by @anarchyroll
6/13/2014
There have been a number of articles published on this website about fracking. The other half of the Frackishima label is the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
Very few news events that I have no control over have kept me up at night, given me nightmares, and made me fearful for my existence on planet Earth the way Fukushima has. Let’s take a look at some of the facts as to what worried me so much:
- the meltdown was caused by a tsunami (I assumed nuclear reactors could withstand natural disasters)
- a Level 7 nuclear meltdown, only the second ever after Chernobyl. (the scale only goes to 7)
- the massive amount of radioactive water that has spilled into the ocean
- the reactors have not yet been decommissioned
- the clean up is expected to take decades
The vast majority of people simply don’t want to think about Fukushima. Who can blame them? But not wanting to think about something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist and that the problems won’t be affecting us as a human race for…ever.
Do we really think that all that nuclear waste and radioactive material that is still in the ocean isn’t going to have negative ramifications?
How much radiation in the water and land are we as a species willing to tolerate before enough is enough?
I sometimes wonder if all this radiation, oil, and chemicals that have leaked and/or spilled into so much of our water supply has something to do with the global rise in cancer rates. How about you?
Earth is a very big planet. What happens on one side of the planet doesn’t necessarily effect what is happening on the other side of the planet. I find it hard to believe that the repeated nuclear bomb tests, bomb drops, and reactor meltdowns aren’t having/won’t have a negative effect on the planet and the people who inhabit it.
I may not be a scientist but I can do addition. I am smart enough to know that all of these toxic materials poisoning our air, water, and land have to be adding up to something. It’s not 1950, it’s 2014 there have been a lot of oil spills, chemical spills, and nuclear materials around the globe. Just because they were mistakes (mostly) doesn’t make what happens after the incidents any different from if they were on purpose.
Are we poisoning the planet?
That is not a sarcastic question. That is not a rhetorical question. That is however what has kept me up, made me worry, and given me nightmares.
Because when I wake up, splash some cold water on my face, and turn the lights on; Chernobyl still happend, Exxon Valdez still happened, Deepwater Horizon still happened, Fukushima still happened, and thousands of nuclear bombs have been tested and continue to be tested (North Korea). What effects that we know about are happening to the planet and all species who inhabit it? What effects that we don’t yet know about?
These are things that are way outside of my sphere of influence, knowledge base, and pay grade. But I think about them nonetheless and I hope other people do too, because not thinking about it doesn’t mean these events haven’t happened, aren’t happening, and won’t have consequences we as humans must deal with for generations to come.
Are we poisoning the planet?
