From Sacrifice Zone to Death Zone

Long before last month's train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that area qualified as a sacrifice zone, but the environmental toxins unleashed by the train crash and subsequent burning of leaking chemicals has transformed it into a death zone.

Sacrifice zones are areas that face environmental and/or economic hardships because of exploitative industrial activity, pollution, and disinvestment. These areas typically face abandonment by political leaders as well. In such zones, death flourishes as physical and mental health and economic well-being deteriorate, and people find themselves cut off from resources that could help them.

Once supported by various manufacturing jobs, East Palestine's economic fortunes and population have declined for decades. These trends mirror those in other areas around the country and particularly in the Midwest, marking East Palestine as one of many sacrifice zones in the United States.

Yet the February train derailment put the town in another class entirely: East Palestine almost immediately became a death zone. Within weeks, more than 43,000 animals had died because of toxins from the crash. Now, a new report has revealed alarming levels of dioxin, a known carcinogen, in East Palestine's soil. Dioxin is a byproduct produced by the burning of vinyl chloride, one of the chemicals the derailed train was carrying. While cancer risk from dioxin is present at 3.7 parts per trillion (PPT), the soil tested after the East Palestine derailment showed 700 PPT. Amazingly, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will initiate a site cleanup only in response to results indicating dioxin levels of at least 1,000 PPT, which is 270 times the threshold the agency itself set for a cancer risk.

As it turns out, people with the power to help will abandon death zones just as readily as they abandon sacrifice zones.

A Black Cloud of Apathy

The black smoke rising high above East Palestine, Ohio, looked ominous enough, but the cloud hanging over what has happened there since a train derailed on February 3, spilling hazardous chemicals, has only grown darker as the lack of concern from the rail company and government officials becomes increasingly apparent.

When the chemicals were burned off shortly after the derailment, a towering cloud of black smoke formed over the area. Even from the safe distance of news reports, the scene looked horrific. Then, animals began dying and residents started reporting symptoms of illness. 

How anyone could watch what was unfolding without feeling the strongest concern and sense of urgency is difficult to comprehend. Yet neither the company (Norfolk Southern) nor the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seem very worried about the situation. Residents, who had been asked to leave prior to the burning of the chemicals, were soon told it was safe to return.

After people began complaining of illness, Norfolk Southern hired another company to conduct tests for contaminants. That test, which outside scientists found "flawed," reported "no contaminants." It would seem that the point of the test was to quiet the complaints rather than to find out what was happening. Meanwhile, the United States EPA has yet to conduct any of its own tests.

The apathetic responses to the harm caused by these chemicals have darkened the cloud into a gathering storm of fear and distrust among the residents of East Palestine. As the rest of the country watches aghast, it appears likely that storm will reach far beyond eastern Ohio.

A Deep Dive

Diving into Mark Ruffalo's Dark Waters left me gasping for breath at times, but ultimately, I appreciated its depth and forceful current.

The movie, which covers the case of DuPont using and dumping toxic chemicals in the process of making Teflon, hits hard at both the chemical company and the audience. A strong emotional current runs through the story, and the fact that it's based on real events makes it even sadder. Seeing Ruffalo's character struggle for justice was difficult because of the awful things DuPont had done. Watch the trailer below:

Despite not being a "feel good" movie, Dark Waters deserves a viewing. The subject matter, while emotionally jarring, has great importance and vital information people should know. It is also a well-constructed, well-acted movie. 

Following a theatrical release in November 2019, the film is now available for home viewing, so check it out because these dark waters are deep and need to be explored.

Doubling Up to Double Down

My path in environmental communication
continues with projects for Carbon
Washington and The Nature Conservancy.

I enjoyed my experience working on the campaign for Initiative 1631 so much that when election season ended, I looked for some new environmental-advocacy opportunities. One would have been great, but I ended up doubling my pleasure with work for both The Nature Conservancy and Carbon Washington.

