#Health consequences of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

[9kmovies-biz]

The Worst U.S. Chemical Disasters Caused by Train Derailments

Officials examine a derailed car in Paulsboro on November 30, 2012.Photo: Mel Evans (AP) The accident most similar to what’s happening now in Ohio occurred in November 2012, when a train owned by Conrail derailed over a bridge, causing four rail cars to fall into the Mantua Creek in Paulsboro, New Jersey. One of the cars contained some 23,000 gallons of vinyl chloride—the same chemical released…

[therealitycollective]

The Lamentation of a Starseed

The ocean was polluted.

That was putting it lightly.

It was more accurate to say that the ocean’s ecosystem was on the verge of catastrophic collapse.

Millions of gallons of nuclear waste had just recently been spilled into it from an incident in Fukishima, Japan. 

Millions of gallons of crude oil had been spilled into it due to reckless deepwater drilling operations.

And, to top things off, a garbage patch twice the size of Texas floated atop it like some strange crown of plastic thorns.

So when Sydney, knowing all this, would visit the beach she saw something strangely horrible.

All the people sat on their towels facing the ocean like it was a TV, enjoying themselves. And when she saw them all sitting like that and wading into the waves with gleeful smiles she saw ignorance and foolish abandon where there should be reverence, fear, and sullen self reflection.

And so she waded into the waves in her bikini like a prayer. Cleansing it with her honor. Healing it with her homage to Her.

She ducked under an oncoming rush of white water, keeping her eyes open underwater. She had several feet of visibility before her. The water was greenish and woven with complex threads of magik that the Mother allowed only her to see.

A moment of ambient quiet underneath.

When her head broke the elemental line, into the wind and air, back into the rhythmic sound of breaking waves and broken conversations and cries of glee and celebration she stationed her feet atop the sand with the water up to her shoulders and looked dead ahead to the horizon, praying to that place where the sky and sea met for some kind of divine intervention, for something to somehow right all this wrong that seemed so far from even being mildly addressed by the people. But, she thought, that divine intervention will probably not come. And so she looked ahead to the horizon and saw her own death playing out. 

She saw the death of all life playing out.

“The ocean is life,” she whispered. Then she floated on her back, staring up to the little cessna plane from which trailed a wind beaten banner advertising health insurance.

There rose the cries of pleasure and amusement from the crowd of swimmers as they played in waves from whose impetus came afar off.

The truth was too much for them. And so they didn’t know how to go to the beach. They went to the beach like it was an amusement park, but you had to go to the beach like it was a church. The holiest, most awe inspiring church you could imagine. This is where we come to confess our deepest sins, she thought. And look at all these sinners, refusing to repent. They have turned the church into a marketplace.

They steal the money from the hat.

Pass that hat around.

Till there’s nothing left.

She turned back toward the shore.

She walked amongst the waves that had traveled from so far to break atop her turned back. She made her way back to the sand and found the spot where her mother lay tanning.

And she sat down next to her mother on the large and colorful towel and just stared out at her other mother Earth and her enormous womb of salt water. She heard many broken conversations going on around her and the sound of radios.

None of the topics of conversation were of any consequence. And no one was crying, she noticed. For some reason no one was crying. And so Sydney began to cry. She cried and cried.

Her mother sat up atop the towel and beheld her daughter’s tear filled eyes.

“Sydney?”

Her voice broke. “They don’t understand, mom,” she said through her tears.

“Who doesn’t understand what?”

“The beach goers. They don’t understand the beach.”

“Honey, you’re worrying me.”

“Not for the right reasons.”

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and she kind of laughed at the absurdity of the tragedy.

Her mother’s eyes narrowed. She took in her daughter’s grim demeanor and was compassionate enough to know not to speak.

“It’s not an amusement park.”

“No, Sydney... it’s a beach.”

“It’s life’s church.”

Her mother was silent.

“I want to go home...” said Sydney.

“Okay, honey. If you’re not feeling right we can certainly go home.”

Sydney’s tone became suddenly angry. “Oh, so we can hop into our glinting steel automobile machine that aggressively tears through the air with violence and pollutes the environment and then return to our little isolated box of momentary solace and we’ll call that home. No. Just no. That is not home. That’s… a fucking box.”

“Honey, I don’t know what to tell you. That’s as home as it's going to get. Everyone deserves a home to return to.”

Sydney spoke brokenly through tears. “I mean I want to go fucking home. Home. Real home.”

“And where is home?”

Sydney laughed. She stopped crying.

It was daytime and there were no stars but she looked up directly at Sirius, even though she consciously knew next to nothing about astronomy. 

“I have no idea... I really don’t.” she said shaking her head.

“I’m sorry you’re feeling this way, darling.”

“Me too, ma,” she said, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. “Me too.”

And the beach goers went on about themselves, enjoying another nice day.

[presssorg]

Trump rollbacks for fossil fuel industries carry steep cost

Trump rollbacks for fossil fuel industries carry steep cost BILLINGS, Mont. — As the Trump administration rolls back environmental and safety rules for the energy sector, government projections show billions of dollars in savings reaped by companies will come at a steep cost: more premature deaths and illnesses from air pollution, a jump in climate-warming emissions and more severe derailments of trains carrying explosive fuels. The Associated Press analyzed 11 major rules targeted for repeal or relaxation under Trump, using the administration’s own estimates to tally how its actions would boost businesses and harm society. The AP identified up to $11.6 billion in potential future savings for companies that extract, burn and transport fossil fuels. Industry windfalls of billions of dollars more could come from a freeze in vehicle efficiency standards that will yield an estimated 79 billion-gallon (300 million-litre) increase in fuel consumption. On the opposite side of the government’s ledger, buried in thousands of pages of analyses, are the “social costs” of rolling back the regulations. Among them: — Up to 1,400 additional premature deaths annually due to the pending repeal of a rule to cut coal plant pollution. — An increase in greenhouse gas emissions by about 1 billion tons (907 million metric tons) from vehicles produced over the next decade — a figure equivalent to annual emissions of almost 200 million vehicles.

