In @nytimesscience the @garbagegirl chronicles ocean-combing volunteer quest for Japan tsunami debris. (Photo by Lindsey Hoshaw)
Watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi, I kept recalling Hokusai statement on life and art:
“From the age of 6 I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50 I had published a universe of designs. But all I have done before the the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75 I’ll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am 80 you will see real progress. At 90 I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself…” [source]
Must-read @Mark_Lynas contrasts Japan & Korea on nuclear: “[U]nnecessary fear of radiation now presents a serious hazard to the world’s climate. Japan’s precipitous exit from nuclear power generation – the day I arrived in Tokyo was the first non-nuclear day in Japan for 42 years – has pushed the country’s fossil fuel demand through the roof, with imports of oil and gas up by more than 100% since last year, their ballooning cost driving a record trade deficit of $32bn. As carbon emissions rise in lockstep, Japan’s leaders are now backing off from their international climate change commitments, which the country has no chance of meeting. Given that wind, solar and geothermal account for less than 1% of Japan’s electricity generation, the country will be massively dependent on fossil fuels for decades to come if the reactors stay switched off. The only alternative is blackout…” Read the rest.
‘Safety Myth’ Left Japan Ripe for Nuclear Crisis
Norimitsu Onishi in NYT: …Over several decades, Japan’s nuclear establishment has devoted vast resources to persuade the Japanese public of the safety and necessity of nuclear power. Plant operators built lavish, fantasy-filled public relations buildings that became tourist attractions. Bureaucrats spun elaborate advertising campaigns through a multitude of organizations established solely to advertise the safety of nuclear plants. Politicians pushed through the adoption of government-mandated school textbooks with friendly views of nuclear power. The result was the widespread adoption of the belief — called the “safety myth” — that Japan’s nuclear power plants were absolutely safe. Japan single-mindedly pursued nuclear power even as Western nations distanced themselves from it. Read on.
“Collusive Ties” Bind Japan’s Nuclear Industry & Regulators
Times article reveals how industry insularity and cozy regulatory relationships raise risks at nuclear plants. Same issues germane in USA.
Urgent Need to Revamp Earthquake Assessments in Japan
Robert J. Geller of the University of Tokyo calls on seismologists in Japan to stop making long-term earthquake forecasts using flawed methodology, to scrap futile efforts at short-term earthquake prediction, and to stop treating the hypothetical ‘Tokai earthquake’ as if it were real. Geller writes in a Comment piece published online in advance of print this week in Nature. (This is from the journal’s news summary, just released when embargo lifted on the forthcoming issue.) More:
