THE development of international environmental law has been accelerated by the emergence of disputes due to the numerous physical, economic, social and political factors. These factors include the danger of climate change, transborder pollution, waste disposal in bodies of water and on land, the transport of hazardous wastes, desertification and drought, destruction of plant and animal genetic resources, genetically modified organisms, nuclear accidents, accidents at sea, and the exploitation of the seabed and of the Antarctic.
The international community was appalled by a series of environmental disasters in the recent past. Some of the more notable ones are the Bhopal chemical plant accident in India; the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion in Ukraine, which left a deserted dangerously radioactive area that used to be an active community; the Deep Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that spilled at least 168 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean and killed countless marine mammals, sea turtles, fish and migratory birds; and the 1991 and 2004 burning of oil wells in the Gulf area. These disasters affect not only the planet’s present occupants, but also future generations.