DailyDirt: Pollution Put In Some Perspective
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
There are all kinds of environmental disasters going on — some quietly, while other stories will be in the headlines for the foreseeable future. Optimistically, all the predictions of environmental catastrophes will be avoided by technology, but it’s also technological developments that can bring about various ecological quandaries. When products are new and improved, they’re not always an improvement to the environment. If you live near the Great Lakes, check out some of these ecological threats in your neck of the woods.
- The Great Lakes are threatened by microbead plastics accumulating in fish and the environment. We’ve mentioned microbead bans in other states before, but it’s probably time to get rid of these tiny particles — and just stop using toothpaste, soaps and facial scrubs that contain them. [url]
- There are two oil pipelines running along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac (which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan), operated and “maintained” by Enbridge. The pipes have been around for over 50 years (the original designed lifespan), and recent simulations suggest that a pipeline leak would be devastating to the Great Lakes region. Oil spills have occurred nearby, but hopefully, the Great Lakes won’t become a disaster like Deepwater Horizon. [url]
- Onondaga Lake has been called the ‘most polluted lake’ in America, but after about 100 years and a billion bucks, it’s starting to get clean. For decades, this lake near Syracuse, New York, was polluted with mercury, sewage and chemical runoff — and it will be a while still before anyone should even attempt to swim in it. [url]
After you’ve finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.
Filed Under: environmental disasters, great lakes, microbead, oil spills, onondaga lake, plastics, pollution, straits of mackinac
Companies: enbridge
Comments on “DailyDirt: Pollution Put In Some Perspective”
” it’s probably time to get rid of these tiny particles”
Or we could just start using the fish for toothpaste, facial scrub and for soap. Problem solved!
Re: Re:
hahaha have my funny vote, dear sir!
Pollution, all around.
Sometimes up, sometimes down.
But always around.
Pollution,
Are you coming to my town?
Or am I coming to yours?
Ha!
We’re on different buses, pollution,
But we’re both using…
Petrol.
Bombs!
It’s getting clean? Damn! We can’t have that! We need to get some fracking in there ASAP!
I can only imagine what the streams and lakes will look like in SW Pennsylvania after the fracking craze drains the area, a scorched earth ,poisoned and devoid of life, say thanks to the EPA for NOT finding anything wrong with the chemicals used in the process.
Ultimately the only ones who care about the environment are humans… nature goes on irrespective.
Re: Re:
There IS a balance in nature – it’s called “death”. Animals will strip the landscape bare until there’s nothing to eat, then die of starvation. Herbivores as well as carnivores. Insects are particularly bad about stripping the ground bare. That’s why locusts have been a feared plague for millennia.
UV Degradable Plastics?
I wonder if changing microbead plastic would solve it. Of course it would also need to degrade harmlessly. Apologies for any fatfingered cellphone spam in earlier attempts.
As always, the Government will only take action when the problem is insanely big and expensive to solve. While we pay the price. I’m trying to avoid products with microbeads but it’s not that easy to know which ones have them.
We all will die one day, but at this rate we will die sooner… And the planet Earth will not give a fuck.