I've done lots of research into disasters of various kinds for school projects over the years, basically all of them involve cost-cutting by higher-ups. It's straight up depressing
This is probably true, but it's also more than a bit disingenuous. Your research probably didn't include and document all the cost cuttings done that didn't correspond with a disaster. It's only after a disaster that people start looking for a person to blame, and some bean counter ends up taking the heat. But the fact is, you can always find cost cutting explanations because all companies are always looking for ways to cut costs. When disaster happens it's easy to find cost cutting to blame.
@@DallasMay I know exactly what you mean, but the measures being cut are usually safety related. Which isn't _technically_ bad, as Joe said here, it just assumes too much of people. Then you're only 1 or 2 (not unreasonably impossible) human errors away from a gas leak, explosion, collapse or whatever follows
Hope your father is well. I would have serious mentally issues just beeing around this horror. Yeah Joe thank you for an eyeopener. I really never heard about this deliberate accident before. This is a horror exsample of corporate greed.
Extremely impressed by the young girl in the video who, instead of screaming (which would be understandable and warranted), immediately started talking, letting her dad know she couldn’t hear anything but doing so with a clear and relatively calm voice thereby also letting him know she was otherwise okay, and then immediately asking him to get the hell out of there. That’s honestly awesome, nerves of fucking steel.
It's the "deal with the emergency now and cry about it later when you're safe to process the emotional trauma" reaction. Pretty impressive coming from a kid her age.
I know it's cliche, but the best thing anyone can do during an emergency is to avoid panicking. Panic leads to mistakes, and mistakes can get someone hurt or killed. That kid was clearly taught well, and I applaud both her and the adults in her life that taught her.
I took an aresol can explosion to the face a year ago - nowhere near as bad, but the shock does tend to set in a few minutes afterwards. That kid did great, I struggle with ptsd now from my thing so I'm very much hoping she's in as much therapy as she needs. The dad did amazing too, immediately checking on his daughter. I wish them both the best
So, interesting fact that may or may not play into this since we don’t know how old she is, but young kids learn how to respond to new situations by looking at how others, namely adults, respond. For example, there’s a clip on RUclips of an earthquake that had been caught on a nanny am in a young girl’s bedroom. She was probably 4-6? and she had one of those coasting rocking chairs in her room. The earthquake wasn’t strong enough to make anything rattle or shake from the video’s perspective, and you couldn’t hear it, but the rocking chair began moving bc it takes absolutely no effort to move a coasting rocking chair. The little girl sees this and kinda tucks her arms to her chest, while watching the rocking chair, but she doesn’t panic. She doesn’t cry or scream until her dad runs into the room saying, “It’s okay, Daddy’s got you. It’s gonna be okay,” and the moment she saw his face (the video quality was surprisingly good but not that good so we can assume he was at least scared) and heard the fear in his voice, she reached for him and called out “Daddy!” in a very scared tone of voice. Regardless, this kid is awesome for not immediately panicking from the sudden, loud noise and explosion. If this behavior sticks with her, she’s gonna go really far in life when it comes to emergency situations.
My mom had me in her womb when this disaster occurred and my family had to migrate to the city of nagpur where I was born. We later went back there once every thing settled. So personally speaking this disaster could have ended me and my family.
I’m happy that you were all ok. It must have been a nightmare for your family. I’m so sorry that you all had to experience such a preventable disaster.
@Vandole right, cause the dad knew the thing would go sky high at that exact moment, he totally wanted him and his child to experience a dangerous situation.
Both my husband and dad were in Bhopal when the leak happened. My dad heard screams in the middle of the night but like any typical unbothered teen he went back to sleep and covered his entire face with his blanket. My husband was 6 months and was lucky enough to have an uncle who realized what was happening and another family member who owned a vehicle and was able to get the heck out. It is truly a miracle that I am here today!
On the night of the disaster, my mother was supposed to be in Bhopal for some work. On 2nd Dec 1984, she was travelling from Indore to Bhopal with my grandfather. She got super late and by night managed to only reach to her sister's house in Sehore ( 38 KM west of Bhopal ). She was supposed to only stay there for a couple hours and continue her journey towards Bhopal. But since they were late, my Grandfather decided it must be better to stay the night in Sehore and leave for Bhopal in the morning. On that night, she saw the horror with her own eyes. There was chaos on the street. She told me, that night some people have run up to Sehore on foot to escape death. Now I think she was lucky that she got late.
This is what I try to tell people in that being early is only any good for the birds. For the worms it's WAY MO betta to be sleeping in. And LATE, too!
I work with Methylisothiocyanate (MITC) every day, and we have to stress how dangerous it can be if not handled properly. I am actually referring a lot of my Apprentices to see this video to understand how serious it is, thanks Joe.
Just make sure they also know the difference between methyl isocyanate (the Bhopal culprit) and methyl isoTHIOcyanate (what you guys work with) though!
Thank you for covering this. I am from Bhopal. and was 16 at the time of this tragedy. It's not only the Union Carbide that was callous, the state and the Central governments shed only crocodile tears for the victims. It was the local doctors and the NGOs that provided most of the relief. That meagre compensation was withheld for a number of years and handed out in indecently small instalments not covering even the food cost of the victims. It's obvious the MNC had greased the palms of every politician from New Delhi to Bhopal.
My whole family was in Bhopal at the night of the disaster. We lived in the area that faced the gas leak, and I've grown up hearing the stories of those few days. Luckily, my family was able to survive the event, obviously not unscratched. My family often recounts how there were bodies everywhere. How animals left tied suffocated and how birds literally fell from the skies. My grandmother still has scars from that night, and I too have grown with visual and respiratory impairments. This, however is not uncommon in Bhopal. People still struggle with physical and mental illness caused by the leak, and there has been no proper studies done about the influence of the gas. Sadly people of Bhopal never got the justice they deserved. The Union carbide still stands where it did, and there still remain several containers of different chemicals rusting under the scorching heat of the city. The tragedy ruined water quality of the region, decimated animal population, and not to mention that the human cost was enormous. For us who still continue to live here, the tragedy never ended. What hurts the most is that the perpetrators lived full and healthy lives protected by the American government, while my people continue to live in poverty and medical neglect. Our histories have never been properly recorded, and the night mostly exists as haunting memories.
Radiation for how dangerous it is, has an element of mercy to it, people that get exposed to moderate doses died 20-30 hell 50 years even, the more extreme cases a year or less. But this is just dark this is generational terror there's no Mercy to it just suffering for those heavily exposed or for those marginally exposed. I wish someone would get the money together, like an NGO or the government would come in and clean up the area as best they could
I think all the Indian viewers should thank Joe for bringing this to light. It's neglected and never spoken about. To put this disaster into perspective, the immediate deaths from Chernobyl was less than a 100. ( UN says 64). The immediate deaths from this was............between 2000 and 8000.
This is regularly spoken about. No one really cares enough to do anything about it. The methyl isocyanate is *still* in Bhopal. The stuff that got out is just the stuff that leaked.
My parents were both here in Bhopal when it happened (unmarried at the time). I'm 26, I was born and brought up here. My dad's family was fast asleep, it was a cold winter night so they'd covered the cracks under the doors with clothes. My father thought the night show had ended in the nearby cinema so he didn't get up to check it either. They all survived. My father was working with the Red Cross at the time and he tells me he saw hundreds and hundreds of bodies lined up when he went to the hospital the next day. My mother's family lived relatively closer to the plant. When they found out, they left everything behind and started running. The whole family just ran and ran till they were out of the city. It still shakes me to the core remembering it. The water is probably still affected here, many generations carried the scars of it.
My father was interning with the Red Cross at that time and was traumatised for a long time from what he saw. There were huge pits dug in the ground and bodies were thrown and buried in them.
My grandfather reached bhopal just moments before the gas leak. He escaped just minutes before the effect reached his area. He told me that he just started his scooter and started driving it without knowing where to go and what's going on. And when he returned with other survivors after the tragedy subsided, there were bodies everywhere. He also told when they were breaking the doors open of the houses to look for survivors, in one of the homes they found a small child still sucking on his dead mother's breast and bodies all around him. My grandfather also suffered from cancer later and died last year due to it.
I, being from Bhopal, have seen the site {which even now looks scary} and heared stories about that night which is enough to give anybody chills. Few years ago i did an internship project in DMI on Bhopal Gas Tragedy and got to know about it closely. It was heart wrenching. This video states facts, but it does not cover is the psycological affect it had on people that day. There are still people who have nighmares from that day. During the inernship, we had company of senior officials who shared their experiences from that day and hearing someone's first hand experience was just painfull. What happened was just ignorance and that is even worst because there were so many measures and opportunities to stop this, but no one bothered! This incident is still not very talked about and is unknown to people, i am very thankfull that you covered it very accurately.
You'd be astonished at how many companies are doing the same right now and nothing is being done by the government to stop it. Whoever says Indian government isn't corrupt is blind.
Here’s the story, titled “Whose Job Is It, Anyway?” This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have. The story may be confusing but the message is clear: no one took responsibility so nothing got accomplished.
I was 11 months old living in Bhopal with my parents when this tragedy happened. My father decided to shut all doors and windows and stayed inside our house when everyone else was running on the road dying. Luckily we survived because that gas couldn't enter our home.
I am born and raised in Bhopal and I am still living here. My parents and relatives talk about this incident not only as a tragedy but also as a massacre. Even though my parents were okay, a few of my distant relatives were not able to survive this incident. thank you for covering this story and giving it the attention it deserves. People should be made aware of such incidents!
So the soil is still corrupted and poisoned? Why do people live there? Chernobyl was quarantined for good. Why wouldn't this place be? Or is it in the humans and in their DNA?
@@PresidentialWinner Well, the soil will be polluted for years to come, and babies with abnormalities would take birth, but all of the abnormalities are hereditary, whereas in the case of Chernobyl, there was active radiation which could easily be transmitted. Now coming to the case of soil, the polluted soil is either not used, or sealed off completely. I live 3 hours from Bhopal, these days you can't tell that it was the site of the horrific disaster.
Not many people actually talk about this in India, i learned about it first in 9th grade, and it was literally just 2 sentences. Few years later i saw a documentary in national geographic and started to understand the sheer gravity of the situation
@@Ass_of_Amalek That wasn't what OP was saying. They were saying that, by the time the concrete is heat cracking, shit is already flying towards the fan.
I live in Cyprus I can confirm feeling the shock from the explosion! Imagine what it must have been like being near such an explosion. The guy recording in West and his daughter must have never forgotten that.
Did anyone, from union Carbide, go to jail? Certainly should have. Not just allowed to buy their way out the tragedy. Corporate companies seem to getaway with killing people.
Can't forget those companies that know when stuff is wrong, and how to fix it, have the money to correct it, and STILL don't care and will cut corners, like why?
I remember at the time I saw an interview with a Union Carbide engineer who was trying to explain what had happened at the plant. In the middle of the interview, the man broke down and cried - big, shoulder-jerking sobs of anguish. I'm not sure why that particular incident has stuck with me all these years.
