by Nomad
Last year's West, Texas explosion and this week's West Virginia chemical leak could just be a wake up call to the nation. De-regulation and budget cutting may make us more competitive but at what cost?
A single environmental disaster could affect the lives of millions of people, cost the state billions and make entire areas uninhabitable. And that could make the discussion of de-regulation and budget-cuts completely null and void.
Not long ago I read the book Five
Past Midnight in Bhopal: The Epic Story of the World's Deadliest Industrial
Disaster. It's the kind of book that you know you should read but dread to begin. It's an exceedingly
thoroughly-researched book and at times, slow going. In spite of that, in these days when environmental regulations
are under attack by the conservative Republicans, it should be on every
American's reading list.
Most people, I suppose, have heard of the industrial disaster at Bhopal but here's a little refresher.
The Bhopal Event
In the early hours of December 3, 1984, in the town of
Bhopal, India, a nearby Union Carbide plant, which manufactured insecticides,
accidentally released a heavy toxic cloud of chemicals into the surrounding
residential area. The heavy cloud hovered over the area, which was comprised
mostly of crowded slums. It literally
fumigated the unsuspecting village, mercilessly killing the people that lived there.
Within hours, things quickly collapsed. Panic and confusion spread and any kind of coordinated response was impossible. The local government was totally ill-equipped to handle the emergency. (The very idea that it could happen at all seems never to have crossed their minds.)
Within hours, things quickly collapsed. Panic and confusion spread and any kind of coordinated response was impossible. The local government was totally ill-equipped to handle the emergency. (The very idea that it could happen at all seems never to have crossed their minds.)