Environmental disasters by category,Agricultural,Biodiversity,Human health,Industrial,Mining, Oil industry,Nuclear,Pollution, Marine,Freshwater

Agricultural

* Salinity in Australia
* Salinization of the Fertile Crescent
* The Dust Bowl in Canada and the United States (1934-1939)
* The Great sparrow campaign; sparrows were eliminated from Chinese farms, which caused locusts to swarm the farms and resulted in a famine which killed 38 million people.
* Africanized bees, known colloquially as "killer bees"
* Central Plains Water scheme in New Zealand
* The Osborne Reef and other similar artificial reefs made of tires
* Aral Sea mismanagement
* Dirty dairying in New Zealand
* Hedgerow removal

Biodiversity

* Extinction of American megafauna
* Extinction of Australian megafauna
* Deforestation of Easter Island
* Destruction of the old growth forests
* Rabbits in Australia
* Red imported fire ants
* Reduction in the number of the American Bison
* Introduction of the Nile perch into Lake Victoria in Africa, decimating indigenous fish species
* The Saemangeum Seawall
* Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef
* 2006 Zakouma elephant slaughter
* Invasive species in New Zealand
* Ghost nets

Human health

* Introduction of infectious diseases by Europeans causing the death of indigenous people during European colonization of the Americas
* Health effects arising from the September 11 attacks
* Goiânia accident, human deaths resulting from dismantling a scrapped medical machine containing a source of radioactivity

Industrial

* Minamata disease - mercury poisoning in Japan (1950s & 1960s)
* Ontario Minamata disease in Canada
* Itai-itai disease, due to cadmium poisoning in Japan
* Love Canal toxic waste site
* Seveso disaster (1976), chemical plant explosion, caused highest known exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) in residential populations
* Bhopal disaster
* Sandoz chemical spill into the Rhine river (1986)
* United States Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites in the United States
* AZF Explosion at a Toulouse chemical factory (2001)
* 2005 Jilin chemical plant explosions
* The Sydney Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens sites in the city of Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, known as the largest toxic waste site in North America.
* Release of lead dust into Esperance Harbour.
* Release of cyanide, heavy metals and acid into the Alamosa River, Colorado from the Summitville mine, causing the death of all marine life within a 17 mile radius.
* Release of 20,000 gallons of lethal chemicals (metam sodium, tradename Vapam) into the Upper Sacramento River near Dunsmuir, causing the death of all marine life within a 38 mile radius.
* Release of CFC's resulting in ozone depletion
* Release of sulfer dioxide after a fire at the [[Al-Mishraq] plant in Iraq
* The Phillips Disasters
* Villa Parisi (Brazil)
* Health issues on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation due to chemical factories
* Environmental issues with the Three Gorges Dam

Mining

* The Ok Tedi environmental disaster in Papua New Guinea
* Collapse of a colliery waste tip in Aberfan, Wales
* Mining at Cerro de San Pedro in Mexico by Minera San Xavier
* Lead dust from the Magellan Metals mine in Australia
* Failure of a toxic waste dam at the Aznalcollar mine in Spain
* Uranium mining controversy in Kakadu National Park
* The proposed Cypress Mine in New Zealand
* The tailings dam from the now abandoned Tui mine

Oil industry

* Environmental issues in the Niger Delta relating to the oil industry
* Lago Agrio oil field issues
* Arctic Refuge drilling controversy

Nuclear

* Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
* Chernobyl disaster
* Three Mile Island accident
* Nuclear testing at Moruroa and Fangataufa
* Windscale fire
* Fallout from the Castle Bravo nuclear test
* The health of Downwinders

Pollution

* Proliferation of plastic shopping bags

Air

* The Donora Smog of 1948 in Donora, Pennsylvania in the United States
* The Great Smog of 1952, which killed 4,000 Londoners
* The 1983 Melbourne dust storm
* The 1997 Southeast Asian haze
* The 2005 Malaysian haze
* The 2006 Southeast Asian haze
* Yokkaichi asthma in Japan
* Health problems due to the Jinkanpo Atsugi Incinerator in Japan
* Kuwaiti oil fires

Land

* The Dust Bowl of Canada and the United States
* Contaminated soils in Mapua, New Zealand due to the operation of an agricultural chemicals factory
* Basin F, a disposal site in the United States for contaminated liquid wastes from the chemical manufacturing operations of the Army and its lessee Shell Chemical Company
* 2006 Côte d'Ivoire toxic waste spill
* Atari video game burial

Water

Freshwater

* Selenium poisoning of wildlife due to farm runoff used to create Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, an the artificial wetland
* The Jiyeh Power Station oil spill in the Mediterranean region
* Effects of polluted water in the Berkeley Pit in the United States
* Cheakamus River derailment which polluted a river with caustic soda
* Draining and development of the Everglades

Marine

* The artificial Osborne Reef
* Dumping of conventional and chemical munitions in Beaufort's Dyke
* Marine debris
* Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef
* Nurdles
* Friendly Floatees
* The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Hypothetical environmental disasters

* Grey goo as a result of out of control nanotechnology
* Nuclear darkness, nuclear summer and nuclear winter after a nuclear conflict