Thu. Apr 18th, 2024

By Karla Fetrow

Count Down to Oblivion

 

The world breathlessly waits on the precipice of a disaster; one that began with a natural catastrophe, but has since become the second man-made calamity to deliver punishing blows to a sustainable Earth in less than a year.  The initial disaster, a heart pounding nine point earthquake and accompanying tsunami, were enough to cripple Japan’s economy and affect global trade for a very long time, but Japan is resilient and industrious enough that it would have recovered.  The damaged nuclear reactors, however, are driving nails into its coffin.

It’s understandable that Japanese government officials would wish to minimize the risks and make their citizens believe everything is under control.  It has a country of millions, already devastated by the twin natural disasters, and with no safe place to go.  They are powerless to do anything except wait to see whether the reactors will be cooled down in time or whether they’ve been issued a death sentence.  In the meantime, the rest of the world uses their own gauges of safety in relation to how close they wish to be to Japan.  In the meantime, radiation trickles out from the reactors like oil seeping from the bottom of the ocean.

On the Saturday following the disaster, March 12th., Japanese officials placed the incident at a four on a one to seven scale, stating that the explosion that occurred was worst than the accident at Three Mile Island, but not as bad as the meltdown at Chernobyl, the only nuclear incident to be classified level seven.  French authorities say the accident should currently be classified at level six.

How Bad was Chernobyl?

The disturbing part about nuclear disasters is the immediate effects are witnessed only by those closest to the scene of the accident.  Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the 1986 accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning.  Acute radiation syndrome (ARS) was originally diagnosed in 237 people on-site and involved with the clean-up and  was later confirmed in 134 cases. Nineteen more deaths occurred between the years 1987 and 2004, although radiation has not been confirmed as the cause of death.  Additionally, a large proportion of children have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer since then, leading authorities to suspect it was due to radioactive poisoning.  The fallout from the explosion covered large areas of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and beyond with varying degrees of radiation.

Chernobyl was located in a town with 12,500 inhabitants.  Ukraine’s Capital, Kiev, is located about 130 kilometers north of Chernobyl, with a population of three million.  The immediate radiation dust cloud  covered mainly wilderness areas and small towns, exponentially spreading out its lethal doses in smaller and smaller quantities as it covered a lightly populated Arctic Rim.  The countries affected were behind the Iron Curtain, with very little information given out as to the degree of severity.

According to an American, Chris Hamilton, who was teaching seminars in Poland at the time of the Chernobyl disaster, Russia did not advise the Polish people of the melt-down that occurred in Ukraine until several days after the explosion had already sent out its radioactive ring.  As soon as he learned of the danger, he sent his pregnant wife back to the United States with their two year old daughter.

Hamilton continued to stay in Warsaw for the next couple of months to complete his Fulbright assignment, taking precautions that included avoiding being outdoors in the rain, avoiding eating foods that could have become contaminated and removing his clothes in the hallway of his home before going straight to the shower room to wash off any possible nuclear materials.

This is not the case for Japan.  Besides its own high density population, Japan is located close to the mainland of Russia, China, North and South Korea.  Its radioactive cloud has the potential to affect millions of people.  While it’s understandable that Japan wishes to protect its people from all-out panic, the rest of the world has the right to know what they can expect.

Call to Preparedness

Japan’s crisis is a world crisis.  Even without the reactor explosions, the massive earthquake and tsunami produced a crippling effect to the economy of trade and commerce.  Japan is home to six of  the top ten  automobile producers on the world scale.  They are key suppliers in consumer electronics, computers, semiconductors, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, bio-industry, ship building, aerospace, textiles and processed foods.  Within two days after the natural disaster, stocks began to plummet.

Sony Corp., which has halted output at several factories — including one that makes Blu-Ray discs — was down 2.2 percent.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest automaker, which has halted production of cars, was down 3.6 percent.

Toshiba Corp., another company forced to shut factories after the quake, was down 5 percent. Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., a major insurer, was down 2.4 percent.

The index had shed more than 1,600 points, or 16 percent, Monday of the 14th. and the following Tuesday as worries over the nuclear crisis triggered widespread selling.

