<story><title>Silicon Valley is one of the most polluted places in the country</title><url>https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/09/silicon-valley-full-superfund-sites/598531/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>natch</author><text>Article does not even mention the Kaiser Permanente cement plant which has a dedicated train line bringing in coal for burning, is one of the largest sources of mercury pollution in California, and is perched right over Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Los Altos, and very close to Palo Alto and San Jose, bathing them in a haze of emissions.&lt;p&gt;All the highly educated and well connected residents, rich and powerful corporations, and even local governments can&amp;#x27;t do anything about it, because it is grandfathered in by federal law. It doesn&amp;#x27;t even appear on many lists of top polluters because many people who compile such lists only include power plants, and it is not a power plant.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a real world counterexample for people who say we can just turn off the switch of things we don&amp;#x27;t like (AI being the usual such thing). Well, good luck with that, if there are laws saying you can&amp;#x27;t... which there will be.</text></comment>
<story><title>Silicon Valley is one of the most polluted places in the country</title><url>https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/09/silicon-valley-full-superfund-sites/598531/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>herostratus101</author><text>This is still the best essay I have read on the topic: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.aarongreenspan.com&amp;#x2F;writing&amp;#x2F;20130404&amp;#x2F;in-search-of-the-cookie-dough-tree&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.aarongreenspan.com&amp;#x2F;writing&amp;#x2F;20130404&amp;#x2F;in-search-of-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve left Silicon Valley since I read it. And having read it, I hope to never move back.</text></comment>