I discuss our book, Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization with Jim Fetzer here.
Fukushima:
Dispossession or Denuclearization?
We pose the question starkly: Humanity must choose
between denuclearization or dispossession.
We document that nuclear power and weapons are
connected and their complex fundamentally dispossesses citizens of liberal
guarantees, including rights to property, free speech, and the pursuit of
happiness.
We explore crisis management of the Fukushima
disaster to demonstrate dispossession of rights of property, free speech, and
the pursuit of happiness, through examples that include lost livelihoods and Fukushima
children’s rising rates of thyroid cancer, among other topics:
See Oiwa, Yuri (2014,
August 24) Thyroid cancer diagnosed in 104 young people in Fukushima. The Asahi Shimbun, http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201408240011
We examine the history of radiation health effects
to demonstrate historical conflicts between nuclear industry safety-guidelines
and scientific studies of the biological effects of “internal emitters,” which
are ingested and/or inhaled radionuclides.
We describe distortions in nuclear industry safety
models deriving from invalid modeling techniques.
We demonstrate that nuclear power is market
distorting because it externalizes its true costs and relies extensively on
generous government subsidies.
We show that governments too often prioritize
nuclear interests over democratic principles and practices: For example, we
investigate media and popular resistance within Japan to the newly passed
“state secrets” law, which is seen by many as directly threatening free speech
and public health:
Toshihiro Okuyama and
Hiroo Sunaoshi (2013, December 17) State
secrets law raises concern about safety of nuclear power plants. The Asahi Shimbun, http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201312170006
We disclose strong public support in Japan and
elsewhere for decentralized alternative energy production and we describe
oligarchic energy industries’ efforts to maintain centralized control when
challenged by the decentralizing production tendencies of alternative energy,
such as solar:
Ex-Japanese PM on How Fukushima Meltdown was Worse than Chernobyl and Why He Now Opposes Nuclear Power. (2014, March 11). Democracy Now, http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/11/ex_japanese_pm_on_how_fukushima
We are concerned that in the absence of public
activism the choices made by governments and industry will prioritize short
term profits and vested interests. “Dispossession” is the cumulative effect of
these decision criteria in action.
Nuclear remains seductive in our Hobbesian world of
vying nation-states, despite myriad acknowledged hazards, including aging and
decaying infrastructures, recurrent nuclear “accidents,” unceasing
contamination, and terrorism. Nuclear
seduces even when its effluents threaten the ecosystem and, perhaps, even the
human genome. Here is a screenshot from unit 1 steaming this morning: