6 private links
...but i'm sure we'll keep trying to eradicate fat and disabled people.
Gas appliances create enough indoor pollution that it would violate existing regs if outdoors.
In April, as coronavirus cases multiplied across the country, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rejected scientists’ advice to tighten air pollution standards for particulate matter, or soot.
In the next few weeks, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler likely will reaffirm that decision with a final ruling, despite emerging evidence that links particulate pollution to COVID-19 deaths.
There was enough evidence to support a stricter standard before the pandemic, said Christopher Frey, an environmental engineering professor at North Carolina State University who studies air pollution. The added threat from the coronavirus is like “icing on the cake,” he said, and should compel Wheeler to adopt an even more stringent limit.
Particulate matter kills people. “It is responsible for more deaths and sickness than any other air pollutant in the world,” said Gretchen Goldman, a research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
There are “more than 3.2 million deserted oil and gas wells in the U.S. and one of an estimated 29 million globally, according to Reuters. There's no regulatory requirement to monitor methane emissions from inactive wells, and until recently, scientists didn't even consider wells in their estimates of greenhouse gas emissions. With the pandemic depressing demand for fossil fuels and renewable energy development booming, why should owners idle or plug their wells when they can simply walk away?“
Migration pattern modeling related to climate change.
I’m sure I’m going to be horrified by the whole study, but I felt I should bookmark it for future rants about (lack of) ethics in research, and the importance of scientists evaluating their life choices.
Well at least something good came out of this hurricane.
Fire fighters “are often on the front line doing dangerous work and making low pay, between $2 and $5 per day and $1 extra per hour when fighting a fire.”
Facebook has boldly face-planted right into one of the few remaining types of fuckups it hasn’t before: quietly abandoning a pile of drilling equipment under the ocean.
Instead of just eating less meat because it’s not necessary, it’s become acceptable to experiment on animals to make them less-bad for the environment before being turned into tasty hamburger.
Where would science be today, if it weren’t for bloodthirsty capitalists?
“Banning straws or making the inaccurate claim that using inhalers is worse than eating meat is a failure to acknowledge that a singular harmful activity is a very marginal component of the overall burden created by humanity. For instance, fishing gear is a far bigger contributor to ocean pollution than straws and petrochemical companies are some of the world’s biggest polluters. The cost of “doing the right thing” can be high when it involves hyperfocusing on relatively minor resource usage, sometimes in a literal sense, as ecofriendly products are often expensive and environmentally unfriendly options don’t always have viable alternatives. Injection supplies, for example, can be perceived as wasteful, but some diabetics need needles to survive and it’s nearly impossible to sterilize needles for reuse. And yet, people continue to buy into the idea that the personal overrides the institutional when it comes to environmental action, despite evidence that there’s little we can do on our own, unless we have the resources and the power of Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, and others of their ilk.”
This happened with CFC inhalers too.