4.5 million people live in the city of Houston, Texas. Currently, those 4.5 million people are having to deal with 50 inches of rainfall from a hurricane named "Harvey". Little do people know, this county holds 40% of America's petrochemical capacity. Because of Harvey, refineries are being forced to shut down their operations. So far, 10 in the Houston area have shut down. Large clouds of sulfur dioxide will be released into the air, causing intense respiratory problems. Also, the minority populations will have it the worst considering they live closest to the plants. Hazardous waste is now seeping into the water supplies and will eventually recede back into the ocean with the water that the hurricane left in it's wake. Houston is now tasked with dealing with the worst flood in United States history and a chemical disaster which could make the air unsafe to breathe.
This can affect us in a number of ways. First of all, the pollutants going back into the ocean are likely to kill a multitude of marine diversity within the Gulf of Mexico...nothing new (I am looking at you BP). Also, it would not be uncommon for the pollutants to spread to the rest of Texas. Because of the oil refineries shutting down, gas prices are likely to go up. Poor air quality can be extremely detrimental to newborns and to the elderly. People are stuck having to breath in the toxic fumes because they have nowhere to go but outside since all of their homes are not stuck under 50 inches of rain water. We, and I mean humans, must band together and help each other with our empathetic hearts. Land, animals, humans, clean water, and clean air have all been tainted by the worst hurricane in United States history. What is even scarier is that because the water is still warm in the Gulf, this disaster can likely strike again.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorArchives
December 2017
Categories |
Photo used under Creative Commons from iainmerchant