I only learned of this one from Behind the Bastards
Edit to add
On 3 December 1984, over 500,000 people in the vicinity of the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, were exposed to the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate, in what is considered the world’s worst industrial disaster.[3] A government affidavit in 2006 stated that the leak caused approximately 558,125 injuries, including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.[4] Estimates vary on the death toll, with the official number of immediate deaths being 2,259.[5] Others estimate that 8,000 died within two weeks of the incident occurring, and another 8,000 or more died from gas-related diseases.[6] In 1989, Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) of the United States paid $470 million (equivalent to $1.03 billion in 2024) to settle litigation stemming from the disaster.[7]
We studied that in university from a industrial and aviation safety expert. Its really worth reading how that shit came about. The human stupidity on this was recklessness on steroids.
One example: the siren that should be used to evacuate all personnel was used daily to call employees to lunch.
They burn plastic, Modi is killing/jailing climate change activists, and literally every single waterway I saw was choked with plastic. Every single animal I saw looked like it was on deaths door, aside from young animals - they didn’t look much better.
All in all, India is one of the most depressing places I’ve ever had the displeasure of visiting. Any change the west tries to make regarding the climate will be instantly wiped out by a country like India. I would call the whole country an environmental catastrophe if it weren’t for places like Kerala, which if I’m not mistaken is also just fucked now.
I have never had worse food poisoning, and the people were nice but I can’t say that I actually ‘met’ anyone. I can say that I had a decent conversation with a Kashmiri man who really only wanted to sell me his stuff (got a magnetic chessboard and a scarf, the interaction was genuinely the highlight of the 10 days), and an uber driver who was very kind but struggled with English. Oh, none of them would address my girlfriend by the way - it was only me, the man. That alongside the animals made her particularly depressed.
The people were the most depressing part, for me. I know that wealth inequality is bad here in the states, but seeing it somewhere like India is just… eye opening. It can get a whole hell of a lot worse here, if a place like India is any indication (no pun intended).
Bhopal disaster
I only learned of this one from Behind the Bastards
Edit to add
We studied that in university from a industrial and aviation safety expert. Its really worth reading how that shit came about. The human stupidity on this was recklessness on steroids.
One example: the siren that should be used to evacuate all personnel was used daily to call employees to lunch.
You can imagine how that ended.
Since I’ve come back from India I’ve sort of just been waiting to hear about an environmental disaster there. This makes sense.
a new environmental disaster or one of the usuals
Every single waterway was choked with plastic. Genuinely depressing.
Wdym
They burn plastic, Modi is killing/jailing climate change activists, and literally every single waterway I saw was choked with plastic. Every single animal I saw looked like it was on deaths door, aside from young animals - they didn’t look much better.
All in all, India is one of the most depressing places I’ve ever had the displeasure of visiting. Any change the west tries to make regarding the climate will be instantly wiped out by a country like India. I would call the whole country an environmental catastrophe if it weren’t for places like Kerala, which if I’m not mistaken is also just fucked now.
Did meeting great people and eating delicious food at least mean it wasn’t all bad?
I have never had worse food poisoning, and the people were nice but I can’t say that I actually ‘met’ anyone. I can say that I had a decent conversation with a Kashmiri man who really only wanted to sell me his stuff (got a magnetic chessboard and a scarf, the interaction was genuinely the highlight of the 10 days), and an uber driver who was very kind but struggled with English. Oh, none of them would address my girlfriend by the way - it was only me, the man. That alongside the animals made her particularly depressed.
The people were the most depressing part, for me. I know that wealth inequality is bad here in the states, but seeing it somewhere like India is just… eye opening. It can get a whole hell of a lot worse here, if a place like India is any indication (no pun intended).