The yen has climbed to a record high.  Major natural disasters like earthquakes tends to bolster the yen because investors expect the Japanese public and insurance companies to buy back their home currency in order to fund the country’s reconstruction, increasing demand for the yen.

Some analysts have said they expected the Bank of Japan to sell dollars in an attempt to weaken the Japanese currency if the dollar dropped below 80 yen. A strong yen hurts the Asian country’s exporters, potentially deepening the already severe hit to the world’s No. 3 economy from the multiple disasters.

The nuclear crisis has shaken Japan’s chances of a fairly swift recovery.  It was a country that thrived on tourism and fishing.  In a large number of countries, tourists have been advised not to book reservations with Japan this season until they have an accurate measurement of the degree of radiation spewing into the air.  Although Japanese officials claim it would take several months of daily exposure from the contaminants  currently in the air to cause significant health damage, American rescue teams have been instructed to maintain a fifty mile distance from the reactors.

 

In Alaska, fishermen poised over their dip nets, ready to harvest the herring for their number one customer; Japan; although it’s now unclear whether Japan will be accepting any imports. Japan is Alaska’s biggest trade partner, receiving $1.2 billion-worth of Alaska products — mostly seafood, liquefied natural gas and minerals — last year. Also, Alaska is a major destination for Japanese tourists in the summer and winter months. Some Japanese tourists have canceled their trips to Alaska in recent days, Alaska tour operators said.

Living with Repercussions

Although President Obama continues to support the development of nuclear energy, investors are quietly casting around for safer solutions.  California takes a hard look at their power plants in San Onofre and Diablo Canyon.  Both are sitting close to a fault line.  Both are coastal.  Both are built to withstand ground accelerations worse than those that ravaged Japan.  But questions remain about how they would stand up to a tsunami.

“The Japanese Fukushima site had a double hit — an earthquake larger than had been anticipated and a tsunami larger than had been anticipated,” said Burton Richter, a Nobel Laureate in physics and a professor at Stanford University.

“The earthquake was not the problem,” he added. “The tsunami was. In Japan, the earthquake engineering was superb, but the tsunami protection was not adequate. Their sea wall was not high enough to protect the site from flooding, and it was the flooding that knocked out the emergency core cooling system.”

The problems at Japan’s quake-stricken nuclear power plant is hurting the global nuclear industry, with stock prices falling for companies that build or operate nuclear power plants.  There also has been a decline in the price of uranium fuel.

Investor concern follows the temporary closure of some nuclear power plants in Germany, and plans by many nations to closely review safety issues related to earthquakes and cooling systems that are at the heart of the problems in Japan.

Nuclear power provides almost one-fifth of the world’s electricity, from 442 nuclear power plants. The United States has 104 nuclear power plants, more than any other nation. But France is more dependent on nuclear energy than most nations, getting about three-quarters of its electricity from nuclear sources.

Another 65 nuclear power plants are under construction, and hundreds more are in some stage of planning.

About one-third of those new plants are in China, which needs more electricity to power its strong economic growth.  India also has about a half-dozen plants under construction.

Final Warning

Japan is having a melt-down.  The damaged reactors have over-heated, and the water around them is boiling.  Each hour that ticks by is a race to contain what has already become a major blow to global economics and is well on its way to becoming the world’s worst man-made disaster.  In the United States, the EPA is setting up additional monitoring systems in California, Alaska, and Hawaii, to measure the degree of fallout set off by the continuing radiation leak from Japan’s reactors.  Fallout is expected to arrive in the Aleutian Island and the California Coast by this weekend.

Radiation is leaking like oil spreading its way across the ocean floor, creating an environmental dead zone.  We can’t clean up this man-made disaster.  We can only prepare for its consequences.  Those within its radioactive cloud, either through circumference or within the path of the trade winds should stay indoors as much as possible, eat no fresh foods that might have been exposed, and iodize their drinking water.  Part of your staple diet should consist of garlic and brown rice.

Prepare yourselves to live very, very poor.  There is no magic formula for bouncing back a healthy economy.  The billionaire industry has left us on our own, and has proven over and over that it does not care.  No amount of kicking, screaming, accusations or protests is going to change that.  What we can do is quit listening to them.

