Mo Pipeline, Mo Problems

The Biden administration urges Americans not to hoard gasoline, following the ransomware attack that caused the Colonial Pipeline to shut down. Gasoline shortages have hit the South the hardest, but this article noted shortages have been occurring in Virginia as well. Transportation is one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions and this week’s news is more bad news; now instead of the pipeline transporting gasoline, 10,000 trucks are hauling fuel everyday to make up the difference. Talk about a double whammy. And if bad news can get worse, a government agency also tweeted not to fill plastic bags with gasoline– we hope this was a preemptive warning.

Hit Me Like a Tidal Waive(r)

The EPA has recently waived environmental regulation until May 31st, 2021, in multiple states and D.C. due to gasoline shortages. The regulation suspended deals primarily with how gasoline evaporates and emits ozone– an air pollutant that harms our (*good) ozone layer and causes respiratory illness. This waiver aims to help states overcome fuel supply due to the pipeline shutdown. Check out the EPA’s news release and this article that discusses the issue at hand.

This Dust Bites Back

When we think of air pollutants, we often think of greenhouse gasses, like methane or carbon dioxide. But harmful air pollutants from animal agriculture are a less transparent kind of hazard. Particular matter, or super small dust to us regular people, can drift hundreds of miles, and get trapped in our lungs or enter our bloodstream when inhaled. But the story doesn’t end here, this particular matter (again, think teeny-tiny dust) can have problematic interactions with the atmosphere. Ammonia, nitrogen, and sulfur are not necessarily harmful by themselves, but put them in an atmospheric soup and you get small, hazardous pollutants that are attributed to 12,400 premature deaths a year, according to breaking research. In this article, critics of the study (who are also producer agencies) say that it is irresponsible to draw conclusions from modeling and estimates. Modeling and estimates in science can be confusing, but they did manage to land a rover on Mars. When we think about what we eat, it goes beyond what is good for us, but also what is good for our fellow humans and the environment.