Coal Ash Update.....

The North Carolina coal ash numbers have been revised upwards. 

This is what happens in every environmental disaster. When the disaster first happens there is a lot of media attention, and so it is important to low ball the numbers. Then later the media gets bored and moves on to more important stories about Justin Bieber.

When less people are paying attention then the numbers always start heading up.

With this particular disaster the coal ash is now polluting the river bottom for 70 miles. So get in your car in Hartford and drive to Stamford. All along the way imagine everything is all polluted.

At first they said 27,000,000 gallons had leaked. Now it it up to 35,000,000 gallons. They were only off by 8,000,000 gallons. Pretty good.

If you are having trouble wrapping your head around how much pollution 35,000,000 gallons is don’t panic. We can do a little experiment to help your understanding.

Go to your refrigerator and pull out a gallon of milk. Go place it on the kitchen counter. Now go back and pull out a second gallon and place it next to the first. Keep doing this 34,999,998 more times (you might have to clean off your counter).

If you can’t fit this experiment in your kitchen feel free to move outside. When you have all 35 million gallons lined up in a row go ahead and remove all the tops. Then carefully carry them each to your local river and dump them in.

When you are done you should have a better understanding of how amazing clean coal really is.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/25/us/n-c-coal-ash-spill/