Environmental disasters and the origins of environmental politics

2026 marks the anniversaries of several environmental disasters that severely harmed both nature and human health. As these disasters were caused by human activity, they raise questions about who is responsible and how similar events can be prevented in the future. The following blogpost lists key 2026 anniversaries of environmental disasters and links them to political and legal developments. 

Written by Hristina Talkova

The exponential rise of human impact on the environment started with the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. Focusing on economic growth rather than on sustainability, states had little to no legal mechanisms to protect the environment. Factories could spew toxic smoke into the air, or dump toxic waste in nearby rivers, and it was ‘perfectly legal’ to do so (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).  

The modern idea of environmental protection entered the political debate in the 1960s (Dobson 2016, Carter 2007), driven by the notion that a global ecological crisis resulting from human actions could threaten humanity’s existence in the future.  

Following a series of environmental disasters, the first nation-wide environmental demonstration in history happened in the U.S. on 22 April 1970 (this day is still annually commemorated as ‘Earth Day’). 20 million people, roughly 10% of the country’s population, participated in protests at various cites. The rise of the environmental movement had impacts both at national level (creation of specialized environmental protection agencies and legal acts) and at international level. The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden resulted in the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and placed environmental protection on the global political agenda (Carter 2007, Mitchell et al 2020).  

So what is environmental politics? 

Carter (2007) notes that environmental politics is a distinct subject to be studied in its own right, but also relevant in terms of challenges it poses for the wider discipline of political science. He identifies three key components of the “rapidly expanding subject”, which have been widely cited since:  

• The study of political theories and ideas relating to the environment;  

• The study of political parties and environmental movements;  

• The analysis of public policy and implementation affecting the environment at international, national and local level. 

Environmental politics is the study of how power, interests, and ideas shape human/environment relationships and the governance of environmental problems. It focuses on actors such as political parties, states, firms, NGOs, and social movements, and on processes such as agenda-setting, policy design, negotiation, and implementation.  

Political decisions about the environment can be made at different interconnected levels. Actors such as governments, NGOs, industry representatives or civil society often overlap and interact in varying roles depending on the issue at hand. Global environmental politics are particularly dynamic as they exhibit the largest number of changes (Hughes/Vadrot 2023).  

Global environmental conferences such as Conferences of the Parties (COPs) or smaller intergovernmental meetings remain the central forum for multilateral environmental agreement-making (ibid.). Such meetings are often held on a regular schedule or convened in response to major environmental disasters that generate political urgency. They can serve various purposes, providing a space where states exchange knowledge, build capacity, and negotiate consensus around a shared agenda. Alignment at the global level can also support more consistent local measures for environmental protection. 

“And the Earth cried”… 

In 2010, TIME magazine recognized many of the below listed environmental disasters as the ‘Top 10’ largest of all time, giving publicity to their diverse impacts on humans and the environment. Their connections to environmental policy reactions are presented below.  

However, direct causal links are the exception, not the rule: an environmental disaster will oftentimes be an incentive for action, but environmental policies are more complex than a simple ‘action-reaction’ formula. And yet, the first case below… 

70 years ago…  

1956: Discovery of the Minamata disease 

Residents of Minamata, Japan, had been observing odd behaviour among animals for years. Household cats would suddenly convulse and sometimes leap to their deaths (TIME 2010). After decades of waste products from manufacturing chemicals being released in the Minamata Bay through factory wastewater systems, an ‘epidemic’ of an unknown central nervous system disease was identified in humans as well after an increased outbreak in hospitalizations. Nowadays known as the ‘Minamata disease’, it consisted of the poisoning of the central nervous system developed by inhabitants of the area who routinely ate large quantities of fish that had absorbed the chemical compounds of methylmercury stemming from the discharge of the chemical factory (Social Scientific Study Group on Minamata Disease 2001).  

Thousands of Minamata residents suffered for decades and died from the disease (TIME 2010). It was not until 2017, 61 years after the discovery of the disease, that international efforts culminated in the Minamata Convention on Mercury: an treaty regulating anthropogenic released of mercury and/or mercury compounds into the environment, entered into force. After decades of international engagement, uncertainty and negotiations, it finally seeks to control the use of a ‘global and ubiquitous metal that, while naturally occurring, has broad uses in everyday objects and is released to the atmosphere, soil and water from a variety of sources’ (U.N. Environment Programme).  

