an environmental disaster

"The environment" means the natural world - the air, oceans, plants and animals, etc. A "disaster" is an event that hurts a lot of people or destroys a lot of things. So an "environmental disaster" is a big event that causes a lot of pollution, hurts a lot of plants and animals, etc.

Some evironmental disasters are:

  • oil spills
  • nuclear power leaks
  • chemical spills

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