#gas pollution

[mindblowingscience]

When the blue flame fires up on a gas stove, there's more than heat coming off the burner. Researchers at Stanford University found that among the pollutants emitted from stoves is benzene, which is linked to cancer. Levels of benzene can reach higher than those found in secondhand tobacco smoke and the benzene pollution can spread throughout a home, according to the research. The findings add to a growing body of scientific evidence showing that emissions within the home are more harmful than gas stove owners have been led to believe. And it comes as stoves have been dragged into the country's ongoing culture wars.

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#science #stem #health #pollution #gas stove #benzene #cancer

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Future

#gas masks #couple #b&w #gif #Black and White #image #post apocalyptic #post atomic bomb #post nuclear assault #pollution #dead earth #logging #wasteland #scorched earth

[olowan-waphiya]

https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2022/07/15/navajo-nation-citizen-science-pollution

Methane pollution is poorly tracked, so Diné activists are monitoring it themselves.

—

From behind her FLIR GF320 infrared camera, Kendra Pinto sees plumes of purple smoke otherwise invisible to the naked eye. They’re full of methane and volatile organic compounds, and they’re wafting out of an oil tank in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin.

Pinto, a member of the Diné (Navajo) community and field advocate with environmental group Earthworks, relies on this device in her fight to keep her community’s air clean. She lives in the Eastern Agency of the Navajo Nation, home to booming oil and gas production.

“When I walk outside, I can’t just think about fresh air. I’m thinking about the VOCs. I’m thinking about the methane that I’m breathing in, because I know what’s out there,” Pinto said. “I see it all the time.”

She’s one of countless citizen scientists across the country who are tracking and reporting environmental harms committed by the oil and gas industry to regulators. And here, there are many: The Environmental Defense Fund estimates that each year, New Mexico’s oil and gas companies emit more than 1.1 million metric tons of methane, a greenhouse gas around 86 times more potent in its warming potential than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Much of this comes from wasted natural gas—$271 million of it in this state alone, according to the EDF. It leaks out of faulty equipment and is intentionally expelled through the processes of venting and flaring, in which excess, unrefined natural gas is released or burned from oil wells and refineries to eliminate waste or reduce pressure buildups.

This is bad for the planet—high volumes of methane released into the atmosphere accelerate the pace of the climate crisis. It’s also bad for the people who live around it who are exposed to the pollutants that typically come along with methane emissions, like benzene, a carcinogen, and PM2.5 and PM10—particulate matter small enough to get lodged deep in the lungs. Pinto said her neighbors experience disproportionately high rates of headaches, nosebleeds, allergies, and respiratory issues, like sinus and throat discomfort.

“I think the scariest thing about methane is it’s odorless,” Pinto said. “It’s a silent killer. And if my neighbors are breathing it in, that’s worrisome.”

These emissions and the fossil fuel development that causes them have long been “insufficiently regulated,” said Jon Goldstein, senior director of regulatory and legislative affairs at EDF. In 2020, then-president Donald Trump rolled back Obama-era regulations on methane that effectively eliminated the requirement that oil and gas companies monitor and repair methane leaks in their infrastructure.

The Senate voted to reinstate them in April 2021, and last November, the Biden administration announced it would introduce even more comprehensive regulations in an interagency effort to crack down on emissions from the oil and gas sector. As part of the plan, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed its own rules, which include a requirement that states reduce methane emissions from thousands of sources nationwide, and a provision that encourages the use of new technology designed to find major leaks. A final methane rule is expected to be implemented later this year.

The Navajo Nation, too, is taking things into its own hands: The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency is currently considering adopting a permitting program to regulate methane from oil and gas development on its land.

Here, methane emissions from oil and gas companies are 65% higher than the national average, seeping out of pipelines, oil rigs, and the like. The San Juan Basin, some 150 miles northwest of Santa Fe, has received a failing grade from the American Lung Association for ozone pollution, or smog, the result of the combination between VOCs and radiation from sunlight.

Exposure to ozone has been tied to degraded respiratory health and asthma attacks, and it’s typically seen in cities, Goldstein said.

