This is one of the most glaring cases of disregard for the environment or human beings featured on our list. The town of Love Canal near Niagara Falls was founded as a model town in the 1890s. By the 1920s, a license had been granted to a company called Hooker Chemical (now known as the Occidental Petroleum Corporation) to bury chemical waste below the land. The job was done cheaply and inefficiently, and the chemicals leaked out into the land and water.
It took a few decades for the crude containment system built around the landfill to fail, but when it did, black water started to filter into Love Canal. Rates of cancer, miscarriage and congenital disabilities sparked sharply and suddenly. The land was poisoned, the people were sick, and the wildlife was killed off. Eventually, President Jimmy Carter was forced to declare a state of emergency and evacuate the town.