— Increased risk of water contamination from a drilling technique known as “fracking.” — Fewer safety checks to prevent offshore oil spills. For the Trump administration and its supporters, the rule changes examined by AP mark a much-needed pivot away from heavy regulations that threatened to hold back the Republican president’s goal of increasing U.S. energy production. But the AP’s findings also underscore the administration’s willingness to put company profits ahead of safety considerations and pollution effects. SIDING WITH INDUSTRY The AP found the administration has sought to bolster the changes by emphasizing, and sometimes exaggerating, economic gains while minimizing negative impacts. For example, when calculating future damages from greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants, the Trump administration looked only at U.S. effects, instead of globally. That drastically reduced the benefits of emission restrictions and allowed the administration to conclude the Obama-era rule was no longer justified, given costs to the coal industry. In another instance, the Environmental Protection Agency wants to stop considering secondary benefits of controlling mercury emissions — namely reductions in other pollutants projected to prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths. Last month, the AP revealed that the administration understated the advantages of installing better brakes on trains carrying crude oil and ethanol. Transportation Department officials acknowledged they miscalculated potential benefits by up to $117 million because they failed to include some projected future derailments. In explaining its actions, the Trump administration said in some cases that the previous administration understated the price tag on new industry restrictions. In others, it said President Barack Obama’s administration had been overly expansive in how it defined benefits to society. Michael Greenstone, a University of Chicago professor who served as chief economist for Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said the Trump administration was downplaying the health and environmental impacts of its actions. “When you start fudging the numbers, it’s not that the costs just evaporate into thin air. We will pay,” Greenstone said. “They are reducing the costs for industries where pollution is a byproduct.” The rules being targeted were largely crafted under Obama in response to climate change, the disastrous 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, massive releases from coal ash dumps and fuel train explosions. ADMNISTRATION: NEGLIGIBLE RISKS Trump’s administration has stressed that savings for companies were greater than any increased perils to safety or the environment. “We fully recognize every significant policy decision has a consequence and that those consequences can differ,” acting U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told the AP. “I think when you look at the track record, holistically, what you see is our deregulatory efforts are still pretty protective.” The AP’s tally of savings was derived from government projections required under a 1993 executive order. Five of the rule changes are still pending. On rules for toxic coal ash, offshore safety and refinery pollution, the administration said companies would save hundreds of millions of dollars with little or no added risk — an assertion former federal officials and environmental groups have disputed. The potential industry savings were projected largely over the next decade. Sectors of the coal industry see lifting costly rules as a matter of survival because demand has plummeted as utilities switch to cleaner-burning fuels. For the oil and gas industry, with hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue, the economic impact of the Obama-era rules was comparatively small. But they were vigorously opposed as restrictions on business. “We need to make sure we’re putting together rules that are flexible enough to apply the latest, greatest technologies,” said Erik Milito, vice-president for the American Petroleum institute. He said the group focused on whether rules make sense, rather than cost savings. Critics say the impact on public health and the environment will be even worse than projected. “I don’t think it’s well understood what the death toll of these policies will be for the American people,” said Paul Billings, of the American Lung Association. OBAMA CLIMATE AGENDA ASSAILED Two sweeping changes under Trump — the rollback of the Clean Power Plan that threatened to close many coal power plants and a reversal of plans to increase vehicle fuel efficiency standards — were centerpieces of Obama’s climate change actions. Killing the power plan would save companies up to $6.4 billion, the EPA concluded. The trade-off is almost 61 million tons (55 million metric tons) annually of additional carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. The administration calculated that those emissions carry a maximum of $3.2 billion in “social costs,” such as flood damage and higher air conditioning costs. Since company savings outweighed pollution costs, the administration said scrapping the power plan was justified. That conclusion was possible largely because the EPA limited social costs to effects in the U.S., instead of globally as under Obama. EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said the analysis complied with a 2003 directive under President George W. Bush that said such reviews should focus on costs and benefits to people in the U.S. Joe Goffman, a former EPA official who helped create the clean power plan and now at Harvard Law School, said the omission of international impacts “doesn’t track with reality” given that climate change is a worldwide problem. The Trump administration also limited pollution cost considerations in its proposal last month on mercury emitted by coal plants. When the mercury rule was finalized in 2012, the EPA projected up to $90 billion in benefits, including avoidance of up to 11,000 premature deaths from other power plant pollutants. Now, the EPA says those benefits could not be considered because they are not directly tied to mercury reductions. The only benefits that should be counted, the agency said, were improvements to IQ scores as a result of less mercury exposure, valued at up to $6 million annually. The National Mining Association had urged the change. Spokesman Conor Bernstein said Obama’s EPA misused the concept of secondary pollution benefits to justify its actions. The rollback’s impact is unclear since utilities already have spent an estimated $18 billion on new pollution controls. FUEL STANDARDS AND DRILLING SAFETY Some experts outside government take issue with the rationale for relaxing the fuel economy rule. The Trump administration says reducing standards would save as many as 1,000 lives annually and spare consumers and car companies hundreds of billions of dollars on vehicles with higher gas mileage. To reach that conclusion, officials lowered estimates of how many vehicles people would buy. But economists including from the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research say that assumption was fundamentally flawed, since looser standards would make cars cheaper and therefore increase demand. The economists said the government used misleading findings to wipe out at least $112 billion in potential societal benefits while falsely claiming its change would save numerous lives. “Every change they made was made in the direction to make the standards look more expensive and the rollback to look cheaper and better,” said Jeff Alson, who worked 40 years at an EPA lab in Michigan. Several rules reworked under Trump tie directly to worker and public safety. The administration rescinded requirements for improved fuel train brakes after determining the costs to industry would be higher than previously calculated. It acknowledged more spills from derailments would likely occur. After AP’s story about the agency’s $117 million benefits understatement, spokesman Bobby Fraser said the decision to rescind the Obama rule would stand because the costs were still greater. Two safety rules for offshore oil and gas drilling were adopted following the Deepwater Horizon accident, which killed 11 people and spilled 134 million gallons (507 million litres) of oil. The Interior Department now says less rigid inspection and equipment requirements would save drilling companies hundreds of millions of dollars with “negligible” safety and environmental risks. Lynn Scarlett, acting Interior Secretary under George W. Bush, said the changes ignore a government commission’s findings on the Gulf spill. “You’re removing a tool that was developed intentionally to help reduce the risks,” Scarlett said. “The failure to have those protections raises the risk, such that actions can result in accidents like Deepwater Horizon.” —— Follow Matthew Brown at https://twitter.com/matthewbrownap Published at Sun, 27 Jan 2019 16:56:34 +0000 Read the full article

[drsunnyhanda-md]

Since the first case of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was diagnosed in December 2019, it has swept across the world and galvanized global action. Dr. Sunny Handa MD says -This has brought unprecedented efforts to institute the practice of physical distancing (called in most cases “social distancing”) in countries all over the world, resulting in changes in national behavioral patterns and shutdowns of usual day-to-day functioning.

While these steps may be critical to mitigate the spread of this disease, they will undoubtedly have consequences for mental health and well-being in both the short and long term. These consequences are of sufficient importance that immediate efforts focused on prevention and direct intervention are needed to address the impact of the outbreak on individual and population level mental health.

The sparse literature on the mental health consequences of epidemics relates more to the sequelae of the disease itself (eg, mothers of children with congenital Zika syndrome) than to social distancing. However, large-scale disasters, whether traumatic (eg, the World Trade Center attacks or mass shootings), natural (eg, hurricanes), or environmental (eg, Deepwater Horizon oil spill), are almost always accompanied by increases in depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder, a broad range of other mental and behavioral disorders, domestic violence, and child abuse.1 For example, 5% of the population affected by Hurricane Ike in 2008 met the criteria for major depressive disorder in the month after the hurricane; 1 out of 10 adults in New York City showed signs of the disorder in the month following the 9/11 attacks. And almost 25% of New Yorkers reported increased alcohol use after the attacks. Communities affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill showed signs of clinically significant depression and anxiety. Dr. Sunny Handa MD says -The SARS epidemic was also associated with increases in PTSD, stress, and psychological distress in patients and clinicians. For such events, the impact on mental health can occur in the immediate aftermath and then persist over long time periods.

Dr. Sunny Handa MD says in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears likely that there will be substantial increases in anxiety and depression, substance use, loneliness, and domestic violence; and with schools closed, there is a very real possibility of an epidemic of child abuse. This concern is so significant that the UK has issued psychological first aid guidance from Mental Health UK. Dr. Sunny Handa MD says- While the literature is not clear about the science of population level prevention, it leads us to conclude that 3 steps, taken now, can help us proactively prepare for the inevitable increase in mental health conditions and associated sequelae that are the consequences of this pandemic.

First, it is necessary to plan for the inevitability of loneliness and its sequelae as populations physically and socially isolate and to develop ways to intervene. The use of digital technologies can bridge social distance, even while physical distancing measures are in place. Dr. Sunny Handa MD says -Normal structures where people congregate, whether places of worship, or gyms, and yoga studios, can conduct online activities on a schedule similar to what was in place prior to social distancing.

Many observers note that outreach that involves voice and/or video is superior to email and text messaging. Extra efforts should be made to ensure connections with people who are typically marginalized and isolated, including the elderly, undocumented immigrants, homeless persons and those with mental illness. Social media can also be used to encourage groups to connect and direct individuals to trusted resources for mental health support. These platforms can also enhance check-in functions to provide regular contact with individuals as well as to allow people to share with others information about their well-being and resource needs. Dr. Sunny Handa MD says - even with all of these measures, there will still be segments of the population that are lonely and isolated. This suggests the need for remote approaches for outreach and screening for loneliness and associated mental health conditions so that social support can be provided.

Particularly relevant here is the developing and implementing routines, particularly for children who are out of school, ensuring that they have access to regular programmed work. Online substitutes for daily routines, as mentioned above, can be extremely helpful, but not all children have access to technologies that enable remote connectivity. Needed are approaches for ensuring structure, continuity of learning, and socialization to mitigate the effect of short- and long-term sheltering in place.

Second, it is critical that we have in place mechanisms for surveillance, reporting, and intervention, particularly, when it comes to domestic violence and child abuse. Individuals at risk for abuse may have limited opportunities to report or seek help when shelter-in-place requirements demand prolonged cohabitation at home and limit travel outside of the home. Dr. Sunny Handa MD says -systems will need to balance the need for social distancing with the availability of safe places to be for people who are at risk, and social services systems will need to be creative in their approaches to following up on reports of problems.

Third, it is time to bolster our mental health system in preparation for the inevitable challenges precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Stepped care, the practice of delivering the most effective, least resource-heavy treatment to patients in need, and then stepping up to more resource-heavy treatment based on patients’ needs, is a useful approach. Dr. Sunny Handa MD says- This will require that systems are both well designed and well prepared to deliver this care to patients, from screening to the overflow of mental illness that will inevitably emerge from this pandemic. Scaling up treatment in the midst of crisis will take creative thinking. Communities and organizations could consider training nontraditional groups to provide psychological first aid, helping teach the lay public to check in with one another and provide support. Even small signs that someone cares could make a difference in the early stages of social isolation. Dr. Sunny Handa MD says -Telemedicine mental health visits, group visits, and delivery of care via technology platforms will be important components of stepped care for both acute crisis management and more routine communication and support. Medicare has already expanded coverage of tele–mental health services to include mental health counseling and virtual visits with psychologists and social workers. And health systems, both public and private sector, will need to develop mechanisms for refill and delivery of essential medicines, including psychiatric medicines.

Dr. Sunny Handa MD says this difficult moment in time nonetheless offers the opportunity to advance our understanding of how to provide prevention-focused, population-level, and indeed national-level psychological first aid and mental health care, and to emerge from this pandemic with new ways of doing so. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and efforts to contain it, represent a unique threat, and we must recognize the pandemic that will quickly follow it—that of mental and behavioral illness—and implement the steps needed to mitigate it.

[ezatluba]

Smoke envelops Mondos Beach near Ventura, California, in 2017. Dolphins and porpoises that swim just offshore are particularly vulnerable to breathing in smoke.

Wildfire smoke may harm whales and dolphins: Here’s what we know

As North America's West Coast burns, scientists are concerned marine mammals will be harmed by smoke inhalation, an unstudied phenomenon.

BY BRISHTI BASU

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

Little research has been done on how marine mammals are affected by prolonged exposure to the smoke and chemicals released during wildfires, but if the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico is any indicator, they could face serious health effects in the years to come.

Ten years ago, as a first responder in New Orleans, veterinarian Cara Fieldsaw for herself how the worst oil spill in U.S. history affected the region’s wildlife. The spill released 200 million gallons of oil into the ocean, much of which rose to the surface. As part of the cleanup, crews burned it off into the atmosphere. But research just five years later showed bottlenose dolphins that breathed the chemical-laden smoke developed severe lung diseases, were more prone to infections, and their offspring died at higher rates.

Field, now the medical director at the Marine Mammal Center, a conservation nonprofit in Sausalito, California, fears that marine mammals along the western coast of North America could be facing a similar fate, during a season of disastrous wildfires that have destroyed more than seven million acres.

Wildfire smoke is made up of a range of gases, including carbon monoxide; nitrogen dioxide; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs; and hazardous particulate matter, which has been shown to increase risks of respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses in humans.

Because whales, dolphins, porpoises, and other marine mammals are adapted to life at sea, where there are fewer air pollutants than on land, they “would be expected to be more susceptible to injury from inhaled particulates,” Field says. That could have grave consequences for species such as sea otters and orcas, or killer whales, which are already in decline in the region. (Read how the Exxon Valdez spill devastated orcas.)

Because the effects of wildfire smoke on marine mammals aren’t well understood and the potential threat is high, Field is urging scientists along the West Coast to begin collecting data now on marine mammal health in areas affected by wildfires. Though there have not been reports of stranded marine mammals suffering from smoke inhalation this fire season, it’s still possible, Field says.

The West Coast had the world’s most polluted cities in September

“Now is the time to get our baseline, pick what samples to look for, and start identifying species or populations that would be potential candidates to study,” she says.

Vulnerable anatomy

The anatomy of whales, dolphins, and porpoises makes them more vulnerable to the harmful effects of wildfire smoke, Field says. Because they exchange big gulps of air rapidly through their blowholes, they can easily inhale airborne smoke particles.

A Guadalupe fur seal swims in a pen amid smoky air from the recent California wildfires at the Marine Mammal Centre in Sausalito. The animal was rescued before the blazes began.

They also lack sinuses and other nasal structures found in land animals—physical barriers that trap particles in mucus and allow animals to sneeze or cough them out, so that fewer particles reach the lungs, says Stephen Raverty, a veterinary pathologist at the Ministry of Agriculture in British Columbia.

“With a more rapid inhalation and exhalation, lack of these protective structures, and large volume of lung exchange with each breath, whales, dolphins, and porpoises are at an increased risk” of smoke exposure, he says.

Necropsies of the 46 dolphins that washed ashore dead following the BP oil spill also offer some insight into how wildfire smoke injures marine mammals, Field says. (Read how the BP oil spill is affecting wildlife, 10 years later.)

The dead dolphins had severe lung disease and degenerated adrenal glands—organs that regulate hormones, the immune system, responses to stress, and more. Scientists concluded this could have been caused by exposure to hydrocarbons from the smoke, because, in lab animals, exposure to PAHs can lead to similar adrenal atrophy and harm their reproductive systems. In humans and animals alike, the chemicals have been linked to various forms of cancer.

Smoke signals

It’s impossible to tell what most hurt the dolphins in the Gulf: breathing in the smoke when the spilled oil was burned off, ingesting oil through the food chain, or a combination of both, Field says.

Regardless, dolphins and porpoises are more likely to experience irritation of their airways and absorb more hydrocarbons than whales, as they tend to stay closer to shore and breathe more frequently than deep-diving mammals.

What are wildfires and how do they start? Learn how we can prevent destructive wildfires, and how we can manage wildfires to improve the health of forests.

“Given that we know dolphin airways are probably more susceptible…to inhaling these particulates, it’s very likely that inhaling ash and particulates is going to cause damage,” she says.

Scientists have also looked at the impact of smoke and chemicals on sea otters, an endangered species in California.

A 2014 study of 39 California sea otters found that exposure to wildfire smoke and runoff—a toxic mix of sediment, metals, and chemicals that flows into water bodies adjacent to forest fires—weakened their immune systems. A follow-up study showed that 15 months later, the otters’ immune systems seemed to have recovered.

But the number of animals in the study was small, Field says, and the long-term impacts to the species remain unknown. (Learn how nature can bounce back from an oil spill.)

Research challenges

Conducting research on this topic is difficult, for the obvious reason that scientists can’t easily study live animals while a wildfire is raging, Raverty says.

“We can’t go out and live-capture animals for a variety of ethical and logistical reasons, so we rely on dead, stranded animals,” he says. For instance, scientists in British Columbia have examined more than 6,000 stranded marine mammals over a decade as part of a long-term project that has yielded data about the animals’ overall health, such as the levels and types of pollutants found in an animal’s tissue. (Learn how new diseases and toxins are harming marine life.)

Due to climate change, wildfire seasons in the western U.S. will only grow more extreme, and Raverty expects scientists will launch similar studies to investigate how wildfire smoke affects marine mammals.

The key, Field says, is following the animals—many of which are long-lived species—for decades.

“Effects of wildfires are often cumulative,” she says. “Things may not be obvious for years, so you have to have the longevity to keep those studies going.”

[garyalvarez]

#watchthisdoc #thecostofsilence #sundance2020 👍🏽👍🏽 “On April 20, 2010, a deadly explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling unit resulted in the largest environmental disaster in American history. To clean up the estimated 130 million gallons of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days, chemical dispersants were used in unprecedented quantities, and the public was assured that they were safe. Almost immediately, local residents and workers began to develop health problems. Nearly a decade later, they are still suffering the consequences, with no one held accountable. Mark Manning, a former deep-sea oil-field diver turned filmmaker, began his investigation into the Deepwater Horizon disaster soon after the spill began. In the intervening years, he has uncovered disturbing evidence of coordinated efforts between the petrochemical industry and the federal government to cover up an ongoing public health disaster. As the federal government now plans the world’s most extensive offshore drilling expansion, with a blanket approval of a chemical dispersant clean-up plan, The Cost of Silence is an urgent exposé of the outsize power of Big Oil and the dangers of offshore drilling.” (at Sundance Film Festival) https://www.instagram.com/p/B77ojt_geqMi-TWy5TzHNugiAvWnZ4WMeZcOY00/?igshid=5e0ym0kqacpx

[mado-science]

Good book from a respected oceanographer Good book from a respected oceanographer. I would say that "The Ocean of Life" by Callum Roberts is a more comprehensive book on the challenges that human civilization is placing on the oceans. But this book adopts a much more hopefully tone, and is, as a result, a much easier read that still hits the major topics. Either and both books are worth reading. Go to Amazon

Beautiful Oceans & Book Wonderful book. The Oceans are important and I appreciate this book as Sylvia Earle describes so much beauty and wonder as well as teaching us about the interconnections with the oceans, and the health of the earth. Very readable. You do not need to be a scientist to understand this book, just enjoy it and learn. Go to Amazon

Should be required reading in schools Excellent and highly valuable. The book is as the title says, speaking of the interconnection of the oceans and all of life on Earth. This should be required reading in schools. Go to Amazon

Tells it like it is. While telling you how important the ocean is to our very being--especially as a source of atmospheric oxygen (70%)--and how we are trashing it, she converys her love and joy of the ocean. But, boy are we in trouble, if we don't stop polluting. Go to Amazon

A must read for anyone concerned about the health of our oceans. I love Sylvia Earle. She is such an incredible woman. She is very committed to the ocean environment. It is an incredible life story and inspiration for anyone who reads this. Go to Amazon

Sylvia Earle is a Champion This book is an incredible read. It touches on so many topics regarding the Ocean, conservation, and industry and manages to weave them together in a way that really impresses upon you how connected things are. She continually refers to the Ocean as life on earth's "Life Support System", driving that point home. For those in the fields of marine biology, ecology, evolution, or oceanography, Earle alludes to the seminal works and studies. However, the book is easily accessible to those in the "general public" that may not be as versed in the current scientific literature or just don't know where to start but are still passionate about the environment and the Ocean. Pick this up used for super cheap and never regret it! Sylvia A. Earle will light a fire in you that is not easily quenched. The newer editions have her TED talk and Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill congressional testimony, just fyi. Go to Amazon

Beware of Claimed Condition The book itself is marvelous, however, the condition of mine said it was "very good" but came with a bunch of ripped pages and the cover was also ripped. Go to Amazon

This might be the biggest issue facing earth's future Sylvia Earle is a planetary hero. In this book she shows how the carnage going on in our oceans is going to have massive global consequences. Go to Amazon

Five Stars Five Stars Five Stars One Star Five Stars Five Stars Five Stars Five Stars Very informative - I love the use of references and other scientists - this ...

