Irresponsible Act

by Maria Sera
(Philippines)

Coal mining waste

Coal mining waste

This is pool of a coal dirt being dumped by Semirara Mining Corporation in Semirara Island, Philippines.

It's a shame that coal companies are earning millions of dollars on this business and declaring they are for "clean coal" but the irony is, while cleaning their coal, the dirt is being dumped on the pristine sea of the island!

Barry's Response - This looks like an environmental disaster already happening. Clean coal can include many environmental initiatives, but maybe the definition needs to be tougher.

North Americans have their own meaning for this phrase. It is any way of doing things that that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions that would otherwise result from burning coal to generate electrical power. Reducing these gases even goes as far as sequestration, carbon capture, and underground storage. Controlling climate change is the goal.

What do they do? Operations typically use pre-capture, oxy-fuel combustion and/or post-capture carbon capture and storage technologies. It's about capturing gases like carbon dioxide, compressing them into liquid form, and injecting them underground.

Is it the best thing ever? Maybe not, but most people think it's better than releasing it into the atmosphere like we have been.

Search this site for more information now.

Irresponsibility's Two-Faced Coin

The title "Irresponsible Act" captures a universal human emotion: anger when an environmental wound is caused by selfishness or hypocrisy. A coal company, the great energy architect, claims "clean" air while committing an irresponsible act against the sacred aquatic environment. It's not just bad policy, it's a failure of integrity, challenging trust at its core.

Water and air are at the intersection of this dilemma. Dumped coal dirt, also known as coal ash or tailings, isn't just dirt. It's a toxic slurry with heavy metals (like arsenic and mercury) and radioactive isotopes. Since this "dirt" pollutes the sea, it doesn't stay put. Fine particles are aerosolized by wave action, wind sheer, and ocean turbulence. Airborne metal-laced particles, smaller than PM2.5, travel in the air through the planetary boundary layer. The irresponsible act of aquatic dumping literally pollutes the air downwind, turning a local water disaster into a regional air quality problem as well.

I think we should audit ethics. If your water stinks, your air quality policy is a lie.

Contradictions in carbon capture

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is described as a "clean coal" solution. There's a lot of controversy here. CCS removes CO2 from the air (addressing a global climate concern), but it requires a lot of energy to run, compress, and inject it underground. Plus CCS may release carcinogenic nitrosamines and nitramines into the air. This system, say skeptics, is a high-cost, high-energy facade appealing to our need for economic transparency. Moreover, CCS' massive infrastructure -- pipelines and injection sites -- creates other new risks of contamination and groundwater damage, so the "responsible act" of climate control becomes an irresponsible act. So we have to use our freedom of thought and question whether focusing solely on CO2 is the best use of resources.

Data as divine justice: revolutionizing accountability

We need to stop this two-faced irresponsibility by embracing real-time data:

1) Deploying swarms of oceanic, micro-drone sensors (inspired by the swarms in ancient mythology) that continuously monitor both air and water quality (for heavy metal concentrations) might be an idea. A live, evolving heat map of this data stream acts as an unstoppable public witness. By making this Irresponsible Act instantly transparent and globally visible, it satisfies the emotional need for justice.

2) Our "Integrity Dividend": Based on principles of ethical business, we could use a regulatory shift: Companies that proactively invest in revolutionary, non-polluting technologies (like geothermal energy to replace coal) get a massive "Integrity Dividend" through accelerated permit approvals and tax breaks. A company that commits an irresponsible act faces exponentially increasing, real-time fines based on the meteorological plume trajectory of their airborne and aquatic pollution. Business ethics are directly tied to fluid dynamics, so action goes beyond bare minimums.

Our goal is to turn the condemnation of an irresponsible act into inspiration for a revolutionary and environmentally responsible response.

Do U agree?

Did you feel like you were caught in a horrible joke when you read that definition of "clean coal"? Can real-time drone pollution data stop companies from committing irresponsible acts? Make a comment and let your outrage inspire innovation!

Comments for Irresponsible Act

Average Rating starstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Serious fail
by: Henry

This is a serious fail and it’s polluting the nearby water bodies. I wonder why authorities who are responsible to take action against such stuffs are sitting idle. I think people should protest against this and make sure that such things won’t happen in future.

