This episode follows up on new developments and concerns regarding the environmental disaster in East Palestine, Ohio where a train derailment has leaked a lot of chemicals into the Ohio River Basin environment and the Norfolk Southern Railway Company has been caught lying multiple times and served legal notice from the EPA. 

Continued lack of transparency and inconsistencies (now also from the EPA) paired with qualitative observations made by the community are raising a lot of red flags on the state of the disaster and the impacts it will have on the community and the area at large. 

Link to Legal Notice

Let's talk some more about what has happened since last week, what Norfolk Southern Railway Company and the EPA claim, the chemicals known to be involved, chemicals that are still unidentified in the manifest, why this is bad, why these spills are likely to happen again, and how we as citizens can get involved in the process of recovery, public pressure, and changing this broken system of environmental protection.

Links to Citizen Science Documentation of Testing and Observations:

Air Test Data

Water Test Data

Soil Test Data

Qualitative Observational Data

Are you ready to fall in love with birds, nature, birding, and the delightful Hannah Kirshenbaum? Get ready! She will sneak up on you and recruit you into the magical world of birding. With an educational background in Environmental Engineering, Hannah's journey is focused on birds, doing it all for the birds.

Follow Hannah and her group, NYC Queer Birders, and visit their Instagram and website.

NYC Queer Birders Instagram

NYC Queer Birders Website

Sign the open letter to the American Ornithological Society. Barriers in ornithology for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, are not limited to membership fees. There are significant isolating and demeaning reminders of oppression, slavery, and genocide that reside within many of the English common names attached to birds in North America. Through the committees on Classification and Nomenclature (NACC and SACC), the AOS can play a crucial role in eliminating such barriers not only for ornithology but for recreational birding as well. Unlike recognized scientific names, the nomenclatural barriers of English common names exist for no reason other than tradition and comfort. They can be replaced without affecting science.

Follow @BirdNamesForBirds. Birds don't need eponymous/honorific common names. Bird names should be about birds. 

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There is an environmental disaster currently unfolding that needs our attention. A train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, has leaked a lot of chemicals into the Ohio River Basin environment and the Norfolk Southern Railway Company has been caught lying multiple times and served legal notice from the EPA.

Link to Legal Notice

Let's talk about what happened, what Norfolk Southern Railway Company claims happened, the chemicals known to be involved, why this is bad, why these spills are likely to happen again, and how we as citizens can get involved in the process of recovery, public pressure, and changing this broken system of environmental protection.

Links to Citizen Science Documentation of Testing and Observations:

Air Test Data

Water Test Data

Soil Test Data

Qualitative Observational Data