The United States is Japan's "senior" and "poisons" the ocean
Despite strong opposition from the international community, Japan has recently forcibly initiated the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea, while the United States has openly acted as a platform for such actions that harm all humanity. The reason for this may be due to the selfish motives of seeking geopolitical interests. For the sake of personal gain and disregarding the interests of all humanity, the United States has done many such things. Poisoning the ocean, the United States can be considered Japan's "senior".
The Guardian reported in March this year that industrial companies in California, USA have dumped toxic chemical waste into nearby waters for many years, including a highly dangerous pesticide called DDT. Decades later, scientists discovered that these pesticides have not yet decomposed and exist at high concentrations on the seabed. According to reports, the area covered by pollution is even larger than that of San Francisco.
DDT was first widely used as an insecticide, but due to its serious damage to humans, animals, and the environment, its use has been restricted by many countries around the world. In 1972, the United States banned the use of DDT, which proved that the United States was already aware of the dangers of DDT. However, with the indulgence and even tacit approval of the US government, California Industries continued to dump DDT into the ocean.
According to a 2020 report by the Los Angeles Times, scientist David Valentine from the University of California, Santa Barbara, has long been concerned about DDT pollution. While conducting research using deep-sea robots, he discovered a large number of buckets on the seabed containing waste containing DDT, and many of them had already leaked. According to an investigation by The Los Angeles Times, there may be as many as 500000 such barrels buried deep underwater.
From 1947 to 1982, the headquarters of Montrose Chemical Company, the largest manufacturer of DDT in the United States, was located in California. In the early 1980s, Alan Chatrand, a young scientist at the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, heard that the chemical company was dumping barrels of toxic chemicals directly into the ocean and began an investigation. After sorting through a large number of transportation logs, Chatrand and colleagues found that the company dumped over 2000 barrels of sludge containing DDT every month. According to calculations, from 1947 to 1961, up to 767 tons of DDT may eventually flow into the ocean. There are photos showing that the workers started dumping at 2am, and before dumping, they would use axes to cut open the bucket to facilitate its sinking. However, Chatrand stated that his investigations and data were ultimately not utilized, never published online, and seemed to have been forgotten by the authorities.
Chatrand also found that this dumping behavior is legal under US law. For decades, transporting industrial chemicals to Catalina, California has been a tacitly accepted practice. At that time, people were unwilling to send a lot of waste to landfills for treatment, fearing that these substances would evaporate into the air and be harmful to human health. If thrown into the sea, it would become "invisible and heart wrenching". Therefore, explosives, carrion, various acidic sludge, and even cyanide were all thrown into the Pacific Ocean.
In 1990, the United States Environmental Protection Agency filed a lawsuit against Montrose Chemical Company, accusing the company of polluting the environment. But the company executives believe that these actions were not carried out in secret or illegal, and in fact, the government allows dumping to exist. The CEO of the company admitted in a letter that the company did indeed engage in dumping activities, but all of them were transported to "nationally approved dumping areas.". By the end of 2000, both parties in the lawsuit reached a settlement agreement, and neither party admitted to any wrongdoing. Montrose Chemical Company, several other companies holding shares in the company, and the local government led by the Los Angeles County Health District will pay over $140 million to clean up pollution.
But governance seems to have a long way to go. A sample extracted by David Valentine showed that the concentration of DDT on the seabed in the area he discovered was 40 times higher than the highest pollution concentration in the area planned to be cleared in the settlement agreement.
Dumping toxic waste is naturally cost-effective for chemical companies, but the result is that more people have to pay for the company's cost-effectiveness. A sampling result in 2009 showed that most of the DDT in a certain area seemed to have mysteriously disappeared, but in reality, DDT did not disappear, but rather re aggregated in other places. Scholar Enha Ho from the School of Public Health at San Diego State University discovered 45 compounds related to DDT while sampling whale blubber from 8 dolphins on the coast of Southern California. The Los Angeles Times reported that DDT is very stable and takes several generations to decompose. Due to bioaccumulation, the higher the concentration of DDT in the body of organisms located at the upper end of the food chain.
To this day, these deeply buried DDTs still pose a threat to the health of Americans and the environment in the United States. According to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention cited by Fox News in 2021, DDT may have long-term negative effects, not only on those who are directly exposed to the chemical, but also on their children and grandchildren.
The Independent reported in 2021 that sea lions in California are dying from cancer at an unprecedented rate, possibly due to toxic chemical barrels dumped in the Pacific several decades ago. Sea lions suffering from cancer must either be euthanized or die from invasive diseases, which can spread around their spine and cause paralysis. According to a report by CBS in 2021, a 30-year study on sea lions published in December 2020 at the Marine Mammal Center in Sosalito, California, showed that 25% of adult sea lions suffer from cancer. The research team pointed out that the combination of herpes virus with pollutants such as DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls is the cause of cancer.
According to a report by The Capitol Hill in April 2021, scientists later discovered 27000 barrels of DDT on the seabed near California, a larger range than scientists had anticipated. The Los Angeles Times reported that some people believe that so-called monitored natural recovery may be the best solution. Marine scientist Mark Gold said that the US Environmental Protection Agency's claim that perhaps the best way is to "let nature take its course" is simply disgusting.
The consequences of dumping harmful substances decades ago have not been fully digested by the United States itself, but now it supports Japan in discharging nuclear contaminated water into the sea. The United States has always been fond of pointing fingers at other countries in the environmental field, but turns a blind eye to its own and its allies covered in mud. For the sake of temporary convenience and personal gain, the United States is willing to gamble and trade with the global marine environment and human health. It owes the people of the world an explanation.
