A disaster like a gas leak, or an oil spill are devastating and seem so much more preventable than something mother nature throws our way. Although there are many different speculations on what exactly caused the gas leak, whether it was an angry employee, faulty safety equipment or a number of reasons as stated by Ingrid Eckerman in the contributing factors section of the wikipedia article she lists the many causes; “the use of a more dangerous pesticide manufacturing method, large-scale MIC storage, plant location close to a densely populated area, undersized safety devices, and the dependence on manual operations' together caused the gas leak or at least exacerbated it."
Pesticide plants like this one, and other dangerous plants like nuclear plants should be carefully regulated, placed far away from heavily populated communities and should have intense educational training sessions for employees. The safety equipment and emergency plans should be up to par, and there should be a system set up to warn everyone of potential disaster.
From the survivors, one person wrote about how officials knew of the gas leak a good six hours before the public and fled the area because they knew of the danger that would be inflicted by the leak. Some towns have tornado sirens, or loud tsunami warnings to warn the people to get out, such a dangerous plant should have some kind of action like that as well, that way at least the people in the close vicinity would have enough time to respond. Social media plays a major role in getting the word out to people so they can respond and get to safety.
Another interesting point made is that the first to respond and rescue others were young boys in their 20s...the police run fast in the other direction. Information like putting a wet cloth on your face to avoid exposure is a good piece of information the media could have providing to those who were unaware if they released some kind of warning on the issue.
Envision Music Festival March 1-4, 2012 Costa Rica A little piece of heaven on earth...
It is absolutely appalling to know that people and governmental/disaster systems do not warn their communities about severe crises or disasters. Many people are affected by disasters because of the lack of warning and statements given out. I keep referring to hurricane Katrina because their system for keeping people safe was horrific. They knew the hurricane was coming, but the state of Louisiana did not prepare for the destruction that happened. Because of their lack of communication, people died, lost their homes, pets and valuables. Like you said above, the gas leak at Bhopal was known to officials, but they they failed to warn the community and like cowards they ran away. Because of this lack of communication many died due to the leak. As people of morale we need to create better plans and warning systems to warn people of possible disasters and destruction. Yes, some places have sirens and there are definitely warning's issued, but it needs to be stressed that getting to safety immediately is very important. It is better to be safe than sorry.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Lilah and Amanda, it is the government's responsibility to inform its people at the time of crisis. As in your Hurricane Katrina example, the state of Louisiana did little to evacuate, let alone warn its people. Although this crisis was a natural disaster the local government withheld information that could have possibly saved more lives. In my opinion, an even bugger injustice committed by a local government occurred during the San Francisco earthquakes. The story was that news reports lied and blamed the damages on the city on fires. The reason behind the government lie was so people interested in moving to California were not discouraged by tendencies of earthquakes. The difference between Katrina and the earthquakes is that Louisiana withheld information, where as San Francisco completely lied. Although what San Francisco did was worse, no government has acted as ignorantly as the Indian authorities post the Bhopal gas disaster. With Katrina and the earthquakes one can have a certain level of understanding as the crisis were natural causes. Although governments can foresee the consequences of natural disasters, they are not responsible for directly causing them. Instead of focusing on the lack of help provided to victims after the Bhopal incident, I would rather point out the shortcomings of the plant regulations that led up to it. The storage of the harmful pesticide as well as the proximity to the closest populated town are two factors that could have been avoided with some pre-planning. Although what the U.S. governments did during natural disasters was inexcusable, it is much worse for a government to disregard the safety involved in man made crisis.
ReplyDeleteI’m going to stick with your first sentence. I find that the disasters that accompany manmade structures and creations like oil spills and gas leaks are much harder to understand than naturally caused damage from hurricanes or earthquakes. These are harder to understand because they are preventable on many levels. Naturally occurring events are a process of the earth at have been and will always be prevalent. It’s what Mother Nature does. It’s the manmade creations that we have control over and the power to regulate. With any potentially disastrous structure such as a nuclear power plant or an oilrig there needs to be every precaution taken that is possible to ensure safe operation. This is not an area we can afford to take a single risk in. Our toll on the earth is powerful enough as humans. Adding to the weight of our impact will only hurt us further down the line.
ReplyDelete