In November, Carbon Washington put out a call for help with their communication team. Because of their work promoting action on carbon pollution (they had led the charge on Initiative 732 in 2016), I felt like helping them would allow me to continue addressing an issue of particular importance for me. After discussing it with them, I agreed to write content for their communication.

Near the end of December, The Nature Conservancy in Washington state announced that it was looking for volunteers to write for its City Habitats blog. Considering its focus on connecting people in cities with nature, I saw the blog as a wonderful opportunity to help develop the relationship between humans and the environment. My first post should appear in the next few weeks.

To have these two opportunities come up after the I-1631 campaign provided a good outlet for the environmental communication I still have in me. As my work with them continues, I'll post updates on this blog, so stay tuned for more information.

Two chances to work on environmental communication is definitely twice as nice.

The Cost of Cheap Lies

Money can't buy honesty (no surprise there), but apparently, it can't afford very good lies either.

Having already designated more than $20 million of its money to oppose Initiative 1631, the fossil fuel industry began sending out misleading mailers last month. That the industry would attempt to use its wealth to fund a misinformation campaign against an initiative seeking to regulate carbon emissions shouldn't shock anyone. It's totally consistent with the past actions of these corporations. What does catch my attention is the cheap quality of the lies against the initiative.

In the past, the fossil fuel industry concocted elaborate stories to stoke uncertainty about global warming. These stories were lies, and the coal, oil, and gas companies' own scientists told them so at the time, but at least, the industry put in some work to fabricate them. As a result, the deceptions worked for a long time and continue to impact us today. We're still paying for their cost with pollution that threatens our health, the environment, and the future of all species on this planet.

The truth is that promoting alternative energy through I-1631
is better than anything the fossil fuel industry has to sell.

By comparison, the industry's lies against I-1631 have such little substance, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) hardly had to break a sweat in refuting them here. To illustrate the flimsy nature of these lies, let me spotlight a few examples from the piece by the UCS. First, the fossil fuel industry argues that the initiative exempts a coal plant near Centralia, Washington. Pointing to this exemption, they suggest the initiative won't work. Yet they neglect to mention that the plant will close in 2025 and that the agreement to shutter it requires any climate legislation in the state to exempt it until its closure. The industry also says that the initiative calls for a "carbon fee" instead of a "carbon tax" to mislead voters. The truth is that it must be called a fee to ensure the money raised from it goes to the correct projects. If it were called a tax, the money would go to the state's general fund and could be used for anything, not just for projects like promoting renewable energy and helping low-income people deal with the effects of global warming. 

Though weak, those half-truths and false assertions aren't even the lamest of the bunch. The opponents of the initiative say it has no oversight. In truth, I-1631 would institute a 15-person public board to oversee its implementation. The oversight and accountability are right there in the language of the initiative! Make sure to read the whole article from the UCS to see each lie from the fossil fuel industry refuted.

By the fossil fuel industry's own standards, and despite the millions of dollars behind them, the lies these corporations spread against I-1631 are extremely cheap; but if they work, they'll be very costly for our planet and our health. Don't buy them.

Red (Sky) Means Go on Carbon Regulation

Judging by the sun, I can tell it's time for the regulation of carbon emissions.

Smoke from wildfires turning the morning sun
an eerie red on August 22 in Washington state.

Once a rare sight, sunlight turned hazy red from wildfire smoke has become a consistent feature of Pacific Northwest summers in the last decade. This year, it colored much of August in Washington state, bringing with it hazardous air quality and oppressively low visibility. Suffocating and disorienting, the smoke and the hellish scene it created set off a flight mechanism in the back of my mind. It didn't feel safe, and I wanted to get out of it.

Besides suggesting a need to flee, the flashing red light of smoke-filtered sun carries another message for Washington residents in 2018: Go! And by that, I mean it's a sign to go forward on the regulation of carbon emissions by enacting Initiative 1631.

As I've blogged about before, I-1631 regulates carbon emissions by placing a fee on the big polluters responsible for the majority of those emissions, disincentivizing the use of fossil fuels. It also funds renewable energy and prepares Washington's communities for the effects of global warming, effects like increasingly difficult wildfire seasons and the smoke that accompanies them.

