Friday 18 March 2011

serious

I’m scared.
I’ve stopped watching the news.

Was about this time last week I got up to make a drink and found my son - who was in the process of planning a trip to Japan - glued to the TV.
So I sat and watched with him.

I feel for those people.
And now I fear for them. And the whole fucking planet.

When I was a kid we had a coal turbine power station in our town - my dad worked there and when they decided to close it the employees were offered jobs elsewhere in the industry.
I remember the discussions - I was maybe 11 or 12, and my sister and I were included in them. Dad had a few options and the one that paid the most money was Sellafield.
I told the parents that if they said we had to move there I would leave home.
Where I was gonna go I don’t know.
Fortunately Dad found a new job here instead.
I’d heard stuff about higher cancer rates and other illnesses amongst the people who lived near the place.

We had items about nuclear deterrents and images of Russia having military parades where it displayed its missiles on the news. In England we had the USA storing missiles at Greenham Common because from here they could hit Russia before it hit them.
And we had TV documentaries and dramas about the post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear attack.
Duck and cover.

I know about fallout and nuclear winters and radiation.

But even though I didn’t agree with having it, the nuclear deterrent worked.
Who is going to push the button knowing that their enemy would do the same ? Every country that has nuclear capability knows the destruction it would cause and that it’s only going to bring the same back on itself.

I’ve always said that everyone was worried about atomic bombs when really it’s the nuclear generators we should be sweating over. A power station could have a fault or an accident, something that man cannot control - nobody needs to be pushing a button for that to happen.
Infuckingdeed.

Its always been the one thing that really, truly scares me.

Chernobyl is over 2000 km from England and they reported higher radiation levels in rain over Wales after the accident there. I was 8 months pregnant at the time, if it was raining I didn’t go out. That might seem extreme but I didn’t care, I was worried.
The land around the site is still not safe, 24 years later.
Children are born with deformities and people are dying of cancer.
Want to have nightmares ? Look it up on Youtube.

One reactor went into meltdown and caused so much destruction.

Fukushima has four.
What the fuck kind of damage can that do the whole fucking planet if the worst happens ?
If it isn’t happening already.

The first the rest of the world knew about Chernobyl was sensory equipment in another country detecting raised levels of radiation. The fucking roof blew off but they didn’t evacuate the nearby town until 40 hours later.
I hope the Japanese will/ are being totally honest with the rest of the world and their own people about the situation there. Thankfully their country is not like post-communist Russia and I’m sure they are.

As a nation they remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Son is keeping an eye on the news and I know he’ll tell me if anything major happens but I’m not watching it. I’ve been sat there fucking speechless (which is really not like me) every time I have.
And there’s nothing I can do about it.

Those poor people, as if getting the worst earthquake and a tsunami aren’t enough they now have to worry about radiation.
Think about that when you’re moaning about the traffic or the spot on your nose.

The one thing that has pleased me is what I’ve seen about other countries realising that they need to seriously look at the safety of their power plants, even suspending plans to build new ones.There was a time when people protested if their government planned to build one on their doorstep, that hasn’t happened for a long time - hopefully those days will return.

I actually saw some spokesman on the TV saying nuclear energy was the safest form of power.
Like fuck it is.

If a turbine power station caught fire or blew up or just stopped working you might have immediate casualties and damage. But you can deal with that, and you can get close enough to the building to be able to do so and make it safe.
Even if a nuclear plant never had an accident there is still the issue of waste. There might be less immediate pollution into the atmosphere, but the used product has to be encased in thick containers and buried underground in what are referred to as deep geological sites.
Apparently it is safe after 1000 years, although of course they clearly can’t be sure - it’s not like they had some to bury 1000 years ago that they’ve since dug up and guess what the Geiger counter didn’t beep once.

There are other options.
Wind turbines.
Solar power.
And what about hydro energy, if there was any doubt about the power the ocean is capable of then the events of last Friday disprove that.
I fail to believe that scientists can not come up with viable alternatives.

I do have another theory, about the planet.
It’s been here far longer then we have, and I’ve always wondered if we really fucked it up enough would mother nature just decide to wipe it clean.
And if that was going to happen, given that 70% of the surface is water might that be the medium it used to do that.
Makes me wonder.




Have no fear for atomic energy ’cause none of them can stop the times.
Bob Marley.

8 comments:

  1. The French are very gung-ho about nuclear power and use it to produce most of their energy. I wonder what their take on the Japanese disaster is. Anyway, stopping new power stations in England won't diminish the risk from across the channel.

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  2. Mankind = The Greatest Plague this planet has ever faced.

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  3. Yes Gorilla I know, 75% if their power is produced that way, and they build reactors on their north coast - that shit goes chernobyl its heading our way and I live in fucking pompey !
    I was going to mention the french in that post, but then I wanted to be sympathetic to the Japanese and I can't stand the fucking french (for a few reasons) so I left them out of it.
    However that's a post I need to write.
    And soon.

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  4. The morning it happened, I was watching it on the news here in the US. It was about 12:30, I turned on the news, and saw the tsunami's hit japan, rolling in from the ocean onto the land. It was terrifying to see. It was like all of those end of the world movies, but it was real.

    Thankfully, the radiation will be too diluted when it reaches Cali for it to affect us. It'll be measurable, but not enough to do any serious damage to our health. My mom still gave me a couple of her vitamins that have iodine though.

    I'm all for solar power, my school uses it to power the light-signs. And some movie company (they filmed at my HS a lot) used a bunch of solar energy. Hopefully we'll use more solar and wind, and less nuclear power. Actually, I think it's completely stupid to use nuclear power, especially when there's much better and more natural alternatives out there. You'd think we'd all be using solar by now.

    Otherwise, there's been over $60 million donated to Japan (about $5 million by citizens only and the rest in aid from other countries) and that will help, but it's said they need $200 billion to fix everything. But Japan is one of the richest economies, I think once they figure out what they need to do to fix it, they'll get on track soon.

    I don't believe this is the beginning of the apocalypse though, like Leroy said in his forum. But more of a huge slap in the face that if the human race continues as it is, we'll destroy ourselves.

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  5. @Iron..yeah.
    @amp, That's what I hope too - that the world site up and takes notice and makes changes. Of course the french probably won't but perhaps if every other country does they might think twice.
    Keep safe.

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  6. something i think about ... the dinosaurs didn't have pollution, radiation etc ... and they were wiped out.

    i think earth has it's own self cleaning mechanism. but what you don't have to worry about my dear, is when it happens, you'll go in peace.

    live today for the joy of what we have ... and keep on having a big heart for those who need a little extra xo

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  7. The Earth is in constant change..much like the universe..We as humans do to not accept change well..though we have the ability to be adaptive. All we have to do is look at what this planet has been through in the billions of years of it's existence.

    Hey DirtyCowGirl..we should chat sometime..you can email me if you like..my emails are on my blog. That would be cool..I think we could have some interesting conversation and I would love to hear your thoughts.

    Peace.

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  8. @andrea, yeah that's exactly what i think - hope - too, as long as we dont blow it to kingdom come it will recover
    @todd, people are scared of the unknown - the unfamiliar is always that, until it becomes familiar. And yeah, I'll be in touch.

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