The recent enthusiasm for plastic porn – footage of the disgusting waste pouring into the sea – is a rare reminder that we are still living in a material world. But it has had no meaningful effect on government policy. When China banned imports of plastic waste a year ago, you might have hoped that the UK government would invest heavily in waste reduction and domestic recycling. Instead, it has sought new outlets for our filth. Among the lucky recipients are Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, none of which have adequate disposal systems – as I write, our plastic is doubtless flooding into their seas. There’s a term for this practice: waste colonialism.
Our plastic exports are bad enough. But something even worse is happening that we don’t see at all. Every month, thousands of tonnes of used tyres leave our ports on a passage to India. There they are baked in pyrolysis plants, to make a dirty industrial fuel. While some of these plants meet Indian regulations, hundreds – perhaps thousands – are pouring toxins into the air, as officials look the other way. When tyre pyrolysis is done badly, it can produce a hideous mix: heavy metals, benzene, dioxins, furans and other persistent organic chemicals, some of which are highly carcinogenic. Videos of tyre pyrolysis in India show black smoke leaking from the baking chamber, and workers in T-shirts, without masks or other protective equipment, cleaning tarry residues out of the pipes and flasks. I can only imagine what their life expectancy might be.
India suffers one of the world’s worst pollution crises, which causes massive rates of disease and early death. There is no data on the contribution made by tyre pyrolysis plants, but it is doubtless significant. Nor do we know whether British tyres are being burned in plants that are illegal, as our government has failed to investigate this. It seems prepared to break its own rules on behalf of the companies exporting our waste. And this is before Brexit.
so as usual, fuck britain
pay attention to the fact that western governments export their waste to countries in the global south (india, malaysia, thailand, vietnam, and african countries as well).this is proof of neo-imperialism causing global environmental destruction as well as white supremacy operating on a worldwide scale (the lives of brown and black people from the global south are seen as worthwhile sacrifices for the lives and health of people living in white-majority, post-industrial western nations). next time a racist white person blames india and china for climate change, explain the reality to them.
Polar Vortex spills Arctic weather into North America
What
in the world is a polar
vortex? On Earth, it’s a large area of low pressure and extremely cold
air that usually swirls over the Arctic, with strong counter-clockwise winds
that trap the cold around the Pole. But disturbances in the jet stream and the
intrusion of warmer mid-latitude air masses can disturb this polar vortex and
make it unstable, sending Arctic air south into middle latitudes.
That
has been the case in late January 2019 as frigid weather moves across the
Midwest and Northern Plains of the United States, as well as interior Canada. Forecasters
are predicting that air temperatures in parts of the continental United States
will drop to their lowest levels since at least 1994, with the potential to
break all-time record lows for January 30 and 31. With clear skies, steady
winds, and snow cover on the ground, as many as 90 million Americans could
experience temperatures at or below 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18° Celsius),
according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
The Goddard
Earth Observing System Model above shows this air temperature
movement at 2 meters (around 6.5 feet above the ground) from January 23-29. You
can see some portions of the Arctic are close to the freezing
point—significantly warmer than usual for the dark of mid-winter—while masses
of cooler air plunge toward the interior of North America.
Science Behind the Polar
Vortex / Credit: NOAA
Meteorologists predicted that steady northwest winds (10 to 20 miles per hour)
were likely to add to the misery, causing dangerous wind chills below -40°F
(-40°C) in portions of 12 states. A wind chill of -20°F can cause frostbite in
as little as 30 minutes, according to the weather service.
Not sure how cold
that is? Check out the low temperatures on January 30, 2019 in some of the
coldest places on Earth—and
a planetary neighbor:
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