Are you aware of the long history of US railroads suffering derailment of normal freight trains with hazardous cargo?
The lack of reporting by the mainstream media smells like a coverup.
I don't know which mainstream media you follow, but the large US newspapers and US TV networks have covered the derailment and its aftermath since the event.
Today's New York Times has more than a full page on the disaster, including continuing problems at the site and a (somewhat tardy) appearance by the EPA at the site.
Perhaps UK media do not show interest in disasters in other countries?
I suppose not much reaches Europe. They appear to be downplaying the environmental damage, with all the dead fish an animals, but again, it might just be because we don't get much US news about that sort of thing here.
The mainstream media in the US, reporting on a US disaster, certainly have covered the environmental damage, especially the obvious dead fish. Why do you think they are covering this up?
I admit that US media discuss non-US disasters less extensively.
Adam Smith once raised the question about how a sober, pious, and morally sound European would react to news of an earthquake in China with huge casualties, compared to news from his doctor that one of his own fingers would have to be removed. (
Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759, four years after the great Lisbon earthquake)
“Let us suppose that the great empire of China, with all its myriads of inhabitants, was suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake, and let us consider how a man of humanity in Europe, who had no sort of connection with that part of the world, would be affected upon receiving intelligence of this dreadful calamity. He would, I imagine, first of all, express very strongly his sorrow for the misfortune of that unhappy people, he would make many melancholy reflections upon the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of all the labours of man, which could thus be annihilated in a moment. He would too, perhaps, if he was a man of speculation, enter into many reasonings concerning the effects which this disaster might produce upon the commerce of Europe, and the trade and business of the world in general. And when all this fine philosophy was over, when all these humane sentiments had been once fairly expressed, he would pursue his business or his pleasure, take his repose or his diversion, with the same ease and tranquillity, as if no such accident had happened. The most frivolous disaster which could befall himself would occasion a more real disturbance. If he was to lose his little finger to-morrow, he would not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he will snore with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred millions of his brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own. To prevent, therefore, this paltry misfortune to himself, would a man of humanity be willing to sacrifice the lives of a hundred millions of his brethren, provided he had never seen them? Human nature startles with horror at the thought, and the world, in its greatest depravity and corruption, never produced such a villain as could be capable of entertaining it. But what makes this difference? When our passive feelings are almost always so sordid and so selfish, how comes it that our active principles should often be so generous and so noble? When we are always so much more deeply affected by whatever concerns ourselves, than by whatever concerns other men; what is it which prompts the generous, upon all occasions, and the mean upon many, to sacrifice their own interests to the greater interests of others? It is not the soft power of humanity, it is not that feeble spark of benevolence which Nature has lighted up in the human heart, that is thus capable of counteracting the strongest impulses of self-love. It is a stronger power, a more forcible motive, which exerts itself upon such occasions. It is reason, principle, conscience, the inhabitant of the breast, the man within, the great judge and arbiter of our conduct.”
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