#environmentaldisaster — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #environmentaldisaster, aggregated by home.social.
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https://www.europesays.com/uk/917402/ Inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, 40 years after disaster #Britain #Chernobyl #Chernobyl1986 #ChernobylAnniversary #ChernobylAnniversary2026 #ChernobylDisaster #ChernobylExclusionZone #ChernobylNow #ChernobylNuclearPowerPlant #ChernobylToday #England #EnvironmentalDisaster #GreatBritain #News #NorthernIreland #NuclearDisaster #Scotland #UK #Ukraine #UnitedKingdom #Wales
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RAPPLER | Philippine & World News | Investigative Journalism | Data | Civic Engagement | Public Interest [Unofficial] @[email protected] ·With no halt orders in the way, Monterrazas de Cebu resumes operations
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RAPPLER | Philippine & World News | Investigative Journalism | Data | Civic Engagement | Public Interest [Unofficial] @[email protected] ·With no halt orders in the way, Monterrazas de Cebu resumes operations
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“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”
See how the amount donated by Americans to charity per year compares to the size of outstanding student debt. Or how Walmart’s revenue measures up against Elon Musk’s wealth. Or how the U.S. military budget stacks up against China’s… and so much more.
From the estimable David McCandless and his wonderful site Information is Beautiful, an illustration of how expenses and wealth that run to over a billion dollars compare.
Then peruse “$Trillions.”
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As we ponder the pecuniary, we might recall that on this date in 1989, Exxon Valdez, an oil supertanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company, bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound‘s Bligh Reef, 6 mi west of Tatitlek, Alaska. The tanker spilled more than 10 million US gallons of crude oil over the next few days.
The Exxon Valdez spill is the second largest in U.S. waters, after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in terms of volume of oil released. It is the costliest disaster ever with no direct human fatalities. The oil, extracted from the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, eventually affected 1,300 miles of coastline, of which 200 miles were heavily or moderately oiled; and it wreaked havoc with the habitats salmon, sea otters, seals, and seabirds in its path.
Exxon spent an estimated $2 billion cleaning up the spill and a further $1 billion to settle related civil and criminal charges. Exxon was also assessed another $2.5 billion in punitive damages in a suit (Exxon v. Baker)… but that was reduced by the Supreme Court to roughly $500 million. Exxon remained hugely profitable– the process of payment was drawn out over decades and long term damage continues and is not funded by Exxon. Hence, the Exxon spill is often cited as shorthand in conversations about corporate responsibility as a case of accountability for societal damage inadequately enforced.
The Exxon Valdez offloading oil to the Exxon Baton Rouge as oil leaks into the surrounding waters (source) #corporateResponsibility #envirnoment #environmentalDisaster #expenses #ExxonValdez #ExxonValdezOilSpill #income #infographics #money #oilSpill #wealth -
“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”
See how the amount donated by Americans to charity per year compares to the size of outstanding student debt. Or how Walmart’s revenue measures up against Elon Musk’s wealth. Or how the U.S. military budget stacks up against China’s… and so much more.
From the estimable David McCandless and his wonderful site Information is Beautiful, an illustration of how expenses and wealth that run to over a billion dollars compare.
Then peruse “$Trillions.”
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As we ponder the pecuniary, we might recall that on this date in 1989, Exxon Valdez, an oil supertanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company, bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound‘s Bligh Reef, 6 mi west of Tatitlek, Alaska. The tanker spilled more than 10 million US gallons of crude oil over the next few days.
The Exxon Valdez spill is the second largest in U.S. waters, after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in terms of volume of oil released. It is the costliest disaster ever with no direct human fatalities. The oil, extracted from the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, eventually affected 1,300 miles of coastline, of which 200 miles were heavily or moderately oiled; and it wreaked havoc with the habitats salmon, sea otters, seals, and seabirds in its path.
Exxon spent an estimated $2 billion cleaning up the spill and a further $1 billion to settle related civil and criminal charges. Exxon was also assessed another $2.5 billion in punitive damages in a suit (Exxon v. Baker)… but that was reduced by the Supreme Court to roughly $500 million. Exxon remained hugely profitable– the process of payment was drawn out over decades and long term damage continues and is not funded by Exxon. Hence, the Exxon spill is often cited as shorthand in conversations about corporate responsibility as a case of accountability for societal damage inadequately enforced.
