pollution

Study: ‘Blue Hydrogen’ In Bipartisan Plan More Polluting Than Coal

August 13, 2021 Jenna McGuire, Common Dreams. Educate! climate crisis, Energy, Hydrogen, pollution

While celebrated as a climate victory by the Biden administration, the large infrastructure bill passed in the U.S. Senate this week includes billions of dollars of funding toward "blue hydrogen," which new research published Thursday finds is more polluting than coal. The $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure package passed Tuesday includes $8 billion to develop "clean hydrogen" via the creation of four regional hubs. The White House claims that the bill is in step with President Joe Biden's climate goals and advocates of hydrogen energy champion it as a low-emissions alternative for various uses such as fuel shipping, trucking, aviation, and heating. But new research published in the journal Energy Science & Engineering finds that the carbon footprint to create blue hydrogen is more than 20% greater than using either natural gas or coal directly for heat, or about 60% greater than using diesel oil for heat.

Environmental Racism And Detroit

July 15, 2021 Emma Boyhtari, Left Voice. Resist! climate crisis, Detroit, pollution, Racism

Oftentimes, racism and environmentalism are thought of as separate issues. Since the Black Lives Matter uprising of last summer, however, there has been a growing awareness of the scope of racism and its existence in every facet of society. The legacy of racism, dating back to the enslavement of Black people in this country, is woven into the fabric of American society. It has existed in many forms on structural and personal levels, including racist real estate practices such as redlining and restrictive covenants, as well as discriminatory employment practices. Not to mention how Black folks are criminalized, brutalized, exploited, and killed by police and the prison industrial system. The list goes on, and it also includes being more vulnerable to environmental pollution.

Pennsylvania Town Battles To Shut Down Toxic Waste-To-Energy Plant

July 13, 2021 Melinda Tuhus, Between The Lines. Resist! Energy, Environment, Pennsylvania, pollution

So-called waste-to-energy plants are the waste management industry’s way of describing toxic incinerators that burn trash and leave extremely toxic ash containing dioxin, mercury, arsenic and more. The Covanta incinerator in Chester, Pennsylvania, is the largest one of its kind in the U.S. Chester is a low-income community near Philadelphia, with a population of 33,000 people, 72 percent of whom are African American.

The Truth About Plastics And Why We Need To Stop Production Now

July 12, 2021 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Gulf Coast, health, Plastics, pollution

More knowledge is being gained about and more attention is being given to the harm caused to our health and the planet by plastics, from the start of their production to their disposal as waste that doesn't ever go away. Clearing the FOG speaks with Yvette Arellano, the founder and director of Fenceline Watch, an environmental justice organization based in Houston, Texas. Yvette explains that the Gulf Coast is not only the home of the oil and gas industries, but also the plastic industries that use petroleum, and how they impact mostly Vietnamese and Spanish-speaking communities. They describe the global effects of plastics, how we can best stop them and the work to create alternatives. Once you know about the problems with plastics, you will understand that stopping their production is imperative for a livable future.

The Urgent Need For A Plastic-Free World

July 3, 2021 Maleesha Gunawardana, Ground Views. Organize! climate crisis, Environment, Plastics, pollution

Among all the chemicals and debris that fell into our waters, what drew the most attention was the billions of Linear Low-Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) and Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) pellets that coated the beaches. Being lightweight and buoyant, the pellets have inundated the western and southern coasts of Sri Lanka. In due course, a regional problem of nurdles is bound to happen as ocean currents and winds speeds will continue the disperse.

The Navy Is Misleading A Maryland Community On PFAS Dangers

June 10, 2021 Pat Elder, Military Poisons. Educate! health, Maryland, Military bases, PFAS, pollution

Maryland - The Patuxent River Naval Air Station says the PFAS foam it sent down the drain on May 16 to the wastewater treatment plant operated by the St. Mary’s County Metropolitan Commission (METCOM) is safe. It’s not true. The foams are toxic and have been released into the environment. Captain John Brabazon, Patuxent River NAS Commanding Officer said in a press statement, “We understand the public’s concern when it comes to issues like PFAS, which is why we have transitioned to the replacement AFFF like the Ansulite.” The Navy says the new Ansulite firefighting foam does not contain detectable levels of PFOS or PFOA. Few seem concerned by the 2,500 gallon release. St. Mary’s Commissioner Todd Morgan commented, “The base says the foam isn’t toxic.”

Red Alert: Only One Earth

June 6, 2021 The Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Biodiversity, climate crisis, Environment, pollution

Ecosystem degradation is accelerated by capitalism, which intensifies pollution and waste, deforestation, land-use change and exploitation, and carbon-driven energy systems. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report, Climate Change and Land (January 2020), notes that only 15% of known wetlands remain, most having been degraded beyond the possibility of recovery. In 2020, the UNEP documented that, from 2014 to 2017, coral reefs suffered from the longest severe bleaching event on record. Coral reefs are projected to decline dramatically as temperatures rise; if global warming rises to 1.5°C, only 10-30% of reefs will remain, and if global warming rises to 2°C, then less than 1% of reefs will remain.

We Hug The Trees Because The Trees Have No Voice

June 5, 2021 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Biodiversity, Climate Change, Environment, pollution

At the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, the delegates decided to hold an annual World Environment Day. In 1974, the UN urged the world to celebrate that day on 5 June with the slogan ‘Only One Earth’; this year, the theme is ‘Ecosystem Restoration’, emphasising how the capitalist system has eroded the earth’s capacity to sustain life. The Global Footprint Network reports that we do not live on one Earth, but on 1.6 Earths. We live on more than one Earth because, by encroaching and destroying biodiversity, degrading land, and polluting the air and water, we are cannibalising the planet. This newsletter contains a Red Alert from Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research on the environmental catastrophe that befalls us. Several key scientists have contributed to it. It can be read below and downloaded as a PDF print out here; we hope that you will circulate it widely.