[cj-lane]

Human Caused Disasters

During a tutorial with Jill she asked where most of my paintings where based and I told her that I am from a small village next to Rivington which last year was set on fire during a very hot and dry summer. A fire was burning for weeks through the dry grass and peat and emergency services were struggling to contain it. Fire services from all over the country were brought in as was the national guard to drop water on it from helicopters, that fire was set by a man in the field who was later prosecuted, it was while that fire was being tackled that somebody set another fire at the other side of Rivington; these two fires joined together spanning 7 miles in all directions and the habitat was destroyed and the wildlife living there. This part of Rivington won’t recover for 10 years minimum and while researching this tragedy so close to where I grew up I started to look at other human caused disasters that have changed a landscape and this is when i came up with these postcards.

These are the two postcards I made for the fire on winter hill in Rivington, I wanted to hike up there and take pictures of the aftermath but unfortunately had to have ankle surgery and couldn’t so these images were found on the web and then I brought them into photoshop and edited them so that they looked ironically picturesque and like an actual post card.

The Seveso disaster

In July 1976 an explosion at a chemical manufacturing plant north of Milan, Italy released tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin into the atmosphere. The gas severely affecting the neighbouring town of Seveso. `shortly after 3,300 animals died and and many more were killed to stop the spread of contamination into the food chain, Around 500 people were found to have skin lesions and children were hospitalised with skin inflammation.

There are pictures of fields filled with the dead animals but I chose not to use these pictures, while I wanted these postcards to be shocking in order to deliver a message I didn’t want them to be too distressing.

Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls named after a large ditch that was dug in the 1890s for hydroelectric power. The ditch was abandoned before it actually generated any power and went mostly unused for decades, except for swimming by local residents. In the 1920s Niagara Falls began dumping urban waste into Love Canal, and in the 1940s the U.S. Army dumped waste from World War II there, including waste from the frantic effort to build a nuclear bomb. Hooker Chemical purchased the land in 1942 and lined it with clay. Then, the company put into Love Canal an estimated 21,000 tons of hazardous chemical waste, including the carcinogens benzene, dioxin, and PCBs in large metal barrels and covered them with more clay. In 1953, Hooker sold the land to the Niagara Falls school board for $1, and included a clause in the sales contract that both described the land use (filled with chemical waste) and absolved them from any future damage claims from the buried waste. The school board promptly built a public school on the site and sold the surrounding land for a housing project that built 200 or so homes along the canal banks and another 1,000 in the neighborhood. During construction, the canal’s clay cap and walls were breached, damaging some of the metal barrels.

Eventually, the chemical waste seeped into people’s basements, and the metal barrels worked their way to the surface. Trees and gardens began to die; bicycle tires and the rubber soles of children’s shoes disintegrated in noxious puddles. From the 1950s to the late 1970s, residents repeatedly complained of strange odors and substances that surfaced in their yards. City officials investigated the area, but did not act to solve the problem. Local residents allegedly experienced major health problems including high rates of miscarriages, birth defects, and chromosome damage, but studies by the New York State Health Department disputed that. Finally, in 1978 President Carter declared a state of emergency at Love Canal, making it the first human-caused environmental problem to be designated that way. The Love Canal incident became a symbol of improperly stored chemical waste. Clean up of Love Canal, which was funded by Superfund and completely finished in 2004, involved removing contaminated soil, installing drainage pipes to capture contaminated groundwater for treatment, and covering it with clay and plastic. In 1995, Occidental Chemical (the modern name for Hooker Chemical) paid $102 million to Superfund for cleanup and $27 million to Federal Emergency Management Association for the relocation of more than 1,000 families. New York State paid $98 million to EPA and the US government paid $8 million for pollution by the Army. The total clean up cost was estimated to be $275 million.

Gulf of Mexico dead zone

This is one of the infamous aquatic regions that has arose due to human interference in the environment. Considered one of the largest dead zones in the world. off the coast of America in the gulf of Mexico is a spot that has had so much phosphorus and nitrogen dumped in it from the Mississippi river that no fish or plant life can survive it, often hundreds of fish are found floating dead on top.

British Petroleum oil spill

Whilst we’re in Mexico I couldn’t help but include a disaster that happened fairly recently the BP oil spill off the coast of Mexico in 2010 In April 20, 2010, there was an explosion and sinking of a of the deepwater horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil rig was leased and controlled by BP (British Petroleum) and was regarded the most prominent accidental marine oil spill in the petroleum industry history. Eleven employees died as a result of the explosion. The explosion also released about 60 million barrels of mixed-grade oil from the disconnected well, which went on for more than four months. Over 34,000 birds (including egrets and blue heron), hundreds of sea turtles, about 72 dolphins and other marine vertebrates and invertebrates were poisoned, suffocated and died in the floating oil.

Bhopal

This case reads like it is straight out of a horror novel.In December 3, 1984, a Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, accidentally released a deadly chemical fog, which killed more than 5,000 people. They were victims of fatal poisoning by an isocyanate (pesticide) gas. More than 50,000 people went through treatment due to exposure to the gas and more than 500,000 people were exposed to the gas which causes the eyes and throat to swell up. It is claimed that the gas leak has killed an additional 20,000 people since and the rate of miscarriage has gone up by 300%, When the women of Bhopal went to the hospitals for help they were beaten and chased away. Union Carbide who owned the plant only Payed out £1000 compensation to each family and later sold the company who now refuse to pay out any more or take responsibility. It is regarded the worst industrial chemical disaster ever. This is possibly the worst disaster researched and it angers me that nobody seems to even know about it, It was in fact covered up by Indian press.

Guiyu 

China is considered as the area which might be the biggest electronic waste site on the planet. The dumping of obsolete electronics in the area is extraordinarily large, which has resulted in high toxicity levels of heavy metals and chemicals in the region’s soils and water systems. Consequently, about 88% of the children in the province suffer from lead poisoning and there is higher than normal rates of miscarriages.  The province is thus labeled as the world’s “electronic graveyard”.

Guinsaugon landslide

In February 2006, an enormous avalanche of rock, soil and debris poured into a populated valley of Southern Leyte Province in the Philippines after a week’s long heavy rain and minor earthquake. The instant outcome was the burying of the mountain village of Guinsaugon in the town of Saint Bernard. The incidence killed thousands of people including 250 children who were attending elementary school at the time. More than 1500 persons are still missing to this day. The disaster is said to be an outcome of nonstop logging and unregulated mining around and within the mountainside forest surrounding the valley.

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/technology/trump-rollbacks-for-fossil-fuel-industries-carry-steep-cost/

Trump rollbacks for fossil fuel industries carry steep cost

As the Trump administration rolls back environmental and safety rules for the energy sector, government projections show billions of dollars in savings reaped by companies will come at a steep cost: more premature deaths and illnesses from air pollution, a jump in climate-warming emissions and more severe derailments of trains carrying explosive fuels.

The Associated Press analyzed 11 major rules targeted for repeal or relaxation under Trump, using the administration’s own estimates to tally how its actions would boost businesses and harm society.

The AP identified up to $11.6 billion in potential future savings for companies that extract, burn and transport fossil fuels. Industry windfalls of billions of dollars more could come from a freeze in vehicle efficiency standards that will yield an estimated 79 billion-gallon (300 million-liter) increase in fuel consumption.

On the opposite side of the government’s ledger, buried in thousands of pages of analyses, are the “social costs” of rolling back the regulations. Among them:

— Up to 1,400 additional premature deaths annually due to the pending repeal of a rule to cut coal plant pollution.

— An increase in greenhouse gas emissions by about 1 billion tons (907 million metric tons) from vehicles produced over the next decade — a figure equivalent to annual emissions of almost 200 million vehicles.

— Increased risk of water contamination from a drilling technique known as “fracking.”

— Fewer safety checks to prevent offshore oil spills.

For the Trump administration and its supporters, the rule changes examined by AP mark a much-needed pivot away from heavy regulations that threatened to hold back the Republican president’s goal of increasing U.S. energy production. But the AP’s findings also underscore the administration’s willingness to put company profits ahead of safety considerations and pollution effects.

SIDING WITH INDUSTRY

The AP found the administration has sought to bolster the changes by emphasizing, and sometimes exaggerating, economic gains while minimizing negative impacts.

For example, when calculating future damages from greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants, the Trump administration looked only at U.S. effects, instead of globally. That drastically reduced the benefits of emission restrictions and allowed the administration to conclude the Obama-era rule was no longer justified, given costs to the coal industry.

In another instance, the Environmental Protection Agency wants to stop considering secondary benefits of controlling mercury emissions — namely reductions in other pollutants projected to prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths.