This encourages me to research the meaning behind the local siren I hear twice a year or every several months. I live in an industrial area so there are varying plants within reach that is worth being aware of.
@@elizabethfox9976 After looking it up I did find a government site mentioning those alarm tests but am now left curious how they differentiate a test from the real situation. Maybe just let the alarm go for longer and or sent out alert through the phone like they do sometimes?
@@mica4977 don't they schedule these tests on specific moments? If you know the dates, you can ignore the scheduled ones and only respond to the rest. In my country the alarms are tested every first Monday of the month. So when the alarm went and I realised it was a Thursday, I immediately closed all windows and turned off the ventilation. A minute later I got an alarm on my mobile phone as well explaining that there was a large fire close by and that we needed to close our windows due to toxins in the smoke.
It's all funny games until you're fuk up cuz you to be put in prison for life it's sad that life in prison isn't a big enough punishment for people to stop doing stuff like this though
I lived in Tianjin during the blast... Windows were broken for kilometres. One of my friends had a bunch his stuff sucked out of his apartment when both sides of windows got blown out.... Can't imagine what Beruit was like.... And prayers for the families of Bohpal
Its actually a pretty weird "sensation" if one sense just stops. I can very much relate to that girl, because in highschool I was hit straight in the eye with a badmington shuttle. I was immediately blind because the anterior chamber of that eye filled up with blood in no time. At first it was a curious feeling but it changed to panic real fast. I cant remember pain in that moment, just pure shock, that my open eye is not seeing anymore.
Great video man, you included everything, I’m from Bhopal, a few years back i went to check out the Union Carbide, the place gave me chills, the locals asked us to leave soon telling us that we won’t feel comfortable there if we stay there for too long, my father is also a journalist and dead bodies being carried in trucks is absolutely true, however some say that actual numbers are still not out. when you’re passing UC you can still see “where is justice” and such stuff written on a few walls. A lot of people jumped into the lake because water was the only thing that could protect them and they didn’t know how to swim.
My grandfather's brother was one of the victim and whenever I talked about this he never made eye contact, he described it a hell! He had lung cancer and died in 2007
An absolute tragedy that NEVER should've been possible! As for all the people who were involved in the breakdown of the plant's fail-safes just to pocket some $, I hope they realize the victims' blood is on their hands!
You should hear Indians try to pronounce my name. It's only 4 letters long but they just can't get it. At least it helps me identify foreign telemarketers almost immediately.
I remember this. I was 10 and I remember it being covered on the US nightly news, with footage of people filling the streets, screaming and crying in desperation. Absolutely horrific.
Yet no one has been paid out any compensation, each case has to been seen on an individual case, meaning it will take over a hundred years to hear all cases, long after most people have passed away.
In the '80s I lived in Calgary, Alberta. We had to an "ode" in about '86. I chose this disaster. None of my classmates had heard of the incident. My teacher was appalled. Thanks for covering this.
Lol, despite the fact that both of my parents were teachers and I was an A/B student, I LOVED doing appalling things in school. My Dad got me started. ;)
here in India we have a subject called "environmental education" till class 6, we read about this tragedy in a case study in it, it was very tragic 😓😢 thank you for covering this Joe !!
@@gramioerie_xi133 because it encourages companies not to do any honest internal investigations anymore. Additionally it would also create unnecessary panic about smaller technical issues and subsequently drown out the serious issues.
@@abbofun9022 so just let the union carbides of the world remove safety in the name of profit and kill thousands? Food factories near me are subject to daily USDA and FDA inspections. Daily. That needs to be a thing for all factories
@@pranayr9284 thank you i will look for that, the bhopal disaster freaked me out as a teenager. i was already furious with my ountry for multiple terrible things we'd done, this haunted me
I am from Bhopal. My whole family was also here during that tragedy, they told me stories about how they survived that night. My Grandfather was a senior Doctor in the Government hospital, he told me about the Hundred's of dead bodies he saw in that Hospital on that night and days after that. My family ran away from our House that night but we had a Calf at home who didn't survive, he was very young at that time. I never thought, I would see a Video about that incident here 😀
I think Plainly Difficult and/or Fascinating Horror did videos on thia disaster too, and that show Seconds From Disaster. I'm glad this disaster is slowly becoming closer to common knowledge. And this isn't the only major disaster by Union Carbide. That company racked up quite the body count...
The 2 failsafes Scrubber and Flair are called "air pollution control equipment" here in the US. Thier meant to scrub the air and burn off what was not scrubbed out of the air. So they were relying on the Flair solely to clean the air. This tells me (I worked in air quality for the last decade) that they had been polluting the air for a seriously long time before the catastrophe. In the U.S. we have to do extensive detailed reporting on a regular basis to air quality agencies and the federal clean air agency to prove every single piece of equipment is working properly. Equipment is installed on the stacks (flairs) to monitor gases leaving the stack. I dont want to know how many air pollution violations that place may have had. Your video cites safety violations, but air quality violations are a whole other thing. Great video, thank you.
I work as a safety valve technician in south-eastern Louisiana and I work with valves that have this chemical, and many other harmful chemicals, run through them. This could easily happen in the US too. We had an incident with this chemical a few years ago. We work with valves that are anywhere from a few inches tall to many tons. We had one of our techs picking up a valve at a local plant to bring back to the shop. It was a very small one, about 4 inches tall. The valve was cleaned by the plant before it was picked up. This was a new tech and he figured since it was so small he would put it on the back seat of the truck instead of putting it in the bed like protocol demands. He got a few miles before he started having breathing problems and called for help realizing he messed up. He was rushed to the hospital and recovered, but would have died with much more exposure. This was from a cleaned valve, there happened to be some residue in the threads that caused this. Don't think you are safe because this was in a poor foreign country. This chemical is here in the US and in many plants, especially here in south LA and in Texas. It is only one of the many dangerous chemicals being used in your back yard. I always follow protocol, take my time, and do the very best job I can because if I don't things like this could happen in my own community. This could happen if one of my valves fail in the plant
As some who has built a career in this exact type of work (chief chemical operator) I cant overstate the gross negligence in this scenario, simply because im extra familiar with everything that was presented. Everyone involved should be punished to the full extent of the law.
@@briangarrow448 Dangerous it def is. They're essentially giant chemistry sets. I, myself, was in a massive explosion and was life flighted. But luckily I made a full recovery, I say that to say thank you for recognizing the danger. Its much appreciated!
My Father was 14 years old at that time living in Bhopal along with my grandfather, Grandmother and Uncle. Fortunately all of them were survivors of this tragic event
I learned about this tragedy in my AP environmental science class, it makes me so angry other countries can take advantage of people’s poverty like this and do nothing after letting all these people die
Thankfully, it doesn't happen on nearly this type of scale in the U.S., but it unfortunately does occur even here (albeit in isolated cases). It's SICK what some people will allow to happen to others just so they can get more $ ! 🤮
@@crystalpreuett9539 Makes me think of the SS Eastland (Ask a Mortician has a good vid about it). More people died in that disaster than from the sinking of the Titanic, but you never hear about it because they were working class. And the captain, who had exited the ship casually while people died gave the welders heck for "damaging his ship" because they were cutting open the hull to free the living trapped inside it.
If justice were a thing, the company involved would have been immediately dissolved and all the proceeds from sold assets would have been handed to the people of Bhopal, while Anderson would've gotten the death penalty. Just imagine how careful companies would become after a response like that.
No way that would have happened when Rajeev Gandi was in power. Lol, imagine a senior police officer helping the CEO to flee the country. Why do you think he didn't face any consequences? Well, because he was ordered to do so.
it would be effective for some, but problems would still happen, we can see it in countries with death penalty for some crimes, it doesn't stop all of them.
@@kunjupulla i was waiting this kind of a comment, now think for a second what the people of india would have done to the ceo and what the backlash of that would have been worldwide
This was a very good treatment of a very tragic old story. I was wondering why you were covering it, but I am grateful you did. You and your team comprise an excellent journalistic source. I also feel the subjects are presented in an illuminating and stimulating manner, even when the subject (as in this case) is rather dark. Well done, Sir.
I appreciate that, though I'm a little uncomfortable with people calling me a journalist. I used to work in a newspaper (as an advertising copywriter) and I have a healthy respect for the standards and processes they are held to. What I do just isn't the same thing. But again, I appreciate the kind words. :)
I came here after listening to the Bhopal episode of This Podcast Will Kill You. Your coverage of this was even better. You have a really great way of straightforwardly explaining situations and providing a relatable context for events, which really helps to make this less of an “over there” situation. You really drive home that this affected real people living their normal lives, and shows us that this sort of negligence could be as devastating to any of us. Union Carbide are cartoon villain levels of evil and intentional negligence.
Watching from Bhopal, my mother was 20 when this happened in the most affected part of the city, her family was thankfully unharmed which they claim was because they slept with the covers all the way over thier faces. Interesting theory, whatever it was, needless to say they were incredibly lucky.
My grandpa was a railway station master at the time of disaster , he saved hundreds of life by telling people to get on the train and ordering the signal head to allow the train to leave asap, my mom and her family lived in railway quarters which was very close to the factory, they all had minor health issues but fortunately they survived.
Yesterday, I watched 'The Railway Men' series on Netflix. I can't imagine the challenges they faced during the night. The heroic efforts of the railway workers saved many lives.
Bhopal must never be forgotten. My stomach turned when I learned from the tragedy in university and it saddens to this day. Respect to those affected by it.
This genuinely sounds like a similar situation to the steel factory I work at, which is concerning. Everything breaking down, cutting costs, no repair times on heavy machines and chemical tanks despite the need for it, etc.
Report it to regulatory agencies. If nothing changes, go to your local press/reporters. Sometimes it takes a public investigation to get companies to do the right thing
Nat Geo covered this in great depth and what is startling is the fact that there were not one, two but several safety measures to kill the gas vapors but none were maintained and what followed was worst disaster in history of mankind
I think you're exaggerating and frankly, pretty ignorant. Even if the number of people affected eventually reached 150,000, which it did not, we'll say it did to be on the safe side. Between 1347 to 1351, a period of four years, 100 to 200 MILLION people died in Europe from the bubonic plague pandemic. I think that was a little bit higher on the disaster ladder, don't you think? A little research will show you that many disasters occurred throughout history greater than Bhopal.
@@donmiller2908 hey uncle, how about you watch the complete video and try to understand the context. Bhopal gas tragedy was a human made disaster whereas bubonic plague, Spanish flu and covid are not. And people are still dying due to illness and after effects of genetic mutations. The official number of people affected are way more than 150000.
The other sad effect of the Beirut explosion is that they're now having a major economic crisis. Experts are saying it's among the three worst financial and economic crisis since the mid-1800's. Food, gas and medicine are running short quickly as inflation caused it's currency to lose 90% of its value. 😔
Lebanon was already going through a tough time, this disaster just snuffed out all of the hope people had to make their country better. Corrupt governments can get away with anything, and Lebanons' government is so appallingly oblivious to this situation it makes me sick.
