True Left

This cannot be repeated enough:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/increasing-death-toll-u-extreme-102055055.html

Like all public health issues in this country, the burden of extreme heat falls unequally on certain people.
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Due to the long history of segregation and discriminatory housing practices in the U.S., Black Americans tend to live in neighborhoods that are uniquely vulnerable to extreme heat. In New York, buildings in minority neighborhoods are hotter and more humid than those in white neighborhoods. Tree cover, an important defense against the sun, is lower in minority neighborhoods, and Black Americans are less likely to have access to air conditioning. The injustice of this disparity is highlighted even more by the fact that CO2 emissions from white households are significantly higher than from Black households.

This is how Western civilization is designed to operate: to provide the worst people with ways to avoid the consequences of the havoc that they caused while punishing everyone else who had little or no part in causing the havoc.

And now for something completely different (but still uniquely Western):

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/skittles-sued-containing-titanium-dioxide-133655979.html

In a lawsuit filed last week, a consumer alleged that Skittles were "unfit for human consumption" because the rainbow candy contained a "known toxin" – an artificial color additive called titanium dioxide.
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Titanium dioxide is used in a wide range of food products and consumer goods – from candy to sunscreen and house paint.
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Titanium dioxide, or TiO2, sometimes referred to as E171, is an inorganic, solid substance used in a wide range of consumer goods including cosmetics, paint, plastic and food, according to the American Chemistry Council.

In food, titanium dioxide is often used as an artificial color additive. Tasha Stoiber, senior scientist at the consumer health nonprofit Environmental Working Group, says titanium dioxide can generally be thought of as a "paint primer" – it often goes on a hard-shelled candy like Skittles before the color is added to give it a "uniform shine."

Titanium dioxide "can also be found in dairy products to make them whiter and brighter … like frosting or cottage cheese," Stoiber told USA TODAY, adding that the additive is used in other products – such as food or beverage instant mixes – as an anti-caking agent.
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Genotoxicity is the ability of chemicals to damage genetic information such as DNA, which may lead to cancer.

"After oral ingestion, the absorption of titanium dioxide particles is low, however they can accumulate in the body,"

Well, at least now the microplastics have company.....

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/western-civilization-is-a-health-hazard/msg12279/?topicseen#msg12279

https://www.yahoo.com/news/woman-falls-off-bow-boat-112522207.html

Woman falls off bow of boat and gets sucked under it into propeller, Florida cops say

Sails had been used for thousands of years all around the world without problems (and also requiring no fuel). Then Western civilization came along:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propeller#History

In 1693 a Frenchman by the name of Du Quet invented a screw propeller which was tried in 1693 but later abandoned.[6][7] In 1752, the Academie des Sciences in Paris granted Burnelli a prize for a design of a propeller-wheel. At about the same time, the French mathematician Alexis-Jean-Pierre Paucton suggested a water propulsion system based on the Archimedean screw.[5] In 1771, steam-engine inventor James Watt in a private letter suggested using "spiral oars" to propel boats, although he did not use them with his steam engines, or ever implement the idea.[8]
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By 1827, Czech-Austrian inventor Josef Ressel had invented a screw propeller which had multiple blades fastened around a conical base. He had tested his propeller in February 1826 on a small ship that was manually driven. He was successful in using his bronze screw propeller on an adapted steamboat (1829). His ship, Civetta of 48 gross register tons, reached a speed of about 6 knots (11 km/h). This was the first ship successfully driven by an Archimedes screw-type propeller.

There is no escape from Western civilization:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pollution-forever-chemicals-rainwater-exceed-123032793.html

New research shows that rainwater in most locations on Earth contains levels of chemicals that "greatly exceed" safety levels.

These synthetic substances called PFAS are used in non-stick pans, fire-fighting foam and water-repellent clothes.

Dubbed 'forever chemicals', they persist for years in the environment.
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Soil around the world is similarly contaminated, evidence suggests.

The study's findings lead the authors to conclude that a planetary boundary has been crossed - that there simply is no safe space on Earth to avoid these substances.

And problems created by Western civilization cannot be solved by Western civilization:

In the Netherlands in 2018, the infrastructure ministry set new limits on concentrations of PFAS in soil and dredging material.

But this caused 70% of building projects involving soil removal or using excavated material to be halted. After protests, the government relaxed the guidelines.

According to the new study, this type of relaxation of safety levels is likely to happen with water contamination as well.

"If you applied those guidelines everywhere, you wouldn't be able to build anywhere," said Prof Ian Cousins.

"I think they'll do the same thing with the US drinking water advisories, because they're not practical to apply.

"It's not because there's anything wrong with the risk assessment. It's just because you can't apply those things. It's just impossible, from an economic viewpoint to apply any of those guidelines."

Nothing will improve until we kill Western civilization.

From the comments:

Humans pollute and ruin everything they touch.

Which non-Western humans ever independently invented PFAS?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bad-news-earth-rainwater-no-191000347.html

Remember when you were a kid, and it was fun to tip your head back during a rainstorm and open your mouth to drink the drops? You shouldn’t do that anymore. That’s because you’ll be ingesting too many particles of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), the hazardous chemicals that leach from the ultra-durable plastics we’ve created for about the past 120 years.
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“Based on the latest U.S. guidelines for PFOA in drinking water, rainwater everywhere would be judged unsafe to drink. Although in the industrial world we don’t often drink rainwater, many people around the world expect it to be safe to drink and it supplies many of our drinking water sources,”
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There are thousands of different PFAS substances floating around. The study compared the levels of four common forms (PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, and PFNA) in various sources: rainwater, soils, and surface waters such as streams, lakes, and oceans. They found that levels of at least two forms of PFAS in rainwater, PFOA and PFOS, “often greatly exceed” the safe levels in drinking water

This article even provides some history:

Plastic changed life in the 20th century. The first 100 percent synthetic plastic emerged in 1907. Later in the century, energy companies like ExxonMobil and DowChemicals were trying to turn the waste material leftover from processing crude oil and natural gas into something useful. Their experiments led to the creation of Perspex, polyethylene, Nylon, Teflon, and many other plastic compounds that have made their way into everyday life. Being super durable, plastic never rotted or broke down.

