2000 in the environment

Events

January

  • The Baia Mare cyanide spill was a leak of cyanide near Baia Mare, Romania, into the Someş River by the gold mining company Aurul, a joint-venture of the Australian company Esmeralda Exploration and the Romanian government. The polluted waters eventually reached the Tisza and then the Danube, killing large numbers of fish in Hungary and Yugoslavia. The spill has been called the worst environmental disaster in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster.
  • A leaking underwater pipeline released 1,300,000 litres (340,000 US gal) of oil into Guanabara Bay, Brazil, destroying large swaths of the mangrove forests.
  • Tetraethyllead, an anti-knock additive for motor fuels, is banned from sale in the European Union. The problematic environmental and health effects are well documented but as of 2003 it remains on sale in some countries.

June

October

  • The Martin County Sludge Spill occurred when an estimated 306,000,000 US gallons (1.16×109 l; 255,000,000 imp gal) coal sludge broke into an abandoned underground mine below the impoundment in Martin County, Kentucky in the United States.

November

  • David Brower, an American environmental activist and founder of numerous environmental organisations, dies at the age of 88.

December

See also

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