In 2025, the Assistant Secretary General of UNEP reported that while challenges in the use of mercury remain to be tackled, there has been many positive developments since the Convention’s entry into force: over 93 of the 153 state parties have taken effective measures to phase down the use of mercury in various products.  

60 years ago… 

October 1966: Aberfan spoil tip collapse 

Built on a mountain top above the small village of Aberfan, Wales, a colliery spoil tip collapsed, slid down the mountain and catastrophically engulfed the village’s primary school and surrounding houses. Witnesses described a deep rumble, almost “like thunder”. Over 100 000 cubic meters of liquefied coal waste rolled down the mountainhill with devastating force. Farmhouses and cottages on the mountain hill were obliterated instantly, killing everyone inside. Once it reached the village, the avalanche engulfed eighteen houses and the primary school, filling classrooms with thick black slurry and debris (Herald Wales 2026).  

116 children and 28 adults were killed. Ahead of the disaster’s 60th anniversary, the last surviving teacher spoke out about still remembering the faces of the children she had to identify after the accident (BBC 2026). The most heartbreaking part of the disaster is that it had been known that the tip was built over underground springs, making the ground unstable. Residents’ complaints on the matter had remained unanswered. Three years later in 1969, national legislation, the Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act was passed as a response to the disaster. It provided a basis to enhance safety regarding both active and inactive tips, for local authorities to inspect tips and to ensure there is no danger posed to civilians or the environment.  

In the same decade… 

March 1967: Torrey Canyon oil spill 

The supertanker SS Torrey Canyon hit rocks off the coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom and spilled more than 100 000 tonnes of crude oil into the English Channel. This was not only the first major oil spill in British and European waters, the largest marine oil spill but the second largest oil spill in Earth’s history to date (following the Lakeview Gusher disaster off the coast of California 55 years prior). Hundreds of miles of coast in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, France and Spain were affected by the oil, as well as by substances used to treat the damage (attempts to mitigate damage including bombing the shipwreck). There was enormous damage to marine life and the lives of locals (BBC 2017).  

Looking back, it was seen as an eye-opener by many on the potential loss of life and ecosystem repercussions (Mensah 2011): the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) specifically lists the Torrey Canyon spill as the catalyst for intensifying its legal and technical work.  

Torrey Canyon is also cited as starting the chain of events that led to the adoption of several international treaties: the Convention on the Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution Casualties, negotiated in 1969 and entered into force in 1975, the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, adopted in 1972 and entered into force in 1975 as well as the MARPOL Convention (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships), adopted in 1973 and entered into force in 1983. Non-profit organisations such as the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) were also set up following the spill and still provide emergency responses to oil spill cases around the world.  

50 years ago… 

10 July 1976: Seveso dioxin cloud 

After an explosion at a chemical plant in the Northern Italian region of Lombardy, a thick white cloud of dioxin was released into the atmosphere and quickly settled over the town of Seveso, Italy. Animals were the first to feel the effects and die. A reporter from the TIME noted a month after the incident: as “one farmer saw his cat keel over, and when he went to pick up the body, the tail fell off. When the authorities dug the cat up for examination two days later […] all that was left was its skull” (TIME 2010). Four days later, people began feeling the poisoning effects, such as nausea, blurred vision, and development of a skin disease. It was weeks before the town was evaluated (ibid; UNECE). The Seveso disaster remains to this day the highest known exposure to dioxin in residential populations.  

Following the aftermath of environmental and health damage, there was increased action on the regional level leading up to the adoption of the Seveso (I) Directive by the European Community in 1986. Its aim is to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences and harmful impacts on human health and the environment (European Commission). Now superseded by the updated Seveso (III) Directive, it applies to over 11. 000 industrial installations across the EU in sectors such as the chemical and petrochemical industry, as well as the fuel wholesale and storage sector. Implementation is regularly monitored to ensure utmost compliance (ibid).  

Environmental considerations had already entered the political debate within the European Union (former European Community) prior to the Seveso disaster, starting with discourse over the pollution of the Rhine river in the 1960s (with some calling the Rhine river ‘Europe’s largest sewer’ (Meyer, ERPS, 2024). Earliest initiatives included the 1973 Environmental Action Programme as well as the 1979 Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds (particularly also protecting migratory birds, a transnational concern) (ibid).  