And the massive silo that was next to the explosion happened to be where the majority of the grain was stored. So they put fireworks, the grain supply, and ammonium nitrate all in the same spot. A silver lining is that the silos was so strong it shielded a lot of the city from the direct blast. Which means a grain silo did more to protect beirut than their actual government.
16:15 - what a kick in the balls it is to live through the bhopal disaster, and due to impaired/damaged respiratory and immune system, be killed by the c 19.
being from the US I'd only heard some small refs to this incident and always wondered about it. I can't imagine the terror people were feeling that night and the pain and suffering in the years to come for those who survived it. I'm glad when the CEO went there he was arrested - to them it's just a budget cut for 'business' but when the scope of their view is limited to just the dollar signs this kind of stuff happens and it's innocent people who suffer. Thank you for covering this story it was very enlightening.
Hey does anybody know how to go about making a suggestion on a story they would like to see Joe cover? I would love for him to cover the controversy of Residential Schools in Canada and the recent findings of mass unmarked graves.
I have seen it already somewhere, but could not tell you where but its definatly up there. Heartbreaking, just like the one in Ireland , hundreds of babies in a nun run home for unwed mothers.
As a residence of Bhopal I will also like to add that it is said that the Big lake and other lakes also absorbed most of the MIC spread throughout the city though they lost their sparkle ever since as it was said that the lake water was very sweet and refreshing .So in a way Raja Bhoj helped his citizens hundreds of years after his death .
@@jcfiggy It's an extremely informative channel focusing on East Asian-related industry, though has a heavy tech focus that may go over some people's heads. Definitely worth checking out, though.
Mom grew up across the street from Carbide (as it was known then, and is still called by her generation). She said everyone nearby always felt like they had a target on their backs because they just knew that stupid plant was gonna blow. Nobody had AC in those days, and in summer everyone slept with their windows open. Mom would wake up choking because of all the waste from the plant. You will not be astonished to hear that Mom has lung issues now (thanks, Carbide!). There was a passenger train that was supposed to stop in Bhopal that night, but the guy operating it just got a nagging feeling he should keep going. He did keep going, and the plant blew a couple of minutes after he passed the city. I do not believe for a second that things like this are "accidents."
Visited Bhopal a few months ago.. the factory is still there, rusted, but still there.. You can definitely feel the negative energy (non-paranormal, just pure bad energy). Funny thing we couldn't extradite Anderson. (not that we are good in extradition today). Love, Vijay Mallya.
if you ever wonder why Joe is going to become huge it's because he puts all the disasters in one video instead of milking out videos, the value and quality level is serious people
Great video… Fun little trivia: its pronounced “kahcha” homes, (similar to the way one pronounces “gotcha”). It means uncooked or raw, whereas the “pakka” homes (similar to the way Americans pronounce “puck(er)”, means cooked. So raw/flimsy homes vs. cooked/strong homes.
With King's Cross fire, Manchester air fire, Hillsborough football crush, Clapham Junction rail crash, Herald of Free Enterprise .... it was a strange time. In 1990 I started work on nuclear reactor safety for power stations.
@@uegvdczuVF I agree. Chernobyl was a perfect incident to reinforce US Cold War propaganda narratives, so it has been burned into our minds. It was truly a disaster caused by mismanagement, but genocidal mismanagement isn't an exclusive feature of eastern European states.
There are so many tragedies that affect millions, even billions of people… until we have governments that can put people before profit, there will be more. Your loss is devastating. Their loss is devastating. The future is still so likely to bring further devastation.
I grew up on a small farm of cherry trees in the 70's. My dad, clad in gas mask and his "spraying overalls", would spray Sevin on the trees and we would have to hide in the house with the windows closed until it all settled. Bugs are tough, we still lost a small part of each crop to insects, but no where near what would have been consumed if he hadn't sprayed.
I had a boyfriend in college that worked on an estate in P.V. Arizona in the mid 80s. The guy that owned the property wasn't exactly the honest, tree hunger type of business man. He was in the high end racing and aftermarket auto parts business. After after after market. Anyway they would have my 19 year old BF wear a simple mask and spray the 10 acre estates olive trees so there wouldn't be any messy olives drop. They told him to be careful because it could make him sterile. No haz mat stuff, just a mask and of course there wasnt anyone checking because the stuff was stolen and he was pretty sure illegal to use at that point in the us. That BF went on to work as a hazmat Firefighter and told me once that he didn't think he would live past 50. He is 52 now i think. Not sure if he is alive though.
The question should be what impact remained on the crops? Many pesticides have been shown to contaminate crops which they were used on in trace amounts that can bioaccumulate. And as various chemicals impacts on health have been shown to leave inheritable epigenetic markers. There was recent research on people exposed to DDT and finding inherited detrimental epigenetic changes have continued to be passed on after 3 whole generations. Those insects have probably gone through many generations (how many depends on what species are in question) a year allowing natural selection to screen for beneficial mutations to counter pesticide use which as the crops end up losing the essential mycorrhizae associations and as these toxins propagate up the food chain the pesticide will also kill the animals that have evolved to respond to the release of specific chemical pheromones broadcasting the presence of a pest species. This effectively removes plants natural ability to deal with pests by killing the predatory insects and insectivorous birds etc. that naturally deal with pest species. This in turn then kills the scavengers of those organisms continuing to bioaccumulate up the food chain ultimately ending up in the ocean. that is the nasty thing about chemicals their effects don't go away There are animals still dying from poisons banned over half a century ago or older. Sure eventually the chemicals might be modified into something more harmless but many of these indiscriminate killer pesticides are durable enough to last generations whether directly or indirectly(via epigenetics).
Same story here. Cherries, peaches, plums, '70s. Can still recall the taste of that stuff on the air. My grandfather was hospitalized twice mis-handling that stuff.
Bugs evolve faster than humans, their genarations pass within years, they get used to the chemicals and even a stronger one enters the market, but HUMAN remains unprepared.
@@AST4EVER It's incredible how fast insects are disappearing. I recall noticing about fifteen years that it was suddenly possible to drive around Ontario in the summer without the grill of the car becoming covered in dead bugs. I don't think my kids have ever seen one insect on the front of the car.
"A massive comedy of errors"? More like gross criminal negligence. There needs to be a corporate death penalty for crimes like this. After all corporations are people, my friend.
Exactly. If “corporations are people”, as the ghouls like to proclaim, then they have BOTH the rights AND RESPONSIBILITIES of people. And if upper management can be proven culpable in these situations, they need to be prosecuted like you or I would be for poisoning hundreds of people. Even if they call it “manslaughter”, or “accidental death” (instead of mass murder), this is, at the very least, legally “criminal negligence” of the highest order, and requires CONSEQUENCES. (Edit: grammar)
Only when it's beneficial to them. In a situation like this one or let's say oh I don't know the recent child slavery suit against Mars, Nestle, and Hershey they are absolutely not a people. Uh-uh, no way, not them.
Yesterday I bumped into a beggar. Her sister and him lost their mind during this gas tragedy. And now are beggars . This what what first world countries did to india and our politicians helped them escape . Their pain is endless .
the first world is built on the bodies of billions. the riches there are only stolen from what should be equally dispersed to all nations for not only comfortable living, but prosperous living. i feel only pain when i hear of the beautiful places of rich history destroyed, bombed, murdered by the greedy ideology of the first world. :(
@@ionbattery It's easy to lay blame in one place, but don't forget that others countries allow the abuse of their citizens as well. They essentially sell modern day slave labor. And first world countries sell themselves off as 'caring' by exporting things like slavery to other countries that will allow it, so that their citizens don't have to see it for themselves and feel bad about participating.
And yet is your countries higher ups to reap the benefits of the deals so instead of getting angry at other countries maybe actually use your brain and look at your leaders blame for making deals at your expense
last year, i was in my home 45 km away from the port. The whole house shook and the sound was so loud we thought our city was being bombed. the port is still destroyed too
I have visited Bhopal twice 21 and 24 years after the disaster (tragedy), on both occasions I was strongly advised to avoid the Union Carbide area near Habib Ganj Railway Station where it is located.
I traveled to this town on a business trip in late August of 2001. I thought I heard locally that 30,000 people died. I drove by the slum where most of the people died. It was a sad sight. Thanks for doing this story. One of my hosts talk about how “the British invented bureaucracy and the Indians perfected it”. Corruption is a plague that infects the developing World and hopefully technology will disinfect it.
I have to say, that is one of the most interesting and impressive openings to a video I have ever seen. The emotion you put into it, along with the recaps of the 3 other tragedies impressed me like no other video I have seen! Well done!
We had a similar accident in the Netherlands in my town Enschede. With the fireworks not the nitrate but it still was a big disaster. And some people said there were illegal weapons stored there. I thought maybe you could look into it and make a vid about it
I remember watching “well there’s your problem”’s coverage of the Bhopal disaster. Bit of dark humor to it but if you want a deep deep dive of how union carbide just knowingly screwed people over because they didn’t feel like paying the bare minimum for safety
This was a crime of unprecedented level, and proves that individual corporations cannot be expected to be proactive or even active in safety measures. It also proves that the US and other countries have to stop valuing politics over accountability. I periodically will mention the anniversary of Bhopal at work, and no one has heard of it, nor do they care. So, we as members of the global brotherhood also are failures. Shame on us all.
I was going to post a comment saying nearly the exact same thing. Do you follow the excellent Fascinating Horror You Tube channel? The You Tube channel Plainly Difficult is also great.
Agreed. If a corporation is going to a developing nation just because they think they can bypass safety, they should be paying vast fines. International laws should be changed to reflect what's considered safe in the home nation should be practiced in the host nation.
I live in Bhopal.....there are a lot of things that I would love people around the world to see. It's a very beautiful city indeed. But THIS is what our city is known for all around the world. It's a real shame. But most people have recovered by now. So that's good. But the effects of the gas have and will last many generations.
Well, I live opposite BASF, Luwigshafen, Germany - claimed biggest chemical plant on planet. The only question is: How do we move such infrastructure and stuff in space?... in 21 century.
Yo! Michigan is the best state always cool to see a comment from michigan, I'm from Saginaw unfortunately but I do appreciate the rest of this great state
@@gregor-samsa the chances of realeasing reagents, or product when shuttling the material too and from orbit would be substantially higher than the risk inherent to our current system so doing that would be way too dangerous even if it wasn't cost prohibitive to do so. Unfortunately there is no easy solution to this problem, the best we can do is create regulations, independent groups to ensure the regulations are met, and a penal system to dissuade non compliance.
You covered the topic being mindful of its sensitivity... unlike many other RUclipsrs who ridicule or almost dehumanize those people who face poverty and discrimination in developing nations...sub for that
Yeah ok blame one guy because that's easy for your weak egos to do but not the executive structure of the company that lead to the proposals, signing-off, and execution at all levels. No, just blame one guy because he's the richest and let the system itself continue... No matter how much you want to victimize, nothing's going to change because you aren't going to make real change, just hate against those who have power over you.