From Barry - Henry, your passion for action and holding "sitting idle" authorities accountable is totally justified. Real change comes from deep frustration over an obvious irresponsible act. Seeing a clear violation of the aquatic environment, your question — why are the authorities idle? The answer is rooted in air quality science.

It's not always idleness; often it's jurisdictional myopia, which means the laws see pollution, but only one pollutant at a time. Water quality authorities might be waiting for air quality authorities to act, or vice versa!

Here's the meteorological twist: When coal dirt is dumped, heavy metals (like mercury) don't just sink. Some mercury will volatilize (evaporate) from the water's surface into the atmosphere because it's volatile.

Mercury can travel globally, often converting into methylmercury after deposition, which is extremely toxic and bioaccumulates in food. It might be easy for the water authority to see the dirt, but not the mercury vapor escaping into the air, which makes it an interstate or even international problem. As a result, the local authority ends up "sitting idle" because the violation flew away and became the UN's problem! We need citizens and consultants to insist on integrated water-air regulation.

Make sure your sign addresses the air and water when you protest!
Rating
starstarstar 		awareness
by: amit

such articles create awareness....

From Barry - It's great that you focused on the fundamental value: awareness. Self-examination is the first step, according to Socrates' philosophy. If you don't acknowledge it, you can't fix it.

Let's inject some air quality science into what "awareness" really does. Awareness isn't just a feeling; it affects pollution's physical movement. When enough people become aware of an irresponsible act, they demand transparency and real-time data.

Sensors are deployed to meet this demand. Those sensors show real-time particulate matter spikes downwind of the coal dump, revealing the water pollution's effect on the atmosphere. Your data, fueled by your awareness, forces regulatory change faster than a lawsuit.

Think of "awareness" as activating the public's invisible air-quality sensor network. You create pressure that fundamentally changes the environment. Pollution's most powerful, non-chemical weapon!
Rating
starstarstar 		Hmmm
by: Joe

I don't see how pointing this out can make a difference. It should be the UN's responsibility to make sure governments are watching their companies properly. And this fails to say how toxic coal dirt is, and exactly what it is.

From Barry - Joe, your skepticism is vital, necessary, and exactly what this we need here. There are three excellent, pointed questions you raise that demand scientific detail and honest assessment: UN's role, efficacy of "pointing things out," and "toxic coal dirt."

1) You're right, big issues like this irresponsible act often transcend national boundaries (especially when it comes to air quality). The UN is a group of governments, not a police force. The Minamata Convention on Mercury was created to curb the global transport of pollutants like mercury that vaporizes from coal dirt. Local governments must enforce the UN framework - and that's where pointing things out, or public pressure, pushes them to act on the global promise.

2) Coal Dirt: What is it? (The Science): Coal dirt is coal ash and mine tailings. Heavy metals like Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, and Mercury are naturally trapped in coal and end up in waste, which makes it toxic. These can poison the food chain in aquatic environments. Heavy metals attach to microscopic particles in the air and become toxic PM2.5. There's nothing more insidious than airborne heavy metal pollution.

3) You dismiss "pointing this out," but naming and shaming (often called public risk communication) is what catalyzes the demand for advanced oxidation processes and Sentinel Systems we discussed. Change starts with data. Government can't impose the massive fines and revolutionary upgrades needed to clean up water and air without us pointing out any irresponsible act. Environmental responsibility starts with pointing it out.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Water Pollution.


Do you have concerns about air pollution in your area??

Perhaps modelling air pollution will provide the answers to your question.

That is what I do on a full-time basis.  Find out if it is necessary for your project.


Have your Say...

on the StuffintheAir         facebook page

Other topics listed in these guides:

The Stuff-in-the-Air Site Map

And, 

See the newsletter chronicle. 

Thank you to my research and writing assistants, ChatGPT and WordTune, as well as Wombo and others for the images.

OpenAI's large-scale language generation model (and others provided by Google and Meta), helped generate this text.  As soon as draft language is generated, the author reviews, edits, and revises it to their own liking and is responsible for the content.