40 years ago… 

26 April 1986: Chernobyl 

Inarguably, the worst environmental disaster of all time is the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. The reactor explosion near Pripryat, Soviet Ukraine, resulted in a nuclear meltdown that sent massive amounts of radiation into Earth’s atmosphere, even more than the effects of the atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Causing cancer in thousands, an over 30 km radius around the plant remains off-limits due to the still ongoing effects of the radiation (TIME). Unclarities surrounding the accident include potential knowledge of malfunction prior, initially hiding the evidence that the nuclear plant had exploded and thus failing to evacuate properly, as well as misinformation on the amount of radiation released which some claim to be much higher (Lemonick 1989). 

Following the accident, multiple international efforts were started to prevent occurrence of similar disasters. An international treaty, the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident, was adopted in 1986 after the Chernobyl disaster, establishing a unified notification system for nuclear accidents which are likely to release radioactive material. The Convention entered into force only 6 months after the accident. The stance towards nuclear energy also strongly shifted in some European countries, while other remained more flexible on the matter. 

1 November 1986: Sandoz fire and Rhine chemical spill 

The Sandoz disaster began when 1350 tons of highly toxic chemicals went up in flames at a company warehouse in the Swiss canton of Basel-Landschaft. Although emergency response was delivered by local firefighters immediately, over 20 tons of toxic, red-coloured extinguishing foam used in the fire was dumped into the Rhine river, who reportedly ran ‘red as blood’ (Umweltbundesamt 2011). The destroyed warehouse also contained various pesticides and raw and intermediate materials which were released into the atmosphere, as well as the soil and groundwater on the site. The chemicals released in the Rhine caused massive deaths of benthic organisms and fish, harming the river biology (Giger 2009).  

Lessons learned from the Sandoz disaster were taken into account for local but also regional legislation (partially also the Seveso (I) Directive and UNECE cooperation efforts). The International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR) introduced the Rhine Action programme in 1987, a comprehensive restoration programme that aimed to reverse the effects of the chemical spill. It was estimated that fish and small animals had been killed over a distance of more than 400km across the Rhine river, affecting several European countries. In 2000, this particular programme came to an end, achieving its goals and objectives. The ICPR is still active in other areas and has since launched many more programmes for the protection around the Rhine river basin (ICPR). In the long run, the disaster improved the willingness for international and transboundary cooperation in these matters. 

35 years ago… 

7 April 1991: Kuwaiti oil fires 

As the Persian Gulf war drew to a close, Sadam Hussein launched an attack on Kuwait’s oil fields to ensure that nobody can benefit from the natural resource. Soldiers were sent to blow up the Kuwaiti oil wells, approx. 600 of which were set ablaze. The fires burned for seven months, and the Persian Gulf was enveloped in poisonous smoke, soot and ash, with black rain falling and oil lakes being created. 5% of the whole country’s area was compromised, with animals taking the first hit from the oily mist (TIME). The gases released as well as the particulates from partially burned metals were affecting both human health and vegetation in the long run (Husain 1994). Doctors reported that humans that were exposed to the effects of the fires seemed like that of a heavy smoker, and it would take years to clear that. For those with prior damage to their lungs such as smokers, the added effects of the fires lead to deaths or lifelong breathing problems (Tollast/Dahme 2021).  

International cooperation and compensation efforts followed right after: the UN adopted a compensation framework for environmental damage in 1991, including a compensation commission (UNCC) and a compensation fund to process the claims to environmental damage and public health that resulted from Iraq’s actions in Kuwait (Giorgetti 2020). It is one of the first examples of the successful use of a mass claims procedure on the international level, providing compensation to thousands of foreign workers who had to flee the region (ibid).  