@@nihalbhandary162 Ok, I know it's harsh and sometimes I have anger issues on the Internet (like a lot of people). So I apologize to Piyush for what I said. But people typically direct their anger to one place when things go wrong simply because it's easiest to cope and then nothing happens. The company and the structure of it resulting in the disaster are too complex for people to talk about so they don't publically acknowledge that this is the real issue, let alone collectively make change. Imagine you got run over by a bus (assuming not your fault) and blame the bus driver, but really the bus company, the road, visibillity, etc... are all variables at play. But you just blame the bus driver and he gets fired but everything is exactly the same as it was before.
I can still remember when this happened. It was on the cover of every newspaper in the country (Australia) and TV stations were running the story on a continuous loop for weeks. I was 25 at the time. It really is impossible to articulate just how shocking and mortifying this story was. Imagine 9/11 but about a thousand times worse.
I do not think you can compare the two as one was a deliberate act the other an accident also as someone who lost both mother and father and two uncles in the 9/11 attacks I don’t think that whatever happened in India in the 80s affect me in anyway shape or form where is 911 for me was 1 million times worse so please keep your comments to yourself.
@@noway5469 I absolutely will not keep my comments to myself and I think you have a hell of a nerve telling anyone what they can or cannot say when talking about their own experiences. Seriously, who the hell do you think you are? I'm terribly sorry that you lost family members during the 911 attacks but I was talking in general terms about the devastation and the lost of life each of these events created. Whether an event was deliberate or accidental is completely irrelevant when you're talking about the sheer number of people who died. You seem to be implying that I'm trying to minimise the tragedy of 911(which I'm not) but are you not doing exactly the same thing by saying that you don't really care about something that happened in the eighties because it didn't touch you or affect your life in any way? What about all the people who also lost family members and parents and children back then? Are their deaths less significant somehow just because you didn't actually know them personally? Just because you weren't around to witness it first hand doesn't diminish the needlessly devastating loss of life that was experienced by thousands of people at that time. Just in terms of how many people lost their lives, there really isn't any comparison. Bhopal was so much worse. You seem to me to be a person who just loves to play the victim. You're not a victim. People lose loved ones all the time under varying circumstances every day of every year and you don't get to declare that your experience with losing a loved one is far, far worse than what anybody else could possibly experience. You should try developing some empathy instead of wallowing in self pity.
@@noway5469 wow this is ridiculous. You’re mad because you think 9/11 was worse but the reason why you think it’s worse is that it personally affected you?? That is so callous and uncaring. This disaster in the 80s left a lot of loved ones who are still alive today and who are devastated by the effects.
@@noway5469 Imagine if someone from India told you that 9/11 was irrelevant and minuscule because they personally weren't affected by it. Seeing as it claimed the lives of your parents, you would probably be irate. After all, this person is acting obscenely self centered. They have no idea what you went through and yet they have the nerve to call it all trivial because they weren't the one in your shoes. Well, right now you are acting exactly like the person described in this scenario. You come off as terribly selfish.
My heart bled so much because of the disaster that I had to visit Bhopal on my first visit to India in 1992 as a mark of respect, even though it is not at all a touristic centre. Insult was added to injury by the attitude of Union Carbide to the claims for compensation, and the dribble of compensation that eventually got through to the injured and bereaved after many years.
I was 20 years old at the time and remember hearing about this when it happened, and having a sense of shock, disbelief, and great sadness. It's still tragic that those who should have been held accountable weren't.
Its been 35 years since that abominable night when 40 tonnes of extremely toxic gas was accidently unleashed upon thousands of unsuspecting and innocent townspeople. Yet even after so many years the legacy of Bhopal gas disaster still haunts the people of Bhopal.
I’m from West,Tx or as we call it “The comma”. Knew many of those who died. I had a number of friends whose fathers were killed. Our little town hasn’t been the same since.
I live in Bhopal and seriously I know a little about this disaster.We hear about it in newspapers,some youtube videos and that's all.The government didn't even care for a proper memorial or relief for gas victims. Very less information the people have about what happened that night.
blowing up city with ammonium nitrate has a long tradition, there is even a list on wikipedia : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ammonium_nitrate_disasters
Always makes me think of the stunt the Yes Men pulled where one of them impersonated a Dow representative in a TV interview and announced that they would take responsibility for the accident, thereby absolutely tanking the stock price of Dow Chemicals.
That silo, which held the grain... saved a lot of lives. Had it not been there to "eat" up the blast of all that AN, the death toll and the destruction might've been bigger. You can even see its "projection" in the blast.
I've done lots of research into disasters of various kinds for school projects over the years, basically all of them involve cost-cutting by higher-ups. It's straight up depressing
bean counters can save or destroy a company.
And it's still going on with the big corporations... Gotta save bucks on maintenance so they can give higher dividends to the shareholders.
That’s basically what caused the building collapse in Miami last week
This is probably true, but it's also more than a bit disingenuous. Your research probably didn't include and document all the cost cuttings done that didn't correspond with a disaster. It's only after a disaster that people start looking for a person to blame, and some bean counter ends up taking the heat. But the fact is, you can always find cost cutting explanations because all companies are always looking for ways to cut costs. When disaster happens it's easy to find cost cutting to blame.
@@DallasMay I know exactly what you mean, but the measures being cut are usually safety related. Which isn't _technically_ bad, as Joe said here, it just assumes too much of people. Then you're only 1 or 2 (not unreasonably impossible) human errors away from a gas leak, explosion, collapse or whatever follows
My father was in Bhopal when the gas tragedy happened, luckily slightly away from the affected area. Thanks a lot for covering this Joe.
Amazing that your father got out… very lucky
What a difference a few miles can make, huh?
You may not be here to post this, had distances just been slightly skewed. Lucky you!
Hope your father is well. I would have serious mentally issues just beeing around this horror.
Yeah Joe thank you for an eyeopener. I really never heard about this deliberate accident before. This is a horror exsample of corporate greed.
@@tellusmars7770I wouldn't call it an accident if it was deliberate.
I don’t know how I could go on knowing that I lived and everyone else died including children. 🥲
Extremely impressed by the young girl in the video who, instead of screaming (which would be understandable and warranted), immediately started talking, letting her dad know she couldn’t hear anything but doing so with a clear and relatively calm voice thereby also letting him know she was otherwise okay, and then immediately asking him to get the hell out of there. That’s honestly awesome, nerves of fucking steel.
It's the "deal with the emergency now and cry about it later when you're safe to process the emotional trauma" reaction. Pretty impressive coming from a kid her age.
Of course though, he couldn't hear her either
I know it's cliche, but the best thing anyone can do during an emergency is to avoid panicking. Panic leads to mistakes, and mistakes can get someone hurt or killed. That kid was clearly taught well, and I applaud both her and the adults in her life that taught her.
I took an aresol can explosion to the face a year ago - nowhere near as bad, but the shock does tend to set in a few minutes afterwards. That kid did great, I struggle with ptsd now from my thing so I'm very much hoping she's in as much therapy as she needs. The dad did amazing too, immediately checking on his daughter. I wish them both the best
So, interesting fact that may or may not play into this since we don’t know how old she is, but young kids learn how to respond to new situations by looking at how others, namely adults, respond.
For example, there’s a clip on RUclips of an earthquake that had been caught on a nanny am in a young girl’s bedroom. She was probably 4-6? and she had one of those coasting rocking chairs in her room. The earthquake wasn’t strong enough to make anything rattle or shake from the video’s perspective, and you couldn’t hear it, but the rocking chair began moving bc it takes absolutely no effort to move a coasting rocking chair. The little girl sees this and kinda tucks her arms to her chest, while watching the rocking chair, but she doesn’t panic. She doesn’t cry or scream until her dad runs into the room saying, “It’s okay, Daddy’s got you. It’s gonna be okay,” and the moment she saw his face (the video quality was surprisingly good but not that good so we can assume he was at least scared) and heard the fear in his voice, she reached for him and called out “Daddy!” in a very scared tone of voice.
Regardless, this kid is awesome for not immediately panicking from the sudden, loud noise and explosion. If this behavior sticks with her, she’s gonna go really far in life when it comes to emergency situations.
My mom had me in her womb when this disaster occurred and my family had to migrate to the city of nagpur where I was born. We later went back there once every thing settled. So personally speaking this disaster could have ended me and my family.
Yooo, you're a Sherlock fan? I'm also!!!!
I’m happy that you were all ok. It must have been a nightmare for your family. I’m so sorry that you all had to experience such a preventable disaster.
@@elliotradescryptoyoutube9076 Scam bot
Jeez that's intense
Gods are picky. Life is worse than death.
"Dad, I can't hear." "Dad, get out of here." That... Is just chilling...
@Vandole right, cause the dad knew the thing would go sky high at that exact moment, he totally wanted him and his child to experience a dangerous situation.
@@dannyg1153 LOL exactly. there was no way for him to know and he was far enough away to assume he’d be fine.
@Vandole he immediately dropped his camera lol did you not watch the video?
@Vandole he dropped the phone when shit hit the fan. How was he supposed to know it was going to blow up?
@Vandole he literally dropped his phone immediately when shit got wild
Both my husband and dad were in Bhopal when the leak happened. My dad heard screams in the middle of the night but like any typical unbothered teen he went back to sleep and covered his entire face with his blanket. My husband was 6 months and was lucky enough to have an uncle who realized what was happening and another family member who owned a vehicle and was able to get the heck out. It is truly a miracle that I am here today!
On the night of the disaster, my mother was supposed to be in Bhopal for some work. On 2nd Dec 1984, she was travelling from Indore to Bhopal with my grandfather. She got super late and by night managed to only reach to her sister's house in Sehore ( 38 KM west of Bhopal ). She was supposed to only stay there for a couple hours and continue her journey towards Bhopal. But since they were late, my Grandfather decided it must be better to stay the night in Sehore and leave for Bhopal in the morning.
On that night, she saw the horror with her own eyes. There was chaos on the street. She told me, that night some people have run up to Sehore on foot to escape death.
Now I think she was lucky that she got late.
I am SO glad to hear this man.
Reminds me of some 9/11 stories. Lots of survivor guilt, no doubt about it.
❤ thank goodness.
She's like the opposite of that Japanese man who was nuked twice
This is what I try to tell people in that being early is only any good for the birds. For the worms it's WAY MO betta to be sleeping in. And LATE, too!
I work with Methylisothiocyanate (MITC) every day, and we have to stress how dangerous it can be if not handled properly. I am actually referring a lot of my Apprentices to see this video to understand how serious it is, thanks Joe.
Great idea!!
Just make sure they also know the difference between methyl isocyanate (the Bhopal culprit) and methyl isoTHIOcyanate (what you guys work with) though!
Sounds about like Aniline Solution. If you read the warning label on the bottle, you won't even want it in the same building you're in.