“The San Juan Basin isn’t home to large cities,” he said. In San Juan County, ozone is the result of the widespread build-out of oil and gas wells; approximately half of the county’s 50,000 residents who identify as Indigenous live within half a mile of those wells, according to EDF.

Catching emissions at the source will be crucial to changing this legacy. And where regulators can’t (or won’t) step in, residents like Pinto are. The federal government is now relying upon community monitoring, or work that citizens do to contribute to public understanding of the scope of air pollution near fossil fuel sites, a development that Eric Kills A Hundred, tribal energy program manager at EDF, believes will be “huge.”

The EPA’s methane proposal includes a plan to implement a program to “empower the public to detect and report large emission events for appropriate follow-up by owners and operators,” according to an agency news release.

During the comment period for the EPA’s proposed community monitoring program, members of the petroleum industry questioned whether the agency has the authority to establish it at all, primarily objecting to the idea that air quality monitoring be conducted by entities other than agencies and producers themselves, E&E News reported​​ in May.

But Pinto said groups like Earthworks have a track record of doing this work long before federal regulators began tapping them for their data collection.

“Documenting these types of emissions is important because no one else is really doing it,” she said. “Even the agencies that are regulating this type of thing. Because we’re in a rural area, what can they actually capture when they come out here? Are they going to more than 100 sites?”

Kills A Hundred said these efforts are not only about what the Navajo Nation can contribute to government data on methane pollution, they’re also about empowering the community to play a role in stopping it.

“Having been the stewards of the land for so long,” he said, “it’s just so important for these communities to be active and raise their voice.”

#indigenous #native american #climate crisis #methane #fossil fuels #greenhouse gas emissions #navajo #dine #diné #navajo nation #epa #environmental action #pollution #science

[shebpaw]

These tags made me laugh because I grew up in Atlanta, GA sorta-suburbia and when I learned Warrior cats kinda also takes place in a similar setting I went "yeah"

#sheb.txt #to be fair I'm sure it was written closer to the neighborhoods in the UK #but my “outdoors” experience was camping with my brother's cub scout troop and not even in the actual nature GA has to offer #I have a FUCKTON of family in Appalachia though (my grandfather has 11 siblings) #and I went there a few times and was FLOORED by how different West Virginia wilderness is to Georgia wilderness #I had woods in my backyard growing up and that was my reference for “forest” #but the forests in the appalachian mountains? Fucking Rock Bottom from Spongebob #ADVANCED darkness #anyway its crazy when you're 12 years old and away from light pollution for the first time #i forget what the reason for this post was #oh yeah its cool to meet other people who have different reference for where WC takes place #also the times ive met internet strangers from WV and it turned out we're distantly related is not 0 #if the name Jarrell is familiar to you at all uuuuh we might be cousins

[honorthysalad]

Interesting thing about the Big Dipper is it’s part of a larger constellation, Ursa Major, and the Little Dipper is Ursa Minor. The moles on the Yoshiki face are like the moles on his dad’s except his dad has more. Just kind of further visually connecting Yoshiki to his father with constellations.

#The myth of the Ursas is that woman had kid with Zeus and got turned into a bear. Her kid went bear hunting and didn’t realize it was her #So Zeus turned them both into constellations to stop him from killing her #Yoshiki tries to kill his dad when? #Would be iconic of him #Ig this is a loose connection because they specifically say big dipper #And it’d make more sense for Yoshiki to be the Little Dipper since he’s the jr but I just thought it was interesting #Yoshiki has a bit of a thing with stars. Curtain-like bangs for his face to hide the moles #Idk makes me think of how in big cities they have light pollution that covers up the night sky and stars #Just more of Yoshiki emulating the big city in an attempt to reject the countryside #The kenshiro thing is a reference to the fist of the north star #And the North Star is a part of Ursa Minor which really makes you wonder why they said Big Dipper here #Don’t they know I’m trying to pull symbolism out of my ass 🙄 work with me here #hikaru ga shinda natsu #the summer hikaru died #hgsn #Real post in the tags #My hgsn shit

[arcanewonder]

sector eight.

