Tag: environment

THE FEDS HAVE THOUSANDS OF STADIUM LIGHTS ON THE BORDER. SWITCHING THEM ON WOULD DEVASTATE DESERT ECOSYSTEMS.

THE TALLEST PANELS of border wall between the U.S. and Mexico stand about three stories high. On the ground, the partitions have a long and troubled record of blocking natural waterways and severing wildlife migration corridors, but the environmental impacts don’t stop there.

When the sun goes down, the wall’s ecological footprint expands up and out, with lights reaching into the sky and illuminating cross-border habitats. Most of that illumination is concentrated near population centers and ports of entry, but with the flip of a switch, that could easily change.

According to a new survey, federal contractors have placed nearly 2,000 stadium-style lights in southern Arizona alone in recent years, imperiling some of the most ecologically complex and celebrated public lands in the United States.

In a report published Tuesday, the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based environmental organization, revealed the placement of more than 1,800 lights on federal land in the Sonoran Desert between 2019 and 2021, including wildlife preserves that are home to at least 16 threatened or endangered species. The new lights are not yet in use, and according to the report’s authors, they never should be.

“The scientific record clearly shows that artificial light at night can have costly, even deadly effects on a wide variety of species including amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, insects and plants,” the group said. “High-intensity lighting in these priority conservation areas would be devastating to the rich biodiversity of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico.”

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Japan Begins Secretly Releasing Irradiated Water From Fukushima Disaster Into The Ocean

Tokyo Electric Power Company (better known as TEPCO) started releasing irradiated seawater from Monday afternoon into an underwater tunnel that has been built to release Fukushima nuclear contaminated water into the sea, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said on Tuesday.

According to TEPCO, the tunnel will be filled with some 6,000 tons of seawater by around noon on Tuesday.

The process, according to China Daily, was carried out “secretly” on Monday because Japan’s unilateral decision of dumping more than 1.3 million metric tons of treated but still radioactive water into the ocean provoked consistent protests from neighboring countries, such as China, Pacific Island communities and civil society groups in the most affected prefectures such as Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi.

And instead of targeting what will be a tangible environmental catastrophe in just days, the hollow and hypocritical virtue signaling talking heads continue droning on about such meaningless drivel as ESG and global warming.

Also, oddly enough, there has not been a peep about this clear and present ocean disaster from either the original Greta, or her new and improved for mass-consumption replacement, Sophia Kianni, who lately appears to be more focused on building up her scantily-clad, environmentally-fighting image than, well, fighting for the environment…

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Extinction Rebellion leader drives gas-guzzling diesel car and buys imported food from other side of world

Extinction rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbook has been exposed by a fellow shopper as having a diesel car and importing food from the other side of the world.

The 50-year-old, who helped set up XR in 2018, was spotted out and about at a Waitrose store in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Bradbook pulled up to supermarket driving a polluting 1.5 litre diesel car.

The mother-of-two loaded her trolley with goods from across the world, stretching from Chile to Cyprus and India to Italy.

The items were also swathed in plastic and polythene.

An onlooker told The Sun: “Buying fruit flown halfway round the world in non-recyclable packaging then driving home in a ­diesel motor — what a towering hypocrite.

“But at least she wasn’t held up on her way home by idiots who glued themselves to the road.”

Images taken of the eco-activist showed where her items were originally from and suggested she is less concerned about items travelling thousands of air miles.

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Former Hawaii Lawmaker Gets 2 Years in Corruption Case That Led to Release of Sewage Into State Waters

A former Hawaii lawmaker was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison in a federal corruption case that’s drawn attention to a perennial problem in the islands: the tens of thousands of cesspools that release 50 million gallons of raw sewage into the state’s pristine waters every day.

Cesspools — in-ground pits that collect sewage from houses and buildings not connected to city services for gradual release into the environment — are at the center of the criminal case against former Democratic state Rep. Ty Cullen. He has admitted to taking bribes of cash and gambling chips in exchange for influencing legislation to reduce Hawaii’s widespread use of cesspools.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Oki Mollway said she gave Cullen a sentence at the shortest end of the term recommended by prosecutors because he had cooperated extensively with investigators. Yet she didn’t go as low as the 15 months requested by his defense attorney because of the serious nature of his crimes.

“This was a grievous breach of public trust on your part. It appears to have been motivated by greed, and it stretched out over a number of years,” Mollway told Cullen. “I am very concerned that this was not a momentary lapse of judgement.”

Cullen told the judge he took full responsibility for and was ashamed of his actions.

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There’s a Huge DDT Dumping Ground in the Ocean Off Los Angeles, and It’s Got Scientists Worried

Afew years ago, back in 2019, a massive toxic waste dumping ground was discovered off the coast of Los Angeles. It made the news, but didn’t make the quite the splash one would expect. The dumping ground was full of thousands of barrels of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, which you know as DDT because Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane is hard to say.

DDT is a carcinogenic pesticide that was widely used for a few decades between the 1940s and the late 1950s. First used to fight off insect-born diseases like typhus and malaria, it was eventually fond to be very effective for controlling insects in everywhere from farm crops to home gardens. It was a bit of a miracle substance at first – until it wasn’t.

Within a few years, it became apparent that DDT, despite its usefulness, was extraordinarily bad for the environment. Not just the environment, but basically anything it came in contact with. By the late ’50s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture — which was in charge of pesticide regulation before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created — started cracking down on many of DDT’s uses “because of mounting evidence of the pesticide’s declining benefits and environmental and toxicological effects.”

