Bento Rodrigues, a small city that was literally erased from the map of Brazil, as a result of the collapse of a dam of mining tailings containment belonging to a consortium of mining companies, the brazilian Samarco S.A. and the Australian BHP Billiton S.A. The destruction of Bento Rodrigues and the contamination of the entire length of the river that bathes 2 Brazilian States, is considered to be the biggest environmental crime of Latin America. The environmental disaster was caused by poor management of the capacity of the dam, which went not taking more environmental safety standards. The investigations point to a fraudulent licenses obtention to change its previously authorized capacity. The extensive contamination of Rio Doce stopped almost completely, the entire chain of life sustained by him. According to experts it will take decades for the river reaches levels favorable to life again. Bento Rodrigues and Rio Doce add up now more scars of destruction that the human occupation has left on our planet, turning large portions of its lands and seas in inhospitable areas.

1. Scars of our Planet
R O B E R T O B O C A

2. Bhopal, Chernobyl, Fukushima,
Exxon Valdez, Prestige, Hiroshima,
Nagasaki, BP/Gulf of Mexico,
Bento Rodrigues/Brazil, are a collection
of man made environmental disasters
that changed forever huge areas
of our planet.

3. The aftermath of all of these
disasters shows the neglect way
which we take care of our planet,
always treated as an infinite good.
The tragic effects of these disasters
were never restricted to the places
where they occurred. The scope of its
destruction were so wide that today
they can be considered a collection
of scars of the Earth planet.

4. As in the explosion of an atomic bomb, the more immediate tragedy is the loss of life,
counted in numbers or just turned into estimates. But the horrors that succeed compromise
for ever the quality of general life beyond ground zero boundaries. The magnitude of this
kind of accidents perpetuate the destructive effect of the event itself.

5. The spill of at least 40 tons of methyl isocyanate
from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide (Dow
Chemicals) in the city of Bhopal in India in 1984,
caused approximately 3.000 deaths.
It is estimated that over 10.000 occurred later as
a result of diseases caused by the inhalation of
gas, more 50.000 became incapacitated for work.
The water table and the entire basement of this
region are forever doomed, and even today, cause
severe health problems.
Bhopal India

6. The melting of the reactor at the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant in Ukraine in 1986, as well
cause immediate deaths, triggering what might
be called the exodus of panic in the nearby
towns. They became ghost towns. A gigantic
”sarcophagus” of concrete was built on the plant
for sealing it and isolate it from the rest of the
world. All equipment used in its construction,
trucks, cranes, tractors, helicopters and all the
remaining materials were buried in giant pits
after its completion in an attempt to halt
the spread of the contamination. Thousands
of people directly involved in the ”sarcophagus”
construction died as a result of the enormous
exposition to the radiation around.
The aerosols dispersed into the atmosphere
spread to much of the northeast of Europe,
reaching too many Eastern European countries.
Large amount of the population of Ukraine
contracted thyroid cancer, especially.
To this day, many children are born without
hands as a result of the malformation of
foetuses of pregnant women in the region.
The ”sarcophagus” already shows cracks
and infiltration of rainwaters carry their
contaminated waste underground. Chernobyl
is a immortalised threat.
Chernobyl Ukraine

7. The Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011,
caused by a tisunami that struck Japan, gave
us a painful lesson about the irresponsible
use of nuclear energy. Even with the high-tech
employed in the design stage, construction and
monitoring operations, the decision to building
a nuclear plant in a region of high incidence of
geological occurrences is a clear certificate of
stupidity. A huge portion of Japanese territory
was affected by the radiation.
The ocean that bathes that coast now shares
with the rest of the planet the ills generated
by the accident.
Fukushima Japan

8. Exxon Valdez and Prestige, two oil tankers
that broke apart, releasing their loads of crude
oil causing giant devastation and condemned
huge amount marine life nurseries and shores
close to the tragedy.
Exxon Valdez destroyed a good part of the
Alaska’s coast line, and the Prestige the
Galicia’s coast line in Spain. Like all the others
tragedies, these two didn’t cause just localised
destruction.
The dividend is global. It Is the planet and
life as a whole that have being punished,
losing what can no longer be repaired.
Exxon Valdez and Prestige
Alaska and Spain

9. The accident, which occurred in
the deep water of Gulf of Mexico
in 2010, caused by a leaking
probe of the DeepWhater Horizon,
a subsidiary of BP-British
Petroleum, was so gigantic that
even was not necessary to use
special features on satellite photo
reproduction to understand the
size and severity of the damage.
A lot of marine life was lost.
Many marine nurseries were
destroyed and never will gonna
be again what they were.
BP-British Petroleum
Gulf of Mexico

10. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in 1945, represents a two shots from the civilisation in their own feet.
The tenfold ability to decimate achieved by the bomb will never compensated the perpetuation of its evil effects.
The planet is too small for such destruction. No victory can justify their use. There is a lack of courage to do it
again, unless some fanatic decide using their ”dirty” version, loaded in a suitcase seemingly harmless, they can
easily circumvent the most sophisticated means of detection and enter the target country. This version, has no
use as a bomb, but the effect of nuclear contamination is quite awesome.
Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
Japan

11. Like an atomic bomb detonation, Bento Rodrigues was wiped out from Brasil’s map, as the Fundão and Santarem dams
broke up in 5 nov 2015, claiming 17 life by the mud tsunami that cover the entire village. The most immediate effect
of the brake up of the Fundão dams belonging to Samarco, a joint-venture between Vale S.A, a giant Brazilian mining
company and the anglo-australians BHP Billiton, counts 17 loss of life so far, but that is not the only aftermath.
Bento Rodrigues Brazil

12. Today, 5 June 2016 is the seventh month anniversary of the tragedy. 214 days have passed, and although many efforts have been
made to minimize the suffering of those affected by the environmental damage, life never will gonna be what one day it was.
Since the event, it has been treat as simple disaster, although reports had shown that the mismanagement of the ore tailing dam
by Samarco S.A., a giant Brazilian mining company, triggered what has been called a giant social environmental crime that added
another scar to our planet.
An entire river, Rio Doce, from Bento Rodrigues, in the Minas Gerais state, and Regência city, its Atlantic Ocean mouth in the
Espírito Santo state, the environment was altered forever. Profound changes in the lives of those sustained by the river have
been severely compromised for ever.
Environmental crime dimension: ore tailings from Samarco’s collapsed dam reaches the Atlantic Ocean

13. The world need to pressure Brazilian authority despite the country sovereignty to minimise the negative environmental
impact and repair what is possible. As the ore tailings reach the Atlantic Ocean it is no just a social environmental
Brazilian problem anymore. As the disaster add up another huge scar on our planet, it also became a global issue.

14. The only way to share the responsibility between all the countries on keeping safe our planet,
is the immediate establishing of an international agency with the political power as the IAEA -
International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor all the activities that could put in risk the life
as a whole in our planet, like extracting, mining, logging, fishing, deforestation, etc. And this
is something that need to be put on the table right now. There is no time to spare in this issue.

15. In the case of the Rio Doce, definitely not.
His metaphor doesn’t even apply to that.
A concluding thought of Gandhi,
can now be remembered. He said:
”A man never enters
twice into the same river”

16. Roberto Boca
boca1339@gmail.com
@robertoboca
Roberto Boca
slideshare.net/robertoboca
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