As Americans gorged on turkey and pumpkin pie, a 50-mile-long toxic chemical spill was flowing along the Songhua River through northern China – the worst environmental disaster in the nation’s recent history. The crisis began on Nov. 13, when two explosions at a state-owned petrochemical plant in Jilin killed five workers, injured 70, forced about 10,000 to flee, and dumped 100 tons of benzene (among other nasties) into the Songhua.