1. Comparing and Contrasting Vulnerabilities:
Gulf of Mexico & Chernobyl Disaster
By: Sarah Jachim, Jose Olivera, Alex McCorkle, Sheena
Jaggi, Linh Nguyen
2. Characterization of the hazard events using
each of the criteria of characterization
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster:
3. Characterization of the hazard events using
each of the criteria of characterization
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill:
4. Characterization of the hazard events using
each of the criteria of characterization
Chernobyl vs Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill:
5. Socioeconomic variations in vulnerability
for Chernobyl (Linh)
Education
Health
Wealth
Socioeconomic Variations
Gender Housing
6. Socioeconomic variations in vulnerability
for Gulf of Mexico disaster (Linh)
Education
Wealth Health
Socioeconomic Variations
Housing
Gender
7. Demographic variations in vulnerability for
Chernobyl
- High Population of older people.
- Working age people left the region and therefore more elder
people.
- Less working people - hard to recover economically.
- Increase in thyroid cancer among children due to iodine 131
inhaled or eaten.
-After 10 years, 500 cases were reported. Before 1986 - only 2
occurred per year.
8. Demographic Variations in vulnerability for
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
- Oil Dispersant used to clean water - causing illness and
death.
-Chemicals from dispersant - toxic substances making people
sick.
- It caused poisoning from poly-aromatic hydrocarbons.
(PAHs).
-Suffer through eye and nose irritation, blood in urine,
vomiting etc.
-Again, older people will be more vulnerable to these
diseases since they are older and have a weaker immune
system.
- People died from swimming in the water.
9. Ethnic variations in vulnerability for
Chernobyl (Alex)
Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey, Greece, Moldova,
Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Finland, Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia, Poland, Estonia, Switzerland, Germany,
Italy, Ireland, France and Corsica, the UK and Canada.
Affected 27 countries, mostly in Western
Europe.
10. Ethnic variations in vulnerability for Gulf of
Mexico disaster (Alex)
Affected the U.S., Florida and Louisiana, Cuba
and Mexico.
People located near the coast of the affected
areas were the most affected due to their
land being covered in oil.
11. Overall evaluation of the level of
vulnerability for both case studies (Jose)
• The vulnerability for both the USA and the USSR were
high.
• However, the USA has a lower vulnerability since there
were proven and tested methods of containing oil spills.
• The oil spill was also more environmental rather than
causing direct death.
• The USSR on the other hand, had experienced
something never before witnessed.
• The nuclear meltdown has affected a greater area and
had the potential to wipe out half of Europe.
12. ...Continuation
In the USA, they were adapting to the change. Rather than
moving out, they stayed and employed the use of
technology to clean up the oil spill.
The USSR was largely fatalistic. Most of the people chose
to stay there citing the reason that they could not see the
problem.
13. Practices
USA:
• Used methods such as chemical dispersants (Corexit -
highly toxic)
• Microbes (both natural and manmade) ate the oil and
contributed to the boom of plankton.
• Use of booms to prevent extensive damage to beaches
and siphoned off oil through tankers.
USSR:
• The top down government didn't inform the population of
Chernobyl
• Sacrificed human life in order to clean up the reactor
• Evacuated the town of Chernobyl
14. Sources
"Health Consequences of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_consequences_of_the_Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill>.
"Chernobyl Nuclear Accident." 5. What Are the Social and Economic Costs of the Chernobyl Accident? N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr.
2013. <http://www.greenfacts.org/en/chernobyl/l-3/5-social-economic-impacts.htm>.
<http://tyandpants.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/siberia-russian-babushka.jpeg>.
http://usa.mfa.gov.by/eng/chernobyl/chernobyl_catastrophe
http://www.oecd-nea.org/rp/chernobyl/c0e.html
http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/resources/socy4037/Cutter%20%20%20Social%20vulnerability%20to%20environmental
%20hazards.pdf
http://agriskmanagementforum.org/sites/agriskmanagementforum.org/files/Documents/Risk_Vulnerability.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_Exclusion_Zone
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2013/01/bp_deepwater_horizon_spill_sci.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/gulf-of-mexico-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-2010-4
http://www.education.noaa.gov/Ocean_and_Coasts/Oil_Spill.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19499-bps-head-of-safety-admits-human-error-over-oil-spill.html
Editor's Notes
The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster occurred in 1986 in Ukraine when scientists lost control of the nuclear reactor. This resulted in an explosion of contaminated nuclear dust which formed a cloud that settled over much of Eastern Europe. The radiation continued to spread around the reactor as well, spreading radiation at deadly levels. This disaster is a very rare occurrence, which had widespread and long-lasting effects. It was an extremely fast spreading disaster, as it diffused over a majority of Europe in a short period of time. This is, of course, a very random disaster and it is very hard to predict things like this.
The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill of 2010 was another human induced disaster. Oil spills are not very common, but they do happen, especially if, like in the case of the Deepwater Horizon, they are drilling farther out to sea and deeper, in higher pressures than the equipment could handle. The oil spread throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the oil formed a thin coat on the surface of the water, which is very hard to remove. This led to its widespread and long-lasting effects. The well-head that was leaking oil was not capped until months after the explosion, so it was gushing millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and allowed it to diffuse around the area for a long time. Oil spills are hard to predict as well, as equipment malfunctions are hard to predict.
In comparison, Chernobyl was a faster occurring disaster which had longer-term effects on a larger area than The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. The only way which the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill was worse, is because it was more expected, obviously, because they were pushing their equipment to the limit. Also, there are many more offshore drilling rigs than nuclear reactors, which makes oil spills statistically more likely than nuclear explosions.
Socioeconomic Variations in Vulnerability for Chernobyl Wealth Education Health Gender Housing
