Japan’s problems are compounded by its ethnocentric concept of nationhood, where it is almost impossible for people who aren’t of ethnic Japanese descent to become citizens. There are third-generation descendants of Korean immigrants in Japan who have never lived in Korea, speak only Japanese and have only ever known Japanese culture, but who can never be legally Japanese.
Less humans mean less innovation. It means less energy and then less emissions total, but that’s irrelevant long term. Without enough labor to support industry growth and technology, we’ll be more on the sustaining ourselves side of labor. Which means we’re far more likely to relapse into fossil fuels. Especially if the depopulation is rapid which will destabilize industries.
Visited Japan(Osaka) recently with my 5 year old son. While there is infrastructure setup for people with kids such as stroller only elevators, kids/elder section on the train, nobody, I mean, nobody followed the rules. Regularly the stroller only elevators were full and nobody got out. Or able body adults didn’t even glance up to let my sleepy child sit in the kids designated seats.
There were glares at us when my son was having a hard time, almost like we were inconveniencing them.
In my week-long experience there, people in general are not tolerated for children. No wonder nobody wants kids. I wouldn’t want to if I was treated that way.
Lived in Japan in the Kanto plain area (out of Tokyo) between 2014 - 2017 and this was always my worst nightmare. Hope as many people got to safety / high ground as possible.
Man thats fucking vague click bait headline. What isotope? How much activity? What was in the water? Nah lets not talk relevant details, lets just spread uninformed fear of the nuclear industry instead.
The clean-up operation is expected to take decades, with the most dangerous part — removing radioactive fuel and rubble from three stricken reactors — yet to begin.
Nothing to see here, people. We have everything under control. Like, we totally know what we’re doing.
The Three Gorges dam displaced an approximate 1.3 million people, is of questionable structural integrity because of rushed construction, has had a huge impact on its immediate environment and in the event of a breach endangers 400 million people. While that monstrosity is an outlier, in most instances the construction of a dam will displace a lot of people and carries a sizable risk of breach if the construction isn’t carried out properly. Should or shouldn’t hydroelectric be considered environmentally friendly?
Wind and solar have relatively short material lifespans that are expensive or impossible to recycle. It’s all a double edged sword. There is no single solution that will work everywhere on this planet.
Sorry if I was vague, I meant the person you were replying to doesn’t know what nuclear power is, which is why they use a fear mongering term like “nukes” to describe nuclear power.
Nobody knows how long they’re going to take because they still don’t have a fucking clue about how they’re going to do it. I’m not blaming the people working on this stuff, my point is that this technology is still uncontrollable despite what all the apologists keep trying to tell us.
It’s more than apologists. For a number of years now, across most social networks, the nuclear lobby has planted astroturfers. You can’t get humans to agree on shit, yet anyone touting nuclear power as the savior of humanity in the face of climate change is a transparently obvious corpo plant with all of the same talking points as each other. It was just a matter of time before the propaganda took organic roots in real people.
Let’s never explore wind/solar/hydro power. Only nuclear.
How about we explore all of them instead of shutting down nuclear and replacing them with natural gas. Like they did in New York after Cuomo said nuclear was a part of New York State’s green energy plan. Am I a corpo plant now? No corporation is pushing nuclear right now. It’s too expensive and has way too long of a ROI.
While you’re right about the nitty gritty specifics of the case, the nuclear industry needs no help spreading fear of itself. Fukushima happened 13 years ago. Not exactly ancient history. Worst nuclear disaster of all time.
That being said, I don’t think the nuclear industry of today should be hamstrung by Soviet incompetence and corruption from the 1950s. I mean these guys at this location were running open loop cooling circuits into the lake and river. We know better than this nowadays.
And has since been learned from. That reactor design is no longer used, specifically because of that. It would take more than just negligence to get a modern reactor to fail. Spreading fear of nuclear benefits no one and harms everyone.
japantimes.co.jp
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