Despite the first warning issued with the oil spill on the Louisiana Coast, the conglomerated oil and nuclear companies continued to push for the development of new facilities, new refineries, new oil and gas pipelines, stating they were necessary for the transition to alternative energy resources.  When Iceland first came out with their fuel cell technology, the world ignored it as inconvenient and unprofitable.  If there are the funds to build a nuclear plant, there are the funds to build windmills.  If a country can afford to build a nuclear reactor, it can afford to develop solar power, hydro-electric or geothermal plants.  The time for transition is now.  When we tap our non-renewable energy resources that create harmful effects on our environment, it’s never a question of whether or not they’ll blow, but when.  Another catastrophe of the magnitude of Japan’s and it’s all over.

It’s not worth it to sacrifice global environmental health for a few more years of material comfort.  If we don’t start now; accepting that we’ve poisoned the earth and it needs some serious medicine to heal, down scaling our needs for energy consumption, recycling and restructuring our network for clean water and food, it will be too late.  Our indecision will be the hours wasted while another leak adds infection to the wound.  Our billionaires will have their money, but they will be left with an environmentally hostile earth and the only viable stock will be in radiation monitors and iodine.

http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/03/16/us-urges-citizens-away-from-japan-nuclear-plant-as-radiation-spikes/

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/chernobyl/inf07.html

http://cjonline.com/news/local/2011-03-16/topekans-recall-chernobyl-disaster

http://www.adn.com/2011/03/16/1759534/japan-earthquake-effects-ripple.html#ixzz1GpoZBE8Y

http://www.penipress.com/2011/03/16/california-nuclear-power-plants-remain-confident-despite-crisis-in-japan/

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Japans-Crisis-Batters-Global-Nuclear-Industry–118054259.html

By karlsie

Some great perversity of nature decided to give me a tune completely out of keeping with the general symphony; possibly from the moment of conception. I learned to read and speak almost simultaneously. The blurred and muffled world I heard through my first five years of random nerve loss deafness suddenly came alive with the clarity of how those words sounded on paper. I had been liberated for communications. I decided there was nothing more wonderful than writing. It was easier to write than carefully modulate my speech for correct pronunciation, and it was easier to read than patiently follow the movements of people’s lips to learn what they were saying. It was during that dawning time period, while I slowly made the connection that there weren’t that many other people who heard the way I did, halfway between sound and music, half in deafness, that I began to understand that the tune I was following wasn’t quite the same as that of my classmates. I was just a little different. General education taught me not only was I just a little isolated from my classmates, my home was just a little isolated from the outside world. I was born in Alaska, making me part of one of the smallest, quietest minorities on earth. I decided I could live with this. What I couldn’t live with was discovering a few years later, in the opening up of the pipeline, which coincided with my first year of junior college, that there were entire communities of people; more than I could possibly imagine; living impossibly one on top of another in vast cities. It wasn’t even the magnitude of this vision that inspired me so much as the visitors who came from these populous regions and seemed to possess a knowledge so great and secretive I could never learn it in any book. I became at once, very conscious of how rural I was and how little I knew beyond the scope of my environment. I decided it was time to travel. The rest is history; or at least, the content of my stories. I traveled... often to college campuses, dropping in and out of school until one fine day by chance I’d fashioned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology. I’ve worked a couple of newspapers, had a few poems and stories tossed around in various small presses, never receiving a great deal of money, which I’m assured is the norm for a writer. I spent ten years in Mexico, watching the peso crash. There is some obscure reason why I did this, tightening up my belt and facing hunger, but I believe at the time I said it was for love. Here I am, back home, in my beloved Alaska. I’ve learned somewhat of a worldly viewpoint; at least I like to flatter myself that way. I’ve also learned my rural roots aren’t so bad after all. I work in a small, country store. Every day I greet the same group of local customers, but make no mistake. My store isn’t a scene out of Andy Griffith. The people who enter the establishment, which also includes showers, laundry and movie rentals, are miners, oil workers, truck drivers, construction engineers, dog sled racers and carpenters. Sometimes, on the liquor side, the conversations became adult only in vocabulary. It’s a good thing, on the opposite side of the store is a candy aisle filled with the most astonishing collection, it will keep a kid occupied with just wishing for hours. If you tell your kids they can have just one, you have an instant baby sitter; better than television; as they agonize over their choice while you catch up on the gossip with your neighbor. We also receive a lot of tourists, a lot of foreign visitors. They are usually amazed at this first sign of Alaskan rural life style beyond the insulating hub of the Anchorage bowl. Many of them like to hang around and chat. They gawk at our thieves wanted posters. They laugh at our jokes and camaraderie with our customers. I’ve learned another lesson while working there. You don’t have to go out and find the world. If you wait long enough, it comes to you.

