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from the nothing-to-see-here-read-the-summary dept.
A toxic onslaught from the nation's petrochemical hub was largely overshadowed by the record-shattering deluge of Hurricane Harvey as residents and first responders struggled to save lives and property.
More than a half-year after floodwaters swamped America's fourth-largest city, the extent of this environmental assault is beginning to surface, while questions about the long-term consequences for human health remain unanswered.
[...] In all, reporters catalogued more than 100 Harvey-related toxic releases—on land, in water and in the air. Most were never publicized, and in the case of two of the biggest ones, the extent or potential toxicity of the releases was initially understated.
Hurricane Harvey's toxic impact deeper than public told
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 5, Insightful) by idiot_king on Saturday March 24 2018, @02:44PM (11 children)
Just goes to show that the disasters caused by capitalism can actually take a long time to notice.
Nobody seems to remember the Deepwater Horizon incident. How will that effect the Gulf for decades to come?
I'm starting to see hope with the fact that so many young people are starting to fight back against corrupt terrorist organizations like the NRA, hopefully these young people will get in and eventually fix things and force these companies to be responsible for ruining the environment. Exploiting the planet purely for profits is just a sign of the times we live in. Once the beast of capitalism is slain, we'll have a chance again.
(Score: 2, Troll) by DannyB on Saturday March 24 2018, @03:20PM (4 children)
This and other news just shows us that we need to fix the environment.
Someone should do something. Like sign an executive order banning all hurricanes. Trump should speak to the president of Puerto Rico.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @03:30PM (2 children)
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @04:14PM (1 child)
Yep, he needs to make sure the President of Hawaii is cool with it too. Such things require international effort and cooperation.
(Score: 1) by Farmer Tim on Saturday March 24 2018, @05:40PM
Came for the news, stayed for the soap opera.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday March 25 2018, @04:17AM
I went to Puerto Rico and I met with Governor Ricky, they call him the Governor. Great guy, very easy to deal with, unlike the VERY UNGRATEFUL Mayor of San Juan! And Puerto Rico has done amazingly well. We've done a great job. Tremendous hurricane! Big, big mess. They needed A LOT of paper towels to clean that one up. But only 64 people died. It's official, only 64. And that's unbelievable.
And I went to Texas. Let me tell you, Texas can handle anything! And I met Governor Abbott, he thanked me for the tremendous help I gave them with Hurricane Harvey.
And I met the President of the Virgin Islands. After Hurricane Irma & Hurricane Maria they should change the name. Both Category 5. People don't know this, a Category 5 hurricane is very strong. Very strong. And they had two of those in the same month. Very strong hurricanes, but the people are stronger. They'll handle this.
I think a big part of handling it is going to be the cyber cash. Bitcoin and many others. So many of our Bitcoin guys are coming to Puerto Rico. Because the tax situation there is tremendous for them. Beverly Hills -- I visited Beverly Hills this month -- it's very crowded there. Very hard to put in an airport when you live in Beverly Hills and the traffic is HORRIBLE. They closed off the streets for me, it was still horrible. In Puerto Rico you can have an airport of your own. There's no capital gains. No federal income tax. Great tax rate for our companies, very low. And maybe the Virgin Islands and Texas can do that too.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Saturday March 24 2018, @05:39PM (1 child)
I'm not sure, but I think crude oil itself is just a lot less chemically reactive and carcinogenic than some of its derivatives used in plastic, textile etc. industries.
What does crude oil contain for shit? Benzene, toluene, anthracene? OK toluene is bad and benzene is very bad.
But now compare with styrene monomer [wikipedia.org] (precursor to polystyrene; toxic and flammable), and the very stable petrochemical waste products PCB's, dioxins.
I remember learning in Analytical Chemistry class that dioxin [wikipedia.org] was a special challenge to measuring techniques, because it was already carcinogenic at the parts per billion level, so it was very difficult to determine the signal of poisonous amounts of dioxin above the background noise of other compounds.
The Wiki page says that the WHO recommends that a person weighing 80 kg will probably not have any bad effects, from a dioxin exposure per month of 0.0000000056 grams.
That's not much. Are they going to take blood samples of every inhabitant of the industrial region of Houston TX, to determine if they should sue the petrochemical industry and their government?
Dioxin poisoning looks like this: Viktor Yushchenko [wikipedia.org]. You won't die from it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @09:19PM
Not really. It's just that crude oil seepage in some places is natural, so it doesn't get the bad press that a human release of 'chemicals' does.
(Score: 1, Troll) by linkdude64 on Saturday March 24 2018, @07:31PM (1 child)
Yes, you're right. With communism, they never surface. Much better choice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 25 2018, @01:18AM
You should probably make a new account, 8 bit seems more accurate.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 25 2018, @04:12PM
As well as an indication of just how weak those disasters are, if it's so hard to see them.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday March 26 2018, @04:28PM
How would this be related to Capitalism? So, if we were a Socialist State and those companies had been run by the government it would have been better? A Socialist state would make better choices relating to the environment? Hello China, Hello Russia.
We can do better with regards to protecting our Environment. Stopping the world's economy which is run on the backbone of giant ships that use a bunch of fossil fuels (And cars don't forget the cars!) won't solve anything. Moving towards clean energy is great. We're not there yet and it's dumb to expect companies that rely on and supply the fossil fuels to wholeheartedly embrace new technology.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"