Polluted Ghost Towns Caused by Environmental Disasters

Conservatives may hate the EPA, but it was created for one very good reason and that is that pollution and environmental disasters can not only destroy the planet, but everyone living on it. This All That is Interesting article shows just how dangerous pollution can be by featuring five different ghost towns that have been destroyed by environmental disasters. For example, Centralia, Pennsylvania, a small town that has been burning since the coal mines below the city caught fire in 1962:

While exact causes of the fire remain disputed, analysts agree that a 1962 fire tore through the town’s abandoned coal mines and has not yet stopped. Residents became aware of the fire decades later, and in 1984 Congress allocated more than $40 million to relocate Centralia residents — many of whom did not see the risk that the fires posed.

Then-governor Bob Casey condemned all Centralia estates in 1992, but backlash from Centralia citizens kept Centralia’s zip code alive until 2002.

So check out the full story of Centralia as well as four other cities destroyed by environmental disasters over on All That is Interesting.