Related Post

38 thoughts on “Japan Nuclear Melt Down”
  1. i like the comment about the book of revelations. you write anything and it’ll probably come true give two thousand years… here is a question that i haven’t heard asked. if nuclear meltdowns are so devastating not only to the local area, but to anyone where the wind can blow toward, why did the us drop atomic bombs on 2 japanese cities? how does an atomic bomb compare to a meltdown? and, what were the radiation effects of those bombs on the us west coast? this all seems like media hype.

  2. Hey Gomer, the U.S. dropped a bomb post WW2 that gave an entire native Japanese island population radiation poisoning as well as killed everyone one a Japanese fishing vessel on accident. something tells me they didn’t do radiation calculations too well back then.

  3. Gomer, you ask some very good questions. To begin with, at the times the bombs were dropped, the military had no idea of what kind of fire power they were playing with. They had tested the bomb in theory more than in actuality. It took years for the people to recover, and radioactive cancer spread like wild fire. The fallout did, indeed, hit Hawaii, Alaska and the California Coast. This is how they know how much effect radioactive particles can have, and yes, a great many people developed cancers and tumors, but not with the degree of severity that hit Japan. This is also why all people of intelligence realized we can never afford a nuclear war.

    When Chernobyl blew, the containers that held the fuel rods immediately cracked. It was virtually like one atomic bomb going off. Japan’s case is different. The containment remained solid; at first, but they have not been able to cool down the reactors enough to keep their fuel rods from being exposed to open air. The plant is dangerously hot, with radiation escaping in a steady stream. This radiation accumulates in the atmosphere. The fallout, at first, will seem minor, but it will be steady and continue bombarding its radius for weeks.

    Because they can’t see it, smell it or taste it, most people think “small doses” of radiation are acceptable. They willingly take X-rays; in large volumes. A doctor once told me, “an X-ray amounts to nothing more than three days in the sun.” As an outdoor enthusiast, i reflected and answered, “that’s a lot”. One X-ray, one three second exposure, amounts to three days in the sun. What do you think a steady stream of minimal exposure could do to you in three weeks?

    I live on the West Coast; i.e., the Coast of Alaska. Yesterday, when i awoke, i felt nauseous and my sinuses were clogged. It was snowing lightly, after a full week of clear skies. The clouds broke in the early afternoon. They were yellow and ugly. When i arrived at work, a lot of people were complaining about upset stomachs and runny noses.

    When the local newspapers ran the story of minute radioactive particles detected in California, but hastened to say there have been no radiation detected in Alaska or Hawaii, posters were quick to reply EPA is lying. Every Alaskan knows the trade winds hit Hawaii first (thus would have the highest impact of radioactive particles) than the Aleutian Chain, before curving around and traveling to Hawaii. We know we were hit by a dust cloud yesterday and it came down in snow. The radioactivity might not be great; yet; but it will accumulate over the next few weeks.

    What is motivating the downplay, pure and simply, is greed. Alaska, Hawaii and California receive a great deal of their income from tourism, fishing and agriculture. Who is going to buy their services if they feel those services are unsafe?

    It’s pitiful when our legislators would rather lie to the public than tell them the truth about radiation dangers. Real leaders would give their people instructions in preparedness. They would have shelters ready and provide medications to counter-act the effects of radiation. They would give instructions on what foods might be at hazard, regardless of the risk to sales potential. Real leaders would put the well-being of the citizens they represent first.

    We will probably never be told the truth about how much radioactivity is in the air, but this much i can predict. When the rash of cancers, tumors, deformed babies and child cancer victims go up, the cause will be placed on any number of things, from hereditary to second hand smoke, but it will never be blamed on radioactivity.

