It’s Thursday and I got nothing. Having slept poorly, I can’t brain, and so I’ll just say that on this day in history, the Bhopal Disaster, the world’s worst industrial accident, occurred in India, ultimately killing more than 9,000 people. And, in 1980, fascist Oswald Moseley died. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is appropriating the issue of climate change to her own solipsistic ends.
Hili: I’m looking at this cooling with skepticism.A: Why?Hili: I’m a supporter of warming.
In Polish:
Hili: Patrzę na to ochłodzenie ze sceptycyzmem.
Ja: Dlaczego?
Hili: Jestem zwolenniczką ocieplenia.
You & me both – though for me it is the mild weather, plus the people screaming in the street & the ridiculously loud police sirens…
Oswald Moseley was a 4th cousin of the Queen Mother… with whom it is alleged he shared some views!
Hili would like our forecast with warming to continue for the next week or more.
Phopal was a terrible thing and all for the making of a well known pesticide (Sevin). One of the popular new replacements for DD-T as I recall. If there was ever an argument for better regulation and enforcement of same, this would be it.
Which is nearly impossible to address in this era of globalization; what we outlaw here, they can do over there, where “here” and “there” can be anywhere but usually refer to a first-world country and a third-world country respectively.
The only solution I can foresee involves the founding & growth of international labor unions, something almost equally impossible.
If Hili wants warmth perhaps she could come to OZ for a little holiday. It is predicted to be 40 C on Sunday with little relief in store thereafter.
Psst…Hili…the secret to the cold weather is to use it as an excuse to snuggle up to a warm mammal….
b&
9000 body count at Bhopal. Well, leaving aside the criminal (advisedly – the Indians thought they had enough to put senior people to trial) negligence and stupidity in the process design, it was an accident. In the sense of “not intended”, even if there were also severe elements of “disaster waiting to happen” and “fixing that will cost money”, but fundamentally an accident. I sincerely hope it’ll be the largest industrial accident ever, because that would imply that people are getting better at handling hazardous materials and processes. I fear to say it’ll remain the largest ever, because people are so inventive. But I do struggle to think how you could get sufficient people, closely packed, to accidentally get such a high body count. Hopefully, it’ll remain the largest industrial accident ever. And as such an indelible stain on the corporate and personal memories of Union Carbide executives, managers and shareholders who hold some accountability for blame, but are doing a good job of hiding from it.
What could credibly produce a higher count (i.e. “places to avoid”) … well, MOST big chemical manufacture places are at least suburban, which reduces the nearby body count ,just by having people spread out. Nuclear power plants were always hard to make explode – if not flat-out impossible. But burning them can produce a modest body count – and a good few more livers and other organs from the radiation. Not nice, but again, not many people build big nuclear power plants in the middle of big cities.
Oh no, there it is – the elephant in the room. Rivers. Slap through the middle of most towns and cities. And more than a few with artificial (or artificially enhanced) lakes in the headwaters as the result of mining work, hydro-electric, or just plain old anthropogenic climate change acting on headwaters glaciers. I’ll just bet that Bhopal isn’t going to hold it’s title as “the largest industrial accident” for ever. But it’s going to stay up there in the annals of infamy for a good while.
I remember seeing something on the News about California bracing itself for a winter of El Nino weather discontent, and having a big campaign on clearing it’s storm drains and flash flood channels of debris. Has the weather hit yet, or is it still to come?
Can’t braining is in perfect juxtaposition with the Bhopal accident, as the Bhopal tragedy occurred on the night shift, when decision-making is impaired and fewer group minds are available to offer structural support to catch the errors of the sleep deprived.