#the sims 4 #ts4 #nelle #eio #exodus #ts4 render #fixing the lighting in this thing took forever #exodus is basically cyberpunk but make it alien #also this section of the space station is so polluted you literally need a gas mask #to walk around outside

[reasonsforhope]

Non-paywall version here.

"Shortly after a federal appeals court ruling threatened to hamstring Berkeley’s ban on new natural gas hookups, New York state has passed a budget barring gas appliances in new buildings.

New York, which was America’s sixth-largest state consumer of natural gas in 2020, became the first state to enact such a ban when the state’s 2023-24 budget was passed [on May 2, 2023].

“Changing the ways we make and use energy to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels will help ensure a healthier environment for us and our children,” New York House Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat, said in a news release.

Los Angeles is among more than 70 California cities and counties that have banned or discouraged natural gas hookups in new buildings. The City Council voted in May to do so, citing climate change. However, no state had passed such a ban until now.

The requirements for electric construction will be phased in starting in 2025, and include some exemptions: “Hospitals, critical infrastructure and commercial food establishments” will be left out, according to Heastie’s statement, as will “buildings where the local grid is not capable of handling the load.” ...

The ban is part of an overall strategy “to reduce our state’s carbon emissions and move us away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources,” Assemblymember and Energy Committee Chair Didi Barrett said...

Gov. Kathy Hochul... released a statement touting the budget and its “$5.5 billion investment to promote energy affordability, reduce emissions, and invest in clean air and water, building on more than $30 billion committed to climate action. ”

The budget, according to Hochul’s website, includes “nation-leading building decarbonization proposals that will prohibit fossil fuel equipment and building systems in new construction, phase out the sale and installation of fossil fuel space and water heating equipment in existing buildings, and establish building benchmarking and energy grades.”"

-via Los Angeles Times, 5/3/23

#new york #kathy hochul #natural gas #methane #carbon emissions #air pollution #climate change #fossil fuels #renewable energy #gas stove #public utilities #good news #hope

[architectureofdoom]

At Fort McKay, Alberta, in the heart of Canada’s boreal forest, the pines and people were long ago cleared out to make way for huge open-pit mines dedicated to the excavation of oil sands.

#canada #oil and gas #pollution

[commiepinkofag]

[Greenhouse 100 Polluters Index, 2023 Report/Based on 2021 Data]

#6 US Military/Government

#politics #climate crisis #greenhouse gas #pollution #environment #environmentalism #ecosystem #ecocide #genocide #usa #united states #earth day #military #military industrial complex #2024

[elf-kid2]

I think that if a gas station closes, and they've turned off the Self-Service Pumps so that they just show a "STORE CLOSED" message instead of letting you buy gas at the pump... They should be required to turn off their Gas Station Sign, and lights, until they're open again.

I once stopped at three different Gas-stations that had their Self-Service Pumps shut down for the night, before I found one that would ACTUALLY LET ME BUY THE PRODUCT THEY WERE ADVERTIZING WITH A BIG, VISIBLE GLOW-IN-THE DARK SIGN!!!

.

So I think they should be required to turn out the lights on their signs, if they're not open for business.

(I actually think this should be true for all businesses, because light-pollution and wasting electricity, but the Pediatric Dentist, the Kroger, and the Pizza Place never caused me ACTIVE PROBLEMS by keeping their signs well-lit long after they'd closed for the night. Whereas the Gas Stations have caused me great aggrivation on multiple occasions.)

#gas station #light pollution #venting #petty common sense regulations

[gwydionmisha]

#Gasoline #Gas Stations #Pollution #Toxic Waste #News

[eaglesnick]

The greatest truth is honesty, and the greatest falsehood is dishonesty.” Abu Bakr

Rishi Sunak, whist defending his scrapping of environmental targets for net zero by 2050, stated he was extending the use of CO2 emitting petrol and diesel fuelled transport as it provided a “better future for our children”.

Rishi Sunak has also pushed back the timetable for scrapping of CO2 emitting gas boilers to “provide a better future for our children". 

And he has scrapped the policy that would have required private landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their rented properties to provide a " better future for our children.”