Take care and keep flares
What are the immediate signs of contact
Thank you for covering this. I am from Bhopal. and was 16 at the time of this tragedy. It's not only the Union Carbide that was callous, the state and the Central governments shed only crocodile tears for the victims. It was the local doctors and the NGOs that provided most of the relief. That meagre compensation was withheld for a number of years and handed out in indecently small instalments not covering even the food cost of the victims. It's obvious the MNC had greased the palms of every politician from New Delhi to Bhopal.
My whole family was in Bhopal at the night of the disaster. We lived in the area that faced the gas leak, and I've grown up hearing the stories of those few days. Luckily, my family was able to survive the event, obviously not unscratched. My family often recounts how there were bodies everywhere. How animals left tied suffocated and how birds literally fell from the skies. My grandmother still has scars from that night, and I too have grown with visual and respiratory impairments. This, however is not uncommon in Bhopal. People still struggle with physical and mental illness caused by the leak, and there has been no proper studies done about the influence of the gas. Sadly people of Bhopal never got the justice they deserved. The Union carbide still stands where it did, and there still remain several containers of different chemicals rusting under the scorching heat of the city. The tragedy ruined water quality of the region, decimated animal population, and not to mention that the human cost was enormous. For us who still continue to live here, the tragedy never ended. What hurts the most is that the perpetrators lived full and healthy lives protected by the American government, while my people continue to live in poverty and medical neglect. Our histories have never been properly recorded, and the night mostly exists as haunting memories.
😭
Insane. I wish you and your family well, and wish I could do something as an American other than having awareness.
Radiation for how dangerous it is, has an element of mercy to it, people that get exposed to moderate doses died 20-30 hell 50 years even, the more extreme cases a year or less. But this is just dark this is generational terror there's no Mercy to it just suffering for those heavily exposed or for those marginally exposed.
I wish someone would get the money together, like an NGO or the government would come in and clean up the area as best they could
Hopefully one day american terrorists will pay for what they did
I think all the Indian viewers should thank Joe for bringing this to light. It's neglected and never spoken about. To put this disaster into perspective, the immediate deaths from Chernobyl was less than a 100. ( UN says 64). The immediate deaths from this was............between 2000 and 8000.
It was in the news and much discussed when it happened, but has largely been forgotten since. Very sad for many people.
That’s a very US centric world veiw you’ve got there.
This is regularly spoken about. No one really cares enough to do anything about it. The methyl isocyanate is *still* in Bhopal. The stuff that got out is just the stuff that leaked.
Our country is blind brother
@@MIkeHaubrichikonokast when it happened. Ask a non Indian kid what's Chernobyl and they'll tell you. It's not likely they even know what bhopal is.
My parents were both here in Bhopal when it happened (unmarried at the time). I'm 26, I was born and brought up here.
My dad's family was fast asleep, it was a cold winter night so they'd covered the cracks under the doors with clothes. My father thought the night show had ended in the nearby cinema so he didn't get up to check it either. They all survived.
My father was working with the Red Cross at the time and he tells me he saw hundreds and hundreds of bodies lined up when he went to the hospital the next day.
My mother's family lived relatively closer to the plant. When they found out, they left everything behind and started running. The whole family just ran and ran till they were out of the city.
It still shakes me to the core remembering it. The water is probably still affected here, many generations carried the scars of it.
My father was interning with the Red Cross at that time and was traumatised for a long time from what he saw.
There were huge pits dug in the ground and bodies were thrown and buried in them.
My grandfather reached bhopal just moments before the gas leak. He escaped just minutes before the effect reached his area. He told me that he just started his scooter and started driving it without knowing where to go and what's going on. And when he returned with other survivors after the tragedy subsided, there were bodies everywhere.
He also told when they were breaking the doors open of the houses to look for survivors, in one of the homes they found a small child still sucking on his dead mother's breast and bodies all around him.
My grandfather also suffered from cancer later and died last year due to it.
That must be a horrifying experience, condolences go out for your grandfather and stay safe bro.
Omg that sight is heartbreaking 😢💔
I... 🥀
That's horrifying. I can't believe that guy escaped prosecution. It seems the UN should have got involved.
Your grandpa was one very lucky man to escape that night.
I, being from Bhopal, have seen the site {which even now looks scary} and heared stories about that night which is enough to give anybody chills.
Few years ago i did an internship project in DMI on Bhopal Gas Tragedy and got to know about it closely. It was heart wrenching. This video states facts, but it does not cover is the psycological affect it had on people that day. There are still people who have nighmares from that day.
During the inernship, we had company of senior officials who shared their experiences from that day and hearing someone's first hand experience was just painfull.
What happened was just ignorance and that is even worst because there were so many measures and opportunities to stop this, but no one bothered!
This incident is still not very talked about and is unknown to people, i am very thankfull that you covered it very accurately.
You'd be astonished at how many companies are doing the same right now and nothing is being done by the government to stop it. Whoever says Indian government isn't corrupt is blind.
Here’s the story, titled “Whose Job Is It, Anyway?”
This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.
The story may be confusing but the message is clear: no one took responsibility so nothing got accomplished.
@@sunflowers730 This is really good and important story!
did you know about the tragedy before the internship?
@@vennelapagadala2538 yes I did, but i got to know about it in much more detailed manner after i researched about it
I was 11 months old living in Bhopal with my parents when this tragedy happened. My father decided to shut all doors and windows and stayed inside our house when everyone else was running on the road dying. Luckily we survived because that gas couldn't enter our home.
I am born and raised in Bhopal and I am still living here. My parents and relatives talk about this incident not only as a tragedy but also as a massacre. Even though my parents were okay, a few of my distant relatives were not able to survive this incident. thank you for covering this story and giving it the attention it deserves. People should be made aware of such incidents!
Currently sitting in bhopal watching this, the impact still there, children are born with multiple abnormalities
There’s still birth abnormalities???
@@kennycotterill2869 yes and people say that it will continue.
Testing naturally Sketch It makes the blood boil this, and many, many more like it!.
So the soil is still corrupted and poisoned? Why do people live there? Chernobyl was quarantined for good. Why wouldn't this place be? Or is it in the humans and in their DNA?
@@PresidentialWinner Well, the soil will be polluted for years to come, and babies with abnormalities would take birth, but all of the abnormalities are hereditary, whereas in the case of Chernobyl, there was active radiation which could easily be transmitted. Now coming to the case of soil, the polluted soil is either not used, or sealed off completely. I live 3 hours from Bhopal, these days you can't tell that it was the site of the horrific disaster.
For something so messed up, you did some very thorough, honest and heartfelt coverage. Bless you Joe, you're actually an angel.
Not many people actually talk about this in India, i learned about it first in 9th grade, and it was literally just 2 sentences. Few years later i saw a documentary in national geographic and started to understand the sheer gravity of the situation
That's mad. This should be basic modern history education in all your schools.
Typical... No one ever wants to talk about national shame... 😕
i'm in 9th and it's not even mentioned and my 6 grade teacher was legit shocked i knew about this
@@WatanabeNoTsuna. not a national shame 😂
It was a political shame.
What board of education.
Yeah when concrete starts heat cracking I would also say things are starting to get serious
it's fucking mental isn't it...
that wasn't exactly the issue though...
I would like to say that things have gone way beyond serious and it's time to haul ass from that place
@@Ass_of_Amalek That wasn't what OP was saying. They were saying that, by the time the concrete is heat cracking, shit is already flying towards the fan.
I live in Cyprus I can confirm feeling the shock from the explosion! Imagine what it must have been like being near such an explosion. The guy recording in West and his daughter must have never forgotten that.
I live in cyprus too and I have the same feeling
"corruption and incompetence" - pretty much every organisation I've worked for
Pretty much any organisation ever.
Did anyone, from union Carbide, go to jail? Certainly should have. Not just allowed to buy their way out the tragedy. Corporate companies seem to getaway with killing people.
yup...join the club..imagine a world were people that cared about people and things instead of only money.....
Can't forget those companies that know when stuff is wrong, and how to fix it, have the money to correct it, and STILL don't care and will cut corners, like why?
@@calibula95 true story bro
I remember at the time I saw an interview with a Union Carbide engineer who was trying to explain what had happened at the plant. In the middle of the interview, the man broke down and cried - big, shoulder-jerking sobs of anguish. I'm not sure why that particular incident has stuck with me all these years.
Empathy and the ability to see pain in others when they are hurting. I wish there were more people like you on this world.
@@DarrenBostock Hmm, I guess empathy really is that important.
(Not sarcasm by the way, just making a statement)
This encourages me to research the meaning behind the local siren I hear twice a year or every several months. I live in an industrial area so there are varying plants within reach that is worth being aware of.
Hopefully it’s just them doing a routine test on the alarm system!
@@elizabethfox9976 After looking it up I did find a government site mentioning those alarm tests but am now left curious how they differentiate a test from the real situation. Maybe just let the alarm go for longer and or sent out alert through the phone like they do sometimes?
@@mica4977 don't they schedule these tests on specific moments? If you know the dates, you can ignore the scheduled ones and only respond to the rest. In my country the alarms are tested every first Monday of the month. So when the alarm went and I realised it was a Thursday, I immediately closed all windows and turned off the ventilation. A minute later I got an alarm on my mobile phone as well explaining that there was a large fire close by and that we needed to close our windows due to toxins in the smoke.
Ah yes, 61 safety violations in a poison factory, we won´t need that failsafe stuff bruh lmao money go brrrrr
Pretty much typical of most "Big business" these days. Sickening!
It's all funny games until you're fuk up cuz you to be put in prison for life it's sad that life in prison isn't a big enough punishment for people to stop doing stuff like this though
Thats the same reason Chernobyl went up. Almost like safety rules have a purpose hmmmm
The truth of it all
That’s just capitalism in a nutshell
“Dad I can’t hear” never knew how distressing that could have gotten that quickly Jesus worse than Tianjin
Hearing that kid yell "Dad please get out away from here" was just as distressing
Probably similar to that scene from there will be blood where his son goes deaf due to a shockwave from an oil drill
I lived in Tianjin during the blast... Windows were broken for kilometres. One of my friends had a bunch his stuff sucked out of his apartment when both sides of windows got blown out.... Can't imagine what Beruit was like.... And prayers for the families of Bohpal
by no metric worse than Tianjin. At the very least 10 times as many people were killed and injured there.
Its actually a pretty weird "sensation" if one sense just stops. I can very much relate to that girl, because in highschool I was hit straight in the eye with a badmington shuttle. I was immediately blind because the anterior chamber of that eye filled up with blood in no time. At first it was a curious feeling but it changed to panic real fast. I cant remember pain in that moment, just pure shock, that my open eye is not seeing anymore.
Great video man, you included everything, I’m from Bhopal, a few years back i went to check out the Union Carbide, the place gave me chills, the locals asked us to leave soon telling us that we won’t feel comfortable there if we stay there for too long, my father is also a journalist and dead bodies being carried in trucks is absolutely true, however some say that actual numbers are still not out. when you’re passing UC you can still see “where is justice” and such stuff written on a few walls. A lot of people jumped into the lake because water was the only thing that could protect them and they didn’t know how to swim.
My grandfather's brother was one of the victim and whenever I talked about this he never made eye contact, he described it a hell!