Last month, the AP revealed that the administration understated the advantages of installing better brakes on trains carrying crude oil and ethanol. Transportation Department officials acknowledged they miscalculated potential benefits by up to $117 million because they failed to include some projected future derailments.

In explaining its actions, the Trump administration said in some cases that the previous administration understated the price tag on new industry restrictions. In others, it said President Barack Obama’s administration had been overly expansive in how it defined benefits to society.

Michael Greenstone, a University of Chicago professor who served as chief economist for Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said the Trump administration was downplaying the health and environmental impacts of its actions.

“When you start fudging the numbers, it’s not that the costs just evaporate into thin air. We will pay,” Greenstone said. “They are reducing the costs for industries where pollution is a byproduct.”

The rules being targeted were largely crafted under Obama in response to climate change, the disastrous 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, massive releases from coal ash dumps and fuel train explosions.

ADMNISTRATION: NEGLIGIBLE RISKS

Trump’s administration has stressed that savings for companies were greater than any increased perils to safety or the environment.

“We fully recognize every significant policy decision has a consequence and that those consequences can differ,” acting U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told the AP. “I think when you look at the track record, holistically, what you see is our deregulatory efforts are still pretty protective.”

The AP’s tally of savings was derived from government projections required under a 1993 executive order. Five of the rule changes are still pending.

On rules for toxic coal ash, offshore safety and refinery pollution, the administration said companies would save hundreds of millions of dollars with little or no added risk — an assertion former federal officials and environmental groups have disputed.

The potential industry savings were projected largely over the next decade.

Sectors of the coal industry see lifting costly rules as a matter of survival because demand has plummeted as utilities switch to cleaner-burning fuels.

For the oil and gas industry, with hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue, the economic impact of the Obama-era rules was comparatively small. But they were vigorously opposed as restrictions on business.

“We need to make sure we’re putting together rules that are flexible enough to apply the latest, greatest technologies,” said Erik Milito, vice president for the American Petroleum institute. He said the group focused on whether rules make sense, rather than cost savings.

Critics say the impact on public health and the environment will be even worse than projected.

“I don’t think it’s well understood what the death toll of these policies will be for the American people,” said Paul Billings, of the American Lung Association.

OBAMA CLIMATE AGENDA ASSAILED

Two sweeping changes under Trump — the rollback of the Clean Power Plan that threatened to close many coal power plants and a reversal of plans to increase vehicle fuel efficiency standards — were centerpieces of Obama’s climate change actions.

Killing the power plan would save companies up to $6.4 billion, the EPA concluded.

The trade-off is almost 61 million tons (55 million metric tons) annually of additional carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. The administration calculated that those emissions carry a maximum of $3.2 billion in “social costs,” such as flood damage and higher air conditioning costs.

Since company savings outweighed pollution costs, the administration said scrapping the power plan was justified. That conclusion was possible largely because the EPA limited social costs to effects in the U.S., instead of globally as under Obama.

EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said the analysis complied with a 2003 directive under President George W. Bush that said such reviews should focus on costs and benefits to people in the U.S.

Joe Goffman, a former EPA official who helped create the clean power plan and now at Harvard Law School, said the omission of international impacts “doesn’t track with reality” given that climate change is a worldwide problem.

The Trump administration also limited pollution cost considerations in its proposal last month on mercury emitted by coal plants.

When the mercury rule was finalized in 2012, the EPA projected up to $90 billion in benefits, including avoidance of up to 11,000 premature deaths from other power plant pollutants.

Now, the EPA says those benefits could not be considered because they are not directly tied to mercury reductions. The only benefits that should be counted, the agency said, were improvements to IQ scores as a result of less mercury exposure, valued at up to $6 million annually.

The National Mining Association had urged the change. Spokesman Conor Bernstein said Obama’s EPA misused the concept of secondary pollution benefits to justify its actions.

The rollback’s impact is unclear since utilities already have spent an estimated $18 billion on new pollution controls.

FUEL STANDARDS AND DRILLING SAFETY

Some experts outside government take issue with the rationale for relaxing the fuel economy rule.

The Trump administration says reducing standards would save as many as 1,000 lives annually and spare consumers and car companies hundreds of billions of dollars on vehicles with higher gas mileage. To reach that conclusion, officials lowered estimates of how many vehicles people would buy.

But economists including from the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research say that assumption was fundamentally flawed, since looser standards would make cars cheaper and therefore increase demand. The economists said the government used misleading findings to wipe out at least $112 billion in potential societal benefits while falsely claiming its change would save numerous lives.

“Every change they made was made in the direction to make the standards look more expensive and the rollback to look cheaper and better,” said Jeff Alson, who worked 40 years at an EPA lab in Michigan.

Several rules reworked under Trump tie directly to worker and public safety.

The administration rescinded requirements for improved fuel train brakes after determining the costs to industry would be higher than previously calculated. It acknowledged more spills from derailments would likely occur.

After AP’s story about the agency’s $117 million benefits understatement, spokesman Bobby Fraser said the decision to rescind the Obama rule would stand because the costs were still greater.

Two safety rules for offshore oil and gas drilling were adopted following the Deepwater Horizon accident, which killed 11 people and spilled 134 million gallons (507 million liters) of oil.

The Interior Department now says less rigid inspection and equipment requirements would save drilling companies hundreds of millions of dollars with “negligible” safety and environmental risks.

Lynn Scarlett, acting Interior Secretary under George W. Bush, said the changes ignore a government commission’s findings on the Gulf spill.

“You’re removing a tool that was developed intentionally to help reduce the risks,” Scarlett said. “The failure to have those protections raises the risk, such that actions can result in accidents like Deepwater Horizon.”

———

Follow Matthew Brown at https://twitter.com/matthewbrownap

[envirolizard-blog]

This is a picture of the surface fire that went along with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. A report from The Guardian states that it occurred due to an explosion on a BP oil rig, which killed workers and spilled over 150 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Though one larger spill occurred during the Gulf War (and it wasn’t so much a spill as an intentional war crime), I decided to talk about the Deepwater Horizon spill because of the fact that it is so recent that most of us can remember it. This spill had and continues to have major consequences with regards to the gulf’s ecosystem and anywhere that this oil may have floated to. Studies have shown lowered biodiversity in the area surrounding the spill, and oil can still be easily found in the water surrounding the region. Some long-term concerns include the health of the deep-sea ecosystem of the gulf. Oil coated much of the seafloor, and once oil is present in areas so cold and dark it will take a long time to leave, according to Leila Hamdan, a microbial ecologist at the University of Southern Mississippi. This spill is now more relevant than ever due to a certain ubiquitous force in United States politics known as - you guessed it - Donald J. Trump. In June of this year, he signed an executive order deregulating off-shore drilling, saying that the regulations create a danger for our energy sector. I say that deregulations create a danger for wildlife and human health. It is important that history does not repeat itself with regards to drilling mistakes - get out and vote for representatives that will stand up to big oil!

Milman, O. Deepwater Horizon disaster altered building blocks of ocean life. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/28/bp-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-report (accessed Nov 11, 2018).

Photo credit:

Response crews battle fire on BP-operated oil rig Deepwater Horizon. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/28/bp-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-report (accessed Nov 12, 2018)

[citizentruth-blog]

Top Ten Worst Environmental Disasters Caused by Humans - ENVIRONMENT

New Post has been published on https://citizentruth.org/top-ten-worst-environmental-disasters-caused-by-humans/

Top Ten Worst Environmental Disasters Caused by Humans

In honor of Earth Day, we celebrate the bounty and beauty this planet provides. We must also remember how precious this planet is and how powerful our actions are on its ecosystem. It’s no secret that humans have left an indelible mark in our relatively short time on Earth compared to its age. With great ingenuity and will, we humans have utilized the earth’s many great resources—but we have also caused much destruction through our insatiable quest for our own needs. As such, here’s a list of environmental disasters that were caused by humans on this planet, so that maybe we can learn from these errors and prevent repeating them.

1. Three Mile Island meltdown

English: President Jimmy Carter leaving Three Mile Island for Middletown, Pennsylvania. 04/01/1979 CC, Wikimedia Commons By President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

On March 28, 1979, Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin, Pennsylvania was the scene of the most significant accident in the history of American nuclear power. A partial core meltdown was caused by a failure in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck valve that released radioactive gases. Human error, related to poor training and understanding of the machinery at hand, was also seen as a major factor. Cleanup started in August 1979, and officially ended in December 1993, with a total cleanup cost of about $1 billion. Experts concluded that the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere was too small to result in health problems, and allegedly no one died from exposure. However, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later disclosed it did not know how much radiation had been released.

2. London’s Killer Fog

London was at the center of the industrial revolution during its peak in the mid-nineteenth century. During this time, there was an onslaught of energy utilization, especially the use of coal. Subsequently, this released pollutants that made fog and heavily polluted air the norm for the major metropolitan city. By 1952, this pollution became disastrous. Winter was particularly cold that year, causing residents to burn more coal than they usually did to keep warm. As a result, the excess smoke combined with nitrogen oxides, soot, and sulfur dioxide reached high levels and covering the entire city of London in a black cloud with almost complete darkness, a phenomenon that killed over 12,000 people.