In 1962, a book called Silent Spring came out. In it, author Rachel Carson wrote about how the chemical industry was impacting the environment. In doing so, she woke the wider world up to the dangers of DDT and just how harmful humankind was being. A decade later, in 1972, the newly formed EPA banned DDT “based on its adverse environmental effects, such as those to wildlife, as well as its potential human health risks.”

DDT has a lot of issues, but the main ones that pertain to us are the facts that it is extremely persistent in the environment, accumulates in fatty tissues, and, if it makes it up to the upper atmosphere, can travel basically all over the world. Although the CDC only considers it a “possible human carcinogen,” everyone’s fairly sure that DDT is super bad for us. “Following exposure to high doses, human symptoms can include vomiting, tremors or shakiness, and seizures,” the CDC wrote. “Laboratory animal studies showed effects on the liver and reproduction.”

All that is to say that a giant DDT graveyard at the bottom of the Pacific off a very trafficked bit of ocean is decidedly bad. Between 1940 and 1960-ish, The Montrose Chemical Corporation of California in Los Angeles simply poured DDT into the sewage pipes feeding into the ocean. After World War II, barrels and barrels of a DDT mixture were hucked off boats, and today they’re still there, rolling around on the sea floor off Catalina Island, leaking away. According to reports, if they floated back to the surface back then, the barrels were simply punctured so they’d disappear.

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5 unanswered questions on East Palestine derailment after preliminary NTSB report

The National Transportation Security Board (NTSB) issued its first preliminary report Thursday on the Feb. 3 derailment of a train carrying hazardous chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio.

While the report seemingly faults an overheated bearing for the derailment, the NTSB investigation is ongoing, and a number of questions remain.

Here are five remaining questions about the train derailment…

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Another, Possibly Deadlier, Ohio Eco-Disaster Still Festers Near Train Derailment Site

Some 200 miles from the toxic train derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio, another environmental disaster still festers due to years of neglect by the U.S. government.

This other environmental disaster in Piketon, Ohio, the home of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, also known as PORTS.

In the Cold War era, the U.S. government used PORTS to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs. Then, in the 1990s, the site was likely the recipient of polluted uranium from Russia in the 1990s due to a Bill Clinton-era program called “Swords to Ploughshares,” which entailed the United States converting Soviet Union nuclear warheads to uranium that could be used to power U.S. nuclear reactors.

Now, Piketon has a cancer problem—more than 500 cases per 100,000, or about 10% above state average, according to the Ohio Cancer Atlas.

Former PORTS worker Jeff Walburn told Headline USA that the disaster in Piketon could be worse than even what the people in East Palestine are dealing with.

“Here’s the difference: You saw wreckage of a train, you saw an explosion, you saw fire, and you see dead fish. Nuclear material is silent, invisible, and it’s a deadly killer. And the chemicals being transported outside of the plant to the community are just as deadly, but you’re not seeing the explosion or fire,” he said.

As someone who’s tried to hold the companies and federal agencies responsible for poisoning his community accountable for decades, Walburn also has advice for the residents of East Palestine.

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Which Countries Pollute The Most Ocean Plastic Waste?

Millions of metric tons of plastic are produced worldwide every year. While half of this plastic waste is recycled, incinerated, or discarded into landfills, a significant portion of what remains eventually ends up in our oceans.

In fact, many pieces of ocean plastic waste have come together to create a vortex of plastic waste thrice the size of France in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.

Where does all of this plastic come from? In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Freny Fernandes and Louis Lugas Wicaksono used data from a research paper by Lourens J.J. Meijer and team to highlight the top 10 countries emitting plastic pollutants in the waters surrounding them.

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The Biden Administration Is Helping Norfolk Southern Block Workers’ Lawsuits

Alooming Supreme Court decision could end up making it easier for the railroad giant whose train derailed in Ohio this month to block lawsuits, including from victims of the disaster.

In the case against Norfolk Southern, the Biden administration is siding with the railroad in its conflict with a cancer-stricken former railworker. A high court ruling for Norfolk Southern could create a national precedent limiting where workers and consumers can bring cases against corporations.

The lawsuit in question, filed initially in a Pennsylvania county court in 2017, deals with a state law that permits plaintiffs to file suit against any corporation registered to do business there, even if the actions that gave rise to the case occurred elsewhere.

In its fight against the lawsuit, Norfolk Southern is asking the Supreme Court to uphold the lower court ruling, overturn Pennsylvania’s law, and restrict where corporations can be sued, upending centuries of precedent.

Oral arguments in the case were held last fall, and a ruling is expected from the Supreme Court in the coming months.

If the court rules in favor of Norfolk Southern, it could overturn plaintiff-friendly laws on the books in states including Pennsylvania, New York, and Georgia that give workers and consumers more leeway to choose where they take corporations to court — an advantage national corporations already enjoy, as they often require customers and employees to agree to file litigation in specific locales whose laws make it harder to hold companies accountable.

Limiting lawsuits is exactly what the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the industry’s primary lobbying group, wants. The organization filed a brief on the side of Norfolk Southern in the case, arguing that a ruling in favor of the plaintiff would open up railroads to more litigation.

It is also apparently what the Biden administration wants — the Justice Department filed its own brief in favor of Norfolk Southern.

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