Fukushima: Living With the Consequences – March 11, 2013

An excerpt from Nuclear Roulette: The Truth about the Most Dangerous Energy Source on Earth

This time no one dropped a bomb on us. . . . We set the stage, we committed the crime with our own hands, we are destroying our own lands, and we are destroying our own lives.

—Haruki Murakami, Japanese novelist

Photo by Flickr userM1K3Y
Even with a cleanup,the health risks of long-term exposure to remaining low-levels of radiation are unclear.

In Japan, as in every other nuclear nation, the unresolved problems and unthinkable consequences of nuclear energy were ignored, minimized, or hidden. The former residents of Fukushima now are paying the price for the hubris and denial that fueled the Atomic Age.… more

by: Gar Smith

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The Deplorax – March 6, 2012

My review of The Lorax (with apologies to Dr. Seuss)

Original Illustration by Gar Smith

My name is the Lorax and I speak for the trees.
So how’d I get sucked up in Hollywood sleaze?
My message was lost in the Stremulous Stream!
Even Swomee-swans told me to “Get with the Team!”

The Grinch (who stole Christmas) got all the attention
Why TV? Why Movies? Why all this Big Mention?
Because he’s defeated, so Whos can start shopping!
But me? I’m ignored because I’d stop chopping.

So, how come the hokum? Why… more

by: Gar Smith

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Fukushima Is Forever – October 19, 2011

We’ll be grappling with radiation danger for years to come

The timeline for catastrophe has shifted. We used to fear "once-in-a-lifetime" floods. Today we face epochal calamities like climate change and intergenerational traumas like the Bhopal chemical explosion and the BP oil spill, which, according to the latest reports, is once again leaking toxic crude into the Gulf of Mexico.

What lessons can we draw from our latest atomic angst? One consistent lesson from Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima is clear: plant operators and government officials inevitably cover-up and lie. The Japanese utility TEPCO lied when it insisted its reactors were "under control." Instead, full meltdowns occurred at three of the six reactors, 600,000 spent fuel rods were at… more

by: Gar Smith

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