He had lung cancer and died in 2007
An absolute tragedy that NEVER should've been possible! As for all the people who were involved in the breakdown of the plant's fail-safes just to pocket some $, I hope they realize the victims' blood is on their hands!
Began this video with smiling at his pronunciation of "Kucha" and "Pucca", ended it with tears and goosebumps.
You should hear Indians try to pronounce my name. It's only 4 letters long but they just can't get it. At least it helps me identify foreign telemarketers almost immediately.
@@LG123ABC Ra$i$t a$$wipe.
His pronunciation is actually good. He didnt butcher indian names.
@Hazel Whyte Ignorant troll. He never said Indian people are bad. He just stated he can identify them by there pronunciation.
@@tharunkrishna8032 true
When you said "he realized its a burning fertilizer plant" I was like your wayyy too close lmao
I remember this. I was 10 and I remember it being covered on the US nightly news, with footage of people filling the streets, screaming and crying in desperation. Absolutely horrific.
I remember it well. I was the same age, Scotland. All over the news at the time.
I was 16, & the news had me gaping in nauseated shock. So many people... The worst thought for me was the children.
Yet no one has been paid out any compensation, each case has to been seen on an individual case, meaning it will take over a hundred years to hear all cases, long after most people have passed away.
In the '80s I lived in Calgary, Alberta. We had to an "ode" in about '86. I chose this disaster. None of my classmates had heard of the incident. My teacher was appalled. Thanks for covering this.
Lol, despite the fact that both of my parents were teachers and I was an A/B student, I LOVED doing appalling things in school. My Dad got me started. ;)
@@Shayna11NM What I meant was that my teacher was appalled that they didn't recall the incident from only a few years before.
_"ode"?_
@@Allan_aka_RocKITEman Yeah, a poetic telling of some tragedy. Maybe there's a better word?
@@MichaelWerneburg >>> Okay, I know what you meant -- Thanks.
I remember this being a case study we reviewed in one of my chemical engineering ethics courses many years ago. Great video
here in India we have a subject called "environmental education" till class 6, we read about this tragedy in a case study in it, it was very tragic 😓😢
thank you for covering this Joe !!
i'm pretty sure evs turns into science and social science
@@deathkillshoot we actually have all 3 together 😅
@@deathkillshoot it depends. I had all three
@@soulsbourne hey genius he said that it was the worst INDUSTRIAL accident ever
@@deathkillshoot 😂😂👍
Safety reports should become public knowledge as soon as they’re made
Although I sympathise with your sentiments am afraid your ‘measure’ would be counterproductive.
@@abbofun9022 How so
What would that achieve exactly?
@@gramioerie_xi133 because it encourages companies not to do any honest internal investigations anymore. Additionally it would also create unnecessary panic about smaller technical issues and subsequently drown out the serious issues.
@@abbofun9022 so just let the union carbides of the world remove safety in the name of profit and kill thousands? Food factories near me are subject to daily USDA and FDA inspections. Daily. That needs to be a thing for all factories
just saw this on Netflix corporate greed so damm sad RIP everrybody who lost thier lives
They need a HBO's Chernobyl style mini-series on this.
There's a wonderful movie called "A prayer for rain"
@@pranayr9284 thank you i will look for that, the bhopal disaster freaked me out as a teenager. i was already furious with my ountry for multiple terrible things we'd done, this haunted me
BTW You can get the full movie on RUclips.
Was thinking the same thing.
Absolutely. There is so much to learn here
I am from Bhopal. My whole family was also here during that tragedy, they told me stories about how they survived that night. My Grandfather was a senior Doctor in the Government hospital, he told me about the Hundred's of dead bodies he saw in that Hospital on that night and days after that. My family ran away from our House that night but we had a Calf at home who didn't survive, he was very young at that time.
I never thought, I would see a Video about that incident here 😀
I think Plainly Difficult and/or Fascinating Horror did videos on thia disaster too, and that show Seconds From Disaster. I'm glad this disaster is slowly becoming closer to common knowledge. And this isn't the only major disaster by Union Carbide. That company racked up quite the body count...
The 2 failsafes Scrubber and Flair are called "air pollution control equipment" here in the US. Thier meant to scrub the air and burn off what was not scrubbed out of the air. So they were relying on the Flair solely to clean the air. This tells me (I worked in air quality for the last decade) that they had been polluting the air for a seriously long time before the catastrophe. In the U.S. we have to do extensive detailed reporting on a regular basis to air quality agencies and the federal clean air agency to prove every single piece of equipment is working properly. Equipment is installed on the stacks (flairs) to monitor gases leaving the stack. I dont want to know how many air pollution violations that place may have had. Your video cites safety violations, but air quality violations are a whole other thing. Great video, thank you.
I work as a safety valve technician in south-eastern Louisiana and I work with valves that have this chemical, and many other harmful chemicals, run through them. This could easily happen in the US too. We had an incident with this chemical a few years ago. We work with valves that are anywhere from a few inches tall to many tons. We had one of our techs picking up a valve at a local plant to bring back to the shop. It was a very small one, about 4 inches tall. The valve was cleaned by the plant before it was picked up. This was a new tech and he figured since it was so small he would put it on the back seat of the truck instead of putting it in the bed like protocol demands. He got a few miles before he started having breathing problems and called for help realizing he messed up. He was rushed to the hospital and recovered, but would have died with much more exposure. This was from a cleaned valve, there happened to be some residue in the threads that caused this. Don't think you are safe because this was in a poor foreign country. This chemical is here in the US and in many plants, especially here in south LA and in Texas. It is only one of the many dangerous chemicals being used in your back yard. I always follow protocol, take my time, and do the very best job I can because if I don't things like this could happen in my own community. This could happen if one of my valves fail in the plant
As some who has built a career in this exact type of work (chief chemical operator) I cant overstate the gross negligence in this scenario, simply because im extra familiar with everything that was presented. Everyone involved should be punished to the full extent of the law.
I am grateful for your professionalism in an inherently dangerous job.
@@briangarrow448 Dangerous it def is. They're essentially giant chemistry sets. I, myself, was in a massive explosion and was life flighted. But luckily I made a full recovery, I say that to say thank you for recognizing the danger. Its much appreciated!
Gross negligence is par for the course in India
@@tomjohnston3393 says a brit.
@@finger3215 lol
My Father was 14 years old at that time living in Bhopal along with my grandfather, Grandmother and Uncle. Fortunately all of them were survivors of this tragic event
I learned about this tragedy in my AP environmental science class, it makes me so angry other countries can take advantage of people’s poverty like this and do nothing after letting all these people die
Thankfully, it doesn't happen on nearly this type of scale in the U.S., but it unfortunately does occur even here (albeit in isolated cases). It's SICK what some people will allow to happen to others just so they can get more $ ! 🤮
@@crystalpreuett9539 death death death= money money money
@@josephcontreras8930 capitalism baby heck yea.
And those who dont take advantage of other country's people are often taking advantage of their own country's people
@@crystalpreuett9539 Makes me think of the SS Eastland (Ask a Mortician has a good vid about it). More people died in that disaster than from the sinking of the Titanic, but you never hear about it because they were working class. And the captain, who had exited the ship casually while people died gave the welders heck for "damaging his ship" because they were cutting open the hull to free the living trapped inside it.
If justice were a thing, the company involved would have been immediately dissolved and all the proceeds from sold assets would have been handed to the people of Bhopal, while Anderson would've gotten the death penalty.
Just imagine how careful companies would become after a response like that.
There is no justice in history. -Harari
No way that would have happened when Rajeev Gandi was in power. Lol, imagine a senior police officer helping the CEO to flee the country. Why do you think he didn't face any consequences? Well, because he was ordered to do so.
it would be effective for some, but problems would still happen, we can see it in countries with death penalty for some crimes, it doesn't stop all of them.
@@kunjupulla i was waiting this kind of a comment, now think for a second what the people of india would have done to the ceo and what the backlash of that would have been worldwide
@@kunjupulla and i don't think you heard the last part of the vid
I remember studying the disaster in depth during my student years, as a case study in what not to do in industrial risk management.
"Dad??.... I can't hear... I can't hear"
Oh god damnit, my heart :(
They were close to that explosion, lucky their ear drums weren't blown out.
She even had state of mind to plead “please get out of here”… that hit hard
settle down
@@bix05001 lol... most people want to get away from danger. Why would that hit you so "hard"?
@@alistairbalistair9596 Maybe because of empathy?Just guessing.
This was a very good treatment of a very tragic old story. I was wondering why you were covering it, but I am grateful you did. You and your team comprise an excellent journalistic source. I also feel the subjects are presented in an illuminating and stimulating manner, even when the subject (as in this case) is rather dark.
Well done, Sir.
I appreciate that, though I'm a little uncomfortable with people calling me a journalist. I used to work in a newspaper (as an advertising copywriter) and I have a healthy respect for the standards and processes they are held to. What I do just isn't the same thing.
But again, I appreciate the kind words. :)
@@joescott Give yourself some credit, you do better than atleast 50% of current day "journalism".
@@ganon8835 he built this channel to be more educational not journalism. Teaching the facts of things not opinions
@@warbone3k833 thats litterally journalism... real journalists are supposed to be unbiased and give you the straight facts.
@@nielslund5959 It's a shame people today are forgetting that. Yellow journalism is just... journalism, now.
I came here after listening to the Bhopal episode of This Podcast Will Kill You. Your coverage of this was even better. You have a really great way of straightforwardly explaining situations and providing a relatable context for events, which really helps to make this less of an “over there” situation. You really drive home that this affected real people living their normal lives, and shows us that this sort of negligence could be as devastating to any of us. Union Carbide are cartoon villain levels of evil and intentional negligence.
Watching from Bhopal, my mother was 20 when this happened in the most affected part of the city, her family was thankfully unharmed which they claim was because they slept with the covers all the way over thier faces. Interesting theory, whatever it was, needless to say they were incredibly lucky.
A few others have escaped chemical attacks by putting a blanket over them and staying under a running shower.
My grandpa was a railway station master at the time of disaster , he saved hundreds of life by telling people to get on the train and ordering the signal head to allow the train to leave asap, my mom and her family lived in railway quarters which was very close to the factory, they all had minor health issues but fortunately they survived.
ForMoreGuide
W=h=a=t=s=A=p=p
+44 = 7 = 4 = 1 = 8 = 3 = 4 = 9 = 9 = 1 = 7
aapke grand father pe web series ban gayi
Yesterday, I watched 'The Railway Men' series on Netflix. I can't imagine the challenges they faced during the night. The heroic efforts of the railway workers saved many lives.
Oh shit didn’t they jus make a show about him
@@sanketbadhe3572 yes , finally unke kam ko recognition mila.
I'd love to see you cover the Lake Nyos disaster. That one was completely natural and frankly one of the most terrifying things I've ever heard of.
i did a presentation on lake nyos and limnic eruptions just a few weeks ago for my science class, even my TEACHER had never heard of it before
I just came to this video from a video of his about that incident, if you didn’t know it was a thing now
Yeah, check his other videos now! He did end up doing one on the Cameroonian lakes exploding. I think it’s the Diet Coke and mentos one.