When we're filling out our ballots for this November's election, let's remember the red skies of August and go enact I-1631.

Powering to the Ballot

With the promise of decreasing pollution and making investments in Washington state's communities and clean energy, Initiative 1631 vaulted to the November 2018 ballot behind the energetic support of more than 375,000 signatures.

As this tweet from the Yes on 1631 campaign announces, on August 3, I-1631 received official certification for the ballot from Washington's secretary of state. Needing only 260,000 signatures to qualify, the broad coalition sponsoring the initiative sent a powerful message by collecting nearly one and a half times that in less than four months.

Just qualifying for the ballot carries a certain amount of momentum, but the large total of signatures that made I-1631's certification possible indicates a high level of energy behind this important initiative. It's the kind of strength that can fortify and propel the initiative as it moves toward the election this fall.

Clearly, Washingtonians want to address global warming, and I-1631 provides a practical and effective way of doing so. By putting a fee on carbon pollution from the fossil fuel industry, the initiative discourages carbon emissions, provides funds that help communities cope with the effects of global warming, and invests in renewable sources of energy. For more information, visit the campaign's Web site.

I-1631 seeks to change how we power our society, and it's using the power of people to make that happen.

Numbering the Days of Carbon

Wind turbines producing renewable
energy at Vantage, Washington.

The number to watch for this year in Washington state is I-1631.

As I blogged about in March, a coalition of environmental groups, including The Nature Conservancy, has submitted an initiative to regulate carbon emissions in the state. That initiative now has an official number: Initiative 1631.

I-1631 would regulate carbon emissions by imposing a pollution fee on industries that emit carbon dioxide. It represents an important first step toward limiting the emissions that cause global warming.

Volunteers have already fanned out across the state to gather the signatures needed to put I-1631 on the ballot in November. I signed at the Glacial Heritage Preserve on this year's Prairie Appreciation Day. So be on the lookout for signs of I-1631 and people collecting signatures for it, and please consider adding your signature to the list.

Let's make sure carbon's days are numbered.

It's in the Air

An unmistakable sense of change builds in the air of Washington state as its residents take on carbon emissions.

The snowpack vanishes from the
Tatoosh Range in the heat of 2015.

Ordinarily, a setback will blow a movement off course or, at least, stall it, but we aren't living in ordinary times. Almost as soon as Washington state legislators reported their failure to deliver a carbon-tax law last week, environmental groups, with the wind at their backs, announced a new initiative for a similar carbon tax. Already fully detailed and sponsored by a coalition that includes The Nature Conservancy, Climate Solutions, Washington Conservation Voters, and the Washington Environmental Council, the ballot initiative will now seek the signatures necessary to place it on the ballot in November.

The speed of the response to the legislative disappointment suggests the strength of Washingtonians' commitment to addressing global warming. Polling in this report from Sightline Institute supports this conclusion, showing that a supermajority of state residents back the regulation of carbon pollution.

Setbacks like this year's attempt to push for legislative action and the defeat of Initiative 732 in 2016 appear to have bolstered the resolve for carbon regulation and fine-tuned efforts to make it happen. This latest initiative balances the needs for clean energy, ecosystem protection, and aid for humans adjusting to changes related to climate and the economy. For more information about the initiative, click here.

In Washington state, something's in the air and in the people too, and it promises to change the current system that spews carbon into our atmosphere.

Pure Poetry

Poetry often describes the qualities of air, but a new poem improves air quality.

At the University of Sheffield, the humanities and the sciences combined forces to both say and do something about air pollution. One of the buildings on campus has a wall covered by a banner displaying In Praise of Air, a poem by Professor of Poetry Simon Armitage.

