(Re)Defining Environmental Disasters

Disaster (n): “a sudden event, such as an accident or natural catastrophe, that causes great damage or loss of life.”

Environmental/ecological disaster: “a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity.”

Two similar, and yet very different, definitions. A disaster causes great damage or loss of life; an environmental disaster is an event. The definition shies away from tying emotion to the word. It’s easy to ignore an issue when you’re not the one it affects.

On December 4, 2023, Mt. Semeru erupted in Indonesia and killed 45 people. They weren’t warned. December 10 and 11, 2023, multiple tornadoes tore paths across four states, originally touching down in Kentucky. 95 died, 75 of those being Kentucky residents alone.

These events don’t fit the definition of an environmental disaster, and yet they’re the top two things that show when you search up recent ones. A volcano eruption is not due to human activity, neither is a tornado.

Well, they are, but they’re first and foremost “natural” phenomena.

Oil spills, however, are entirely due to human activity. Train derailments, human activity. Unclear water, air, soil… human activity.

My husband’s grandmother (my gam-gam-in-law?) sent me a text on the morning of February the 22nd of 2024, with just a link to an article and a message that said “I used to live out here for a short time. The creek doesn’t have that much water for greed.”

The article; “Company receives approval to drain 1.5 million gallons of water a day from Pittsburgh-area creek.”

Didn’t I just write on beavers and how they benefit creeks? Weird timing, but I took this an inspiration to talk about what I consider environmental disasters: “A sudden accident or event due to human activity that devastates the environment and causes loss of life.” I’d prefer it to be: “a sudden event resulting from idiots who touch things they shouldn’t and screw up people’s and wildlife’s lives permanently”, but there might be some controversy about that.

The reason that author Jessica Guay cites for the EPA approving this request? Fracking. Of course, absolutely, please take an amount of water that isn’t there and will ruin this creek’s environment to take to another place that will further ruin another environment.

I’d place this under an environmental disaster; draining more water than the creek probably has to offer not only takes away a place of recreation and fishing, as most are concerned for, but absolutely decimates all of the animals, microfauna, and plants living off of that water source.

A fracking plant is situated in my hometown–affectionally dubbed Mordor, from the noxious orange and green clouds that decorate the skyline at night–so I know all too well what’ll come of this. Constant air-quality danger levels, earthquakes that ruin the foundations of buildings, poisoned creeks and drinking water that always smells of chemicals and leaves a film in your mouth.

“… it [fracking] all began in western USA. Trees dying where they replanted everything, like here,” Gam-Gam Jennie said, then sent me an article by NYT that goes on to explain: “Increasingly complex oil wells are sweeping across Texas, birthplace of the fracking revolution, and the nation.”

To satisfy their need for water, these energy companies drilling oil have taken nearly 1.5 trillion gallons of water since 2011: “… workers last year dug some 700 feet deep into the ground, seeking freshwater. Millions of gallons of it. The water wouldn’t supply homes or irrigate farms. it was being used by the petroleum giant BP to frack for fossil fuels. The water would be mixed with sand and toxic chemicals and pumped right back underground–forcing oil and gas from the bedrock.”

This story is not original; my hometown probably has it among the better off. “Sacrifice zones” are areas that have been permanently impaired or degraded due to extreme industrial act, and nothing is done about it. They exist all across the United States, mostly in communities of color or less capital.

So, exactly the people who (1) cannot move away from it for their own health, their children’s, grandparents, etc. and (2) cannot get treatment for the health problems they run into simply by existing in their environment. Cancer Alley in Louisiana is among the most notorious of these, populated by factories and plants that have made their city more prone to disease and cancer than 95% of their county. Flint, Michigan, is another.

East Palestine, Ohio, is now also one of these. A train containing extremely toxic materials derailed and was set on fire to “prevent disaster”. Instead, it’s causing most of everyone involved to get sick.

Investigators who went to study possible health risks a month after it occurred developed sore throats, headaches, coughing and nausea when going door-to-door with survey questions. Their symptoms eased after 24 hours, and they continued on. If this is what happens a day or two from being in this environment, what will happen in a year? Years?

More than half of the 514 residents have experienced symptoms after the derailment like; anxiety (61%); coughing (53%); fatigue (53%); pain, irritation or burning of the skin (50%); and stuffy nose/sinus congestion (50%), according to the Ohio Department of Health.

This is what comes from not paying attention to true environmental disasters–for allowing fracking plants to operate well outside their parameters and destroy creeks by draining all of their water.

They are no longer few and far between. People are getting careless, and apathetic.

That’s part of why I’m here, writing this to you. I’m tired of being careless and apathetic. I want to feel that dread, deep in my gut, when I hear about another travesty happening. I walk with bare feet to feel the ground beneath my toes and all the sharp bits of grass and twigs so that I can remember to be careful with where I step. I let my hair and clothes get wet in the rain to feel the chill of the water and the annoyance of having my warmth taken from me.

I want to feed my body good things, really good plastic-free organic things, so that I can help out my body to fight against the pollution already present in it; so that I can give my kids good genes. Things full of fats (saturated and trans), salt, starches, and carbohydrates.

A final note? Be good to you. Be good to your body. Be good to your loved ones’ bodies, to everyone else’s loved ones’ bodies. Be good to the earth, and the trees, and the bees, and the worms.