  4. Thank you for such a clear, concise and honest article. It has brought me to tears and has made me sad and angry that we are killing the world in which we live and the world for our children. We have exchanged our food for energy and manufacturing. Please make it stop. Live simply and allow ourselves to be happy. What have we done…

    “Human beings will be happier – not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That’s my utopia.”
    Kurt Vonnegut

  5. It is sad when we are relegated to becoming expendable commodities due to politics. The evidence was clear from the onset as any laymen could deduce from the destruction surrounding the nuclear power plants that these people needed help and much of it to prevent what is most obviously happening now. Why does the world sit idly by and wait for an invitation to disaster based on misinformation provided by a government that is clearly more interested in saving “face”? Does this not prompt action from outside coalitions? Protocol seems mute point now. This fall out will affect more than just Japan. I live in Hawaii. I don’t have a fall out shelter, and I don’t know what counter measures my government has to offer me and my family, God Help us all.

  6. I would get the hell out of Japan ASAP! Got to love governments, they always lie to there own citizens to save/make a dollar, wouldnt be surprised if they caused the quake. I keep reading in mainstream news that there is no radiation issue and everything will be ok, well I just read an article, google it, that said people from japan who are flying into chicago o’hara airport have radiation on them and there luggage and also in the vents on the plane. RUN Japaneese people, run to at least Korea or I would go further, come to the states or canada,

  7. Betsy – the world was not idly standing by. The US has been ready from the start to help as much as they can.
    Also, we must remember that while their government may be trying to save face, their people are still in total devastation and need all the empathy and help they can get, which isn’t coming very quickly to each person. Feel free to “put on your own oxygen mask before helping the passenger next to you” but remember that we are far away, and at this moment, the here and now is the most important as far as helping those most in need (hypothermia, acute radiation poisoning, injuries, etc.). Hopefully we will all be able to join hands together and emerge from this tragedy ready to clean up our mother earth and move forward in a more simple life.

  8. A great article – it’s almost surreal how even though the meltdown conditions are still a part of the daily newscaps, the focus is now on the economic ramifications of the aftermath of the earthquake. What made ‘bigger’ news was the Canadian banks assuring Canadians that the turmoil in Japan should not have an impact on the Canadian economy, but there is a concern that it may affect the production of the Prius! It is as if there is a slow erosion of the human factor and the future impact on the global ecological system – sad.

  9. Betsy, i hope you’ll stay with us and continue posting either here at the board or at our forum. I read the Hawaii newspaper. They are downplaying the radioactive cloud as much as they are here, in Alaska. We’re both from volcanic regions. We know when there’s dust particles in the air. Yesterday and today, the sun set just like there had been a volcanic explosion; blurred and streaming across the sky, but instead of bright reds and orange, it was a dull yellow. My throat is raw. My eyes are irritated. My sister broke out in a rash. Keep the communications open so we can get out the truth.

    Lisa, Hawaii has plenty of cause for concern. It received the backlash of the tsunami. It’s in the direct path of the radioactive cloud as long as it moves with the trade winds. It’s not as broken as Japan, but it’s damaged.

    I read a great analyst’s report at RT. For those of you who are nervous about reading the Russian Times, it’s a great source for getting an alternative perspective. One of their first observations was to evacuate as much of the island as possible. Not only for radiation sickness, but because soon the corpses of the unburied dead (which also includes a great many pets and livestock) will began to rot, prompting disease.

    While the living are being evacuated, every damned nuclear technician and extra tub of water should be on the scene doing everything in their power to cool those reactors down. If they don’t, the scenario will go one of two ways. Either she’ll blow, sending an ungodly amount of radiation into the air all at once, or the containment will continuing cracking, releasing radiation into the air like the steam from a tea kettle. Either way, we’ve lost.

  10. [Quote=Karlsie]It’s pitiful when our legislators would rather lie to the public than tell them the truth about radiation dangers. Real leaders would give their people instructions in preparedness. They would have shelters ready and provide medications to counter-act the effects of radiation. They would give instructions on what foods might be at hazard, regardless of the risk to sales potential. Real leaders would put the well-being of the citizens they represent first. [/quote]

    Sorry pal, but such people don’t exist – no one takes up political power on a large scale and makes a career out of doing so (like nearly all members of the political class) without first being bought and paid for by special interests through lobbying firms. We can’t rely on them to help us, so we must instead help ourselves…

  11. This is complete horse shit people. Don’t believe what this article is saying. There is no “fallout” and there hasn’t been any meltdown yet. Avoid the media hype.

