Articles include: wood pellet loophole in Paris Accord; bike licensing and justice; hydrogen and the grid; California oil spillers and the law; jobs; US and China and Clean technology; electric trucks; Canada’s melting permafrost; Report: halting methane emissions.
Tag: ecological disaster
Above the Fold – Week’s Best & Covid
Environmental Health News puts out weekend ‘summary’ emails, in addition to their daily emails.
EHN Week’s Best: April 16, 2021: forever chemicals on paper straws; Piney Point pollution; jails and environmental justice; DDT; PFAS; drought’s impact on farming water; rechargeable batteries – real cost; Mexico and coal; heavy metals in children’s food; Japan dumping Fukushima’s radioactive water into the ocean.
EHN Covid: April 16, 2021: facemask garbage; underserved communities & J&J vaccine halt; green spaces & housing justice; loosing women scientists; how to stop a pandemic.
DeSmogBlog, April 17, 2021
Articles include: Security Firm Accused of Working Illegally on O&G Pipelines; ‘Net-Zero’ PledgesDelay Climate Action new paper warns; Fossil Fuel Companies’ Tough Sell: Oil and Gas Sites With Costly Environmental Clean-up; Shell’s Science Museum Climate Exhibition; Irish Politicians And New Cheese Factory; Environmental Racism, Europe, and Coal Use; European Court & Climate-Related Human Rights Challenges; Methane Emissions Spiked in 2020; Climate Disinformation Database: Bjørn Lomborg.
In Mauritius, Locals United to Keep an Oil Spill at Bay
Undark: In Mauritius, Locals United to Keep an Oil Spill at Bay. To contain the oil threatening their environment and economy, hundreds of volunteers gathered to make DIY booms.
NIGHT HAD FALLEN on Mahebourg, a bustling trade town on the southeast coast of Mauritius, when what would come to be called the “people’s factory zone” met for the first time. It was an enterprise born of necessity: A crisis was unfolding only a few miles offshore, in the pristine waters from which many of Mahebourg’s residents earn their livelihoods. That first August night, just a handful of locals showed up to rally around what seemed like a dubious idea. To protect the coast from a devastating oil spill, they would make booms from whatever they could find: single-use plastic bottles, fibrous sugar cane waste, even human hair. Word of the DIY initiative spread. Within hours, hundreds of Mauritians came to the people’s factory zone to contribute whatever they could. For weeks on end, an expanding army of islanders worked round the clock, even cutting off their own hair to add to the growing lengths of handmade booms.
Florida Crisis Highlights a Nationwide Risk From Toxic Ponds
New York Times: Florida Crisis Highlights a Nationwide Risk From Toxic Ponds. Thousands of open-air waste pools near power plants, mines and industrial farms can pose safety dangers from poor management and, increasingly, the effects of climate change.
They are ponds the size of city blocks: Wastewater pits that hold the hazardous byproducts of coal. Lagoons brimming with diluted pig excrement. Vast pools atop stacks of radioactive tailings.
The risks posed by pools of waste like these, a common feature at thousands of industrial and agricultural sites across the country, have been brought into sharp relief by a giant wastewater pond in Piney Point, Fla., that in recent days had appeared in danger of catastrophic failure.
Officials on Monday said the threat of collapse had passed and residents were allowed to return home after an emergency effort had pumped millions of gallons of water out of the pond and into local waterways. The environmental effects of such a large release of contaminated water remained unknown. This past weekend, the specter of a deluge had prompted the authorities to evacuate hundreds of people from their homes.
Tampa Bay stares down environmental disaster
Axios: Tampa Bay stares down environmental disaster.
A worsening series of breaches in a 800-million-gallon holding pool at the Piney Point industrial site prompted Manatee County to evacuate residents within about a mile of the plant tonight.
- The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Highway Patrol closed off roads in the evacuation zone around U.S. 41 in Palmetto, per the Bradenton Herald, and the Red Cross has been called in to assist.
The latest: Acting Manatee County administrator Scott Hopes addressed reporters at a press conference around 9:20pm.
- Hopes said the water being discharged into Tampa Bay — at the rate of 22,000 gallons per minute, or 32 million gallons per day — is acidic and smells of ammonia, but said the pool supported wildlife like snook and ducks.
DeSmogBlog, April 4, 2021
Articles include: fossil fuel legacy & white supremacy; clean energy lowering costs impact; SW US fire threats caused by heat; Piney Point phosphate plant disaster; EPA dismisses trump appointees.
DeSmogBlog, March 12, 2020
Articles include: Plastic Pollution During Shipping; Flaring, Increased Health Risks, UCLA Study; Canceled Keystone XL Pipeline Driving Safety Changes in Canadian Oil-by-Rail; I’m a Climate Scientist — Here Are 3 Key Things I Have Learned Over a Year of COVID; Climate Disinformation Database: Energy In Depth.
How dangerous is the Fukushima nuke plant today?
ABC News: How dangerous is the Fukushima nuke plant today? The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant still looks like a bombed-out factory a decade after it was wrecked by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
A decade ago, a massive tsunami crashed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Three of its reactors melted down, leaving it looking like a bombed-out factory. Emergency workers risked their lives trying to keep one of history’s worst nuclear crises from spiraling out of control.
Proper equipment has now replaced ragged plastic hoses held together with tape and an outdoor power switchboard infested by rats, which caused blackouts. Radiation levels have declined, allowing workers and visitors to wear regular clothes and surgical masks in most areas.
But deep inside the plant, danger still lurks. Officials don’t know exactly how long the cleanup will take, whether it will be successful and what might become of the land where the plant sits.
One of The Nation’s Largest Pipelines Caused The Biggest Spill in Decades–And We’re Just Hearing About It
And the crisis of the Colonial pipeline points to one of the next big issues for American fossil fuel infrastructure: what to do about dangerous, aging pipelines as we move to clean energy.
In August, two teenagers riding ATVs around in a nature preserve outside of Huntersville, a suburb north of Charlotte, noticed gasoline gurgling out of the ground and told the town fire department. (Colonial’s owners told some state lawmakers a different story, initially claiming that they’d shut down the pipeline after noticing a pressure drop at another point in the line.) At first, the pipeline company reported that only 63,000 gallons of oil had been spilled, but throughout the fall, that number steadily crept up: 273,000 gallons in September, 311,000 gallons in November. The company now says nearly 1.2 million gallons have been leaked; that number could still rise as more assessments are done.