- 1 year ago
From devastating natural forces to human-made tragedies, these catastrophes have shaped our recent history. Join us as we examine the most devastating disasters that have caused immense suffering and global impact. Our countdown includes the Amazon Rainforest Fires, Rohingya Crisis, Indian Ocean Tsunami, and more! Which disaster do you think had the most significant impact on humanity?
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00:00I am officially declaring a national emergency.
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:04And today we're counting down our picks for the worst humanitarian, environmental, and natural disasters
00:10that have resulted in massive long-term suffering and global impact.
00:15The second wave that hit the train was 12 meters high.
00:202019 Amazon Rainforest Fires
00:23The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world, serving as the lungs of the Earth.
00:28It helps regulate global warming by acting as a carbon sink.
00:32Trees are now being cut down and burnt at such a rate
00:36that nearly a third of carbon dioxide emissions are caused by deforestation.
00:42However, in 2019, the rainforest and its millions of inhabitants, plant and animal,
00:48battled fires that eradicated an area of nearly 9,000 square kilometers.
00:53This is not just a forest burning.
00:55This is almost a cemetery, because all you can see is dead.
00:59Wildfires are a natural occurrence during dry seasons.
01:03But 2019's fires were among the worst in recent history.
01:06More than 72,000 fires raged ferociously.
01:10It was a roughly 85% surge compared to the previous year.
01:14Deforestation and a slash-and-burn approach for agriculture and development
01:18were identified as significant causes of the fires.
01:21Global outrage followed, and continues to this day, but so does deforestation.
01:29Rohingya refugee crisis
01:31In August 2017, senior Burmese military commanders set plans for an area clearance
01:38against Myanmar's minority Rohingya Muslim population.
01:42Weeks later, the world witnessed what the UN described as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.
01:47You know, I think we live in an era where people talk about never again,
01:52never letting certain things happen again.
01:54And the persecution of the Rohingya is not something new.
01:58It does shock me.
01:59A brutal crackdown by Myanmar's military saw entire villages being burned,
02:05mass killings, and sexual violence against the Rohingya.
02:08Official documents would later show how the military demonized the Rohingya.
02:12If a psychologist could come and help, I would be happy because I have to live with this every day.
02:18They enlisted spies who would take part in the operations
02:20and coordinate the violence with ultra-nationalist Buddhist monks.
02:24Nearly 700,000 fled to Bangladesh,
02:27where they joined 300,000 who had arrived from previous waves of displacement.
02:32Today, the Rohingya remain stateless in overcrowded camps,
02:36with little hope of returning to their ancestral homes.
02:392010 Russian heatwave
02:52The summer of 2010 was not so pleasant for Western Russia.
02:56A record-breaking heatwave caused temperatures to soar past 40 degrees Celsius,
03:00or 104 degrees Fahrenheit,
03:02with wildfires enveloping cities in a noxious mix of haze and smoke.
03:06The highest temperatures in 130 years have turned Russia's forests into furnaces.
03:13Scientists looking for causes found none to blame.
03:17The phenomenon was largely natural and caused by atmospheric processes with little human influence,
03:22but this did not make it less deadly.
03:24More than 55,000 people died from either respiratory illness or heat stroke.
03:28Do anything. Everything is burning, the crowd shouts at the Prime Minister.
03:33Even promises of compensation and rebuilding homes couldn't win them over.
03:38The fires released millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,
03:42and devastated wheat crops.
03:44Moscow would be clouded in smoke for weeks,
03:46as hospitals overflowed with victims of nature's onslaught.
03:50The Russian authorities have promised sweeping reforms to help ease the situation,
03:54but many have been left questioning whether this year's fires and noxious smog
03:59are a taste of summers to come.
04:01Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
04:04Oil and water never mix well.
04:06So when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20th, 2010,
04:11scientists knew they had a massive environmental crisis at hand.
04:14In the three years that I've been CEO, I've focused on improving dramatically
04:18our safety and environmental performance.
04:21Prior to this accident, that had indeed been the case.
04:2511 out of the 126 workers on the rig were killed.
04:2887 days later, nearly 3.19 million barrels of oil,
04:33amounting to 134 million gallons, spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.
04:38This was the largest marine oil spill in history.
04:41Scientists have discovered another massive underwater oil plume,
04:4522 miles from the broken wellhead, moving northeast toward Mobile Bay.
04:49It devastated marine life.
04:51Coastal economies were wrecked,
04:53and the British Petroleum Company faced billions in damages.
04:57More than 10 years after the disaster,
04:59governing bodies have failed to implement recommendations
05:02for the greater restoration of the environment.
05:05Marine life in the Gulf continues to show evidence of contamination.
05:08But if this thing keeps on going the way it's going,
05:11and we don't get our economy rolling again, we're going to have a mess.
05:142011 East Africa drought.
05:16Climate shocks do not settle easily.
05:19Between July 2011 and mid-2012,
05:22Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia suffered a drought
05:25considered the worst in 60 years.
05:28We fled from Upper Shebele after all our goats and sheep were lost in the drought.
05:32Crops failed, livestock died, and water grew scarce.
05:36The ensuing famine claimed more than 260,000 lives, according to a UN report.
05:42Most of them were young children.
05:44Consecutive failed rainfall seasons left several million in need of humanitarian aid.
05:49But the needs are everywhere in this region.
05:51It's really...
