Musings of Malcontent: Fukushima – Information is Liberation

Musings of a Malcontent: Environmental Irony in an Imperfect (but humorous?) World“Musings of a Malcontent” is a weekly op-ed by GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Carlyle Coash

Information is a powerful thing.

Governments have known this for a long time. Control the information, control the people – or at least steer them in the direction you would like. You want to be able to guide the conversation and be able to win the argument with a few choice secrets. If people are on equal footing, then it is hard for anyone to have power.

And it’s no fun without a little power.

There was a report last week with photos of the Nuclear Exclusion Zone around the Fukushima plant in Japan. The report was filed by a journalist able to get inside the zone to see what it was like and what was going on. Desolate. Deserted. Toxic. When you are getting readings five times the acceptable limit set for U.S. plant workers, it is easy to say that tourism is likely going to be down for the foreseeable future.

Bummer.

Inside the Exclusion Zone: A Ghost TownNot so sure about the name “Nuclear Exclusion Zone” though – kind of misleading. I think it is safe to say it is not excluding anything nuclear. Actually it is very inclusive, which in this day and age is great. Way to bring political correctness to the next level! It’s not just about people it’s about everything. To be so welcoming to nuclear fallout, offering a hand of inclusion, is exactly what we need to be doing. It shows we are advancing as a species.

Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled isotopes.

I’m just amazed how little we hear about what is going on there – except for the fact the Japanese government was busted withholding information about how bad the accident turned out to be. This is standard procedure though – better to say nothing and hope everything turns out fine then have everyone panic. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

I can understand that. As a species we do have an impulse control issue. People get irrational – heck, we can barely contain ourselves when a sports team wins a championship. Imagine if you threw in nuclear fallout. Or, I don’t know, a hurricane?

Just saying.

Dead and dying cattle in the Fukushima exclusion zoneThe thing is – why not just prepare us. Instead of treating us like children, unable to handle the truth, just prepare us. Give us the information, prepare us and then when it all hits the fan we will react with chill. Protection ultimately just keeps us in that fear state and we hand over control to those who really don’t have our best interest in mind. I mean all those alien invasion/disaster/doomsday movies always have the rich and powerful getting the seats on whatever thing is built to save the human race. Don’t think that won’t happen when the time comes. Just the way things are.

As for the Fukushima wasteland – well, it is just that. The most activity in the dead region is a herd of cows that have been left to die because they are contaminated. Amazingly the owner still goes everyday to tend to them. They have not compensated him for his loss, but they are letting him go into a zone where he can die from the prolonged exposure he is getting. Nice one. That is government helping out its people.

Hand of inclusion my friends – let’s all glow together.

I wonder what our government is waiting to surprise us with? Aliens on the Moon? China to be our next President? Large meteor about to crash into the planet? Elvis is still alive? The building of more nuclear facilities in the U.S?

Oh, wait – they already told us they’re going to do that.

Aliens here we come.

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Image credits: The Alopecian Muse, Time Magazine, Tom Clarke Blog

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