3. The Nuclear Power Plant Explosion in Chernobyl, Ukraine

Wikimedia Commons: The nuclear reactor after the disaster. Reactor 4 (centre). Turbine building (lower left). Reactor 3 (centre right).

  On April 26, 1986, a reactor shutdown was experienced at the Chernobyl Nuclear Facility near the now-abandoned town of Pripyat, in northern��Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. A runaway nuclear reaction resulted in a horrific fire and explosion, claiming the lives of 50 personnel instantly and expelling more than 400 times the radiation released during the Hiroshima atom bomb. More than 4000 cancer deaths have been linked with the extensive spread of radioactive substances. Belarus was heavily affected and radioactive contamination was detected as far as the British Isles. Radiation levels at the site are still high and the amount of nuclear materials buried under the debris remains unknown.

4. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker hit a reef in Prince William Sound off the coast of Alaska, causing 11 of its cargo tanks to rupture and dump 10.8 million gallons of crude that eventually covered 11,000 miles of ocean. It was one of the most destructive human-caused environmental disasters with both long-term and short-term effects. The instant outcome included the deaths of 100,000 to 250,000 seabirds, at least 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 247 bald eagles, and 22 orcas, and unidentified numbers of salmon and herring. Cleanup began immediately, but despite thousands of personnel helping over the years, the spill still wouldn’t be fully cleaned up even decades later.

5. British Petroleum Oil Spill, Gulf of Mexico

Anchor handling tugs and platform supply vessels combat the fire on the Deepwater Horizon while the U.S. Coast Guard searches for missing crew.

Considered the worst oil spill in U.S. history, on April 20, 2010, a deepwater horizon oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil rig was leased and controlled by British Petroleum (BP), and was about 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Eleven employees died as a result of the explosion. The explosion also released about 60 million barrels of mixed-grade oil from the disconnected well, which went on for more than four months. Over 34,000 birds (including egrets and blue heron), hundreds of sea turtles, about 72 dolphins and other marine vertebrates and invertebrates were poisoned, suffocated and died in the floating oil.

6. Jilin Chemical Plant Explosions

On November 13, 2005, a series of explosions caused by blockage occurred at the Jilin chemical plant in Jilin City, Jilin Province, China. The plant created chemicals like benzene, nitrobenzene, and anline—all used to make plastic. The explosions that day claimed the life of six employees and left numerous people injured creating the need for evacuating tens of thousands of neighboring residents. What’s more, the explosions adversely polluted the Songhua River with approximately 100 tons of pollutants containing nitrobenzene and benzene, whose exposure diminish white blood cell count and is linked to leukemia. Inaccurate news reports and slow government reaction made this disaster much worse than it could have been.

7. Tisza/Baia Mare Cyanide Spill

On January 30, 2000, one of the worst environmental disasters in Europe occurred.  The disaster was a result of a cyanide spill in Baia Mare, Romania. 100,000 cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated waste burst from a broken dam, sending out an estimated 100 tons of cyanide into the Somes, Tisza and Danube rivers. There was an enormous loss of aquatic life. Abundant amounts of aquatic plants and fish died and up to about 100 people were admitted into hospital for poisoning-related cases after consuming contaminated fish. Tests found cyanide levels between 300 and 700 times beyond pollution standards.

8. E-waste in Guiyu, China

The town of Guiyu, China is considered as possibly the biggest electronic waste site on the planet. The town receives shipments of toxic e-waste (discarded electronics and associated materials), both from domestic sources and from other countries via Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Nanhai. The dumping of these obsolete electronics in the area is extraordinarily large, resulting in high toxicity levels of heavy metals and chemicals in the region’s soils and water systems. Consequently, about 88% of the children in the province suffer from lead poisoning and there is higher than normal rates of miscarriages.  The province is thus labeled as the world’s “electronic graveyard”.

9. Love Canal, Niagara Falls, New York

Protest about the Love Canal contamination by a resident, ca. 1978 or so.

In the early 1950s, it was discovered that a neighborhood called Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, had 21,000 tons of toxic waste buried beneath it. The area was once a dumping ground in the 1920s after an abandoned attempt to dig a canal. In the 1940s, Hooker Chemical began dumping industrial waste in the canal and covering it with dirt. In 1953, the company sold the land to the local school board and a school was built. Two years later a 25-foot area crumbled, exposing toxic chemical drums that filled with rainwater and created puddles that children played in. Love Canal residents reported exploding rocks, strange odors and blue goo that bubbled up into basements, but it was the high rates of asthma, miscarriages, mental disabilities and other health problems that brought Love Canal into national headlines in 1978. More than 80 toxins had seeped from the canal, and a survey found that 56 percent of the children born from 1974-1978 had birth defects. The federal government relocated area families and declared Love Canal the first federal disaster area due to man-made causes. The event started the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program.

  10. Union Carbide Cyanide Gas Leak, Bhopal, India

On December 3, 1984, the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, accidentally released over 30 tons of a highly toxic gas called methyl isocyanate, as well as a number of other poisonous gases. The pesticide plant was surrounded by shanty towns full of people. Estimates of the death toll vary from as few as 3,800 to as many as 16,000, but government figures now refer to an estimate of 15,000 killed over the years. More than 50,000 people went through treatment due to exposure to the gas, with reports saying that 500,000 more people were also exposed. It is regarded as the worst industrial chemical disaster ever. Human rights groups say that thousands of tons of hazardous waste remain buried underground, and the government has conceded the area is contaminated.

Sadly, the reality is there are many more man-made disasters than can fit on a top ten list. What would you add to the list?

Canary in the Coal Pond

[stogutrosenberry]

Mourning writer Lizzie Grossman: The Pump Handle readers will miss her

Our colleague Lizzie Grossman, a contributing writer at The Pump Handle, died earlier this month from ovarian cancer.  She was a long-time freelance writer who specialized in environmental health topics. Her books included Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry (2011) and High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health (2006).

Lizzie began blogging at The Pump Handle in May 2010. She traveled to the Gulf coast to report on the experiences of workers who were cleaning up the disaster left by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion.  The lead of her first post began:

As of Saturday afternoon, May 29th, ten oil spill clean-up workers had been admitted to West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, Louisiana. All but two have been hospitalized suffering from chest pains, dizziness, headaches, and nausea. One crewmember admitted on the 29th had fallen and hit his head on a stair after wave mixed with oil had washed onto a deck, hospital spokesperson Taslin Alonzo told me about three hours after two workers were admitted Saturday.

…Two crewmembers hospitalized on May 28th had been working on the water about an hour south of Venice, Louisiana near where oil burns have been conducted, said Alonzo. The workers complained of breathing fumes from oil burning the day before, she told me. They also believed they’d been sprayed with chemical dispersant.

After reading her first post, I knew The Pump Handle had something special. Lizzie was not just a blogger. Lizzie was a journalist. She was skilled at developing sources, pursuing leads, pestering (politely) government officials, developing a story, checking facts, and more. Lizzie loved being part of the journalists’ community. She respected her colleagues. She practiced her craft with integrity.

In the months following the Deepwater Horizon explosion, Lizzie wrote more than a dozen stories for The Pump Handle about potential adverse health consequences of the disaster. She met interesting people and shared their experiences with us. Dr. James Callaghan was one of many.  He was an emergency room physician and vice president of hospital staff at the West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, LA. Lizzie spoke with him about the clean-up workers who were showing up in the ER. He wondered whether they were being screened to determine whether they were physically able to safely perform the tasks in the intense heat.

There was Lynn Dias-Button with the Louisiana Workforce Commission. She was hoping that Lizzie might be able to help her find out who was being hired for the beach clean-up and by whom. BP was not sharing that information.

And there was Captain Dave. Lizzie spent hours interviewing David Willman, whose livelihood as a boat captain was interrupted by the disaster. Captain Dave and his wife were resigned to work as deckhands on vessels that were skimming oil from the water.

I spoke to Lizzie about two weeks before she died from ovarian cancer. We reminisced about her reporting from the Gulf and her first few posts such as:

“All the data shows no toxic air concentrations,” but response workers are stricken (May 28, 2010)

Fences, guards, and information gaps: On the beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana (June 13, 2010)

Who’s On the Beach? Gulf Coast beach clean-up crew hiring remains murky as oil keeps washing ashore (June 28, 2010)

Fishing Closures and Seafood Sniffing: Addressing Gulf Seafood Safety

Her first dozen posts led to nearly six years of blogging at The Pump Handle.

Liz Borkowski, who also worked with Lizzie for several years at The Pump Handle, writes:

Like so many of the best journalists, Lizzie was dedicated to exposing the practices that threatened public health. She took seriously the watchdog role of obtaining and sharing information, and refused to let agency press officers get away with vague statements when she knew the public was entitled to specifics. She sought out ways to amplify the voices of the communities most affected by toxic exposures, and to make clear the human cost of bureaucratic actions that might otherwise seem dull or arcane. At the same time, she appreciated opportunities to report on worker victories and potential solutions, from farmworkers’ push to achieve just working conditions to a “Blue Card” proposal to allow legal status for immigrant farmworkers. Lizzie Grossman’s death is a major loss for journalism and for the environmental and occupational health communities. Her friends and family can be proud of the extensive legacy she leaves behind.