15 years ago… 

11 March 2011: Fukushima 

Following a major earthquake centered 130km offshore, a tsunami wave hit and disabled the power supply and cooling of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant while disabling multiple other aspects at the nuclear power plant. While no apparent damage was done directly to the reactors from the earthquake, this situation exposed a weakness not considered before: while stabilized against earthquakes on land and therefore seismically robust, the reactors were vulnerable to a tsunami. The 15-metre wave hit and flooded the nuclear power plant site, killing three employees on the site. There have not been any official reported radiation fatalities from the accident (World Nuclear Association), but several instances of cancer did occur in residents. More than 160 .000 people had to be permanently or temporarily displaced from the area, and the displacement itself caused multiple deaths as well. 

National political efforts were undertaken to balance the need for energy sufficiency with the risks of nuclear power usage, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s member states endorsed a programme of work to strengthen global nuclear safety. The actions include safety standards, emergency preparedness and peer reviews by other IAEA states as well as capacity building. The programme particularly focused on adaption nuclear power plants’ vulnerability to extreme external events (IAEA).  

So where does this leave the world in 2026? 

What do the above examples really illustrate? We have come far, but is it really far enough? Environmental disasters are of course not the sole catalyst for the environmental policy discourse. While they do have an effect on both the public and policymakers, one could also pose the question if it is sufficient to act only ‘after’ an accident took please and if not a shift towards more preventive action would be more beneficial.  

The year 2024 was the first where scientists noted the record 1.5 °C temperatures above pre-industrial conditions (Cannon 2025), and the Earth has not been cooling off since. Long-term warming of the planet will lead to irreversible changes to the environment, whether acknowledged or not. While not everyone will feel its effects at the same time, awareness over the risks, effects and shared empathy over planet Earth as humans’ common space should continue strengthening the environmental policy developments across different areas.  

 

References and further readings:  

Barkham, P. (2010). Oil spills: Legacy of the Torrey Canyon. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jun/24/torrey-canyon-oil-spill-deepwater-bp 

Bell, B. & Cacciottolo, M. (2017). Torrey Canyon oil spill: The day the sea turned black. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-39223308 

Carter, N. (2007). The Politics of the Environment: Ideas, Activism, Policy (here cited 2nd ed. 2012). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  

Cannon, A.J. (2025) Twelve months at 1.5 °C signals earlier than expected breach of Paris Agreement threshold. Nature. Clim. Chang. 15, 266–269. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02247-8 

Cliffs of Moher. (2021). Puffins header [Photograph]. Cliffs of Moher. https://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Puffins-header.jpg 

County of Santa Barbara, Planning and Development Department, Energy Division. (n.d.). Brief oil and gas history of Santa Barbara County. County of Santa Barbara: Energy Division. Archived May 27, 2011, at https://web.archive.org/web/20110527204659/http://www.countyofsb.org//energy//information//history.asp 

Dobson, A. (2016). Environmental Politics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

EarthDay.org. (n.d.). History. https://www.earthday.org/history/#:~:text=Earth%20Day%20is%20celebrated%20on%20April%2022nd,public%20consciousness%20about%20air%20and%20water%20pollution 

European Commission. (n.d.). Industrial accidents and safety (Environment). https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/industrial-emissions-and-safety/industrial-accidents_en 

Fountain, H. (2020). How the Times covered the first Earth Day, 50 years ago. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/climate/NYT-first-earth-day.html 

Frazier, C. (2009). Locals remember oil spill like it was yesterday. Santa Barbara Daily Sound. https://web.archive.org/web/20100805082025/http://www.thedailysound.com/012809Oil 

Giger, W. (2009).The Rhine red, the fish dead—the 1986 Schweizerhalle disaster, a retrospect and long-term impact assessment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 16 (Suppl 1), 98–111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-009-0156-y 

Giorgetti, C. (2020). International claims commissions: Procedural issues. In Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law [Encyclopedia entry]. Oxford University Press. https://opil.ouplaw.com/display/10.1093/law-mpeipro/e3906.013.3906/law-mpeipro-e3906 

Homan, A. C., & Steiner, T. (2008). OPA 90’s impact on reducing oil spills. Marine Policy, 32(4), 711–718. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2007.12.004 

Hughes, H., & Vadrot, A. B. M. (2023). Introduction: A Broadened Understanding of Global Environmental Negotiations. In H. Hughes & A. B. M. Vadrot (Eds.), Conducting Research on Global Environmental Agreement-Making (pp. 1–22), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  

