A climate group linked to many establishment media companies worldwide tried to shift the blame for the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, off the government and onto the petroleum industry.
The organization Covering Climate Now, whose “partner list” includes almost every establishment media outlet in the world, shared a blog piece trying to link the Ohio train derailment to America’s demand for fossil fuels in the form of plastics.”
Great explainer thread from @emorwee about the disaster in East Palestine and the toxicity of the chemicals used to make plastics. As she notes, "it’s so important for the rest of news media to be connecting this disaster to petroleum-based plastics." https://t.co/Q4nVylpqGo
— Covering Climate Now (@CoveringClimate) February 22, 2023
“The United States has an unrivaled capacity to produce petrochemicals that are a vital part of every person’s life,” a former U.S. national security official told Breitbart News.
Covering Climate Now’s lack of criticism towards U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg or the Biden administration, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) over their slow responses to the Ohio train derailment, is fascinating.
Instead, the organization used the incident to advance a political agenda, suggesting that the train derailment resulted from fossil fuels.
However, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigates rail incidents, confirmed that a malfunction of an axle, a rod that connects two train wheels, caused the derailment.
Sens. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced bipartisan legislation investigating the core issues responsible for the derailment, not on toxic chemicals the train was carrying. The train contained vinyl chloride, a colorless ”toxic” gas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Scientists have noted that chemicals produced from fossil fuels are not always toxic.
“Vinyl chloride, despite everything you see in the press, is actually not especially toxic,” Dr. Josh Bloom, who holds a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Virginia and is director of chemical and pharmaceutical science for the American Council on Science and Health, told the Wall Street Journal.
“It is comparable to alcohol and chloroform, both of which are also carcinogens. And when tested in lab rats it is far less toxic than everyday drugs like aspirin, caffeine and Tylenol,” Bloom added.
David Friedberg, founder of the agricultural company, “The Climate Corp.,” acknowledged during an episode of the “All-In Podcast” that “the solution is dilution.”
“The total market for vinyl chloride is about $10 billion a year, it’s one of the top 20 petroleum-based products in the world,” he said.
“The transportation of these very dangerous carcinogenic chemicals is a key part of what makes the economy work, it drives a lot of industry, it gives us all access to products and things that matter in our lives,” he added.
Covering Climate Now has no intention of suggesting ways to prevent further train derailments. It has every intention to advance its political agenda.