The Exxon Valdez offloading oil to the Exxon Baton Rouge as oil leaks into the surrounding waters (source) #corporateResponsibility #envirnoment #environmentalDisaster #expenses #ExxonValdez #ExxonValdezOilSpill #income #infographics #money #oilSpill #wealth -
#LAFires Could Transform Former #Rocketdyne Site into #FEMATrailerPark
January 2025
"#Radiation and chemical vapors on 47-acre #CanogaPark site are too toxic for housing, but could be mitigated to safely house residents displaced by January 2025 fires in above-ground trailers.
- Gross site contamination and development encumbrances prohibit residential housing
- Hundreds of #FEMATrailers, mobile homes and even shipping containers could be placed on site safely and temporarily house thousands of #LosAngeles disaster victims [Or maybe a potential #DetentionCenter? Hmmmm...]
- Efforts to clean up polluted west Valley groundwater could emulate 2024 agreement to remediate fouled east Valley aquifer and provide billions of gallons of clean water"The former Rocketdyne Canoga Park facility in the western #SanFernandoValley is so contaminated that it is nearly impossible to build anything on it other than light industry even though a developer wanted to construct homes on the site.
"#Chemicals and #radiation severely contaminate the land and #groundwater in and around the site according to documentation obtained by EnviroReporter.com.
"According to astonishing information never before covered in the media, areas offsite and around #RocketdyneCanoga are hot with high amounts of gross alpha and uranium radiation."
Read more:
https://www.enviroreporter.com/2025/01/la-fires-could-transform-former-rocketdyne-site-into-fema-trailer-park/
#USPol #RadioactiveHazards #NoNukes #NoWar #EPAFail #USGovtFail #NuclearWeapons #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar #EnvironmentalDisaster
#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife #UraniumContamination -
A creek with #AtomicWaste from WWII is linked to increased #cancer risk
By Ronnie Cohen, July 21, 2025
Excerpt: "Children who lived near a #SaintLouis creek polluted with #radioactive #AtomicBomb waste from the 1940s through the 1960s were more likely to be diagnosed with cancer over their lifetimes than children who lived farther from the waterway, a new study has found.
"The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, corroborate worries that neighbors of #ColdwaterCreek have long held about the #MissouriRiver tributary where generations of children played.
Radioactive waste found at #Missouri elementary school" 'We actually saw something quite dramatic, not only elevated risk of cancer, but one that increased steadily in a sort of dose-response manner the closer the childhood residents got to Coldwater Creek,' said the study's senior author, Marc Weisskopf, an epidemiology professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
"As part of the Manhattan Project, #MallinckrodtChemicalWorks processed uranium in St. Louis for the development of an atomic bomb. By the mid-1940s, according to historians, the company began to haul its radioactive waste north of the city, leaving it in open steel drums, unattended and exposed to the elements, next to Coldwater Creek."
#RadioactiveHazards #Cancer #NoNukes #NoWar #EPAFail #USPol #USGovtFail #NuclearWeapons #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar #EnvironmentalDisaster
#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife -
#SaintLouis’ long history of #radioactive #contamination. Highlights of 10 years of Post-Dispatch coverage.
Oct 9, 2025
"From the public announcement that #MallinckrodtChemicalWorks helped refine #uranium for the #ManhattanProject to the present, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has covered the issue of storing #RadioactiveWaste and subsequent #contamination of #ColdwaterCreek, #WeldonSpring and surrounding areas."
Read more:
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/history/collection_29db6be1-fe7f-56b6-bdc6-fcf9dda512cd.html#1Archived version:
https://archive.ph/AIoN2#RadioactiveHazards #Cancer #NoNukes #NoWar #EPAFail #USPol #USGovtFail #NuclearWeapons #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar #EnvironmentalDisaster
#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife -
#SaintLouis’ long history of #radioactive #contamination. Highlights of 10 years of Post-Dispatch coverage.
Oct 9, 2025
"From the public announcement that #MallinckrodtChemicalWorks helped refine #uranium for the #ManhattanProject to the present, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has covered the issue of storing #RadioactiveWaste and subsequent #contamination of #ColdwaterCreek, #WeldonSpring and surrounding areas."
