Didn't mean to be flippant in my remarks about that dark chocolate (although I do like the idea of "having to" consume large quantities). This is the first I've heard about this tragic bit of breaking news.

I do hope that no one gets hurt/poisoned, and that we can trust good old Mother Earth to continue absorbing these insults without significant permanent damage. We had a big chemical spill from tank cars on the railroad near my New Orleans home a few years ago, and the damage ultimately proved to be much less telling than expected.

More recently, of course, 80% of our city spent five weeks or so flooded with a nasty mix of brackish water, chemical waste, sewerage, dead human and animal bodies, and God only knows what else. The whole town reeked of an undescribable stink for months, and plenty of doomsayers were predicting that all lifeforms would be negatively impacted for the foreseeable future. However, plant life (weeds as well as trees and flowers ~ everything that wasn't killed during the flood by the salt intrusion) is thriving like never before, and people seem to be physically OK, for the most part. The levee failures that occurred after Hurricane Katrina have taken a pretty severe human toll, but it has been more of a psychological phenomenon ~ depression, suicides, etc. ~ than anything chemical or otherwise physical.