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🗓️ 22 June 2023
⏱️ 16 minutes
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June 22, 1969. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio catches fire, sparking a movement to clean up the United States’ polluted waterways.
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0:22.4 | It's the afternoon of November 1st, 1952, on a tugboat |
0:26.7 | mored to the bank of the Kaya Hoga River in Cleveland, Ohio. |
0:30.6 | A crew of eight workmen, Toil, under the afternoon sun. |
0:34.8 | Sying weirdly, one of them sets his tools down and walks to the boat's edge. |
0:39.1 | Disgust overcomes him though, as he gazes at the murky waterway below, |
0:43.0 | its surface covered in a thick layer of oil. |
0:46.4 | Kaya Hoga River snakes through the heart of Cleveland, dividing the city in two. |
0:51.0 | With factories lining its banks, the river has become a polluted, slow-moving sewer, |
0:56.0 | tainted by the waste of steel plants, oil refineries, and chemical works. |
1:00.9 | Earlier this year, the situation grew worse, after a leak at one of the area's biggest |
1:05.6 | refineries spilled a tremendous amount of oil into the Kaya Hoga. |
1:10.1 | Now, the workmen stares at the thick slick it left behind, |
1:13.4 | turning the river in inky black. |
1:15.9 | As he eyes the water, his attention is grabbed by a muffled sputtering nearby. |
1:20.6 | He spots bubbles, gathering at the river's surface. |
1:23.9 | The disturbance is the result of trapped gases struggling to escape beneath the oil. |
1:29.3 | The workmen shakes his head at the sad side, but he doesn't think too much of it. |
1:34.1 | Until screams of a alarm suddenly pierce the air. |
1:37.5 | The workers glance up to see people on the opposite shore, frantically gesturing down the river. |
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