Read more:
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/history/collection_29db6be1-fe7f-56b6-bdc6-fcf9dda512cd.html#1Archived version:
https://archive.ph/AIoN2#RadioactiveHazards #Cancer #NoNukes #NoWar #EPAFail #USPol #USGovtFail #NuclearWeapons #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar #EnvironmentalDisaster
#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife -
#SaintLouis’ long history of #radioactive #contamination. Highlights of 10 years of Post-Dispatch coverage.
Oct 9, 2025
"From the public announcement that #MallinckrodtChemicalWorks helped refine #uranium for the #ManhattanProject to the present, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has covered the issue of storing #RadioactiveWaste and subsequent #contamination of #ColdwaterCreek, #WeldonSpring and surrounding areas."
Read more:
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/history/collection_29db6be1-fe7f-56b6-bdc6-fcf9dda512cd.html#1Archived version:
https://archive.ph/AIoN2#RadioactiveHazards #Cancer #NoNukes #NoWar #EPAFail #USPol #USGovtFail #NuclearWeapons #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar #EnvironmentalDisaster
#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife -
#SaintLouis’ long history of #radioactive #contamination. Highlights of 10 years of Post-Dispatch coverage.
Oct 9, 2025
"From the public announcement that #MallinckrodtChemicalWorks helped refine #uranium for the #ManhattanProject to the present, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has covered the issue of storing #RadioactiveWaste and subsequent #contamination of #ColdwaterCreek, #WeldonSpring and surrounding areas."
Read more:
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/history/collection_29db6be1-fe7f-56b6-bdc6-fcf9dda512cd.html#1Archived version:
https://archive.ph/AIoN2#RadioactiveHazards #Cancer #NoNukes #NoWar #EPAFail #USPol #USGovtFail #NuclearWeapons #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar #EnvironmentalDisaster
#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife -
#SaintLouis’ long history of #radioactive #contamination. Highlights of 10 years of Post-Dispatch coverage.
Oct 9, 2025
"From the public announcement that #MallinckrodtChemicalWorks helped refine #uranium for the #ManhattanProject to the present, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has covered the issue of storing #RadioactiveWaste and subsequent #contamination of #ColdwaterCreek, #WeldonSpring and surrounding areas."
Read more:
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/history/collection_29db6be1-fe7f-56b6-bdc6-fcf9dda512cd.html#1Archived version:
https://archive.ph/AIoN2#RadioactiveHazards #Cancer #NoNukes #NoWar #EPAFail #USPol #USGovtFail #NuclearWeapons #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar #EnvironmentalDisaster
#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife -
Officials order demolition of #US homes after discovering #radioactive hazard: 'Safety is our number one priority'
"We've collected over 41,000 samples."
by Brianne Nemiroff, March 7, 2026
Excerpt: "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tested soil in the backyards of properties along the 800 block of Cades Cove Drive in #Florissant, #Missouri. It found #NuclearContamination between 2.5 and 17 feet below the foundations of the homes.
"The homes were built near #ColdwaterCreek, a waterway that has experienced contamination issues since the 1940s. Now, in February 2026, six of the homes on this block will be demolished.
"Lt. Col. Andrew James, Deputy Commander for the St. Louis District for the Army Corps of Engineers, said to Spectrum News, 'We've collected over 41,000 samples along Coldwater Creek. And although there's still more spots of contamination that we have to get, the data shows that these are the only homes that we have to demolish right now. For the residents in this area, especially the neighbors that are close … safety is our number one priority.'
"Spectrum News also spoke to Gina McNabb, a resident of the block whose home of 28 years was demolished. 'My husband's had #cancer, my kids had illnesses, and that's not to say that it definitely came from this, but now there's a question.'
"Federal authorities have not released the payouts to the affected homeowners; however, McNabb has confirmed that her home loan and moving expenses were paid off.
Those who participated in the #ManhattanProject focused more on physics than on the biological effects of radiation. Eighty years later, experts are still finding radiation in the soil under homes, in waterways, and an increased cancer risk in people living near high-risk areas, as stated by experts in an interview with PBS."
