I'm almost 68 years old. I've tried to look back over the years to remember a time when there have been as many natural disasters of such magnitude as in the last few years. I can't.
I am grieving beyond grief for the Japanese people. It was clear that they were very prepared to handle earthquakes even of a 9 magnitude, as evidenced by the fact that buildings did not fall in Tokyo just 200 miles away from the epicenter. There are even some buildings, like the hospital in Northern Japan, still standing, even though the full height of the tsunami all but went over it. And that building was very near the epicenter.
With their history with the A bombs, I'm sure they have been meticulous in their fail safe measures for their Nuclear power plants. Man cannot stop all natural disasters. Period.
Does that mean the world should stop building nuclear power plants, or shut down the ones already in operation - the way Germany did? Personally, I don't think so, and we have family members who live fairly close to one. I've seen the evacuation direction signs on their highways.
5 comments:
The problem is that even if we did close them down they would still be dangerous for generations to come. I really don't know what can be done.
A blogging friend in Japan is safe, just broken glass to clear up after the earthquake. Now there are shortages of food and other supplies...
Their infrastructure in northern Japan is all but destroyed, with highways split and airports useless. Food and supplies are going to be hard to get to them. It's a human tragedy beyond imagination.
It is absolutely appalling. And I don't watch a lot of the news about it. I just do a meditation and prayer and focus on that. I saw an interesting talk by Yoko Ono about it on the news and she talked up the resilience of the Japanese people. She said they bandied together after the second world war and Tokyo was completely flattened like it is in the north today. They transformed Japan into a rich and powerful nation. I think humanbeings have incredible power as individuals and together they can do incredible things.
The Japanese people and those who live elsewhere of Japanese decent can be very proud of the manner in which the Japanese have conducted themselves during this horrible time.
But I get so angry at the fear tactics the American news shows are obviously using in an attempt to make Americans so afraid of nuclear energy that we stop building new power plants.
I am sad that we are going ahead with many more nuclear power stations, despite many of us protesting. The one we have already is at the coast and on a fault line and not far from Cape Town.
Hope you got the points that I asked to be transferred to you :)
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