Bhopal must never be forgotten. My stomach turned when I learned from the tragedy in university and it saddens to this day. Respect to those affected by it.
This genuinely sounds like a similar situation to the steel factory I work at, which is concerning.
Everything breaking down, cutting costs, no repair times on heavy machines and chemical tanks despite the need for it, etc.
yo where tf do you work 👀💀
Surely you can contact someone about that right? Like safety regulators?
Pls b safe :(
Report it to regulatory agencies. If nothing changes, go to your local press/reporters. Sometimes it takes a public investigation to get companies to do the right thing
Run
Nat Geo covered this in great depth and what is startling is the fact that there were not one, two but several safety measures to kill the gas vapors but none were maintained and what followed was worst disaster in history of mankind
I think you're exaggerating and frankly, pretty ignorant. Even if the number of people affected eventually reached 150,000, which it did not, we'll say it did to be on the safe side.
Between 1347 to 1351, a period of four years, 100 to 200 MILLION people died in Europe from the bubonic plague pandemic. I think that was a little bit higher on the disaster ladder, don't you think? A little research will show you that many disasters occurred throughout history greater than Bhopal.
@@donmiller2908 hey uncle, how about you watch the complete video and try to understand the context. Bhopal gas tragedy was a human made disaster whereas bubonic plague, Spanish flu and covid are not. And people are still dying due to illness and after effects of genetic mutations. The official number of people affected are way more than 150000.
@@jaygadhiya9908 So instead of writing "worst disaster" you should have written "worst man-made disaster". Even then it still wouldn't be true.
The other sad effect of the Beirut explosion is that they're now having a major economic crisis. Experts are saying it's among the three worst financial and economic crisis since the mid-1800's. Food, gas and medicine are running short quickly as inflation caused it's currency to lose 90% of its value. 😔
Lebanon was already going through a tough time, this disaster just snuffed out all of the hope people had to make their country better. Corrupt governments can get away with anything, and Lebanons' government is so appallingly oblivious to this situation it makes me sick.
And the massive silo that was next to the explosion happened to be where the majority of the grain was stored. So they put fireworks, the grain supply, and ammonium nitrate all in the same spot. A silver lining is that the silos was so strong it shielded a lot of the city from the direct blast. Which means a grain silo did more to protect beirut than their actual government.
hate to break it out ,but lebanon in its current state is a lost cause even before the blast
I would have thought that it was the worst thing to happen in Beirut since the problems in the 1980’s??
16:15 - what a kick in the balls it is to live through the bhopal disaster, and due to impaired/damaged respiratory and immune system, be killed by the c 19.
being from the US I'd only heard some small refs to this incident and always wondered about it. I can't imagine the terror people were feeling that night and the pain and suffering in the years to come for those who survived it. I'm glad when the CEO went there he was arrested - to them it's just a budget cut for 'business' but when the scope of their view is limited to just the dollar signs this kind of stuff happens and it's innocent people who suffer. Thank you for covering this story it was very enlightening.
My family was affected by that blast in Lebanon. I get upset remembering that explosion. Oh boi, I'm in for quite a ride today.
An accident in Lebanon that claimed not so many less lives than when that Marine Barracks was blown up in 1983. Wow.
@@ronaldgarrison8478 That wasn't an accident.
@@LG123ABC And just where did I say it was?
Hope you're alright dude❤️
@@ronaldgarrison8478 Useless information is useless. Take your strawman elsewhere before I set it on fire.
Hey does anybody know how to go about making a suggestion on a story they would like to see Joe cover? I would love for him to cover the controversy of Residential Schools in Canada and the recent findings of mass unmarked graves.
I would assume you'd need to go to his patreon and see if paying members can post suggestions. He might also have a discord for patrons.
Yes yes yes 🙌
Canadian here. Agreed.
I have seen it already somewhere, but could not tell you where but its definatly up there. Heartbreaking, just like the one in Ireland , hundreds of babies in a nun run home for unwed mothers.
It would be even better if he took it one step further and talked about how the gov knew about these graves for years and refused to help look.
As a residence of Bhopal I will also like to add that it is said that the Big lake and other lakes also absorbed most of the MIC spread throughout the city though they lost their sparkle ever since as it was said that the lake water was very sweet and refreshing .So in a way Raja Bhoj helped his citizens hundreds of years after his death .
These videos are some of the best on RUclips
Asianometry
@@leanderbarreto6523 ?
@@jcfiggy It's an extremely informative channel focusing on East Asian-related industry, though has a heavy tech focus that may go over some people's heads. Definitely worth checking out, though.
No, they’re some of the best anywhere
"Almost makes you feel bad for the guy.... i'm kidding, F% you dude" Thank you for that, perfect!
Mom grew up across the street from Carbide (as it was known then, and is still called by her generation). She said everyone nearby always felt like they had a target on their backs because they just knew that stupid plant was gonna blow. Nobody had AC in those days, and in summer everyone slept with their windows open. Mom would wake up choking because of all the waste from the plant.
You will not be astonished to hear that Mom has lung issues now (thanks, Carbide!).
There was a passenger train that was supposed to stop in Bhopal that night, but the guy operating it just got a nagging feeling he should keep going. He did keep going, and the plant blew a couple of minutes after he passed the city.
I do not believe for a second that things like this are "accidents."
I’ve this story several times, but yours was the most researched and inclusive.
How about this one:
www.stephenhicks.org/2013/07/14/lessons-from-bhopal/
Well There's Your Problem did an episode about it, has their own brand of dark humour and side tracking, but it's very well researched.
Visited Bhopal a few months ago.. the factory is still there, rusted, but still there.. You can definitely feel the negative energy (non-paranormal, just pure bad energy).
Funny thing we couldn't extradite Anderson. (not that we are good in extradition today).
Love,
Vijay Mallya.
America harbors criminal scum. We need to stop!
What energy are you referring to?
@@TheJaY366 Pain in the air..
@@TheJaY366 Bad instinctual feeling like something is wrong.
if you ever wonder why Joe is going to become huge it's because he puts all the disasters in one video instead of milking out videos, the value and quality level is serious people
Great video…
Fun little trivia: its pronounced “kahcha” homes, (similar to the way one pronounces “gotcha”). It means uncooked or raw, whereas the “pakka” homes (similar to the way Americans pronounce “puck(er)”, means cooked.
So raw/flimsy homes vs. cooked/strong homes.
O. Mom okokokokokkkkllokkokk
Kokkooki
Funny how pasta is flimsy cooked but strong (relative) when raw
Let me guess, it refers to the bricks the houses are made out of, are they fired or not?
@@uegvdczuVF kinda... kuccha homes are traditionally made of mud (packed earth to be more precise)
I remember this well, and 17 months later the Chernobyl disaster happened - two unimaginable tragedies not too far apart.
Desperately sad to this day.
I think a series like Chernobyl should be made on Bhopal disaster. Would increase people's knowledge
@@narsimhas1360 Yeah, Chernobyl is nothing compared to Bhopal. The death toll for Bhopal was so much higher.
With King's Cross fire, Manchester air fire, Hillsborough football crush, Clapham Junction rail crash, Herald of Free Enterprise .... it was a strange time. In 1990 I started work on nuclear reactor safety for power stations.
@@Perforator2000 And if Bhopal factory was owned by Russians the USA would make sure the whole world shares your opinion.
@@uegvdczuVF I agree. Chernobyl was a perfect incident to reinforce US Cold War propaganda narratives, so it has been burned into our minds. It was truly a disaster caused by mismanagement, but genocidal mismanagement isn't an exclusive feature of eastern European states.
Thanks for covering this...I saw Chernobyl and was constantly thinking we had a far worst tragedy here. So many people still suffer from PTSD.
There are so many tragedies that affect millions, even billions of people… until we have governments that can put people before profit, there will be more.
Your loss is devastating. Their loss is devastating. The future is still so likely to bring further devastation.
I grew up on a small farm of cherry trees in the 70's. My dad, clad in gas mask and his "spraying overalls", would spray Sevin on the trees and we would have to hide in the house with the windows closed until it all settled. Bugs are tough, we still lost a small part of each crop to insects, but no where near what would have been consumed if he hadn't sprayed.
I had a boyfriend in college that worked on an estate in P.V. Arizona in the mid 80s. The guy that owned the property wasn't exactly the honest, tree hunger type of business man. He was in the high end racing and aftermarket auto parts business. After after after market.
Anyway they would have my 19 year old BF wear a simple mask and spray the 10 acre estates olive trees so there wouldn't be any messy olives drop. They told him to be careful because it could make him sterile. No haz mat stuff, just a mask and of course there wasnt anyone checking because the stuff was stolen and he was pretty sure illegal to use at that point in the us.
That BF went on to work as a hazmat Firefighter and told me once that he didn't think he would live past 50. He is 52 now i think. Not sure if he is alive though.
The question should be what impact remained on the crops? Many pesticides have been shown to contaminate crops which they were used on in trace amounts that can bioaccumulate. And as various chemicals impacts on health have been shown to leave inheritable epigenetic markers. There was recent research on people exposed to DDT and finding inherited detrimental epigenetic changes have continued to be passed on after 3 whole generations.
Those insects have probably gone through many generations (how many depends on what species are in question) a year allowing natural selection to screen for beneficial mutations to counter pesticide use which as the crops end up losing the essential mycorrhizae associations and as these toxins propagate up the food chain the pesticide will also kill the animals that have evolved to respond to the release of specific chemical pheromones broadcasting the presence of a pest species. This effectively removes plants natural ability to deal with pests by killing the predatory insects and insectivorous birds etc. that naturally deal with pest species.
This in turn then kills the scavengers of those organisms continuing to bioaccumulate up the food chain ultimately ending up in the ocean. that is the nasty thing about chemicals their effects don't go away There are animals still dying from poisons banned over half a century ago or older. Sure eventually the chemicals might be modified into something more harmless but many of these indiscriminate killer pesticides are durable enough to last generations whether directly or indirectly(via epigenetics).
Same story here. Cherries, peaches, plums, '70s. Can still recall the taste of that stuff on the air. My grandfather was hospitalized twice mis-handling that stuff.
Bugs evolve faster than humans, their genarations pass within years, they get used to the chemicals and even a stronger one enters the market, but HUMAN remains unprepared.
@@AST4EVER It's incredible how fast insects are disappearing. I recall noticing about fifteen years that it was suddenly possible to drive around Ontario in the summer without the grill of the car becoming covered in dead bugs. I don't think my kids have ever seen one insect on the front of the car.
"A massive comedy of errors"? More like gross criminal negligence. There needs to be a corporate death penalty for crimes like this. After all corporations are people, my friend.
Exactly. If “corporations are people”, as the ghouls like to proclaim, then they have BOTH the rights AND RESPONSIBILITIES of people. And if upper management can be proven culpable in these situations, they need to be prosecuted like you or I would be for poisoning hundreds of people. Even if they call it “manslaughter”, or “accidental death” (instead of mass murder), this is, at the very least, legally “criminal negligence” of the highest order, and requires CONSEQUENCES.