Read more:
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/neighborhood-demolition-due-to-uranium-contamination/#NoNukes #NoWar #EPAFail #USPol #USGovtFail #NuclearWeapons #NuclearContamination #RethinkNotRestart #NoNuclearWar #EnvironmentalDisaster #WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife #FlorissantMO
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@decapitae There was an initial trial for #PersonalInjury settlements, and there is another case in the works...
"The case before Washam seeks damages for a list of claims that includes negligence, nuisance, strict liability, product liability, trespass, punitive damages, loss of consortium, wrongful death, survivorship and business interruption. The wrongful death claim stems from Courtney Fish, of East Palestine, who allegedly died from the aftermath of the derailment."
Personal Injury settlements:
#EastPalestine #EastPalestineOH #Ohio #VinylChoride #Plastics #EnvironmentalDisaster #ToxicFumes #TrainDerailment
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The Aral Sea catastrophe remains one of history's most devastating environmental disasters.
Once Earth's 4th-largest lake, Soviet irrigation projects diverted its rivers for cotton farming—draining an entire sea within decades.
The cost? Collapsed ecosystems, destroyed communities, severe health crises, and a legacy of damage spanning generations.
A stark reminder that nature cannot be "controlled" without consequences.#AralSea #EnvironmentalDisaster #ClimateHistory #WaterCrisis #Sustainability #Engineering #CentralAsia
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RAPPLER | Philippine & World News | Investigative Journalism | Data | Civic Engagement | Public Interest [Unofficial] @[email protected] ·Even before the landslide, controversies haunted Cebu’s Binaliw landfill
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RAPPLER | Philippine & World News | Investigative Journalism | Data | Civic Engagement | Public Interest [Unofficial] @[email protected] ·
DENR issues cease and desist order vs Cebu landfill operator
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River close to engulfing waste mountain, MP warns
Marcus White and Jamie Morris, November 17, 2025
"A river is rising and threatening to engulf a mountain of fly-tipped waste in a field, an MP has warned.
"After heavy rain over the weekend, the River Cherwell is now lapping against the 'obscene' 150m (490ft) long pile near Kidlington in Oxfordshire, Calum Miller told the House of Commons.
"The Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock said the situation had become 'much more urgent' and asked the government to intervene.
"Environment Minister Emma Hardy said the Environment Agency was investigating and had acted to prevent further access to the site.
"Fly-tippers are thought to have spent weeks building up the mound in a field between the river and the A34.
"The Oxfordshire MP said it had reached a height of up to 12m (39ft).
"Asking a Urgent Question in the House of Commons, he said the river level had risen by about 4ft (1.2m) in recent days and some of the waste was now afloat.
"He said: 'This incident highlights that organised criminal gangs are carefully planning operations to dump #IndustrialWaste in the countryside.'
" 'They earn millions of pounds in illegal earnings without a thought for the health of people or animals, nor the damage to soil, water or air. And I am deeply concerned that the #EnvironmentAgency (#EA) is not equipped to deal with this unfolding #EnvironmentalDisaster.'
"Mr Miller said the government should order a clean-up by issuing a directive to the EA, similar to the one given for #HoadesWood in Kent in 2024.
"He also urged ministers to review the government's response to waste crime and allow the National Crime Agency to investigate the most serious cases."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2762y8x4eo
#FlyTipping #UK #Garbage #Pollution #FlyTips #IllegalDumping
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How communities in #SacrificeZones suffer environmental injustices in #Mexico, #Chile, #Nigeria and #Indonesia (analysis)
Daniela Sepulveda and Angélica Arellano, 9 Apr 2025
"Across continents, 'sacrifice zones' resemble wounds carved deep into the fabric of our planet. These are regions where ecosystems and livelihoods have been ravaged by fossil fuel and other industries that promise progress but leave devastation in their wake. These are places where big business and transnational corporations are contaminating the rivers, darkening the skies, and making the soil barren; where the toll of development is paid in human suffering and ecological destruction.
"What unites these 'sacrifice zones' is the shared story of areas where prosperity for the few is built on the suffering of many, and where communities fight to mend the fractures inflicted upon their land, health and dignity.
"Here are four case studies highlighting the experiences of communities and civil society organizations collaborating with us in the Coalition for Human Rights in Development’s Community Resource Exchange.
