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The oil slick as seen from space by NASA's Terra satellite on 24 May 2010. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been described as the worst environmental disaster in the United States, releasing about 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 m 3) of crude oil making it the largest marine oil spill in history.
The main long-term effect is through global climate change, which reduces the temperature globally by about 5–15 °C for a decade, together with the direct effects of the deposits of ash on their crops. A large supervolcano like Toba would deposit one or two meters thickness of ash over an area of several million square kilometers.
The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity. The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian geologist Alexey Pavlov, and it was first used in English by British ecologist Arthur Tansley in reference to human influences on climax plant communities. [33]
Environmental disasters show how the impact of humans' alteration of the land has led to widespread and/or long-lasting consequences. [3] These disasters have included deaths of wildlife, humans and plants, or severe disruption of human life or health, possibly requiring migration. [4] Some environmental disasters are the trigger source of more ...
Explosives, such as TNT, DNT, and RDX, cause chemical pollution and induce acute intoxication and long-term mutagenic effects in people. TNT is easily absorbed through skin and mucous membranes. Depending on the dose, its cancerogenic effects can induce alopecia, anemia, liver failure, and cataracts, and change blood composition.
The term "disaster" itself is defined as follows: "Disasters are serious disruptions to the functioning of a community that exceed its capacity to cope using its own resources. Disasters can be caused by natural, man-made and technological hazards , as well as various factors that influence the exposure and vulnerability of a community."
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The long-term effects of climate change on oceans include further ice melt, ocean warming, sea level rise, ocean acidification and ocean deoxygenation. [208] The timescale of long-term impacts are centuries to millennia due to CO 2 's long atmospheric lifetime. [ 209 ]