Plastic made manufacturing of all kinds of goods cheaper and faster. It soon took over all kinds of products, from hair clips to cameras, and even clothing and baby bottles. And plastic could be designed to resemble various other materials that were traditionally more expensive or in short supply. Bakelite, for example, gives a rich, almost woody look to household staples like telephones and radios, and it was all the rage in the 1930s. Depending on the compound, plastic can have useful properties, like heat resistance. During World War II, polyethylene plastic was an ideal insulator for radar cabling and, after the war, stocked household pantries in the form of Tupperware. People all over the world hailed plastic as one of the most versatile inventions ever.

While it’s certainly convenient, plastic now permeates everything. The polyethylene terephthalate, (PET, a form of polyester) bottle used for water and other drinks, is light, cheap, and unbreakable compared to traditional glass bottles. It’s so ideal, that about 500 billion PET bottles are now made every year.

So, which one civilization is solely to blame for all of this?

Some of the comments are close to getting it:

It only took 120 years to destroy water that has been around for billions of years.  All is lost, all is lost!

Thank you petrochemicals

Great job SCIENCE!!!

Which civilization was dominant during the last 120 years? Which civilization introduced petrochemicals? Which civilization calls its knowledge "science"?

Germany's Nuclear U-Turn Explained

For a while Germany has been ardently against nuclear power. However, with the energy crisis looming and a cold winter ahead, some are considering a u-turn on their nuclear hesitance. So let's outline the nuclear hesitance & if it's set to change

Great top comment:

The strong anti-nuclear movement in germany is way older than Tchernobyl and has a bit more complex backstory.
I find it interesting how the current crisis forces europe finally to actually tackle those issues we have ignored like how a CO2 neutral energy policy is possible in the light of the crule fact that a good energy mix is also a fundamental problem of national security.
We have to (re-)learn a lot of things. It is going to be painful and I hope it will be honest and fact based.

The fact is that if Westerners did not believe that they are meant to conquer the planet and that human-beings are the at the top of the hierarchy of life, all the problems in regards to energy and energy consumption would slowly diminish over time. Anthropocentric worldviews are the worst thing western colonialism ever taught non-westerners:
https://trueleft.createaforum.com/ancient-world/antropocentricism-the-most-dangerous-ideology-in-the-world/

Energy problems are only a concern to those who cannot stop reproducing themselves:
https://trueleft.createaforum.com/issues/population-and-demographics/ 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mystery-toxin-suspected-huge-fish-150646685.html

Mystery toxin suspected in huge fish die-off in major European river

Berlin — A river on the German-Polish border has become a mass grave. Volunteers and authorities have been busy for days removing tons of dead fish floating on the surface of the Oder River.

The cause of the massive die-off, which has affected a stretch of the river more than 300 miles long, remains a mystery, but Sascha Maier, a water policy officer at the BUND environmental organization, told CBS News on Wednesday that "everything points to a manmade catastrophe."

Authorities are struggling to find answers.

More than 500 firefighters are taking part in the efforts to clean up the mess on the Polish side of the river. Maier said at least 110 tons of dead fish had been removed from the river as of Wednesday.
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"One thing is clear, the water in the Oder River is polluted, only with what is not clear so far,"

Anyone want to guess which civilization is to blame for producing the mystery toxin?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/over-5000-dolphins-perish-black-103416072.html

Due to the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine, animals continue to die in the Black Sea. At least 5,000 dolphins have already died.
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According to the biologist, the cause of their death is the use of surface vessels and submarines with sonars.
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The warships use extremely loud sonar that can literally be heard for thousands of miles. The sonar is so loud that it bursts the membranes around the animals ears

Which civilization invented sonar?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonar

The world's first patent for an underwater echo-ranging device was filed at the British Patent Office by English meteorologist Lewis Fry Richardson a month after the sinking of Titanic,[7] and a German physicist Alexander Behm obtained a patent for an echo sounder in 1913.[8]

The Canadian engineer Reginald Fessenden, while working for the Submarine Signal Company in Boston, Massachusetts, built an experimental system beginning in 1912, a system later tested in Boston Harbor, and finally in 1914 from the U.S. Revenue Cutter Miami on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland.[7][9] In that test, Fessenden demonstrated depth sounding, underwater communications (Morse code) and echo ranging (detecting an iceberg at a 2-mile (3.2 km) range).[10][11] The "Fessenden oscillator", operated at about 500 Hz frequency, was unable to determine the bearing of the iceberg due to the 3-metre wavelength and the small dimension of the transducer's radiating face (less than 1⁄3 wavelength in diameter). The ten Montreal-built British H-class submarines launched in 1915 were equipped with Fessenden oscillators.[12]

During World War I the need to detect submarines prompted more research into the use of sound. The British made early use of underwater listening devices called hydrophones, while the French physicist Paul Langevin, working with a Russian immigrant electrical engineer Constantin Chilowsky, worked on the development of active sound devices for detecting submarines in 1915. Although piezoelectric and magnetostrictive transducers later superseded the electrostatic transducers they used, this work influenced future designs. Lightweight sound-sensitive plastic film and fibre optics have been used for hydrophones, while Terfenol-D and PMN (lead magnesium niobate) have been developed for projectors.