In spite of the large amount of talk we heard in 2010, all covering environmental issues, the large number of environmental disasters, mostly man made are here to remind us how little we care.
If we would take a step back and analyze how we managed to allow so many terrible events to happen, we will see that the road towards the responsible world we want to be is quite long.
2010 was quite a champion as oil spills go. BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the most impressive one and the whole world trembled at the sight of 185 millions gallons spilled all over the Gulf. It contaminated everything and destroyed marine life beyond repair – changing an amazing ecosystem into a waste land.
The 800,000 gallons dropped into the Kalamazoo River and then into the Michigan Lake were a small drop by comparison but they were equally deadly.
The complex environmental changes caused by pollution created major bumps in the climate and with them huge issues in the form of storms and heat waves swept over the land.
Russia bowed under a heat wave without precedent, which tormented Moscow with temperatures and smog worthy of the worst tropical heat crushing the agriculture in the area.
Fire tornadoes in Brazil and Hawaii caused severe droughts scorching the land and making it look like a dessert.
The Hurricane Season made “Earl†far more dangerous than expected. Category 3 storms swept over Haiti and the Atlantic islands and as result the damage over the poorer nations of this area was even more obvious.
Hungary met the danger of a toxic sludge without precedent. Bauxite infested waters spread over the surface of a town living behind a red sea of disaster.
As toxic spills are concerned China was the champion of 2010. The copper mining spill contaminated the waters of Ting River and spread over the land killing fish and destroying everything in their path. The champion medal was awarded here because according to the specialists evaluating the disaster, the spill was purely intentional.
Pollution reached the sky and the sea. Philippines saw the corals getting bleached and Pakistan was trapped under raging waters. Haiti land slid because of deforestation and this disaster was completed by the worst earthquake in the country’s history.
Could it be that the Earth has finally decided to fight back?