  12. Great post, Karlsie, it describe in simple terms what is a complex issue and does it well. Denial will abound, as your comparison to the Chernobyl catastrophe clearly shows.

    It’s instructive that a mainstream financial reporter celebrated the fact that the nuclear crisis didn’t have a financial impact. This is the pathology of the hyper-individualistic mindset. It’s so narrow it can’t even see its own destruction.

  13. BTW, I am no hysteric, but anyone who’s downplaying this crisis, unprecedented in human history is either being paid to downplay it, or is horribly misinformed As the NY Times reports:

    “The government said on Saturday that they had found levels of radioactive materials above safe limits in spinach and milk in Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures, the first confirmation by officials that the nuclear catastrophe unfolding at power plants nearby has affected the nation’s food supply. ”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/asia/20japan.html?_r=1&hp

  14. Azazel, i can dream of real leaders, can’t i? Leaders are the ones people willingly follow because they present a common dream, and the willingness to make things happen. They aren’t necessarily legislators. In fact, they rarely are, especially in these times of special interest open purses. I do not count anyone who places financial security above the sound physical health of the community a leader, only a businessman with an agenda.

    Eddie, on the one hand, i can understand people who find it hard to grasp the dangers of radioactivity. We have an entire generation that grew up with nuclear power, as well as great many baby boomers who were not directly affected by the test bombing in New Mexico, Attu Island or the Marshall Islands (which were, by the way, completely flattened and destroyed by the test bombing), the crisis at Three Mile Island or that ever noticed when we received acid rain.

    Unless you are in direct circumference to a nuclear explosion or radioactive leak, and your symptoms are exhibited within a few weeks, with obvious sores, boils, ruptured blood vessels and an immediate death sentence, doctors will begin hedging that your cancer was caused by radiation poisoning. Who ya gonna believe; your doctor or the statistics on cancer cases within specific demographic areas exposed to radiation? The uninformed trust their doctors.

    What boggles my mind is that anyone would think Japan’s damages will not affect the U.S. and global economy. A huge number of those fun games and the boxes to plain them on come from Japan, as well as all other types of cool electronics, which by the way, was one of the most stable consumer stocks. Japanese tourists account for about twenty percent of the tourism received by Alaska, California and Hawaii. Like it or not, we are tied at the hip with Japan. What happened to the United in States? What affects one should have a devastating effect on all, but as illustrated by Louisiana, it’s every man for himself (and woman, too.)

  15. Surreal is right. I spent the last week on the California coast watching surfers take advantage of the wave of mutilation. I also watched as stores ran out of iodine pills and Geiger counters were being asked for and offered up on Craig’s list.

    I kinda admire the surfers the most, life goes on, we cannot stop to freak out about what has already happened, may as well ride the wave. But we do have an amazing opportunity to make policy changes and we’re not doing it. NOT AT ALL! In fact we just re- liscenced more nuclear power plants in the wake of this disaster. It makes no sense to not use natural renewable energy and at the very least we should slow down liscencing at this crucial moment. We also need to roll up our shirtsleeves and help. Evacuating Japan is entirely unreasonable. We need to be in there cleaning up, this has ceased to be us and them and is an excellent opportunity to become human and bring help where it is crucial.

    I am also very concerned about the marine life, what that means for Japan, Hawaii and the states food supply not to mention losing species. We will all see the effects one way or another. Ride the wave, sure…but apply some skill too.

  16. Well, Grainne, i think it would be unrealistic to evacuate the whole island, but i think it would also be unrealistic to believe Japan could find enough housing for those who were in the most immediate danger from harmful doses of radiation and air borne diseases.

    I’m extremely disappointed in President Obama’s priorities. We should be there, not only helping with the clean up, but with medical aid, uncontaminated foods and assisting refugees with shelter. Instead, he places a war at the top of his list, as though we aren’t involved in enough wars already.

