Every once in a while, the news cycle hits me over the head with the fact that automobiles are the ultimate violent and destructive force in our society. They allow shootings, robberies, violence caused by anger, social isolation, inhumane urban sprawl. and so many other horrible things.
Now, the story I can’t get out of my head is how the rubber used in car tires is to blame for the massive mortality of coho salmon in the Pacific Northwest. via local NBC station KGW. I confess that I didn’t take the time to let this story sink until it covered in intensity through a local outlet. Now I can’t stop thinking about it.
If this is new to you, the essence (via KGW):
[The scientists] discovered a toxin called 6PPD-quinone that is produced when the tire preservative 6PPD, which is not unusual, mixes with oxygen. The soil becomes stormwater pollution, eventually ending up in local waterways where coho salmon fall back to spawn.
I am not an expert, but I can tell from some superficial studies that the science surrounding this discovery is not disputed. It is one hundred percent transparent that small pieces of car tires (and other vital rubber resources) kill coho and damage our water. Resources. The fact that there is rarely, much, much more urgency around the factor is rarely, very, very surprising, as most people have accepted all the other negative trade-offs that come with our car-centric system.
The answers to the challenge are very revealing. There’s a lot of communication about how to make tires less poisonous and the desire for stricter environmental regulations for brands and sellers. What about the tire industry? They can’t disprove the science (though I’m sure they tried), so they have websites and other PR publications to keep generating profit. They admit that the chemical they use, 6PPD, kills fish and pollutes streams and rivers, but I want you to know that it also protects drivers (see symbol on the right). And hey, it makes your tires last longer, so you save money!Isn’t that great? Let the dead fish be condemned.
Unfortunately, most of the news reports I’ve read about this massive coho mortality never mention the only thing that could solve it: less management and/or management bans in watersheds. (And last time I checked, electric car tires also have tires. )
This is an enormous challenge that will take decades to solve if we continue according to the popular procedure of incremental reforms. It is the duty of politicians and municipal leaders to muster political courage to accelerate the speed of change. If we take on the basic challenge of car addiction and driving abuse, we can save much more than coho.
– Learn about 6PPD and 6PPD-Quinone in PugetSoundInstitute. org.
If you have any questions or comments about this site or my work, please feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, by email at maus. jonathan@gmail. com, or by phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and enjoy this site, feel free to be a follower.
Thanks for covering that. The chemical kills fish before they can breed and roads with tire residue are everywhere. Specialists, drifting sideshows and exhaustion from smoking deposit massive amounts of toxins on roadsides where rainwater will carry the poison into waterways. Sigh
The average car throws about 10 pounds of tire curtains each year while driving. Electric cars are about to make the situation worse. Heavier cars mean more tire wear and therefore more pollution. I saw a recent study that tires are the leading cause of microplastics in the San Francisco Bay Area; No wonder my collection of fleece jackets doesn’t weigh 10 pounds combined.
Just a simple solution, ban driving in the basin where salmon lives. So, I don’t want to drive in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. In addition, we will have to come with our northern neighbors, Alberta, British Columbia and Yukon. I don’t understand why that would be less difficult than saying remove 6PPD from the tires. The biggest challenge is that it has been used in tires for more than 50 years. It wasn’t until the 1990s that researchers documented the effects of stormwater toxicity on salmonids. 6PPD only became known as the express chemical in December 2020. The challenge is a big step forward. Along with a makeover in tire manufacturing, we want to replace the way stormwater flows directly into street water. The researchers found that soil-strained stormwater with plants (garden-like) solved the challenge and salmon. You can check out the driving ban, but I don’t think it will gain much traction.
We want bigger cars, sorry, I mean trucks, to drive every day, using only ourselves. These cars. . . These trucks. . . They want bigger tires. I mean BIG tires, like 18-24 inches in diameter, and they have to be wide, with big yettons, to look good while driving to the paint or supermarket. It also helps if the truck weighs at least 4000 pounds, but more is better.
Sorry, I missed the sarcasm. Smaller cars with smaller wheels and tires would take a long time to stop this problem.
But we all know that doesn’t happen.
News on the move
BikePortland is a production of PedalTown Media Inc. Original photographs and content are the property of Pedaltown Media, Inc. Use them without permission.