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> honest to god the damage control media outlets are attempting in the midst of what by every definition is just under a massive environmental disaster is just

> honest to god the damage control media outlets are attempting in the midst of what by every definition is just under a massive environmental disaster is just ridiculous. If this happened in China it would be front page news. Is it damage control or just some strange calculation that it isn't a story that will attract page views? Both rationales are concerning, but they suggest different pathologies in our media ecosystem.

shadowgovt 4y ago
It's honestly that there's not much story because it looks worse than it is. Chemicals are counter-intuitive. People don't have a good match for looks-scary to is-scary. I watch the Checmical Safety Board incident report videos from time-to-time. The most common killer in chemical plants? Carbon monoxide: odorless, colorless, tasteless, and simply displaces oxygen. You climb into an enclosed space, have just enough time to realize something's wrong (maybe) before you pass out, and never wake up. The methyl isocyanate that killed in Bhopal rolled along the ground creating a silent blanket of death. A giant black plume climbing into the cloud layer is scary looking but in no way correlated, one way or another, with the actual risk to public safety. Made for great 6 o'clock news footage, but the followup story really is just "Clean the soot off your house and maybe check your basement for any chemical that rolled away before it burned."
- qikInNdOutReply 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - shadowgovt 4y ago
    You say that like I don't live in sight of the plume, friend. I've been volunteered. ;) I have more concern living in this part of the country about the lead in my pipes than the contents of that cloud.
  - LarryMullins 4y ago
    Exactly this. Nobody claiming this shit is safe will put their lives where their mouths are. Nobody in this thread moaning about people not trusting the experts will consider moving their families into this town to show the rest of us how trustworthy they really think the government is.
    - shadowgovt 4y ago
      Does me not moving out of town count? ;)

shadowgovt 4y ago

It's honestly that there's not much story because it looks worse than it is. Chemicals are counter-intuitive. People don't have a good match for looks-scary to is-scary. I watch the Checmical Safety Board incident report videos from time-to-time. The most common killer in chemical plants? Carbon monoxide: odorless, colorless, tasteless, and simply displaces oxygen. You climb into an enclosed space, have just enough time to realize something's wrong (maybe) before you pass out, and never wake up. The methyl isocyanate that killed in Bhopal rolled along the ground creating a silent blanket of death. A giant black plume climbing into the cloud layer is scary looking but in no way correlated, one way or another, with the actual risk to public safety. Made for great 6 o'clock news footage, but the followup story really is just "Clean the soot off your house and maybe check your basement for any chemical that rolled away before it burned."

qikInNdOutReply 4y ago
[flagged]
- shadowgovt 4y ago
  You say that like I don't live in sight of the plume, friend. I've been volunteered. ;) I have more concern living in this part of the country about the lead in my pipes than the contents of that cloud.
- LarryMullins 4y ago
  Exactly this. Nobody claiming this shit is safe will put their lives where their mouths are. Nobody in this thread moaning about people not trusting the experts will consider moving their families into this town to show the rest of us how trustworthy they really think the government is.
  - shadowgovt 4y ago
    Does me not moving out of town count? ;)