SOME OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS THAT OCCURS IN THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD

 The following are some of the environmental hazards that occur in different parts of the world.

Tropical cyclones

Powerful winds like Tropical Cyclones cause havoc in the environment over which they prevail. The cyclones are formed by depression (areas of low pressure). they are called hurricanes in Caribbean, typhoons in Far East, Willy Willies in Australia and Tornadoes in North America.

Waterspouts

these are violent whirling winds that form funnels of water that cause turbulence in the inland water bodies such as lakes. In Kenya, they have destroyed buildings (e.g. carrying away of classroom roofs), capsizing boats and destroying fishermen’s nets in Lake Victoria.

Seismic disturbances

earthquakes cause a lot of damage to buildings, interfere with transport and communication and cause loss of life. Mild earthquakes are called tremors.

Earthquakes may also cause Tsunami like the one that occurred in 2004 in the pacific highlands and felt upto the East African Coast.

Volcanic Eruption

volcanic activities are usually violent resulting in damage to property and loss of life. For example, Mt. Nyiragongo in DRC erupted in 2000 killing more than 6000 people and altering the ecosystem.

Toxic gases

Whenever gas leakages in industrial plants occur, a lot of damage is witnessed.

An accident on the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in Russia in 1984 led to the death of 5000 people and hundreds deformed.

Fires

Fierce fires on residential buildings are usually caused by kerosene, stoves, candles or electric faults. Such fires cause deaths and destroy property. In 2000, an oil pipeline exploded in Nigeria killing 100 people in a radius of 20km.

Oil spills

Tractors and Lorries spill oils on roads, which not only make the roads slippery and dangerous but also choke vegetation and may kill animals if it gets in rivers.

In 2005, a vessel spilled 150 tonnes of crude oil into the sea at the port of Mombasa

Drought and desertification

Drought is the Deficiency of water in the ground, stream, lakes and reservoirs resulting in prolonged deficiency of rain e.g. the drought experienced in the year 1984.

It makes millions of people vulnerable to food shortages

RELATED POSTS

IMPORTANCE OF SOIL STRUCTURE   

7 CHARACTERISTICS OF EQUATORIAL CLIMATE  

7 ADVANTAGES OF WETLANDS   

7 FACTORS INFLUENCING MASS WASTING  

5 CONDITIONS FOR EXISTENCE OF CORAL REEFS  

3 TYPES OF WEATHERING AND THEIR PROCESSES  

6 LANDFORMS OF HIGHLANDS GLACIATION

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF OCEAN BREEZE AND SEA BREEZE

PLATE TECTONICS THEORY EXPLAINED

9 CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMERCIAL LIVESTOCK FARMING

Characteristics of tropical northern climate

12 FACTORS THAT FAVOURED THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ASWAN HIGH DAM PROJECT IN EGYPT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 TIPS TO PRESERVE THE ENVIRONMENT IN CANADA

Image
  What does it mean to be an environmentally friendly person? For many, this means recycling your trash, turning off the lights when you leave the room, or using an energy-efficient car. These are all great ways to make your mark on the environment, but at the end of the day, there’s only so much one person can do to mitigate pollution and destruction of the natural world around them. Fortunately, Canada has made strides in recent years to preserve its environment and protect its plant and animal species from destruction and extinction. Here are ten ways you can do your part to help preserve the environment in Canada. Reduce Your Carbon Footprint For as long as humans have been around, we’ve polluted and degraded our natural environment. Now is a great time to change that dynamic. Here are 10 ways you can reduce your carbon footprint and help clean up Mother Nature’s air.  Compost – Recycle – Reuse If you’re making a concerted effort to preserve the environment, it’s worth che...
Read more

5 TYPES OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES

Image
  Human activities are functions, tasks, or works done by human beings over time for achieving certain purposes. In total there are five types of human activities namely primary human activities, secondary human activities, tertiary human activities, quaternary human activities, and quinary human activities. These types of human activities together with their examples are going to be explained one by one below. The following are five types of human activities Primary human activities are human activities that involve extracting raw materials directly from the earth. Examples of primary activities are farming, fishing, lumbering, and livestock keeping. Secondary human activities these are human activities that involve the processing of raw materials into useful products. These activities involve converting raw materials into finished products and are mainly performed in urban areas. they accelerate the development of primary activities because they provide the market for products fr...
Read more

10 EFFECTS OF THE KABAKA CRISIS OF 1953

Image
In 1952 Sir Andrew Cohen was appointed as the new Governor of Uganda. Misunderstandings soon cropped up between him and Kabaka Muteesa II of Buganda and this made Cohen to depose the Kabaka. On 30th November 1953, he deported the Kabaka to London where he lived in exile till 1955. The political confusion surrounding the deportation of the kabaka is referred to as the “Kabaka crisis”. 15 EFFECTS OF THE KABAKA CRISIS OF 1953 The crisis seriously undermined and terminated the Buganda Agreement of 1900. By disrespecting each, both the Kabaka and Governor Cohen broke the Agreement and rendered it null and void. Kabaka Muteesa II was deportated to London where he stayed for two years till 1955 when he returned. The crisis led to strained relations between the British and the former Baganda collaborators because of the deportation of their kabaka. The kabaka crisis influenced the British to speed up the independence of Tanganyika more so because even in Kenya the Mau-Mau rebellion had broken ...
Read more