I’d like to start with a video with some strong language that conveys the Soviet-like feeling of desperation. I feels like a film. It looks like a film. I suppose that’s what the original Chernobyl probably felt like. And yeah, the media has since gotten very generous and started talking about East Palestine—in an manner that is embarrassing. Shame on them. I even created a special “hall of shame” section in this story for mainstream media.
Poison culture
There is one thing that I don’t like being sarcastic about, and it is the poisoning of nature and our bodies. It find the act of poisoning extremely disheartening. Yes, I find it both absurd and sad that in this day and age, we are practically swimming in a sea of various poisons.
We are like bouncy marching sponges picking up and sucking up bits—and buckets—of poison. We pick it up from air, from water, from food, from everyday household products, from falsely advertised medical concoctions, and—resilient us—we still keep marching—until we drop, and other bouncy sponges with pasted smiley faces replace us and keep the march alive.
Like, what geniuses have decided that those experiment were okay to perform? Or that it was fine to blow up nuclear heads in space)?
And—big surprise—as the self-perched “owners” of our society up the ante and insist with force and confidence on adding more poisons to our lives—we the sponges get paler, sicker, crazier, more shallow, less tolerant, and overall just less joyous and more zombified.
And then … then we get used to it. And suddenly, the mask and the electrically overstrung “neurodivergent” personality become the norm, and the formally mostly effortless normal human health becomes an anomaly—and…
The tragedy in East Palestine, OH:
A lot of people have written about it. What I am going to do here is share a few takes, and then, in the next section, go straight to the solutions I have encountered—because in the end, it is about surviving this mess and avoiding getting poisoned as much as we can.
Please note Robyn’s point on Ohio being the state where a lot of water gets bottled. Now might be a very good time to get a good water filter!
UPDATE:
SOLUTIONS
If you are looking to decontaminate soil and water, Nikki Florio, the brave founder of Bee Heroic, whom I interviewed a few months ago about geoengineering, recommends this company, Biochar Now.
Nikki says:
If your soils/water become contaminated, there is a company I work with called Biochar Now who has a fully ecofriendly , non greenwash biochar that binds toxins and metals with a halflife of 17,000 years. It can be used directly on soils , at about 2%/acre, or put in socks and floated in ponds/rivers/streams.
They are USDA/EPA/OMRI certified, patented, and proven. I have applied their products and seen huge differences in native and nonative plants. It even takes up aluminum and other geoengineering nanomaterials.
Celia Farber posted an article on how to make a cheap water filter if you can’t afford a fancy one:
UPDATE:
From a reader: “One must get the assay of the clay used, many contain heavy metals.”
From me, unrelated to water filtering: Food grade bentonite clay is considered very good for detoxing in general, buying a reliable brand is of course important because you don’t want to take in additional poisons.
From a reader on bentonite clay: https://enviromedica.com/blogs/news/bentonite-clay-and-environmental-toxins
Also from Mike Adams: https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-02-20-dioxins-galore-how-to-block-toxic-chemical-exposure-fallout-food-water-air.html
As for detoxing, here is an opinion that I am sharing with a disclaimer that I have not spent enough time researching the ability of Chaga mushrooms to detox vinyl chloride.
HALL OF SHAME: MAINSTREAM MEDIA COVERAGE
To Jeff’s point: “Dirty rain” not related to Ohio train disaster, Maine officials say (WGAN Radio):
Maine environmental officials say reports of “dirty rain” in the state on Friday were not related to the Ohio train disaster.
Some Mainers snapped photos of dirty windshields and windows, but experts say the storm actually picked up dust from dust storms in Oklahoma earlier in the week.
Maine DEP Division Director Andrew Johnson says testing shows vinyl chlorine released from the train derailment and fire in East Palestine, Ohio is not present in the atmosphere above Maine.
Environmental officials don’t expect the state to be impacted by the chemicals released from the fire, and that if that were the case, it likely would have happened already.
But there is no one like the New York Times.
Pravda: “Chernobyl’s fine”
The New York Times: “Hold my beer”
For many commentators from across the political spectrum, the speculation has gone far beyond known facts. Right-wing commentators have been particularly critical, using the crisis to sow distrust about government agencies and suggest that the damage could be irreparable.
On social media like Twitter and Telegram, commentators have called the situation the “largest environmental disaster in history” or simply “Chernobyl 2.0,” invoking the 1986 nuclear disaster. They warned, without evidence, that vital water reservoirs serving states downriver could be badly contaminated. And they suggested that the authorities, railroad companies and mainstream news media were purposefully obscuring the full toll of the crisis.
The Environmental Protection Agency and state officials have acknowledged that the situation in East Palestine, Ohio, is disastrous in many ways. After the train derailed on Feb. 3, a fire broke out and about 50 of the 150 cars were derailed or damaged. Fearing an explosion, officials ordered nearby residents to evacuate before conducting a controlled burn, which released a toxic plume of smoke for several hours that was visible for miles.
Since then, the E.P.A. has said air quality has returned to safe levels. {I believe that!!! Yes, I believe that!!!] Residents have been allowed to return. A chemical odor lingers because people can smell the contaminants even when they are far below hazardous concentrations, according to the agency. Water testing found “no indication of risk” to public water systems so far, the E.P.A. said, though private wells should be tested. Utilities drawing from the Ohio River were taking precautions, and at least one company said it had not detected any changes in the water.
At a town-hall meeting on Wednesday, frustrated residents pressed officials for assurances that the air and water were safe. Experts urged caution as they assessed the long-term consequences, warning that airborne contaminants can settle on surfaces, seep into wells and migrate through cracks into basements and homes.
CNN:
Journalist arrest
KTSP:
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — A reporter was pushed to the ground, handcuffed and arrested for trespassing while covering a news conference about the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in Ohio.
NewsNation posted video of correspondent Evan Lambert being arrested Wednesday in the gymnasium of an elementary school in East Palestine where Gov. Mike DeWine was giving an update about the accident.
Lambert was held for about five hours before being released from jail, NewsNation reported.
PS.
Actual Chernobyl:
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Thanks Tess. I'm with you on the ' I don't like being sarcastic about nature being poisoned '
I worked for parks and environment as a contractor for revegetation and weed control back in the early 1990s. When I worked out that there was nothing we could do to stop the capitalists poisoning EVERYTHING ( with the blind consumers not giving a shit) I gave up hope
In the world being able to survive such an unenlightened creature that is man. What animal poisons itself and the world for a lollypop. I want. Gimme now. Me big boy.
I spent the last 30 years drinking myself to near death. Got sober now with hope after people finally waked up- only took genocides in plain site for the dummies. This is a cleansing of stupidity. Idiot people did this to themselves with their spending choices, and choice to pick the low hanging fruit. Sorry.. got a bit emotional cos nature is all and everything. Dumb science, dumb tech. Dumb humans.
I see the NYT is still pushing the idea that distrust of government is (1) a Very Bad Thing, and (2) is strictly associated with those evil deplorable MAGA-hat-wearing right-wingers. I'm old enough to remember when lefties put "QUESTION AUTHORITY" bumper stickers on their VW vans, but now these same people are totally fine with the authoritarians. (I used to think of myself of as leftie, too, but now I seem to be politically homeless.)