Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

fastcompany.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 346 posts

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#111

Post by weard_beard »

nilespotter wrote: post #71
bsder wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because if the media starts covering it hard, way more than half the population of the US will plug their ears and start saying "LA LA LA LA LA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" really loudly. If this gets coverage, suddenly lots of inconvenient questions start popping up around monopoly, safety regulations and OSHA, and union workers warning about this 2 months ago. But, hey, everybody got their Amazon packages by Christmas, so i…

> union workers warning about this 2 months ago First I've heard that, got a reference?

Union negotiations shut down by Biden and Congress included safety reforms regarding car length and working hours. Both were factors in this derailment: https://www.rutgers.edu/news/why-did-government-step-prevent...

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#112

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

refuse wrote: post #5

I've heard about this, but it is surprising how little coverage it gets compared to other things. If you were to tally up how much airtime each news story gets, plotted against the general tone of the coverage, you'd probably come up with something resembling the news room agenda (you'd also have to weigh it against other stories developing at around the same time). I have to wonder why a story of environmental disas…

I've often wished for something that I'm calling (in my fiction) The Ministry of Indices.

It would be their job to rank things. Things like media coverage. We could turn to the MoI and see that this chemical spill got a 4 and then compare with other events.

Sure, it's subjective all the way down. People will always quibble about the outputs of services like that. But having a number that some expert (statistician?) or organization thereof came up--even if you disagree with them--with would make for more nuanced conversation and decision making around that thing.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#113

Post by zimpenfish »

awb wrote: post #30

Eerily similar to the recent Netflix movie "White Noise": https://www.netflix.com/title/81317320

More than eerily, it's where the crash in that film was staged.

https://decider.com/2023/02/13/train-derailment-ohio-same-to...

> Last week, in an instance of life imitating art (or vice-versa), a train carrying harmful chemicals derailed in the very same town used as filming location for White Noise‘s on-screen crash.

> One resident, Ben Ratner, had the crazy experience of not only having to evacuate his own home this week, but also acted out the scenario earlier as an extra in White Noise.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#114

Post by rhaway84773 »

rhaway84773 wrote: post #94
jonny_eh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“You’ve not heard about it”

The previous HN comments were also filled with “the media is not covering this!”. With the HN post linking to the Guardian and the top comment I saw at the time being a link to the NYTimes. There may be legitimate arguments about whether it should get more coverage relative to other news, but it isn’t a conspiracy. It’s simple. People don’t want read/hear about this stuff in the US and US news, unfortunately, is a co…

I searched for this. There are 4 pieces in the NYTimes alone.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/04/us/train-derailment-fire-...

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000008756189/ohio-train-...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/06/us/ohio-derailment-chemic...

https://www.nytimes.com/article/ohio-train-derailment.html?s...

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#115

Post by chaps »

pessimizer wrote: post #64
refuse wrote: post #5

I've heard about this, but it is surprising how little coverage it gets compared to other things. If you were to tally up how much airtime each news story gets, plotted against the general tone of the coverage, you'd probably come up with something resembling the news room agenda (you'd also have to weigh it against other stories developing at around the same time). I have to wonder why a story of environmental disas…

> If you were to tally up how much airtime each news story gets, plotted against the general tone of the coverage, you'd probably come up with something resembling the news room agenda It's not like it's subtle. There have been hundreds of Chinese weather balloon stories in the past week. Have there been hundreds of stories about this? US companies make money from stories about Chinese weather balloons. They lose mon…

A lot of these issues, unfortunately, exist because a huge chunk of Chicago media simply doesn't understand legal processes involved in criminal cases or even where to begin researching. It gets technical, quickly, and many of the reporters I know shy away from anything technically nuanced . That includes court reporters. So much of it has become political arbitrage, and policing/jailing institutions are well aware of the lack of understanding of their systems. It's beyond wild to me that many seasoned reporters out there who've been on these beats for years who don't even know how to answer fundamental questions through FOIA requests. It's understandable to a point because of the low pay in Chicago journalism, but it manifests as legitimate harm all over the place. I'm convinced we'll get there.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#116

Post by naiwenwt »

pessimizer wrote: post #70
epakai wrote: post #20

Frankly getting tired of hearing about how I haven't heard about it, and nobody wants me to hear about it. If you want to write about news, write about it. If you want to point out instances of news media not covering this story where they might have covered other stories go for it, cite instances. All I've been convinced of so far is some people have an axe to grind, and part of their narrative is how the media or t…

The person who wrote this article doesn't owe you anything. And they certainly didn't beg you to read this.

This feels like a reply in bad faith. The point that the parent comment is making is that the title of the article isn't convincing, it's just making a provocative statement with no backing.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#117

Post by TylerE »

luckylion wrote: post #91
pessimizer wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you were to tally up how much airtime each news story gets, plotted against the general tone of the coverage, you'd probably come up with something resembling the news room agenda It's not like it's subtle. There have been hundreds of Chinese weather balloon stories in the past week. Have there been hundreds of stories about this? US companies make money from stories about Chinese weather balloons. They lose mon…

> US companies make money from stories about Chinese weather balloons. They lose money when horrific things like this happen. The carrier will lose money. But a news company would make money, wouldn't they? Bad news is good news after all, and environmental disasters are bad news.

Trains derail all the time. It’s dog bites man, not man bites dog.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#118

Post by rhaway84773 »

avalys wrote: post #56

Oh, in fact, I have heard of it, and all the coverage I've heard is people grimly telling me about how horrible it is and how no one is covering how terribly horrible it is. What I haven't seen is any actual reporting . You know, talking to an expert, someone who has any actual knowledge about what steps are being taken, what the threat is, what steps should be taken but aren't, etc. But hey, those ominous black clou…

https://www.nytimes.com/article/ohio-train-derailment.html?s...

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#119

Post by mortenjorck »

perihelions wrote: post #92

Here's some data from the federal EPA (what they're measuring and where and what the numbers are), https://response.epa.gov/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=1593... ( "East Palestine Train Derailment" )

This is what I was looking for, thank you.

Lost in the profoundly unhelpful debate between "no one has heard of this" and "well I have" are the actual conditions in the community and whether the concentrations of either the initially released compound or the byproducts of the "controlled burn" are high enough to cause effects in humans. From the EPA link:

> Feb. 13, 2023 Update

Re-Entry air screenings are underway. Community air monitoring will continue operating 24 hours a day. As of yesterday evening, 291 homes have been screened. To date, no detections of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride were identified for the completed screened homes. There are 181 homes that remain to be screened.

Good news, to be sure, though this is only the very beginning of the process.

Post reply on HN