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The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!
Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here.
"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's gred."
~Mahatma Gandhi
"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
~John F. Kennedy
I have been wanting to do a blog entry on Fukushima for some time now, because it truly is an amazing story.
Everyone remembers that horrific earthquake in Japan that killed thousands and then caused a tsunami that destabilized the Fukushima nuclear plant. Eventually, there was an explosion at Fukushima, and workers worked long hours trying to spray water over the plant to cool it down, with limited success. Ultimately, three of Fukushima's six reactors experienced a nuclear meltdown.
Japan was not able to contain the contamination effect from Fukushima, and traces of radiation was found in food.
What is amazing is that, by their own admission, Japanese authorities admitted to not having very high standards for safety and management of the site and, for that matter, also admitted that they could not contain the leaking of radioactive material into the nearby Pacific Ocean.
So, how bad was it?
Well, according to the well-respected scientist and television personality Michio Kaku had to say about it in his article some months after the incident (italics in the following are mine):
4. The reactors are continuing to release radiation. This was a mystery at first, since, if the core melting was under control, then water should not be in direct contact with melted uranium. Many suspected, therefore, that the uranium completely melted and even melted right through the vessel as well. This direct contact between water and melted uranium is probably the main source of radiation still leaking from the reactors. (Source: Three-Month Update of Fukushima Accident and the Flood of New Information Coming Out by MICHIO KAKU - http://bigthink.com/dr-kakus-universe/three-month-update-of-fukushima-accident-and-the-flood-of-new-information-coming-out)
Not exactly encouraging, is it?
Yet, it has become more or less a non-story. You do not hear about it anymore. It was a huge story at the time, but it has been well-documented that the Japanese government hid a lot of information that would compromise it, and even at the risk of harming people. If we see that a modern government of a rich, industrialized nation can effectively lie to it's own people and to the world, then what is to say that other governments from potentially affected nations along the Pacific would also try to undermine the impact of the nuclear leakage into the ocean, in order not to compromise their fishing industry? Would you eat seafood from Japan right now?
However, not everyone agrees. Another well-respected source is Dr. David Suzuki, and he has been sounding the alarm on Fukushima for a long time now, suggesting that this was a much bigger disaster than officials were admitting, that in fact they were "lying through their teeth" (his words), and that the radiation had escaped on a massive scale into the ocean. Finally, he basically predicted that if another major earthquake were to hit Japan within the next few years, it might cause one of the other reactors to blow, and then, according to him, that would effectively be the end of Japan as we know it, and there would need to be mass evacuations from the West Coast of North America!
“There's clearly issues with radioactivity in the water. Cooling water is leaking into the groundwater and into the ocean. But the ocean's a big place; the levels of radiation are dispersed. It's completely negligible.”
Even from detractors, there is an admission that the radioactive leak went into the ocean. But, he says, the ocean is a big place, and the radiation would disperse in such a manner that we need not worry about it. It is reassuring, on some level. However, is it true? Are the levels of radiation effectively so miniscule that we need not worry?
Perhaps.
However, I want to share a story at this point in time. I have a very political friend (well, more of a Facebook friend these days, although we attended school together for many years), and his very first reaction after Fukushima blew up was essentially to say that the worst thing to come out of this was that it would fuel anti-nuclear sentiments the world over.
Yes, instead of being concerned about the dangers that a plant like Fukushima could potentially pose through a natural disaster or, potentially, a deliberate attack of some sort, he was so in favor of nuclear power that he was worried about how this nuclear disaster would re-energize the anti-nuclear movement.
And if that was his first reaction to the disaster, can you imagine what the reaction of those with a particularly vested interest in subduing public reaction to the Fukushima disaster surely was? That includes not just those who run the nuclear plants themselves, but for uranium mines, and for governments and contractors associated to all of these things. That's big money we are talking about here, and I am willing to bet that, much like the Japanese government was less than forthcoming about the actual impact of what happened at Fukushima, the powers that be might have similar interests in minimizing the story which has stopped being a story in remarkably short order.
Ultimately, it is all just speculation. I am not an expert in the field, but a concerned observer. This is an age of seemingly limitless information at our fingertips, until we get to matters such as this, when there is so much misinformation and, let's face it, cover ups out there, that you never know what to believe.
So, what is your opinion on all of this? Is the Fukushima threat still very real, or greatly exaggerated? Please share your thoughts and, if applicable, expertise on the matter!
Fresh nuclear leak detected at Fukushima plant AFP February 22, 2015:
http://news.yahoo.com/fresh-nuclear-leak-detected-fukushima-plant-092631572.html
These Nuclear Physicists Think David Suzuki Is Exaggerating about Fukushima November 11, 2013 by David P. Ball:
These Nuclear Physicists Think David Suzuki Is Exaggerating about Fukushima November 11, 2013 by David P. Ball:
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