"In the #TulaTepejiApaxco region, where the #Toltec plains once supported rich #biodiversity and #CulturalHeritage, the water and air are now saturated with pollution. This devastated landscape was declared both in 1975 and again in 2005 by the U.N. as one of the most polluted places on Earth, marking it as an #EnvironmentalDisaster zone. Since the early 20th century, the arrival of #CementPlants, #refineries, #ChemicalFactories, a #coal-fired power plant and #LimeKilns has transformed the region. Backed by all levels of government, these industries have destroyed the area’s ecological balance and ruined the health of its people, poisoning the water, air and soil with #ToxicWaste.
"Prominent among these polluters are cement giants like #Holcim, #CEMEX, #CementosFortaleza and #Clarimex, whose operations release harmful gases that exacerbate the region’s environmental and public health crises. One of the epicenters of this environmental catastrophe is the #TulaRiver, which receives 150,000 liters (nearly 40,000 gallons) of untreated wastewater every second from Mexico City and the Valley of Mexico. These 'black waters' are teeming with industrial and hospital waste plus sewage, overwhelming the river and its tributaries.
"The #EndhóDam, originally built to support local #agriculture, has become a toxic dumping ground, poisoning thousands of people who rely on wells for drinking water. Despite decades of warnings, local and national governments have allowed this contamination to persist. The poisoned waters have killed fish, flooded the land with toxic sludge, and led to a surge in cancer, leukemia, respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases among the 15,000 inhabitants living along its banks. In 2021, a devastating flood related to the overflowing Tula River left 17 dead and displaced thousands, a stark reminder of the ongoing risks of government inaction.
"The region now faces a massive public health crisis, and the recent declaration by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to designate the area as an ecological restoration zone is a necessary but overdue step. This declaration covers municipalities such as #Atitalaquia,TepejiDelRío, #Tepetitlán and Tlahuelilpan, where 498 businesses have been identified as generators of hazardous waste, including 14 that produce hydrocarbons. The study, based on a water, air and soil analysis, could mark the beginning of recovery if it is implemented with urgency and seriousness.
"Over the years, organizations like #RedDeConcienciaAmbiental '#QueremosVivir' have resisted, bringing visibility to the devastation and fighting to halt deforestation and continued pollution. In the words of one of the leaders of Queremos Vivir ('We want to live'), 'There needs to be a legal solution, because it’s that urgent. We believe there is still a way to reverse it, and we have time to show the newly elected president #ClaudiaSheinbaum the dire situation we’re in.'
"Their demands include a reduction in the water flow of the Tula River through holistic water management solutions, and government accountability for decades of environmental neglect, calling for reparations for both industrial pollution and the catastrophic 2021 floods.
"While they welcome Sheinbaum’s promises to clean the river and launch a circular economy project, they emphasize that meaningful environmental justice must not be delayed any longer. After stating the communities’ demands through tears, the Queremos Vivir leader said, 'Are we really just going to be destined to be a sacrifice zone? The damage is so severe, the degradation we are in, that if we don’t protect it, don’t defend it, then what are we going to do?' "
#SEZs #Antofagasta #Nigeria #Indonesia #HumanRights #HumanRightsFreeZone #CorporateColonialism
#Exploitation #RaceToTheBottom
#HumanRightsViolations
#Pollution #EnvironmentalDegradation
#EconomicSacrificZones
#ForcedRelocation #ForcedDisplacement #TraditionalLifestyles #AirIsLife #WaterIsLife #EnvironmentalRacism #Exploitation -
RAPPLER | Philippine & World News | Investigative Journalism | Data | Civic Engagement | Public Interest [Unofficial] @[email protected] ·
[Pinoy Criminology] Cebu flooding: The anatomy of a white collar crime
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RAPPLER | Philippine & World News | Investigative Journalism | Data | Civic Engagement | Public Interest [Unofficial] @[email protected] ·
Negros Oriental molasses spill spread over 3,000 hectares | The wRap
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.rappler.com/video/daily-wrap/october-30-2025/
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RAPPLER | Philippine & World News | Investigative Journalism | Data | Civic Engagement | Public Interest [Unofficial] @[email protected] ·
Negros Oriental molasses spill spread over 3,000 hectares | The wRap
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.rappler.com/video/daily-wrap/october-30-2025/
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RAPPLER | Philippine & World News | Investigative Journalism | Data | Civic Engagement | Public Interest [Unofficial] @[email protected] ·Negros Oriental molasses spill spread over 3,000 hectares | The wRap
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.rappler.com/video/daily-wrap/october-30-2025/
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RAPPLER | Philippine & World News | Investigative Journalism | Data | Civic Engagement | Public Interest [Unofficial] @[email protected] ·
Negros Oriental molasses spill spread over 3,000 hectares | The wRap
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.rappler.com/video/daily-wrap/october-30-2025/
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RAPPLER | Philippine & World News | Investigative Journalism | Data | Civic Engagement | Public Interest [Unofficial] @[email protected] ·Negros Oriental molasses spill spread over 3,000 hectares | The wRap
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.rappler.com/video/daily-wrap/october-30-2025/
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Kazakhstan Urges Regional Cooperation to Save the Aral Sea
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Not just human health! The #Toxic Blend of LA’s Urban #WildfireSmoke Will Have Lasting Health Consequences
Los Angeles residents are breathing bits of "cars, metal pipes, plastics."
