Eric Smillie | Writer

This is no disaster

Welcome to the Internet, a convenient place to find my new blog and news about the articles I’ve written. I was on NPR talking about my latest story today — a guide to the hottest ecodisaster travel destinations in the United States, published by GOOD magazine. It’s a roundup of five super fascinating spots like the Berkeley Pit in Montana, the country’s largest body of toxic water, and Centralia, Pennsylvania, a ghost town on top of an underground coal fire that’s been burning for over 40 years. Sounds like a joke, but it’s not. They charge admission to the viewing platform at the Pit, and another of the sites — the Salton Sea in southern California — used to attract more visitors than Yosemite!

[...] Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific Gyre, I thought it was the most far fetched of the disaster destinations I explored. It was certainly the most far flung, as you have to motor a boat for a week just to get [...]