'DNA' EDIT: Prerogative of the mighty

When it comes to abusing the environment, the developed word surely takes the cake. But, it is always at the forefront in all international rallies and global warming fora, advising developing/under-developed countries how to tune their economies to protect the environment.

The world is yet to come to terms with the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the effects are being felt even now. The researchers from Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies and National Institute of Radiological Sciences have discovered that the Thai clavigera, a kind of shell fish, has altogether disappeared from eight out of 10 places within the 20-km radius alert zone of the nuclear plant. Other shell fish species too have suffered, with their numbers dwindling.

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is another case in point. The devastating impact of 200-million gallons of oil on the marine population has been the talking point for some time now with a prominent environmental group attributing the continuing deaths of dolphins and turtles to the disaster. The death of dolphins especially point to a serious damage to the eco-system. 

Curiously, in 1979, the same Gulf of Mexico had witnessed the Ixtoc I leak. And in 1989, Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker spilled thousands of barrels of crude oil in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Japan is guilty of another man-made disaster. Between 1932 and 1968, the Chisso Corporation released industrial waste with high levels of mercury into the sea poisoning the marine food chain. As a result thousands of residents became ill.

Shouldn’t the onus to save the world be equally shared by all? Well, the developed nations have been found wanting on that count, leaving the rest of the planet  to grapple with a precarious situation.