#ohio train derailment

[rednblacksalamander]

Bigger trains, fewer workers, less safety, more disasters. That's it. There's no conspiracy, it's just capitalism.

[mysharona1987]

Afroman - Will You Help Me Repair My Door (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

I am ashamed I did not hear about this classic until now.

[never-was-has-been]

Interesting article (long read) on the Rail system's safety measures re: transport of Highly Flammable contents vs. the train's braking system that went into use in 1868 and is still used today in Ohio…

[jessiarts]

Seeing the difference in coverage (news media vs social media) on the Feb 3rd train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, USA on and all the issues caused by the incident, I want to see something;

The incident summed up (and there may be even more I missed):

train carrying 150 cars, twenty of which contained hazardous materials, derailed due a failure of a wheel bearing, due to poor inspection because inspections were cut from 3 minutes per train to 90 secs per train. (Remember the railroad strike? Yeah. Part of what they wanted, in addition to better conditions, was more time to inspect trains and to get faulty parts fixed. They were refused, and now we're here.)

the derailment (of 50 cars) caused a fire which threatened to make a car(s) with the vinyl chloride explode, so a controlled release (burn) of the vinyl chloride (toxic, flammable gas) was done to prevent this

residents within a 1 mile radius were evacuated beforehand

the event resulted in contamination of the air/water and mass deaths of animals like fish and chickens

residents were told it's safe to return home a week after the evacuation, and found their pets dead; water smells wrong; air smells and/or burns their eyes

People miles away are having the same issues with animals dying (schools of dead fish in water, livestock sick/dying) and water contamination

The chemicals are contaminating the Ohio River Basin (which is more than just the Ohio River, and effects/includes KY, WV, TN, IN, OH, and parts of IL, PA, VA, and NC) and could potentially also lead to the whole Mississippi River Watershed being contaminated. (that's like, 40% of the continental United States and starts to touch into Canada.)

That all said,

Please reblog if you vote so we can get a larger sample size!

Many think the Railroad company (and the government, because they sided with the railroad company in ending the strike) are trying to cover this up in the news as much as possible, and that most coverage is coming from social media (specifically TikTok) and I want to see just how true that is.

I'm not not kidding when I say I have people IRL, who do keep up with the news, who never heard about the derailment at all until I told them just a couple days ago. It doesn't look good.

[revengeismygender]

I can’t stop thinking about the extremely misleading post that was circulating last week about the train derailment in Ohio and the amount of people who believed it whole cloth and went into a panic (understandably — the post was terrifying if you hadn’t heard about the crash previously). I’m not trying to shit on OP who has dealt with enough and apologized/admitted that the post was misleading or the people who got scared, I’m just disturbed by the amount of people (some of whom lived in Ohio!!) unaware of something that had been in the news for a week+ at that point.

And I want to be clear, I’m not blaming anyone for not having the spoons to engage in the 24-hour disaster news cycle where you’re bombarded with bad news every second of every day. I can’t do that either. But people, you have to stop getting your news from Twitter and tumblr. You just do. SO,

here are some low spoons ways to know wtf is going on.

*disclaimer* none of these sources are perfect or without bias and I’m not claiming they are. Every news organization is influenced by who owns it, the government it exists under, etc. also, this is a very US focused list bc I am in the US. Other people please feel free to add helpful resources from your country.

NPR’s Up First podcast: this podcast is literally like 10 mins long and just runs through essential US and international headlines.

NY Times The Daily: this one is a little longer (25-ish mins) and hones in on a theme, though it does touch on other news.

Vox’s Today Explained: this podcast runs through the highlights of what happened that day in about 20 mins.

CNN/Daily Beast Cheat Sheet: read through top headlines of the day covering a variety of topics. There are links to articles if you want to know more but you get a blurb about each regardless.

NY Times Morning Newsletter: this comes to your email and is free unlike other Times content. Though there are links to articles that are behind a paywall, all you really need to get started is the headlines and blurbs in the newsletter itself and you can always start googling from there if you feel the need.

USA Today Short List: similar to the NY Times morning newsletter but this one comes in the evening. No paywall, easily digestible headlines and highlight blurbs.

I’m not saying you need to have google alerts turned on for every single news source. I’m not saying you need to camp out in front of cable news for 8 hours a day like your grandpa, or even watch it twice a day like your dad. I’m not saying you can’t learn some piece of world news from a Destiel meme every now and then.

But engaging for 10-15 mins a day with the basics of what’s going on in the world is very helpful in that at the very least it stops you from panicking about a “media blackout about the worst disaster since Chernobyl” since you will have seen it in 5 news sources already and know that it couldn’t possibly be true.

[gallifreyriver]

[artemis-pendragon]

The authorities wouldn't even let this man go back to get his animals during the evacuation, and as a result some died or have serious medical issues. Fuck that shit!

If you want to learn more about the specifics of the horrifying and ongoing environmental disaster in Ohio, go to @ nickdrom on Insta and TikTok!! He's a citizen reporter who, until recently, has been the only person I've seen talking about this in depth. The chemicals are now getting into the Ohio River and previously healthy animals are crashing and dying even though the govt says the air quality is safe. PLEASE keep talking about this!!! The environmental impacts for people and animals have been extremely understated and the damage is nowhere near done.

[iliterallydecepticanteven]

As someone living in the area estimated to soon be affected by the Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, I wanna make one thing clear right now: the people affected by the chemical spill do not "deserve it."

I know there's this weird trend where when a disaster happens in Appalachia or the South, people say that those affected "deserve it" because the state voted majority red or they're backwoods hillbillies or some other insult. No, no we don't. A bunch of rich Republican fucks gerrymandered the hell out of our states so they could stay in office and then didn't help upkeep the infrastructure of the state leading to catastrophes like this. The train derailed because the braking system on the tracks was ancient and hadn't been updated due to politicians not providing funding for upkeep. And now a bunch of people have to live with the consequences while the same bastards who caused this accident can just up and leave and live somewhere safer.

This shit should infuriate you regardless of where you live in the US. Because at the end of the day, something very similar could happen to you.

[mindblowingscience]

Headaches and lingering chemical smells from a fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, have left residents worried about their air and water—and misinformation on social media hasn't helped.

State officials offered more details of the cleanup process and a timeline of the environmental disaster during a news conference on Feb. 14, 2023. Nearly a dozen cars carrying chemicals, including vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, derailed on the evening of Feb. 3, and fire from the site sent up acrid black smoke. Officials said they had tested over 400 nearby homes for contamination and were tracking a plume of spilled chemicals that had killed 3,500 fish in streams and reached the Ohio River.

However, the slow release of information after the derailment has left many questions unanswered about the risks and longer-term impact. We put five questions about the chemical releases to Andrew Whelton, an environmental engineer who investigates chemical risks during disasters.

Continue Reading

[kneedeepincynade]

Americans, your skies are burning, your water is poisoned and your animals are dead, and yet no nation has attacked you, you people will die of disease and poisoning and yet no attacker has bombed you, this is because the enemy is not in the east on in the west,but in your home

[z34l0t]

[foxsicle]

ngl but the chinese balloon bs making headlines everyday when ohio is undergoing an ecological crisis due to a toxic train's derailment (that workers were trying to strike to prevent) is just peak US political theater. it's incredibly infuriating

[millionmovieproject]

[jessica-marie-baumgartner]

[octoswan]

wow, america really did just poison 10% of its population/land (and part of Canada’s) for the next 100 years huh