Natural Disasters 1970-1980

1971 -- September 15 -- The Phyllis Cormack, renamed Greenpeace, sets out from Vancouver to protest US nuclear testing on the Aleutian Island of Amchitka. The action sets off global environmental protests. A few months later, the organization Greenpeace is founded in Victoria, B.C. Its initial mission is to oppose atomic testing on Amchitka Island, Alaska. See: Greenpeace: How a group of ecologists, journalists, and visionaries changed the world; by Rex Weyler (Raincoast Books in Canada, Rodale Press in US, UK, NZ, Australia, Sept. 2004).

http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/9seventies.html

1972 --Feb 26 -- Buffalo Creek disaster in West Virginia. Negligent strip mining led to buildup of floodwaters that broke through ³tipple² dams, killing 125 people and leaving 4,000 homelss. More than thirty years ago, one of the deadliest floods in U.S. history occurred in southern West Virginia's Buffalo Creek hollow. Negligent strip mining and heavy rain produced a raging flood. In a matter of minutes, 118 were dead and over 4,000 people were left homeless. Seven were never found.

http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/9seventies.html, http://www.wvculture.org/history/buffcreek/bctitle.html

1978 -- Propylene gas explosion in Tarragona, Spain.

http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/9seventies.html

· Bangladesh, 1970: Sea flood (200-500,000 dead)

· Vietnam, 1971: Red River flood (100,000 dead)

· Managua, Nicaragua, 1972: earthquake flood (10,000 dead)

· Bangladesh, 1974: floods (28,000 dead)

· Honduras, 1974: hurricane (5,000 dead)

· Ethiopia, 1974: famine (200,000 dead)

· Haicheng, China, 1975: 7.0 earthquake (10,000 dead)

· Tangshan, China, 1976: 8.0 earthquake (750,000 dead)

· Guatemala, 1976: earthquake (23,000 dead)

· Cambodia, 1976-78: famine (700,000 dead)

· Andhra Pradesh, India, 1977: cyclone (10,000 dead)

· Caribbeans, 1979: Hurricane (2,000 dead)

http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/disaster.html