While the poem communicates the importance of air, it does something no other poem about this subject has done: It actually cleans the air. The banner the university printed the poem on has a special coating that removes nitrogen oxide from the air, reducing smog. To see the unfurling of the banner, watch the video below, and to learn more about the poem, click here:



In Praise of Air and its medium represent a great development in environmental messaging. As we attempt to address the challenging environmental issues facing us, we'll need to communicate and act at the same time. The work by the University of Sheffield provides an example for such multitasking.

Good poetry moves us; the best poetry moves us to act.

Our Best Act

To say the Endangered Species Act (ESA) brings out the best in people would be an understatement.

On this date forty years ago, the ESA was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. Along with signing the Clean Water Act of 1972 and proposing the Environmental Protection Agency, signing the ESA was probably the best thing Nixon ever did with his presidency and his life.

Truth be told, the environmental oversight achieved during the Nixon years is probably the finest hour the entire human society has had in terms of its relationship with the environment. By responding to serious pollution threats and rapid declines in many species, the environmental movement of the 1970s put in place key standards for how we should act toward the environment.

Both the spirit of the ESA and the act itself will be needed as we move forward to address issues like global warming and other threats to ecosystems and species. We'll have to be at our best once again.

Leave It

Contrary to modern custom, leaves don't fall in autumn to give people something to rake up.

I admire how the "waste" trees shed in the fall returns to nourish the ground. It took humans to come around for those leaves to be considered waste, and now, the nourishment leaves might provide often gets sacked up and thrown away.

This year, the National Wildlife Federation is encouraging people with trees to leave the fallen foliage. NWF provides a list of reasons why this practice is beneficial. Among other benefits, letting leaves lie provides habitat for animals, creates less waste, and, of course, keeps those nutrients in the area. The list also points out that clean-up equipment like leaf blowers pollutes (to say nothing of the awful noise it makes).

When it comes to leaves, their remains are best left to nature. However, if you absolutely have to rake them up, compost them instead of putting them in the trash.

More Than a Memory

Remember the 2010 British Petroleum (BP) oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico? How about the 2010-present BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico?

That second one may not ring any bells, but it's more realistic than the first. The ruptured well that poured tons of oil into the gulf was never an isolated blip in time, no matter how much BP and everyone else wanted it to be. It was precipitated not by a rig explosion but by our consumption of oil, and the spilled oil's disappearance didn't end the story. Marine animals and birds continue dying in unprecedented numbers.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Ocean Alliance have teamed up to remind people that the Gulf of Mexico disaster continues and to help show its larger implications. Check out a video of Operation Toxic Gulf below:



Sea Shepherd and Ocean Alliance intend to continue their work in the future and are looking for help. If you are interested, you can read more about the project here.

We can tuck our thoughts of human-caused environmental disasters into the back of our minds, but the consequences of those disasters will continue impacting us and our entire environment.

Frack-tured Morality

Sometimes, we see the physical consequences of our environmental decisions; sometimes, we don't. However, the hardest thing to see might be the moral consequences.

When it comes to fracking, which is a method of extracting energy sources from the ground, we only see a portion of the physical consequences: flammable water, sick people, and dead ecosystems. We don't see the tons of toxins fracking puts into the ground. Also hidden are the moral ramifications, but as Stephen Colbert points out in the following videos, our desire for cheap fuel makes us complicit in some very unethical actions:





Fracking eliminates entire ecosystems. It causes us to lose our health, and now, it robs us of our political voices. Putting all of this together makes for some heavy considerations each time we use energy.

Up, Up, and Away

It is easy to think of children when we think of balloons, but after reading the following piece of good news, we may only ever again think of one child.

Cameron Koporc, a Georgia nine-year-old who has already amassed quite an environmental résumé, has created a petition aimed at protecting endangered sea turtles by banning mass-balloon releases in her home state. To read the full news article click here. If you'd like to sign on to Cameron's campaign, go here.

The story was uplifting, and I was honestly blown away by how much this girl has already done. I have no doubt she'll accomplish her goal of becoming a marine biologist. She's also a great example of the impact individuals can have when they decide to make something happen.

I applaud and thank Cameron for helping make dreams of a better tomorrow, not the balloons of today, take flight.

