Podcast: Who Drained Russia’s Vast Aral Sea?

To answer the question, it was the Soviet Union, that’s who.  The Aral Sea is actually situated in Central Asia, between Northern Uzbekistan and Southern Kazakhstan.  Once the fourth largest freshwater lake in the world, the vanishing Aral Sea is now nearly empty, thanks to a flawed, decades-old, Soviet-engineered desert irrigation program. To read theContinue reading “Podcast: Who Drained Russia’s Vast Aral Sea?”

Podcast: Five Reasons the Johnstown Flood Disaster should never have happened

The terrible Johnstown Flood of 1889 was more of a man-made Tsunami.  Yes, there was flooding at first. The ‘Storm of the Century‘ rains arrived in the deep Pennsylvania valley on Memorial Day, 1889. The two rivers that flanked the steel mill town began to swell.  But it wasn’t until the aging South Fork DamContinue reading “Podcast: Five Reasons the Johnstown Flood Disaster should never have happened”

Bhopal India was the World’s Worst Industrial Disaster

How soon we forgot. Over 30 years ago, on the night of December 3, 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released 30 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas into the air. Primarily into the poor slums surrounding the factory, exposing more than half a million souls to the deadly cloud. The thick,Continue reading “Bhopal India was the World’s Worst Industrial Disaster”

The Santiago Church Fire was the Deadliest in History

The deadliest fire disaster ever recorded is not where you might think. Not the Great London Fire, not the Great Chicago Fire, not New York City.  It occurred at The Church of the Company of Jesus in Santiago, Chile on December 8th, 1863.  The horrible Santiago Church Fire consumed the church during a Catholic Mass, killingContinue reading “The Santiago Church Fire was the Deadliest in History”