    America needs to quit being the watchdog for a democracy it doesn’t even practice. The wave hasn’t even finished rolling in, and its out frolicking on the cliffs once again. The next global shortage will be clean water. Are we prepared for it? Not at all. Are we doing anything to save our rivers and streams? Absolutely not. We’re waiting for the next big one so we can have something to talk about.

  17. Karla, I’m pissed at the President’s priorities. It seems he only had enough of his ‘HOPE’ drug manufactured to last the campaign.

    And we have more than enough canned untainted food to share, why indeed are we screwing around in war zones instead of helping one of our biggest economic allies?

    p.s. – dead on about the water, everyone should be building roman- style cisterns right now.

  18. The sad news is the meltdown continues, and though i’m sure there’s an end in sight, i’m not so sure the degree of destruction will ever be admitted any more than they’ll admit the fatal blow to the fishing economy in the Gulf of Mexico. I had a dream last night that a friend of mine was tested positive for radiation poisoning. I woke up somewhat disquieted and it didn’t ease my mind that the first article i saw in our local papers was one that announced all stores had been emptied out of its supplies of geiger counters and iodine and that potassium iodide was not available in Alaska, but that could be shipped up within twelve hours of a radiation burst; a solution they admitted was most effective when taken just before radiation exposure, as well as during the bombardment of radioactive waves.

    Grainne, sending canned foods to Japan is an excellent idea. Why hasn’t anyone begun a canned food drive? I would suggest that high on the priority list would be canned milk so that at least the youthful population has a chance to thrive. My heart goes out to the Japanese people. Yes, they are stoic. Yes, they are brave, but how much good will this do them when the world is far more interested in killing each other over differences in politics than in saving a country in the aftermath of a (partial for the politically correct) nuclear melt-down?

  19. I’m sorry guys, but most of you, if not all, seem to be missing simple facts.

    With the bunch of crisis that have happenned all at once, and that are still happenning, Japan’s priorities can only be divided. Seeing how nothing has seriously been done about it, and how nobody seems to be willing to even try anything serious, I fear this might just last months, if not years. Some of you might think it will eventualy get better, but who are we to trust? Are we really going to beleive them when they once more claim it is all safe?

    Nobody really seems to realise that this crisis not only hits Japan, US, Canada, but also the entire north hemisphere (the south will be hit as well, but later). Weither we help with food, water, shelther, etc.. is almost completely futile here. Don’t get me wrong, the people do need our help, but the nuclear crisis will do such an amount of damage to the entire world and not only for the years to come. Radiation does not disapear, it is not cleanable or fixable. With every atomic bomb, every nuclear disaster and every nuclear related dump, we increase the amount of radiation that is being diluded on our plannet.

    The differance between the other nuclear related events that have happenned before and this one, is that now, it is constantly leaking, creating a constant flow we seem to be unwilling to stop. In a nutshell, the longer this goes on, the more our plannet and any life form that would be to live on it will be hurt.

    Obviously, I sound like a big pecimist here, but do your own researchs, and you’ll understand why the public never knows anything. You’ll understand what the whole poitical system is doing, and ultimately, you’ll understand why some influent people entirely benefit from these king of things.

    The end isnt near, it has never been the case and never will be, simply because it’s not ”part of the plan”. We have to keep in mind the plans are made by humans in the first place, which ensures the human specie will survive. The question left is, will we be the ones to survive in the end? I’ll leave you trying to anwser this one

  20. […] still wounded, marks one month since a devastating earthquake and accompanying tsunami killed Japan and its best hopes of recovery by critically damaging its nuclear reactors and initiating a full […]