Husain, T. (1994). Kuwaiti oil fires – Source estimates and plume characterization. Atmospheric Environment, 28(13), 2149–2158. https://doi.org/10.1016/1352-2310(94)90357-3 

International Atomic Energy Agency. (n.d.). Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident. https://www.iaea.org/topics/nuclear-safety-conventions/convention-early-notification-nuclear-accident 

International Atomic Energy Agency. (n.d.). IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety. https://www.iaea.org/topics/nuclear-safety-action-plan 

International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR). (n.d.). Rhine Action Programme. https://www.iksr.org/en/icpr/predecessor-programmes/rhine-action-programme 

International Maritime Organization. (n.d.). Introduction.  https://www.imo.org/en/ourwork/legal/pages/default.aspx  

Lemonick, M. D. (1989). Environment: The Chernobyl cover-up. Time. https://time.com/archive/6703860/environment-the-chernobyl-cover-up/ 

Meyer, J.-H. (2024). The European Parliament and the origins of environmental policy (Study PE 757.644). European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), European Parliament. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2024/757644/EPRS_STU(2024)757644_EN.pdf 

Mitchell, R. B., Andonova, L. B., Axelrod, M., Balsiger, J., Bernauer, T., Green, J. F., Hollway, J., Kim, R. E., & Morin, J.-F. (2020). What we know (and could know) about international environmental agreements. Global Environmental Politics, 20(1), 103–121. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00544 

Mokhtar, H. (2021). Into the apocalypse: Kuwaitis recall the desperate struggle to control the 1991 oil fires. The National News. https://www.thenationalnews.com/gulf-news/into-the-apocalypse-kuwaitis-recall-the-desperate-struggle-to-control-the-1991-oil-fires-1.1174522 

Mrema, E. M. (2025). Making mercury history [Speech]. United Nations Environment Programme. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/speech/making-mercury-history 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2024). What have been the largest oil spills in U.S. history? National Ocean Service. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial-coastal/oil-spills/os02.html  

Nesbitt-Marr, R. (2026). Aberfan: looking back at Wales’ most heart breaking tragedy 60 years on. Herald.Wales. https://herald.wales/national-news/aberfan-looking-back-at-wales-most-heart-breaking-tragedy-60-years-on/ 

Reuters. (2016, April 25). The Chernobyl disaster [Photo gallery]. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/idUSRTX2BMDJ/ 

Social Scientific Study Group on Minamata Disease. (2001). In the hope of avoiding repetition of the tragedy of Minamata disease: What we have learned from the experience (Report of the Social Scientific Study Group on Minamata Disease). National Institute for Minamata Disease. https://nimd.env.go.jp/syakai/webversion/pdfversion/e_houkokusho.pdf 

Terao, T., & Funatsu, T. (2021). “Chapter 1: Introduction: origins and evolution of environmental policies – state, time and regional experiences”. In Terao, T., & Funatsu, T. (Eds.) Origins and Evolution of Environmental Policies. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing., https://doi-org.uaccess.univie.ac.at/10.4337/9781800378827.00008 

TIME. (2010). Top 10 environmental disasters: Full list. https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1986457,00.html 

Tollast, R., & Nehme, D. (2021). Into the apocalypse: Kuwaitis recall the desperate struggle to control the 1991 oil fires. The National News. https://www.thenationalnews.com/gulf-news/into-the-apocalypse-kuwaitis-recall-the-desperate-struggle-to-control-the-1991-oil-fires-1.1174522 

United Nations Environment Programme. (n.d.). Minamata Convention: About us. https://minamataconvention.org/en/about 

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). (n.d.). Introduction. https://unece.org/introduction-10 

Umweltbundesamt. (2011). Sandoz chemical spill 25 years on. https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/press/pressinformation/sandoz-chemical-spill-25-years-on 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (n.d.). EPA history: Earth Day. https://www.epa.gov/history/epa-history-earth-day 

Vadrot, A. B. M., & Hughes, H. (2023). Conclusions: Reflecting on the Future (Study) of Global Environmental Agreement-Making. In H. Hughes & A. B. M. Vadrot (Eds.), Conducting Research on Global Environmental Agreement-Making (pp. 285–300), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  

World Nuclear Association. (n.d.). Fukushima Daiichi accident. https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/fukushima-daiichi-accident