Bee Minus

At least 50,000 bumblebees were killed in less than a week in a single Oregon parking lot. They died just because someone wanted to get rid of some aphids.

According to this article from The Xerces Society, which advocates for the conservation of invertebrates, an insecticide was applied to some non-native, flowering trees in a Target parking lot because the aphids were dripping a sticky substance. After the poison was applied (it is illegal to apply it when plants are in bloom), bees, not sticky aphid residue, began falling from the trees. And they just kept falling.

The Xerces Society is providing ways people can help, and it is also joining scientists in calling for bans on the cosmetic use of insecticides.

How ridiculous have we become? We indiscriminately throw around toxins to stop stickiness from trees that we introduce to habits. At every turn of this story (right up until it sped off the cliff), we see examples of humans' blindness to their impact on the environment. Such negligence gives us a failing grade in our responsibilities to the environment and should be treated as a criminal act.

It's a Gas

We have reached a point where water on fire isn't surprising.

In 2010, Gasland, a documentary about the environmental and health impacts of fracking, showed us how new methods of natural-gas extraction are poisoning water supplies. Despite those revelations, fracking has increased since then.

Now, Gasland Part II, which premiers on HBO July 8 at 9 p.m., tries to explain why the concerns about fracking have made little impact on lawmakers. Watch below to check out a clip of the filmmaker being interviewed on The Daily Show last night:



The main focus of the film is the influence the natural-gas lobby has on elected officials and how that influence trumps the environment and the voice of people whose health is put at risk by fracking.

In the first Gasland film, seeing people's water catch on fire was shocking, but the current political situation makes it more likely that flammable water will become the norm.

A Truly Smart Phone

My cell phone is eight years old. In other words, it's from a time before smartphones were all the rage.

I don't like to buy a lot of stuff, and despite all the cool gadgets on smartphones, I have thought the smartest thing to do was stick with my old phone. After all, I really didn't need what a smartphone could give me. In addition, smartphones seem to be another piece of technology that requires, either through software or hardware updates, constant replacement.

Admittedly, smartphones do provide some benefits and can actually eliminate the need for other devices, so if they could be made to last with easy fixing and updating, they might become truly smart options.

FairPhone is a new idea that is taking steps in the right direction. Watch the video below:

Fairphone: Buy a phone, start a movement from Fairphone on Vimeo.

I like that FairPhone is working to put consumers back in control of their stuff. The company is also addressing concerns about resource use, pollution, fair trade, and the entire life of a product. Importantly, the phones are made to be opened up and fixed. For instance, an owner can easily replace the battery when it dies. For more information, visit the company's Web site.

It would be great if the company applied its approach to other devices (like computers) as well.

Hopefully, FairPhone is successful. Maybe it'll be the option I turn to when it's finally time to replace my current phone.

Water, Water, Everywhere

It is true that we receive a lot of things, including our lives, from water. However, our relationship with it is even more complex and precious.

Our reliance on water is one of the most important ways our actions related to the environment come back to us. We are largely water, so whatever we put into our water eventually becomes part of us. For these reasons, I want to acknowledge that tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act.

After nearly a half of a century, even the most important legislation can be taken for granted, but water is so crucial to our lives, we can't afford to forget the value of the CWA. The act was passed just three years after the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught on fire because of the pollution it contained. Since that time, we have made improvements in our management of water pollution, but we have also created new threats, and many waterways continue to struggle.

Remembering our connection to water is a key step in maintaining high water-quality standards and pollution regulation.

Air Apparent

My sister and her husband have been revamping their house. This effort includes the installation of solar panels and the use of plants to improve the inside air quality.

She found the idea of employing plants as air cleaners in an article from the Mother Nature Network. The fifteen plants on the article's list help remove chemicals and other particles that impede breathing and make our homes less healthy. In addition, the article gives tips on how to care for the plants.

According to my sister, the difference made by the plants was noticeable almost immediately. Her allergies are not as bad, and it is easier for her to breathe.