Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Ugh. I will admit to being a wimp,and having avoided all the incredile, horrible footage of the Japan disaster at the time.

*Japan terribleness warning, avoid at will.*

I just read this hero story, though, in both the colourful, and LA Times versions of it, and it stirred me, completely. Was he lucky? Was he special? Could anyone do it, or would most people have got instantly mushed. Does it mean action is always better? Puts the onus on the individual a bit terrifyingly, maybe.

Then I went back and watched the video from the first link, of the water coming and coming and coming, rushing in the town until it's ten deep and dislodging buildings and swirling cars around. It's so terrifying, so deceptive looking.

I know nobody needs a 'oh, it's awful' blogpost about it. My real thought is that I wish I hadn't watched it because it makes me wish I'd never had children. You don't see anybody hurt in the video, but I wish the visceral image image of my child being wrenched out of my grasp and washed away wasn't so strong, the idea of driving and looking in your rearview mirror as the water rushes towards you at, what, 150 miles an hour? It has me bent over  and gasping in panic and pain just thinking about it.

And then there's the reactor cleanup suicide crews.

Ireland, for all its flaws, has no great storms and hurricanes, no tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes. I will take it. We don't even have any nuclear power plants (though we are being made ill by the waste that blows in from Sellafield, or whatever it's been remarketed as now). However. We do import our power. From places where its made using nuclear stations, no doubt. That's an uncomfortable truth, right there.

I wish our government would invest some time and thought and money into serious development of sustainable, clean energy, instead of considering nuclear power. We have a lot of wind and waves here. And we're cack handed at  best, when it comes to operating things. The clock in the dock, anyone?

Axl says, oh, each nuclear station only produces one cubic metre of waste a year, that's all. That's all? One cubic metre a year... and then what? Where does it go? We bury it in barrels under the sea? We shoot it into space? We put it in concrete to bleed into the soil?

I think it would be better to get used to using less power. We do need to go back a few steps. Simpler life, less luxury. Less potential for disaster.

4 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

I know. All true.
Oh baby.

Mwa said...

It's a lot more than a cubic metre. I just read all about it in our newspaper. Also, it's going to take about 224000 years to get to a "safe" state. They said to put that into context people have been around for about 200000 years. So good luck knowing what's going to happen in more than that time.

We're fucked.

morgor said...

Meh, I'd support nuclear power, just get a giant catapult and chuck it into space and hope no agressive alien planet traces it back to us :)

Ireland was actually getting rather good at renewable energy, the ESB was spending about a billion euro on a project to update its abilities.... oh wait just googled it... 22 billion... that's pretty impressive. Hopefully it hasn't been shelved since.

Anyway, you're such a softie Jo about Japan. or I'm an unemotional robot. or something. Anyway, haven't caught you on gmail recently... talk soon X

Martin said...

A 'nice' clip from Japan.

I thought it was terribly sad until it came to 1:50 or so. Sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ing-laapJA