By Zoya Teirstein, January 22, 2025“These fires are different from previous quote-unquote ‘wildfires,’ because there are so many structures that burned,” said Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. 'Everything in the households got burned — cars, metal pipes, plastics.'
"#Wildfiresmoke is toxic. Burning trees and shrubs produce very fine #particulatematter, known by the shorthand PM 2.5, which burrow deep into the lungs and can even infiltrate the bloodstream, causing cold- and flu-like symptoms in the short term, and heart disease, lung cancer, and other chronic issues over time.
"But the fires that raced through Los Angeles burned thousands of homes, schools, historic buildings, and even medical clinics, blanketing the city in thick smoke. For several days after the first fire started, the city’s air quality index, or #AQI, exceeded 100, the threshold, typically seen during wildfires, at which air becomes unhealthy to breathe for children, the elderly, and those with asthma. In some parts of the city, the AQI reached 500, a number rarely seen and always hazardous for everyone.
"At the moment, air pollution experts know how much smoke fills the air. That’s shown improvement in recent days. But they don’t know what’s in it. 'What are the chemical mixtures in this smoke?' asked Kai Chen, an environmental scientist at the Yale School of Public Health. 'In addition to fine particulate matter, there are potentially other hazardous and #carcinogenic organic compounds — gas pollutants, trace metals, and microplastics.'
"Previous research shows that the spikes in unhealthy air quality seen during such events lead to higher rates of hospitalizations for issues like asthma, and even contribute to heart attacks among those with that chronic disease. A 2024 study on the long-term effects of smoke exposure in California showed that particulate matter from wildfires in the state from 2008 to 2018 contributed to anywhere from 52,000 to 56,000 premature deaths. A health assessment of 148 firefighters who worked the Tubbs Fire, which burned more than 36,000 acres in Northern California in 2017 and destroyed an unusually high number of structures, found elevated levels of the #PFAS known as forever chemicals, #HeavyMetals, and flame retardants in their blood and urine.
"The L.A. County Department of Public Health has formally urged people to stay inside and wear masks to protect themselves from windblown toxic dust and ash. Air quality measurements don’t take these particles into account, which means the air quality index doesn’t reveal the extent of contaminants in the air.
"Zhu and her colleagues have been collecting samples of wildfire smoke in neighborhoods near the fires. It’ll be months before that data is fully analyzed, but Zhu suspects she will find a dangerous mix of chemicals, including, potentially, #asbestos and lead — materials used in many buildings constructed before the 1970s.
"The risk will linger even after the smoke clears. The plumes that wafted over the landscape will deposit chemicals into drinking #water supplies and #contaminate# soil. When rains do come, they’ll wash #ToxicAsh into streams and across the land, said Fernando Rosario-Ortiz, an environmental engineer and interim dean of the University of Colorado Boulder environmental engineering program. 'There’s a lot of manmade materials that are now being combusted. The potential is there for contamination,' he said, noting that little research on how toxic ash and other byproducts of wildfires in urban areas currently exists. 'What we don’t have a lot of information on is what happens now.'