05:52Things were only made worse by the region's political instability,
05:55which restricted access to those essential services.
05:58Adding economic fragility and regional conflicts to an already volatile situation
06:03transformed the East African drought into a mass tragedy.
06:07Three quarters of a million are at risk of dying.
06:10To this day, drought trends in the Horn of Africa continue to get worse with no rain in sight.
06:16Cyclone Nargis.
06:17In the South Pacific, hurricanes are referred to as cyclones.
06:21Different words, same impact.
06:23In May of 2008, one such cyclone, dubbed Nargis, struck Myanmar.
06:28By dawn, many realized their villages and many of their friends and families had simply been washed away.
06:34With peak winds of 165 kilometers per hour, Nargis laid waste to whatever was in its path.
06:40The storm was so powerful that it caused around 140,000 fatalities.
06:45Freshwater ponds were destroyed.
06:47More than 50 townships were affected.
06:49And nearly 2.4 million people were affected.
06:52Making matters worse, Myanmar's military regime purposely blocked and refused international aid and relief efforts.
06:59Little by little, month by month, the supplies were cut down.
07:03Until after a few months, they totally stopped.
07:06This left survivors to fend for themselves.
07:09The cyclone may have destroyed livelihoods, but the government's failure to assist its citizens ensured the storm's aftermath cut deeper.
07:16The government has set up signs about reconstruction.
07:20We see that, but we villagers have nothing.
07:23It's true, we haven't received a thing.
07:252010 Haiti earthquake.
07:27Considered one of the three deadliest quakes of all time,
07:30the 7.0 magnitude Haiti earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010.
07:36According to an Associated Press photographer on the ground,
07:39at least one hospital has collapsed and people are screaming for help.
07:43With its exceptionally high rates of poverty, Haiti was left vulnerable to massive damage and loss of life.
07:49By the time the tremors ceased, countless had died, with hundreds of thousands injured and millions left homeless.
07:56They may have had a roof over their heads, but now they don't even have that.
08:00Rescue efforts were hampered by the government and a crumbling infrastructure.
08:03Not long after the earthquake, the country was also struck by the first modern large-scale outbreak of cholera,
08:10which killed thousands more.
08:11The nation's path to recovery has been slow and arduous,
08:14with institutional capacity and political stability being a work in progress.
08:19Because there was such hope, but pessimists said,
08:22you know what, we'll see.
08:24We'll see whether or not anything changes.
08:272004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
08:30Earthquakes on land are cause enough to worry.
08:32Underwater earthquakes come with the added complication of a potential tsunami.
08:36In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra triggered a massive tsunami.
08:44Memang kalau kita cerita tsunami,
08:47yang beratnya bukan waktu tsunami itu,
08:51yang beratnya kita jalani hidup setelah tsunami.
08:54The wall of water struck without warning,
08:57traveling at 804 kilometers an hour.
08:59It made landfall within 15 to 20 minutes after the quake,
09:03leaving no time to flee to higher ground.
09:06The tsunami proceeded to swallow various coastal towns from Indonesia to Sri Lanka.
09:11The third largest earthquake in the world since 1900,
09:14ultimately killed more than 230,000 people,
09:17and displaced nearly 2 million in 14 South Asian and East African countries.
09:22The scale of devastation the tsunami wrought was a sobering reminder of nature's power and fury.
09:27It was simply something absolutely massive that traumatized communities,
09:32but from which most of them have made remarkable recoveries.
09:35COVID-19 pandemic.
09:37According to the world's largest disaster response network,
09:40the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more lives than any earthquake,
09:44drought or hurricane in recorded history.
09:46These are for all the nurses and the doctors that are helping,
09:50all the people that are sick and dying in the hospital.
09:52We love you and thank you for everything that you do.
09:54Declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March of 2020.
09:59Coronavirus has since killed more than 6.5 million people worldwide
10:03and infected hundreds of millions more.
10:06Pretty much the entire emergency department's a hot zone at this point.
10:08The onset in 2020 silenced the world.
10:12The virus collapsed economies, disrupted education,
10:15reshaped work culture, and changed everyday life.
10:18The pandemic was a moment when the world witnessed humanity at its best and its worst.
10:24Anti-mask protesters made their way through Century City Maw on Sunday.
10:27They first went to a nearby Ralph's supermarket
10:29where there were confrontations with shoppers captured on cell phone video.
10:33The development of a vaccine helped blunt the subsequent waves,
10:36but the pandemic left a lasting impact that is felt by many to this day.
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10:56War in Darfur
10:58Dubbed the first genocide of the 21st century and the world's worst humanitarian crisis,
11:04the conflict in Darfur has raged since its inception in 2003.
11:08Have any of you tried to go back to your land in the years that you've been living here?
11:18It began when rebel groups from Darfur revolted against the national government in 2003
11:24over a lack of representation.
11:26The Sudanese government responded by bombing the rebel headquarters before turning on its people.
11:31Villages were torched, civilians massacred, and women sexually assaulted en masse.
11:43The conflict continues to this day,
11:45even after the 2011 split that created the Republic of South Sudan.
11:50With hundreds of thousands believed to be dead and millions displaced,
11:53systematic violence against the people of Darfur persists in what is a living tragedy in motion.
11:59Did we miss any that deserve global attention?
12:05Let us know in the comments below.
12:07You're only as healthy as your most vulnerable members of the society.
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