Episode 53: Great Environmental Disasters

The Dust Bowl in the 1930s caused by extensive soil erosion in the southern plains region of the United States, led to  severe dust storms during a period of extensive drought. For five days in December 1952, the Great Smog of London smothered the city, wreaking havoc and killing thousands. In the early 1950s, the Minamata Bay was the center of the outbreak of the Minamata Disease caused by Mercury poisoning caused by toxic waste from the nearby Chisso Chemical Plant. In December 1984, the world's worst industrial disaster happened in the City of Bhopal in India after the poisonous gas Methyl Isocyanate leaked from the local Union Carbide plant.