No matter that probably more than 10,000 died in the quake and waves that followed. No matter that a few people are dying buried in the rubble as I write this. No matter that more will freeze to death without shelter and power to protect them. Let's get worked up over a couple of reactors that have not yet caused one death - and at this point probably will not cause any. What should be concerning us now is the tragic loss of human life.
Author's Note: The following three paragraphs are absolute snark.
I think we're worrying about the wrong thing. This whole mess was caused by an earthquake. That produced a tsunami. The tsunami blew out the power plant. Why focus our thoughts on the power plant? I say we should find a way to defeat the earthquake.
If folks in Tokyo had listened to Bucky Fuller and built the reactors (and houses and stores and factories and everything else) in a really big balloon and floated the whole works above the earth, a measly 9.0 earthquake would have been fun to watch. Earthquake,smerthquake, I'm going about my business anyway. On second thought, tornados may be a problem
Or, Triton City, another of Bucky's ideas that was built on the ocean. Earthquakes don't much bother people in boats so long as they're a mile or more off shore. And tsunamis? One of those is only a couple of inches high in deep water - ain't no biggie. Oops, I just remembered. Hurricanes and cyclones happen.
My point is this. We can not control this planet nor mother nature. What will be, will be. And, we have very limited ability to quantify risk. Honestly, which do you think is the more risky behavior - living across the street from a nuclear power plant or driving a mile to work and back every day? My vote is the latter but we do this everyday without a second thought. Let's play Personal Safety again. Which is the more risky - building more nuke plants or more coal fired plants? We're gonna need to build something or just let civilization drop back to the hunter-gatherer stage.
Even if the final result in Japan is a Three Mile Island style melt down, and even though we live downwind from Japan, my personal choice is nuclear. I don't imagine this will be a Chernobyl. There was no containment vessel at that site. We've learned some lessons. Coal is FOR SURE gonna mess up the air I breathe. Let's learn from this and build to higher standards. At this stage our technology allows no other options. Solar, wind and geothermal cannot provide us with our needs. Hydro plants are even more politically charged than nuclear. Wringing our hands and getting mired down is not helpful at all.
Let's bury our dead, all of whom's death came at the hand of natural causes beyond our control, and commiserate with the survivors. After that, let's tell the oil companies to get out of the way of biological research. They're the ones just sitting on the real answer, at least until something from Star Trek comes along, production of petroleum by algae.
That's just my prospective at this time, on this day. The world has become so complex I am no longer as sure of my thinking and answers to knotty problems as I was in the past. I no longer have any confidence at all in my ability to cope with anything the world tosses in my general direction. I have no intelligent method of dealing with the problems we face in this household much less the ones we are facing as a spieces. I'd love to hear other views.
How many years did you live at the top of the canyon just above the Omega reactor? The reactor was shut down and dismantled after decades of use, ending US production of some specific medical isatopes when it was discovered that it had been leaking tritium contaminated water due to a bad weld since it's inception. How many deaths and injuries from it? "0" But the anti nuke nuts have got people convinced that all radiation in any form is bad and if a reactor ever has a problem it should be shut down and dismantled. The truth is, that some radiation is good, even necessary. Overdosing radiation is bad. The best method for reducing radiation exposure is to live at or below sea level, and for gosh sakes, never ever get on an airliner as the radiation dose goes way up at altitude.
ReplyDeleteSo people will continue to worry about what the press puts in front of them instead of the real problems in the world. It's a silly world with an ignorant press leading the way.
Gosh Forrest, you hit another hot button. :o)
Whoa, Jeff - Please re-read. I'm in favor. As you said, I lived at the top of the canyon for years.
ReplyDeletePS - Jeff. You are absolutely right about the press. It used to be there were only several of many sources that engaged in "Yellow Journalism." These days it's all you can find from the mainstream. News is just there to sell the proudct, and nothing sells the news like fear. We should fire the whole lot of the press from the owners to the script readers. Let 'um sell hamburgers at a Micky D's.
ReplyDeleteOh yes. I know you're in agreement. But I still got on my soap box, albeit preaching to the choir. :o)
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