"After the Camp Fire razed Paradise, California, in 2018, water utilities found high levels of volatile organic compounds [#VOCs] in #DrinkingWater. Similar issues have arisen in places like Boulder County, Colorado, where the Marshall Fire destroyed nearly 1,000 structures in 2021, Rosario-Ortiz said, though the presence of a contaminant in a home doesn’t necessarily mean it will be present in high levels in the water. Still, several municipal water agencies in Los Angeles issued preemptive advisories urging residents not to drink tap water in neighborhoods near the Palisades and Eaton fires. It’ll be weeks before they know exactly what’s in the water.
"As wildfires grow ever more intense and encroach upon urban areas, cities and counties must be prepared to monitor the health impacts and respond to them. 'This is the first time I’ve ever even witnessed or heard anything like this,' said Zhu, who raised her daughter in Los Angeles and has lived there for decades, said. 'Even being in the field studying wildfires and air quality impacts, I never imagined that a whole neighborhood, a whole community in Palisades, would burn down.'"
Read more:
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-toxic-blend-of-las-urban-wildfire-smoke-will-have-lasting-health-consequences/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=flipboard_rss&utm_campaign=znetwork
#AirPollution #WaterPollution #AirIsLife #WaterIsLife #ToxicMaterials #EnvironmentalDisaster #EnvironmentalDamage #Pyrocene #PyroceneEra -
'Chaos': #Peru Declares #EnvironmentalEmergency Over #OilSpill
"So far, we have not had any response from the oil company," said one fisherman whose livelihood has been threatened by the accident.
Julia Conley
Dec 27, 2024"At least seven beaches and the safety of local wildlife have been impacted by an oil spill in northern Peru, said the South American country's Environmental Assessment and Oversight Agency on Thursday as the government declared an environmental emergency.
"The environmental watchdog, known as #OEFA locally, said in a preliminary report that about 10,000 square meters of surface seawater have been contaminated by the crude oil, which spilled from a vessel at a terminal of the #TalaraRefinery.
"Petroperu, the state-owned oil company, was preparing to load the oil onto a tanker when the spill was detected at #LasCapullanas beach.
"The company has not disclosed exactly how much oil spilled, but OEFA said it has extended over an area of 116-566 acres. Petroperu has also not stated the cause of the accident."
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/petroperu
#BigOilAndGas #Petroperu #WaterIsLife #OceansAreLife #NoDAPL #RenewablesNow #EnvironmentalPollution #EnvironmentalDisaster -
Advocates demand halt to #uranium #mine near the #GrandCanyon
#EnergyFuels says #nuclear power is necessary to fight #ClimateChange, but #Indigenous tribes fear losing their homes
By Matthew Rozsa
January 31, 2024"The Grand Canyon truly lives up to its name, being the largest canyon on Earth and one of the most popular national parks in America. But due to #UraniumMining in the area, some advocates are warning it could become the site of a future #EnvironmentalDisaster, which threatens to make one Indigenous village 'extinct.'
"More than 80 groups signed onto a statement on Monday — representing Indigenous communities, scientists and environmental nonprofits such as the #SierraClub and the #CenterForBiologicalDiversity — directed at President #JoeBiden and #Arizona Gov. #KatieHobbs, demanding they close the #PinyonPlain uranium mine, which is located near the Grand Canyon.
"'We have a choice in front of us. Allowing the Pinyon Plain mine to proceed is subjecting this landscape and its interconnected waters to a legacy of devastation and disregarding the rights of the #IndigenousPeoples on the land,' Sanober Mirza, Arizona program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said in the statement. 'Or we can choose a different path — one that holds a promise of protecting the Grand Canyon’s cultural sanctity, its people and natural resources.'
"To understand why the mine's opponents feel so strongly, one can turn to #AmberReimondo, who work as energy director at a conservationist non-profit called the #GrandCanyonTrust. Reimondo explained to Salon by email that, on the one hand, #Biden permanently banned mining operations on nearly 1 million acres of federal managed lands by creating the #BaajNwaavjo I'tah Kukveni - Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in August 2023. Yet the Pinyon Plain mine was #exempt from this prohibition, and Reimondo argues that the impact on the region has been 'several fold.'
"'What they've created here is a long-term, slow motion #EnvironmentalDisaster."
