Friday, April 15, 2011

Nuclear mayhem

I've been keeping up with news about the earthquake and resulting nuclear disaster in Japan last month, and now a month later it doesn't look good. There's been next to no information from the 'public health' authorities, so it appears we're on our own, for the most part. I don't see how on earth we can claim some justification for sending bombers into Libya, but stay 'hands-off' with Japan's disaster when the weather patterns are sending nuclear radiation all around the northern hemisphere, landing first on the U.S. west coast (where I happen to live). Thankfully I have a Savior, but that's more of a topic for my other blog. I have never been a fan of nuclear power, and while it may be 'clean' when everything is working without problems, we do not now and never will live in a 'problem-free' world. Now that I'm done ranting, I wanted to link to an article titled: Nuclear's green cheerleaders forget Chernobyl at our peril. Here's a few sentences I wanted to highlight:
The authorities reassure us by saying there is no immediate danger and a few absolutist environmentalists obsessed with nuclear power because of the urgency to limit emissions repeat the industry mantra that only a few people died at Chernobyl – the worst nuclear accident in history. Those who disagree are smeared and put in the same camp as climate change deniers. I prefer the words of Alexey Yablokov, member of the Russian academy of sciences, and adviser to President Gorbachev at the time of Chernobyl: "When you hear 'no immediate danger' [from nuclear radiation] then you should run away as far and as fast as you can."
The author of the article then goes into some details about a trip he made to the still highly contaminated areas of Ukraine and the Belarus border 5 years ago. In general, it highlights with some detail that the 'official numbers' of those affected by Chernobyl is grossly understated. Definitely worth reading.