  21. Hi everybody, I am not sure how I even ended up on this page to be honest. I have been reading passages of the bible, revelations and other words of god and wisdom from his many creatures on earth lately and was looking up nuclear technology and what not after relating science to magic. And the more I look into this it just looks like false power given to man by the serpent which feeds its evil through fire and gives it to mankind so that it may destroy itself. To be honest, the 3 sixes put together and spiraling out remind me of what nuclear radiation symbols, the picture of an atom, or should i say adam hmm sounds the same and like a man to me. I think all of you people saying nuclear energy is wrong are right. I don’t think it coincidental I found this page with people speaking as I have been thinking lately. Read the revelations and focus on what it says about the beast rising from the sea and earth. And read the part about the beast from the bottomless pit. Think about what it means by wormwood, and the water becoming un drinkable. Think about what billions of gallons of oil spilling into the ocean looks like. Think about how all of these problems started with the want for more power, and the people being unsatisfied with the way life already was and has been. I have a great plan, a plan for all the world if they would share this idea with me. And it goes along with what was previously said, and that is stop listening to them. But you see people have ignored their actions and in a sense and stopped listening to them already. And in this… in this absence of good evil has thrived and become so powerful it is about to destroy itself and try to take you all with it. The time has come to start hearing and seeing, but not with your senses that can be fooled! See with your MIND, And look around you. The people must learn to give the life back to the earth and god as the earth and god have given you life. Use your life and fight for the righteous and good, sacrafice the blood of the lamb to save mankind from its false images of power and human enslavement, or you will unknowingly and unwillingly give your power to the beast and help it destroy the world, giving it dollar by dollar of your slaved labor to spend on technology and magic”Science” of destruction, alteration, and corruption. There are people in all countries around the world who want to just live, and live free off the way of the seasons and earth and don’t want to be ruled and dictated by a false leader. Those are the people who deserve what I just mentioned, they deserve to look after the land and it’s people for the sheer fact they do not seek power or control, only peace. Understand what the changes on the planet mean, and what they bring with them. Understand what god made was intended to be, and when you try to alter or force life for your personal gain, you sacrifice that which gave freely. In doing this you become a disease or an infection to your host or life giver and will inevitably consume or destroy it. Man should have never bitten the golden apple of currency, for in doing that it let evil put a price on that which it did not own. God’s land and earth! And look what it’s doing to it right in front of you people! Who said they could name it? Who said they could change it? Who said they could chemically alter it? AND WHO SAID THEY COULD BLOW IT UP? Nobody except you people! You watched as it tormented the earth and played ignorant to it’s sins. America especially! The way of god is the way of life, and mankind has fallen so far into sin and technology, or should I say idols of the beast. It is now afraid to go outside without chemicals on its skin to protect it from burning, it wears shades to hide it’s eyes because they only dwell in false light from these idols, aka computers, tv’s any technological device giving off false light and running off of alterations of life. Ever been blinded by the sun when you got out of school, work, your house, or any other indoor place using false light? I have, and then they tried to sell me shades! trying to cover up the flaw in my life with cheap non biodegradable alterations of life. And the cancers and sicknesses you get from playing into their game of evil can be covered up by medications they make to fool you further! The people have already found out their gov is trying to kill them literally by lying about seriously fucked up shit like this japan meltdown, 3 mile island, Chernobyl and many other “”Accidents”” they paid for with the money they stole from you, the power you gave to the beast! For the beast is your very own government trying to control, dictate and even name the land we all once shared. And look how its ravaging and raping your land while you sit there watching, fearing death by their hand more then the entire consumption of the planet by radiation and pollution. Let me know if any of this sparks your guys interest. I am literally on a quest to find out where I should go and what I should do to help get the word out and help people save themselves from unknowingly cursing themselves.

  22. I don’t know for sure but with the total silence from the powers that be on anything to do with Fukushima and the suffering of the japanese people I’m certain in my own mind that the whole world is contaminated with this poison and it is already too late to do anything about it. For sure the Individual countries should immediately shutdown all and every nuclear facility and make ready to dismantle them.Even if it returns the communities back 100 years they have to do it!! I fear for the future of mankind when the global Military/Industrial complex decides all our fates.We as a species have ruined this jewel of a planet we were given to share and look after and if our fate is extinction then so be it but it’s such a shame that we’ve destroyed everything else as well.All because of GREED

  23. Radiation is leaking like oil spreading its way across the ocean floor, creating an environmental dead zone. We can’t clean up this man-made disaster. We can only prepare for its consequences. Those within its radioactive cloud, either through circumference or within the path of the trade winds should stay indoors as much as possible, eat no fresh foods that might have been exposed, and iodize their drinking water. Part of your staple diet should consist of garlic and brown rice.

    Prepare yourselves to live very, very poor. There is no magic formula for bouncing back a healthy economy. The billionaire industry has left us on our own, and has proven over and over that it does not care. No amount of kicking, screaming, accusations or protests is going to change that. What we can do is quit listening to them.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.