"'The Grand Canyon region as a whole and especially the location of the mine, is deeply significant to Indigenous cultures and is a place where tribal members have conducted #ceremonies, collected medicine, hunted, and more, for centuries,' Reimondo said. 'The mine also overlies critical and complex [and] not well understood groundwater systems. One #aquifer in particular — the #RedWallMuavAquifer — is the sole source of water for the remote #HavasupaiVillage of #Supai inside the Grand Canyon. The mine poses a #contamination threat to these #groundwater resources not just today, but importantly, after the mine's mere 28-month operational lifespan has concluded and the mining operator 'cleans up' and moves on.'
"Supai is so remote, it's only accessible only by helicopter or an 8-mile mule ride or hike, Reimondo explained, noting that if the newly-oxygenated groundwater comes into contact with nearby rocks, minerals like #arsenic and #uranium will be dissolved by the groundwater and enter aquifers used by the local community and essential to local ecology, including #HavasuFalls. Taylor McKinnon, Southwest Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, expressed similar concerns.
"'Ultimately, this mine is going to require political leadership,' McKinnon told Salon in an interview, referring to both the Biden and #Hobbs administrations. 'Those administration's agencies have the authority to fix this problem if they so choose, and that's what they should do.'
"We have detailed strenuously for years that neither regulators nor industry can ensure against the permanent and irretrievable damage to Grand Canyon's aquifers and springs," McKinnon added. "This mine was approved originally in 1986, under a record of decision from the US Forest Service under a presumption that it was highly unlikely that the mine would encounter groundwater, and further unlikely that if it did, it had the potential to contaminate deeper aquifers in the springs that they feed. Subsequent state permitting from the #ArizonaDepartment OfEnvironmentalQuality has basically parroted those same assumptions.'
"Yet McKinnon alleges that in 2016 the mine punctured a perched aquifer, causing roughly 10 million gallons of water per year to drain into the mine workings. From there he asserts that a surface pond formed with water that has concentrations of uranium and arsenic far in excess of the Environmental Protection Agency (#EPA)'s water quality standards. Not only does this threaten the local endangered and endemic species, but it also impacts the nearby Havasupai tribe.
"Havasupai means 'people of the blue-green water,' McKinnon said. "It's their longstanding cultural identity, and it is the water they drink, they farm with and that provides for all of their tourism economy because it is this just a beautiful series of massive verdant waterfalls that flow through the village and down into a series of waterfalls and pools where people camp and they derive tourism dollars.'
"In a 2022 letter of opposition, the Havasupai Tribal Council, laid out what is at stake in the uranium mining controversy.
"'Our identity as a people is intrinsically intertwined with the health of #HavasuCreek and the environment to which it gives life,' the tribe’s letter explained. 'We use this water for drinking, #gardening and irrigating, municipal uses, and #cultural and #religious uses. If the water source becomes contaminated like we have seen in other areas of Arizona due to uranium mining, we will no longer be able to live in our homes and Supai Village will become extinct.'
"These fears are based on precedent. The nearby #NavajoNation is scattered with old uranium mines — over 500, in fact — awaiting cleanup, exposing locals to risk of '#LungCancer from inhalation of #radioactive particles, as well as #BoneCancer and impaired kidney function from exposure to #radionuclides in drinking water,' according to the EPA. Likewise, members of the #UteMountain #Ute tribe in #WhiteMesa, Utah have protested against uranium mines they say have contaminated local groundwater, air and even wildlife."
https://www.salon.com/2024/01/31/advocates-demand-halt-to-uranium-mine-near-the-grand-canyon/
#NoNukes #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #CulturalGenocide #EnvironmentalRacism #CorporateColonialism #NoMining #UraniumMining #NuclearPowerNoThanks #IndigenousActivism
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"Mining causes irreparable environmental damage, which takes many years to recover from," a protester said.#Panama #Mining #Protests #Environmentaldisaster #FirstQuantumMinerals #LaurentinoCortizo
Panamanians Protest Against Mining Contract for 7 Days in a Row -
Good news: the next #TotesFormat release will be a split-tape of RADIO FREE UL-QUOMA (@rustpunks) + COLDSORE with a deluge of acoustic near future disaster dystopias. Stay detuned.
#dystopia #environmentaldisaster #experimentalnoise #doomdrone #coldsoresound #radiofreeulquoma #darkambientnoise #makenoisebashfascism #anarXnoise