Forum Post: Interesting and perhaps a bit Insane? But should we actually increase some pollution?
Posted 9 years ago on Aug. 13, 2014, 4:15 p.m. EST by DKAtoday
(33802)
from Coon Rapids, MN
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Odd concept - but there it is - Should we increase a form of pollution to benefit from it? Seriously this is such an odd thought - but - could it work? - could it help to clean-up our Oceans? - how about other polluted water? - Like say fresh water.
Such a bizarre(?) concept:
Tue Aug 12, 2014 at 12:36 PM PDT A Modest Proposal: Oceanic Trash Mining
by ReiFollow
Conversely - we can not stop some pollution fast enough.
Are you one of the 25 million Americans living in the blast zone of explosive oil trains?1
You've probably heard about many of the recent fiery oil train accidents, but most people have no idea that huge shipments of volatile crude oil are rolling through their communities -- near their homes, their schools and the places they work -- with increasing frequency.
After a record-breaking year of oil train derailments, spills and explosions, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has called these dangerous oil trains an "imminent hazard" to the public.2 That's why they've proposed new standards to make these shipments safer.
But oil and rail companies don't want to pay more to make oil trains safer. Take a moment to make sure the DOT is listening to the people, not Big Oil, by urging them to protect your community from explosive oil trains!
Experts have known about these safety hazards for years. Recently, former head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Deborah Hersman warned "We are very clear that this issue needs to be acted on very quickly. There is a very high risk here that hasn't been addressed. ... They aren't moving fast enough. We don't need a higher body count before they move forward."3
It took more than a year since the tragic Lac-Mégantic disaster that killed 47 for the Department of Transportation to propose these new protections. Yet some of the most important measures -- like getting the notoriously unsafe DOT-111 tankers off the rails -- won't even go into effect until 2020! We can't wait that long to protect our communities from exploding oil trains -- not when the number of accidents is soaring around the country.
Take action now to urge the Department of Transportation to do more to improve oil train safety NOW -- not six years from now.
The danger is only going to grow as Big Oil tries to pack more and more volatile crude oil onto our railways. The only way to limit the reckless expansion of oil trains and to improve rail safety is to use people power to demand change.
Thank you for protecting our communities,
Kate Colarulli Sierra Club Beyond Oil Associate Campaign Director
P.S. After you take action, be sure to forward this alert to your friends and colleagues! You can also help spread the word on your social networks with the links below:
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[1] Spencer Chumbley, Do You Live In A "Bomb Train" Blast Zone?, Vice News, July 28, 2014
[2] Jad Mouawad, U.S. Issues Safety Alert for Oil Trains, The New York Times, May 7, 2014
[3] Joan Lowy, Transportation Safety Head Calls For End To 'Tombstone Mentality', Huffington Post, April 23, 2014