Personally, I have no idea how abandoning targets to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 provides a better future for our children, but, if we are to believe Rishi Sunak, it apparently does, as on BBC’s Today programme this morning that was one of the reasons he gave for the abandonment of his governments previous net zero policies.

Rishi Sunak also said he wanted a “better more honest debate” about these issues. Couldn’t agree more Mr Sunak. Lets look at that phrase “a better future for our children”.

In June 2023 Action for Children reported there were 4,200,000 children living in poverty in the UK.

Four years earlier (2019) a report stated:

“It is truly shocking that in 21st century Britain rising numbers of children are growing up in poverty. This is having a deep and profound effect on children’s lives... Children growing up in poverty in the early years are doubly impacted; they are much more likely to struggle with their early learning and, as a result, they are at much greater risk of struggling in primary and secondary school."  (Save the Children: 27/03/2019)

Where was Sunak’s concern for “a better future for our children" then? He was at the Treasury from 2019 and since then child poverty has continued to rise.

Just before Christmas 2021, when Sunak was Chancellor, this was the headline of the Independent:

“200,000 children ‘threatened with eviction this winter’ says Shelter.” (Independent: 22.12.21)

Sunak did nothing.

And on September 20, 2023 we were told this by itvx:

“According to figures from the Shelter charity: In England one family is served with a no-fault eviction notice every eight minutes.”

This means over that 100 Families PER DAY are being evicted from their homes in the UK.

Sunak is doing nothing to prevent this. In fact, he has abandoned the proposed legislation aimed at ending “no fault evictions". So when Sunak tells us he is abandoning the UK’s net zero policies to provide a better future children”, don’t believe a word of it.

The only future Sunak cares about is his own!

#uk politics #better future #children #green policies #environment #lies #deceipt #rishi sunak #oil #gas #pollution #money

[nando161mando]

"A video I made with my good friend professor Steve Hydrocarbon, about our misunderstood friends in the petrochemical industry."

#petrochemical #industry #gold #oil #drugs #gas #climate change #climate crisis #climate action #climate emergency #climate and environment #pollution #pollutants #polluted water #exxonmobil #ausgov #politas #auspol #tasgov #taspol #australia #fuck neoliberals #neoliberal capitalism #anthony albanese #albanese government #eat the rich #eat the fucking rich #global warming #ecology #econotego

[aurosoul]

You made NFTs during their peak didn't you?

lmaoooooo god no.

as I'm getting shoved more and more into the tech space I keep getting people asking me to start making NFTs and I'm fighting them off with sticks at this point

#someone on twitter yesterday was like 'hey can you mint this? i'll pay gas fees' and i'm like WHAT does that MEAN #there's such a massive cognitive dissonance with people in tech being generally liberal and wanting a better world #but also being REALLY into crypto #and i have a client right now who i'm designing a virtual dress for #and she had me add a bunch of crypto-themed accessories to it #i will never willingly make an nft #so just know that if you ever see a bitcoin appear in my art it is NOT by my own choice fhsjkhgsj #i'm living in a bizarro world rn being someone who hates crypto while also being surrounded by it #i don't know how cryptocurrencies will ultimately shake out #at the very least i hope they all stop being massive pollution generation machines #'green' cryptos exist but i don't care. it's all still too fucked

[jensorensen]

For a decent summary on the risks of gas stoves, this Scientific American article is worth checking out. One recent study estimated that some 12.7 percent of childhood asthma cases were attributable to emissions from gas stoves.

Help keep this work sustainable by joining the Sorensen Subscription Service! Also on Patreon.

#Environment #health #gas stoves #pollution #cartoon

[timmurleyart]

Happy earth day to the earth. 🌎🎂🍰

#earth #earth day #earth day 2024 #happy earth day #pop art #folk art #poster art #poster design #planets #plastic #plastic free #recycling #recycle #single use plastic #micro plastics #ocean plastic #climate #environmental #environment #environmentalism #enviroment art #oil and gas #fossil fuels #air pollution #water pollution #forever chemicals #pfo #chemicals #healthy living #healthy lifestyle