Lizzie wanted to know that her work made a difference, that she left a mark on the world. When I spoke to her last month, I had the privilege of sharing a collection of messages from colleagues. They wrote of their gratitude for her reporting on toxic chemicals, occupational health and safety, community right-to-know, and labor rights. Just in case she hadn’t heard it enough throughout her life, she learned from the messages that her talent and time were well spent.

You can link here to all of Lizzie Grossman’s posts on The Pump Handle.

    Article source:Science Blogs

[itsiotrecords-blog]

http://ift.tt/2rnzUx1

Our environment has been the victim of all sorts of attacks.  Some of these attacks are natural such as hurricanes and earthquakes.  However, there are attacks that are unnatural and man made such as wars, explosions, chemical spills, etc.  These attacks usually carry with them heavy price tags as property and lives are damaged beyond full compensation and repair. To see these effects first hand (or as close to first hand as possible) we present to you our 25 biggest environmental disasters in history list for your personal edification.

#1 TVA Kingston Fossil Plant Coal Fly Ash Slurry Spill It’s a pretty crazy name huh? It’s real though. In an 84 acre solid waste containment area, an ash dike ruptured in the early hours of December 22, 2008. This fossil plant in Roane County, Tennessee held 1.1 billion gallons of coal fly ash slurry which was expelled causing a mudflow wave. Although there were no reported fatalities or injuries (thank goodness), it damaged several properties and government facilities.

#2 The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill On March 24, 1989, 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled in Prince William Sounds, Alaska by the oil tanker Exxon Valdez after it ran into Bligh Reef. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human caused environmental disasters with both the long-term and short-term effects of the oil spill having been studied. Immediate effects included the deaths of 100,000 to as many as 250,000 seabirds, at least 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 247 Bald Eagles, and 22 Orcas, and an unknown number of salmon and herring.

#3 Pacific Gyre Garbage Patch Another example of the negative effects of human waste; the Pacific Gyre Garbage Patch  is a gyre of marine debris in the central North Pacific Ocean.  This patch which is characterized by high concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge and other debris formed gradually as a result of the marine pollution gathered by oceanic currents.

#4 Jilin Chemical Plant Explosions The Jilin chemical plant explosions were a series of explosions which occurred on November 13, 2005 in the No.101 Petro chemical plant in Jilin City, Jilin Province, China. These explosions were responsible for the deaths of six workers and injured dozens causing the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.  To add insult to injury, these explosions severely polluted the Songhua River with an estimated 100 tons of pollutants containing benzene and nitrobenzene whose exposure reduces white blood cell count and is linked to leukemia.

#5 Castle Bravo The code name Castle Bravo was given to the first United States test of a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb. The bomb was detonated on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Isalnds on March 1, 1954, as the first test of Operation Castle and was the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States at that time. This test lead to the most significant accidental radiological contamination ever caused by the United States.

#6 The Three Mile Island Nuclear Explosion The three mile island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown which occurred in one of the two United States nuclear reactors on March 28, 1979 .  Located on the three mile island in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania;  it was the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history with the partial meltdown resulting in the release of small amounts of radioactive gases and radioactive iodine into the environment.

#7 The Kuwait Oil Fires Around 6 million barrels of oil were lost from January to November, 1991. 600 oil wells were set afire as part of the scorched earth policy by the retreating Iraqi military forces. $1.5 billion was spent by Kuwait to extinguish the fires that caused heavy pollution to the soil and air.

#8 “Door to Hell” In Derweze, Turkmenistan, a drilling rig made by Soviet geologists in 1971 gave way to a large hole measuring 70 meters in diameter, exposing a large methane gas reservoir. Fearing the environmental impact due to the substantial methane gas release; the geologists decided to burn it off.  Unfortunately, the gas is still burning today.

#9 The Palomares Incident The crash of the B-52G bomber of the USAF Strategic Air Command on January 17, 1966 led to the plutonium contamination of Palomares, a small village in the municipality of Cuevas del Almanzora, Almería, Spain. The jet powered strategic bomber carried non nuclear explosives that detonated causing political conflict between the US and Spain. 40 years later, traces of the blasts are still evident.

#10 Sidoarjo Mud Flow Sidoarjo (the largest mud volcano in the world) also known as the Lapindo mud, exists today because of gas blowout wells drilled by PT Lapindo Branta.  Branta denies this however and claims that the mud flows were created by an earthquake. 180,000 m³ of mud per day is spewed at its peak and has been in eruption since May, 2006.

#11 Libby, Montana Asbestos Contamination Vermiculite mines in Libby, Montana gave the local residents jobs and helped the local economy.  However, due to the mine’s high use of Asbestos the residents suffered related disorders such as mesothelioma. Because of mine activities that started back in 1919, residents continue to suffer until today.

#12 Deep water horizon (BP) oil spill The deep water horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil Spill) in the Gulf of Mexico is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.  The oil spill was a direct result of the explosion and sinking of the deepwater horizon oil rig which claimed 11 lives.  Total oil wasted is estimated at 4.9 million barrels.

#13 Amoco Cadiz A huge crude carrier bearing the flag of Liberia split into three parts and sank, releasing 1,604,500 barrels (219,797 tons) of light crude oil and 4,000 tons of fuel oil making it the largest oil spill of its kind at that time and resulted in the largest loss of marine life ever recorded from an oil spill.

#14 Eccocide in Vietnam During the Vietnam War, destruction of the farmland and rice paddies that fed the enemy was promulgated by the American military strategists. Other than these areas which were the source of food and livelihood of the Vietnamese folk, the jungle along with its flora and fauna was also devastated.

#15 The Al-Mishraq Fire Al-Mishraq is a state run sulfur plant near Mosul, Iraq which in June 2003 was the site of the largest human-made release of sulfur dioxide ever recorded.  A fire thought to have been deliberately started burned for almost a month spewing 21,000 tonnes of sulfur dioxide a day into the atmosphere.

#16 The Love Canal In the 1940′s 21,000 tons of toxic industrial waste, containing highly toxic dioxin, was buried by Hooker Chemical (now Occidental Petroleum Corporation) which led to an adverse affect on nearby residents of Love Canal. The Love Canal neighborhood started gaining international attention as the health impact of such pollution became evident with miscarriages, cancers, and birth defects and has been described as a “national symbol of a failure to exercise a sense of concern for future generations”.

#17 Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone The most infamous hypoxic zone in the United States,the gulf of mexico’s ‘dead zone’ is the dumping area for nitrogen and phosphorus, just two of the many high nutrient run offs. These substances come from the Mississippi River, which is the drainage area for almost half of the continental America.

#18 Minamata Disease Considered one of the four major pollution diseases in the history of Japan, Minamata is caused by severe mercury poisoning that attacks the nervous system. In 1956, Chisso Corporation’s industrial wastewater containing methylmercury was released into Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea; 2,265 fatalities are recognized as a direct consequence to this polluting even.

#19 The Seveso Disaster In July of 1976, an explosion at a chemical manufacturing plant north of Milan, Italy released Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) into the atmosphere adversely affecting the nearby town of Seveso. Shortly thereafter 3,300 animals died and many more were put down in order to prevent the spread of contamination into the food chain. Children were hospitalized with skin inflammation and nearly 500 people were found to have skin lesions.

#20 E-waste in Guiyu, China Guiyu, China is the location of what may be the largest electronic waste (e-waste) site on earth. As a result 88% of the children in the area suffer from lead poisoning and there is more than the average rate of miscarriages. Consequently, the province is sadly referred to as the “electronic graveyard”.

#21 Baia Mare Cyanide Spill After the Chernobyl incident in Russia, this cyanide spill in Baia Mare, Romania is aptly called the worst environmental disaster in Europe. On January 30, 2000, 100,000 cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated water leaked out from a dam, spewing out 100 tonnes of cyanide.  An incredible amount of fish and aquatic plants were killed and up to 100 people were hospitalized after eating contaminated fish.

#22 The Shrinking of the Aral Sea Dubbed as “one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters”, 10% of Aral sea’s 68,000 square kilometers has disappeared due to the diversion of rivers for irrigation. That percentage that was once a part of the fourth largest inland body of water is now a plain of highly saline soil with depleting marine life.

#23 The Bhopal Disaster Known as the world’s worst industrial disaster, more than half a million people were exposed to methyl isocyanate gas and other toxic chemicals in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India on the night of December 2-3, 1984. The Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant’s leak of the poisonous gas claimed 2,259 casualties.

#24 The Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion Being one out of two accidents classified as level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, Chernobyl is known as the worst nuclear power plant incident in history. Cancers, deformities and other long term illnesses were the scars of not only human inhabitants but of animals as well.

