Tuesday, February 11, 2014

HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING AND LOVE THE ATOM.









Why should you fear the neighbor’s dog when there is a tiger in your back yard?    

I don’t mean this to be more doom and gloom but…   what the hell; we love doom and gloom.   The ratings tell us that the movies with extreme violence, graphic bloodshed, rape, carnage and chaos are the movies people tend to pay to see. 

Global warming is a fact.   Ninety-three percent of all environmental scientists agree (the other seven percent have a religious or corporate agenda.)   We are experiencing the changes at this time.   Weather patterns are disrupted as oceans warm and the ecology adjusts.  But, at sometime in the distant future (perhaps decades) the change will have completed and the earth will stabilize with a new ecosystems. 

But, there is a more pressing danger:

 
NUCLEAR PLANTS IN THE US


Nuclear plants exist across our country.  These plants were designed to operate for thirty years.   Many are operating on an extension.   The nuclear wastes produced by these plants are extremely hazardous and will remain so for thousands of years.  The plants themselves have to be sealed after their life span; and the physical plants and the land they occupy will be uninhabitable for thousands of years.   

Unbeknownst to the public, nuclear waste from operating nuclear plants are being constantly transported on our highways and railroads to storage facilities.  These storage facilities will have to maintain these materials for thousands of years – what could possibly go wrong?  

We have had a number of nuclear emergencies: the two most noteworthy are Chernobyl






 An there is the human cost:




And Fukushima.






The radioactive waste water from the Fukushima plant is, at this time, draining into the Pacific Ocean.  The Japanese government claims that the volume of radioactive water to the vast Pacific Ocean will result in no discernible danger to the ecosystem. 



Our government’s energy plan includes building more nuclear energy plants and building new nuclear weapons to replace our aging stockpile.  We are looking at short term, government subsidized, energy programs with long term pollution and disaster potential.  


But again: what could possibly go wrong?


the Ol’Buzzard  

11 comments:

  1. Do you know what causes ice ages to start? I'm curious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are some causal occurrences such as volcanic eruptions and asteroid strikes that drastically effect climate almost immediately, but natural global changes caused by cosmic conditions occur gradually over thousands of years. What we are experiencing - like a volcanic eruption - is happening over an unnatural short interval.
      O'B

      Delete
  2. What could go wrong? In the current scenario and acrimonious political environment, maybe it is better to ask, "What could go right?"

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great Post! One of the greatest films ever made, Dr. Strangelove...I have a collection of animated gifs that I have found and made myself that I use for illustrations occasionally. Mein Fuhrer, I can walk! Interesting, the post I did last night was about the updates from Fukushima, where there was another offshore earth quake just last week. But the real news was that they are going to start pumping contaminated radioactive ground water into the Pacific in Massive quantities....and the Japanese government is censoring any real reporting about what is going on there with the very iffy proposition of removal of the damaged fuel rod assemblies....many scientists have found evidence that there have been quite a few "mishaps" in the process already. Yakuza mafia is managing the "clean up" force that has been recruited from the very expendable poor and homeless. You don't have to even pay them if they die from radiation poisoning! Cool huh? The title of my piece was The Revenge of Godzilla....We all know the mythic origin of Godzilla...and the function the lovable monster played in turning Japan's nuclear nightmare trauma into fictional fantasy. Not that I have anything against the Godzilla movies, I love them. Your friend Rob asks how Ice Ages start....is he serious? If he has a long enough attention span, perhaps we could talk...if not, then, well, Rob it's just more of the crazy god magic stuff, like sunsets or magnets...

    ReplyDelete
  4. BTW, I can recommend a great book on Japan which goes a long way to explain what has happened there. How the Japanese mentality, trauma, fantasy, atomic energy and corruption created the Fukushima disaster. It was written quite a few years before the disaster by my nephew, Alex Kerr....the book is called Of Dogs and Demons....He lived in Japan for years and actually is the only westerner to have ever won the Japanese equivalent of their Pulitzer Prize for his previous book, Lost Japan. Google it, it is still on sale and is incredible if you want to understand Japanese culture from an insiders point of view.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will apply for an inter-library loan of the book at the local library - thanks.
      O'B

      Delete
  5. Microdot,
    That mentality/culture isn't cofined to Japan alone; it is prevalent all over Asia. I will see if the library has that book.
    Arigato,

    Sarge

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I realize that, it's just that the Japanese have made such grand art form of it...and incorporated it into their culture and marketed it successfully on so many levels...HELLO KITTY!

      Delete
    2. I practice Zen...but find the Japanese culture an enigma.
      O'B

      Delete

COMMENT: Ben Franklin said, "I imagine a man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false."