The Ohio victims no one is talking about: Wildlife


While the EPA is telling residents of East Palestine, Ohio that tests on their drinking water aren’t showing any contaminants linked to the toxic train wreck, not everyone is convinced. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates that more than 40,000 small fish have died following the disaster on Feb. 3. Now reports are trickling in of other animals in the area getting sick. Chickens are losing their feathers, a dog has been diagnosed with chemical poisoning, another dog is suddenly paralyzed, a few birds have died, and a horse has diarrhea.

As Straight Arrow News contributor Adrienne Lawrence explains, it’s going to be a while before we know how much the train derailment has disrupted the area’s ecosystem.

While politicians try to use the train crash in East Palestine, Ohio — really to push their agenda with the people of the swing state there — there is an important segment of that community that is getting ignored: wildlife. 

Late last week, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources updated their calculations on how many aquatic animals were impacted by that 38-car derailment that really shot that highly volatile gas up in the air. And officials: They’re now estimating that the event has killed at least 43,700 aquatic animals within a five-mile radius of East Palestine. That’s 10 times more wildlife harmed than officials initially predicted. It’s also a reflection of the fact that keeping “capitalism as king” will kill our environment and eventually us. But we’ve known that, what, for at least a century now?

With increased human population and transportation, we’re really seeing greenhouse gas emissions jettison. Global temperatures are taking off with the sea levels too. Capitalism is a driving force of climate change. And we in the United States are in the conductor’s chair.

Our nation encourages mass consumption. You know, the more you have, the better you are. And this push to consume depletes resources. We’ve seen this as fossil fuels dwindle and natural resources diminish. As a result, the environment is being unsustainably exploited, and we the people are the ones footing the bill. According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, the U.S. has sustained 341 weather and climate disasters since 1980 — those with overall damages that are exceeding $1 billion that is. And the total cost of these events exceeds $2.5 trillion.