#25 The Great Smog of ’52 Thousands died and a hundred thousand fell ill because of a blanket of smog that covered London for 5 days in 1952. Cold weather, combined with windless conditions collected airborne pollutants from the use of coal to form a thick layer of smog over the city. Recent research showed that 12,000 premature deaths can be attributed to this smog.

Source: List25

[kakoliberlin]

America-First Offshore Energy Executive Order Leaves Our Oceans and Wildlife Behind

Everything you need to know about the new “oil above all” executive order that removes protections for oceans and wildlife, potentially opening the door for the oil industry to pillage and plunder our waters.

Last Friday, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) titled “Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy.” This EO leveled a barrage of attacks on ocean protections and promotes harmful offshore drilling at the expense of wildlife and ocean health. Specifically, the order includes:

Expands by millions of acres the waters considered for oil drilling through a re-write of the country’s five-year development plan. The five-year leasing plan guides where lease sales for oil and gas development can and cannot occur in federal waters offshore. The current plan (covering 2017-2022) was developed through a public process that took years to complete.  It deliberately excluded lease sales in the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific oceans, focusing development in the Gulf of Mexico where known resources and the best spill response capabilities exist. The new EO is specifically focused on putting those “off-limits” areas back up for consideration.

Revokes protections for ecologically sensitive areas and sets in motion further attacks on marine sanctuaries and monuments. In 2016, certain ecologically sensitive areas of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans were recognized for their incredible biological significance and protected from drilling by permanent executive withdrawal. This new EO wipes those protections off the map. It then goes on to instruct the Secretary of Commerce to reconsider all marine national monuments and national marine sanctuaries designated or expanded within the last decade by the Bush and Obama administrations. It also prohibits the Secretary from creating any new marine sanctuaries without a full assessment of their resource extraction potential. This puts at risk wildlife havens like Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Pacific Ocean and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts in the Atlantic. These and other important marine monuments are part of our National Wildlife Refuge System, the only network of public lands and waters dedicated to wildlife conservation. These protected waters shelter pristine coral reefs, deep sea habitats and remote islands that support more than 7,000 marine species, including tropical fish, sea birds and endangered whales, seals and sea turtles.

Fast tracks harmful seismic testing and rolls back seismic safeguards for marine wildlife. Seismic exploration used by oil companies to locate oil and gas deposits below the ocean floor involves sound wave explosions that can have devastating impacts on dolphins, porpoises, whales and other magnificent creatures of the sea. For example, beluga whales in the Arctic and the endangered North Atlantic right whale in the Atlantic, that rely on high-pitched vocalizations to communicate and hunt, are especially at risk. Seismic testing has been shown to damage hearing, change migration and feeding patterns, and leave lasting effects on social behaviors that reduce reproduction, feeding and other vital behaviors. This EO not only invites seismic testing, it directs that permitting be fast tracked. It also forces the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to reconsider its policy guidance which helps protect marine mammals from the dangerous effects of seismic airguns and explosive detonations.

Rolls back critical drilling safeguards established in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster. The oil industry’s track record has clearly shown that where we permit drilling, we must have sound regulations. If history is any indication, offshore drilling has been nothing short of a disaster for wildlife and the idea that the oil industry can be trusted to regulate itself it patently dangerous. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound killed more than 2,500 sea otters, not to mention the more than 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, and over 250,000 seabirds that died within a few days of the spill. The BP Deepwater Horizon Spill in 2010, resulted in the deaths of 11 people! It also led to the death of up to 175,000 sea turtles and injured nearly 35,000 hatchling sea turtles. As many as 84,500 birds of at least 93 species were killed by the spill including brown pelicans, laughing gulls, terns, skimmers and northern gannets which suffered the highest death rates. Marine mammals also experienced elevated death rates, reduced reproduction and disease—of these, the Barataria Bay bottlenose dolphins, the endangered sperm whale and the Bryde’s whale were impacted the most. Some fell victim to contamination from the spill itself, while others succumbed to the toxic dispersants that were spread in the Gulf of Mexico in response to the spill.

After these disasters, we said “never again,” but instead of learning from our past mistakes and building greater safeguards, this EO threatens to roll back protections for our oceans and marine wildlife. Among other things, it challenges the safety regulations put in place after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, including regulations addressing blow out preventers – the failure of which was the direct cause of the entire gulf disaster. It also calls into question rules to address the unique challenges of drilling in the harsh and spill-prone conditions in the Arctic.

What does this all mean for our oceans and the wildlife and communities that depend on them?

Every year hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and gas are spilled or leaked into our oceans – and that’s not including major catastrophes like the Deepwater Horizon disaster or spillage from damaged rigs or pipelines caused by hurricanes.  This kind of oil contamination is a huge problem for wildlife.

Wildlife not immediately killed by oiling can suffer slow deaths from debilitating illness and injury. Animals can ingest the poison through cleaning themselves or through eating other animals, like contaminated fish, which have similarly been exposed and have had the toxins bioaccumulate in their tissues.  For marine mammals like whales, exposure to petroleum causes tissue damage in the eyes, mouth, skin and lungs. Sea turtle hatchlings are also particularly susceptible to oiling because they spend much of their time near the water surface, where spilled oil or tar accumulates.

And it’s not just oil spills

Other impacts from the industrialization of our oceans through oil development are significant for wildlife too. In addition to the devastating impacts of seismic testing outlined above, increased vessel traffic, air pollution and the dumping of toxic debris associated with more oil drilling all take a toll. For example, imperiled whales often collide with increased marine traffic due to the presence of oil rigs and the boats serving them. And, hundreds of migrating birds each year die from rig collisions.

Impacts from Sea to Shining Sea

The Arctic

Drilling in the remote, icy and storm-prone Arctic is extremely dangerous. What’s more, increased Arctic drilling will come with a rapid increase in marine vessel traffic in often ice-choked waters which will significantly increase the likelihood of spills.  Spills in these remote locations would have deadly consequences for Arctic marine wildlife like humpback whales, polar bears, beluga whales, Pacific walruses, ice-dependent seals and other marine species. Many of these species are also at risk from the deafening impacts of seismic explosions.

The Arctic is also home to many rural coastal communities that rely on these marine systems for sustenance. They are on the front lines in the event of a spill especially when extreme weather can challenge responders’ arrival to the spill site for days. To get an idea of what this might look like, Defenders created Oil Spill Response Scenarios as part of our Bering Strait Response Teaching Tool, to help communities visualize a spill and incorporate their unique knowledge of wildlife and habitat to be part of the response, which will be more critical if drilling increases in the Arctic Ocean as intended under this new EO.

The Atlantic Coast

The Atlantic coast represents one of the most biologically diverse and economically important regions in the East. Protecting our coastlines and offshore waters is critically important for the sustainability our economy, local communities and the protection and recovery of imperiled marine species.

The endangered North Atlantic right whale migrates along the entire East Coast of the United States and would be the species most negatively impacted by exploration and seismic testing which could disrupt their migration paths.

The charismatic piping plover, a threatened species that makes the Atlantic coast its breeding and winter habitat, was already dealt a massive blow following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and another one could spell utter disaster for this shorebird.

  The Pacific Ocean

Of all the world’s oceans, the Pacific is the most biologically diverse. It has double the area and more than double the water volume of the Atlantic Ocean. Iconic orcas, charismatic California sea otters and myriad wildlife call the Pacific Ocean and coast home. Protecting Pacific coastlines and waters is crucial to support marine life and coastal wildlife, keep communities safe and boost our national economy.

Oil spills, from offshore drilling or shipping, are one of the greatest threats to the California sea otter.

Because their numbers remain unstable and they live in a rather small geographic area compared to other sea otter populations, they are especially vulnerable to the effects of oil spills.  When oil gets on sea otters’ fur it gets matted, which prevents their fur from insulating their bodies. Without this natural protection from the frigid water, sea otters can quickly die from hypothermia. The toxicity of oil can also be harmful to sea otters, affecting their vital organs like their livers, kidneys, lungs and eyes. It is tragic to think of, but the sobering reality is that this is just one example of the price wildlife could pay if offshore drilling was expanded along the Pacific coast.

Defenders Will Fight for Our Marine and Coastal Environments!

We’re going to do everything we can to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.

Expanding drilling and rolling back environmental safeguards in our Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific waters would put our marine wildlife, their habitat, and our climate at grave risk. Not only does it threaten recent efforts to curb carbon pollution and our dependence on fossil fuels, but it opens the door to more toxic oil spills that can wreak havoc on our oceans and the abundant wildlife that live in them.

We will continue to hold this administration accountable for these attacks on our oceans, communities and wildlife. And will challenge in court the patently illegal attempt to unilaterally revoke permanent protections for treasured ocean havens. We will also work at the state level to help pass state legislation that opposes federal drilling and safeguards our coastlines.

Follow us on social media to stay up-to-date on the status of other developments important to wildlife conservation and our work. Don’t forget to sign up for our emails where you will get all the latest news and action alerts to support wildlife.

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