New Report: Climate Harms To Health Are Widespread And Costly

May 21, 2021 Vijay Limaye, NRDC. Educate! Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Health Care, pollution

A new report NRDC published with partner groups today spotlights the enormous, often overlooked, and inequitable health and economic costs of climate change and air pollution from burning fossil fuels on the United States. This report, produced by the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, Wisconsin Health Professionals for Climate Action, and NRDC focuses on the frequently ignored but profound public health problems and costs linked to the climate crisis.

Our Biggest Jails Are Frontline Environmental Justice Communities

May 9, 2021 Adam Mahoney, Grist. Educate! Environmental Justice, health, pollution, Prisons

For more than half a century, 441 Bauchet Street has been the address where Los Angeles’ most stark social and environmental inequalities converge. It’s the location of L.A.’s Men’s Central Jail, the largest facility in the most populated county jail system in the country. On any given day, about 5,000 people are incarcerated there. A block south from the jail is the 101 freeway, one of the most traveled highways in America, which generates dangerous levels of air pollution linked to a slew of birth defects. A block east is the L.A. River, home to at least 20 different pollutants, from feces to oil, at levels that violate federal standards. Another 100 yards east is the SP Railyard and Union Pacific Transportation Center, which operate at all hours, receiving big rig diesel trucks that spew an estimated 40 tons of particulate matter into the air annually.

Diane Wilson In Hunger Strike To Protect Matagorda Bay

May 6, 2021 Stephanie Thomas, Public Citizen. Resist! Oil and Gas, Oil exports, pollution, Texas

Legendary environmenal activist Diane Wilson has been called “an unreasonable woman.” As a shrimper, Diane learned firsthand about tremendous pollution damaging the waters near her hometown of Port Lavaca and fought to defend the Bay from Formosa and Alcoa, major chemical companies. In 2019, Diane was plaintiff to a court case brought against Formosa on account of the shocking amount of plastic pollution – called nurdles – that Diane found littered around the Bay. That case resulted in a $50 million settlement against the company that is being used for environmental projects. Now, as of May 5th, Diane is on Day 29 of a hunger strike protesting the dredging of the Matagorda Ship Channel, a channel first dredged in the 1960s to provide a means for ships to travel between the Gulf of Mexico and the industry along Lavaca Bay.

US Army Corps Of Engineers Permit Big Oil To Dredge Mercury-Contaminated Matagorda Bay

April 30, 2021 Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. Resist! Fossil Fuels, Hunger Strike, pollution, Texas

Texas shrimper, fisherwoman and internationally known environmentalist Diane Wilson is on Day 22 of her hunger strike to gain national solidarity and publicity for pressure on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rescind its permit for big oil to dredge a channel in mercury laden Matagorda Bay, Texas. The dredged channel would allow massive oil tankers into the bay to take on crude oil that will be exported from the U.S. “I am risking my life to stop the reckless destruction of my community. Oil and gas export terminals like the project I am fighting pollute our air, water, and climate — only to pad the pockets of fossil fuel CEOs,” said Diane Wilson. “The Biden Administration needs to stop the dredging and stop oil and gas exports.”

72-Year-Old Fisher Hunger Strikes For Crude Oil Export Ban

April 24, 2021 Candice Bernd, Truthout. Resist! Hunger Strike, Oil Export, pollution, Texas

Texas - Seventy-two-year-old, fourth-generation retired shrimper Diane Wilson has been without food for 16 days. Her 1995 red Chevy, nicknamed “Rosie,” has become a mobile campsite, and each morning she posts up on a causeway at the waterfront of Texas’ Lavaca Bay, expending just enough energy to switch out a sign displaying the number of days she’s been on hunger strike and drape a banner off the side of the truck blaring the message: “STOP THE DREDGING. STOP OIL EXPORT.” She hopes her hunger strike will draw enough attention to pressure the Biden administration stop Houston-based oil and gas firm Max Midstream’s plans to invest $360 million to deepen and widen the Matagorda Ship Channel by 2023.

Despite Climate Commitments, Health Concerns, States Approve Fuel Tanks

April 21, 2021 Ingrid Lobet, Capital and Main. Educate! California, Environmental racism, Oil and Gas, pollution

Magali Sanchez-Hall, usually in motion, pauses for a moment on the sidewalk to gaze through a chain-link fence at the massive new construction project: tanks shaped like giant tuna fish cans that will store crude oil. The Los Angeles refinery has been her troublesome neighbor for a quarter of a century, but she finds this latest turn particularly perplexing. “Right now, we are supposed to be moving to clean energy,” she says. Sanchez-Hall, 50, raised her children here before getting a master’s degree in public policy. When Tesoro, now Marathon Petroleum Corp., first proposed the new tanks in 2016, she opposed them, citing sickening fumes from the ones already there.

We Sampled Tap Water Across The US

April 6, 2021 Ryan Felton, Lisa Gill and Lewis Kendall, Consumer Reports/The Guardian. Educate! health, pollution, United States, Water

In Connecticut, a condo had lead in its drinking water at levels more than double what the federal government deems acceptable. At a church in North Carolina, the water was contaminated with extremely high levels of potentially toxic PFAS chemicals (a group of compounds found in hundreds of household products). The water flowing into a Texas home had both – and concerning amounts of arsenic too. All three were among locations that had water tested as part of a nine-month investigation by Consumer Reports (CR) and the Guardian into the US’s drinking water. Since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, access to safe water for all Americans has been a US government goal.

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