxic waste

eventually bubbled up into backyards and cellars. After years of protest, hundreds of families were able to sell their houses to the federal government and evacuate Love Canal.

Genetically Modified Crops• Made through a process called “genetic engineering”

• Desired genes can be inserted into the crop from another plant even if they aren’t closely related

• The genes can be inserted in 2 ways: the “gene gun” or through a bacterium

• Benefits: Higher crop yields, reduced farm costs, increased farm profit, improvement in health and the environment

• In 2011 there were 29 countries utilizing this technology, and GM crops went up from using 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 160 million hectares of land in 2011

• Specific potential for developing countries, but there are problems like corrupt government, no money to invest in the research of GM crops and no way to implement the strict health codes monitoring the sale of these crops

The Green Revolution

• Attributed to Norman Borlaug, an agriculturalist working in Mexico in the 1940’s, trying to help poor Mexican farmers by increasing crop yields

• After much research, he bred a rust, disease, and herbicide resistant dwarf-sized wheat strain that increased wheat production 6 fold

Effects of the green revolution• In the Mid 20th century, Pakistan and India were

on the brink of famine because of uncontrolled population growth, and the Green Revolution doubled their rice production, and changed them from being a major importer of rice (about 50% of the rice consumed was imported), to having a food surplus and becoming a rice exporter

• Though at first Borlaug dismissed all of the concerns that sprang up about the Green Revolution, he later realized the validity of concerns about the dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and reduction of genetic diversity