(Edit: grammar)
If we start killing people for crimes, we're no better than the criminal.
@@timarc9895 I believe they are talking about putting the "corporation" to death, not the corporate officers.
Only when it's beneficial to them. In a situation like this one or let's say oh I don't know the recent child slavery suit against Mars, Nestle, and Hershey they are absolutely not a people. Uh-uh, no way, not them.
@@ronjones-6977 the death penalty isn't a sufficient deterrent for criminals. I doubt it would suffice for corporations either
the fear in the kids voice when the explosion happened…. oh my god. glad both of them got out alive.
Yesterday I bumped into a beggar. Her sister and him lost their mind during this gas tragedy. And now are beggars . This what what first world countries did to india and our politicians helped them escape .
Their pain is endless .
the first world is built on the bodies of billions. the riches there are only stolen from what should be equally dispersed to all nations for not only comfortable living, but prosperous living. i feel only pain when i hear of the beautiful places of rich history destroyed, bombed, murdered by the greedy ideology of the first world. :(
‘Bumped’ into
@@KoiYakultGreenTea thanx mate . Corrected now
@@ionbattery It's easy to lay blame in one place, but don't forget that others countries allow the abuse of their citizens as well. They essentially sell modern day slave labor.
And first world countries sell themselves off as 'caring' by exporting things like slavery to other countries that will allow it, so that their citizens don't have to see it for themselves and feel bad about participating.
And yet is your countries higher ups to reap the benefits of the deals so instead of getting angry at other countries maybe actually use your brain and look at your leaders blame for making deals at your expense
last year, i was in my home 45 km away from the port. The whole house shook and the sound was so loud we thought our city was being bombed. the port is still destroyed too
I have visited Bhopal twice 21 and 24 years after the disaster (tragedy), on both occasions I was strongly advised to avoid the Union Carbide area near Habib Ganj Railway Station where it is located.
I traveled to this town on a business trip in late August of 2001. I thought I heard locally that 30,000 people died. I drove by the slum where most of the people died. It was a sad sight. Thanks for doing this story. One of my hosts talk about how “the British invented bureaucracy and the Indians perfected it”. Corruption is a plague that infects the developing World and hopefully technology will disinfect it.
I have to say, that is one of the most interesting and impressive openings to a video I have ever seen. The emotion you put into it, along with the recaps of the 3 other tragedies impressed me like no other video I have seen! Well done!
We had a similar accident in the Netherlands in my town Enschede. With the fireworks not the nitrate but it still was a big disaster. And some people said there were illegal weapons stored there. I thought maybe you could look into it and make a vid about it
I remember watching “well there’s your problem”’s coverage of the Bhopal disaster. Bit of dark humor to it but if you want a deep deep dive of how union carbide just knowingly screwed people over because they didn’t feel like paying the bare minimum for safety
Sevond this. A two parter, if I remember correctly
This was a crime of unprecedented level, and proves that individual corporations cannot be expected to be proactive or even active in safety measures. It also proves that the US and other countries have to stop valuing politics over accountability. I periodically will mention the anniversary of Bhopal at work, and no one has heard of it, nor do they care. So, we as members of the global brotherhood also are failures. Shame on us all.
Exactly!
I was going to post a comment saying nearly the exact same thing. Do you follow the excellent Fascinating Horror You Tube channel? The You Tube channel Plainly Difficult is also great.
Agreed. If a corporation is going to a developing nation just because they think they can bypass safety, they should be paying vast fines.
International laws should be changed to reflect what's considered safe in the home nation should be practiced in the host nation.
100% agreed.
THAT should be the most important part of any government. Doesn't matter right or left.
I live in Bhopal.....there are a lot of things that I would love people around the world to see. It's a very beautiful city indeed. But THIS is what our city is known for all around the world. It's a real shame. But most people have recovered by now. So that's good. But the effects of the gas have and will last many generations.
The quote is "one death is a tragedy. One million is a statistic." It's a Stalin quote.
Exactly.
He probably said next “a million deaths is just western capitalism lies”
In character, for the steelen soviet.
Nah. It's from Remark's Black Obelisk.
hah, misinformation on the internet, how new. that quote is not from Stalin.
I'm surprised I can see this from my location as I live in Midland MI , home of Dow Chemical, now owners of union carbide
Well, I live opposite BASF, Luwigshafen, Germany - claimed biggest chemical plant on planet. The only question is: How do we move such infrastructure and stuff in space?... in 21 century.
I’m right now the street in auburn hills!
Yo! Michigan is the best state always cool to see a comment from michigan, I'm from Saginaw unfortunately but I do appreciate the rest of this great state
@@gregor-samsa the chances of realeasing reagents, or product when shuttling the material too and from orbit would be substantially higher than the risk inherent to our current system so doing that would be way too dangerous even if it wasn't cost prohibitive to do so. Unfortunately there is no easy solution to this problem, the best we can do is create regulations, independent groups to ensure the regulations are met, and a penal system to dissuade non compliance.
Freedom of information man -- keep the internet unregulated by governments or corporations!
You covered the topic being mindful of its sensitivity... unlike many other RUclipsrs who ridicule or almost dehumanize those people who face poverty and discrimination in developing nations...sub for that
17:59 I am from bhopal my mother and grandparents were severely affected by that incident, I have that same feeling for that guy
Yeah ok blame one guy because that's easy for your weak egos to do but not the executive structure of the company that lead to the proposals, signing-off, and execution at all levels. No, just blame one guy because he's the richest and let the system itself continue...
No matter how much you want to victimize, nothing's going to change because you aren't going to make real change, just hate against those who have power over you.
@@158-i6z Wow this person literally suffered due to incident and you are victim blaming him?
@@nihalbhandary162 Ok, I know it's harsh and sometimes I have anger issues on the Internet (like a lot of people). So I apologize to Piyush for what I said. But people typically direct their anger to one place when things go wrong simply because it's easiest to cope and then nothing happens. The company and the structure of it resulting in the disaster are too complex for people to talk about so they don't publically acknowledge that this is the real issue, let alone collectively make change. Imagine you got run over by a bus (assuming not your fault) and blame the bus driver, but really the bus company, the road, visibillity, etc... are all variables at play. But you just blame the bus driver and he gets fired but everything is exactly the same as it was before.
I can still remember when this happened. It was on the cover of every newspaper in the country (Australia) and TV stations were running the story on a continuous loop for weeks. I was 25 at the time. It really is impossible to articulate just how shocking and mortifying this story was. Imagine 9/11 but about a thousand times worse.
I do not think you can compare the two as one was a deliberate act the other an accident also as someone who lost both mother and father and two uncles in the 9/11 attacks I don’t think that whatever happened in India in the 80s affect me in anyway shape or form where is 911 for me was 1 million times worse so please keep your comments to yourself.
@@noway5469 I absolutely will not keep my comments to myself and I think you have a hell of a nerve telling anyone what they can or cannot say when talking about their own experiences. Seriously, who the hell do you think you are? I'm terribly sorry that you lost family members during the 911 attacks but I was talking in general terms about the devastation and the lost of life each of these events created. Whether an event was deliberate or accidental is completely irrelevant when you're talking about the sheer number of people who died. You seem to be implying that I'm trying to minimise the tragedy of 911(which I'm not) but are you not doing exactly the same thing by saying that you don't really care about something that happened in the eighties because it didn't touch you or affect your life in any way? What about all the people who also lost family members and parents and children back then? Are their deaths less significant somehow just because you didn't actually know them personally? Just because you weren't around to witness it first hand doesn't diminish the needlessly devastating loss of life that was experienced by thousands of people at that time. Just in terms of how many people lost their lives, there really isn't any comparison. Bhopal was so much worse. You seem to me to be a person who just loves to play the victim. You're not a victim. People lose loved ones all the time under varying circumstances every day of every year and you don't get to declare that your experience with losing a loved one is far, far worse than what anybody else could possibly experience. You should try developing some empathy instead of wallowing in self pity.
@@noway5469 wow this is ridiculous. You’re mad because you think 9/11 was worse but the reason why you think it’s worse is that it personally affected you?? That is so callous and uncaring. This disaster in the 80s left a lot of loved ones who are still alive today and who are devastated by the effects.
@@noway5469 Imagine if someone from India told you that 9/11 was irrelevant and minuscule because they personally weren't affected by it. Seeing as it claimed the lives of your parents, you would probably be irate. After all, this person is acting obscenely self centered. They have no idea what you went through and yet they have the nerve to call it all trivial because they weren't the one in your shoes.
Well, right now you are acting exactly like the person described in this scenario. You come off as terribly selfish.
Both of them were horrendous tragedies, but on official tangible terms, 9/11 was worse.
My heart bled so much because of the disaster that I had to visit Bhopal on my first visit to India in 1992 as a mark of respect, even though it is not at all a touristic centre. Insult was added to injury by the attitude of Union Carbide to the claims for compensation, and the dribble of compensation that eventually got through to the injured and bereaved after many years.
A chemical company with shady business practices? Shocking 😱
More like patriarchal company amirite
The company was half owned by the government of India.
I was 20 years old at the time and remember hearing about this when it happened, and having a sense of shock, disbelief, and great sadness. It's still tragic that those who should have been held accountable weren't.
Its been 35 years since that abominable night when 40 tonnes of extremely toxic gas was accidently unleashed upon thousands of unsuspecting and innocent townspeople. Yet even after so many years the legacy of Bhopal gas disaster still haunts the people of Bhopal.
I’m from West,Tx or as we call it “The comma”. Knew many of those who died. I had a number of friends whose fathers were killed. Our little town hasn’t been the same since.
Deepest sympathies- then and now- from Austin
this warrants chernobyl like series
There is a movie called Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain about the same thing. Martin Sheen plays Warren Anderson ( the asshole).
My mother and her family is from bhopal and she was a kid when this happened and when she told me about it I was horrified....
As an Indian following your channel since last couple years, I am very thankful that you covered this. Thank you Joe
I am from bhopal. And I remember those moments when trucks are loaded with human dead bodies. And animals were dead on the roads everywhere
I live in Bhopal and seriously I know a little about this disaster.We hear about it in newspapers,some youtube videos and that's all.The government didn't even care for a proper memorial or relief for gas victims. Very less information the people have about what happened that night.
blowing up city with ammonium nitrate has a long tradition, there is even a list on wikipedia : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ammonium_nitrate_disasters
The screaming in the start of the video after the explosion ripped my heart out
Always makes me think of the stunt the Yes Men pulled where one of them impersonated a Dow representative in a TV interview and announced that they would take responsibility for the accident, thereby absolutely tanking the stock price of Dow Chemicals.
That silo, which held the grain... saved a lot of lives. Had it not been there to "eat" up the blast of all that AN, the death toll and the destruction might've been bigger. You can even see its "projection" in the blast.
Grain, always the absolutest chads