Sunday 26 January 2014

If you want people to learn from history, it helps if you let the people living throught it, write it.

"What's the point of learning about history?"  I remember kids asking, and the stock answer always came back  "You can learn from it," or even "You can learn from the mistakes people made and not repeat them."
Well, that's fine, if people at the time are allowed to record history and later generations are allowed access to it. A shining example of learning from history is the collection of evidence from the accident at Chornobyl, papers from people who had the moral integrity and courage to collect and publish.
 The publication is Chernobyl, Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, and it has given the rest of the world a far better insight into what happens and goes on happening after a nuclear accident.
When I think of the nations involved, it is the honesty and bravery of these individuals that comes into my mind.  It isn't a criticism of what has happened; that is history.
We seem to be going through yet another period of governments thinking that enforced censorship is a good thing.  I find it strange that folk who purport to be elected by "the people" then seem to find it their duty to keep the truth from the very people who put them there to represent them.
There is a piece in nuclear-news by Ralf Nader, published in Common Dreams, which I found enlightening.
http://nuclear-news.net/2014/01/25/ralph-nader-warns-on-nuclear-power-and-civil-liberties/#more-62409
The United Kingdom, which I come from, doesn't exactly have an exemplary history of not putting the public in its own country, or overseas, at risk.  Anyone who has ever watched "Silent Storm" must be aware of this.... and this is just one episode in our nuclear history that we know about. 
In the USA, a rare film showing is about to happen. Film goers in Washington DC and New York City will be able to watch Nuclear Savage:The Islands of Project 4.1. The film director, Adam Horowitz will be at the panel discussion in Washington.. but you must register to see this film at the Goethe-Institut.
The film is one of many potent stories being brought to the USA by the International Uranium Film Festival, and I wonder how many U.S. citizens know about the testing of the nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, I mean, really know about the testing of nuclear weapons in these islands. The organisers of the festival have supplied some background reading for this film and even if you aren't in Washington DC or New York City, this is, to my mind, worth reading. You may then understand why you might not have seen it on your television screen.
The link is http://www.4thmedia.org/2014/01/11/media-coverup-of-impacts-of-u-s-nuclear-weapons-testing-on-native-people-in-the-pacific/
To find out more about dates and locations, go to the International Uranium Film Festival website and hover over the traveling festival tab to show the details. http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/index.php/en/
or go direct to the Goethe-Institut, Washington or the Pavilion Theater, New York, websites.


Wednesday 15 January 2014

King Canute, rolling waves and proposed nuclear power plants.

As we waited under the bus shelter, where an unkind wind occasionally blew a swirl of rain directly towards us, we discussed today's situation and past predictions.  It was, after all, the beginning of the new year, and the thoughtful lady with the furled umbrella, reminded me that in the eighties, when computerization came in, we were told that we would all have so much spare time that when the schools closed and the children went home, they would be opened again for adults to study.
"Well that didn't last, did it?" she said. We agreed that people mostly work longer hours and have less free time than they did in a 9-5.30 era.
I remember the media telling us that there was going to be so little work for us to do when computers took the dross out of office work, that a whole new leisure industry was going to have to be born to give us something to do in our spare time, because we were going to have so much of it.
Um.... they didn't quite get that one right.
The thoughtful lady's bus arrived, the bus driver docking the front wheels carefully in the large puddle, so as not to cause a wave when he drove into it. 
I've made a few predictions myself that have gone horribly wrong and I can't blame anyone else for doing the same.  However, we can learn by our mistakes.
The version of The King Canute story that I was taught, was that he was surrounded by courtiers who were vying to flatter him in 11th century style one-upmanship. In order to teach them a lesson, he had his chair placed on the shore as the sea was coming in and forbade the waves to wet him.... Of course the waves still rolled in and of course he still got soaked and hopefully it taught his courtiers what he was demonstrating to them.
http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/Canute%20Waves.htm
I know I am not the first one to draw the parallel, but he was a king of England; this was an English sea that washed over him and now the waves are doing the same, but this time the threat is not to one man and his chair, but to an island and even a world, threatened by a technology that cannot be moved or dismantled for decades.
A few days ago, the former prime minister of  Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, who has switched from being pro nuclear to anti nuclear gave an enlightening interview,   http://nuclear-news.net/2014/01/13/japans-ex-prime-minister-koizumi-denounces-the-lies-of-the-nuclear-industry/
Currently, the British government is considering up to 50 new nuclear power plants  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/21/nuclear-plants-energy-plans
Meanwhile, in Fukushima, another coastal nuclear power plant, on a different island, water contaminated with radioactive isotopes such as Strontium 90 continues to be a horrible problem.  Anyone who has ever tried to stop water flowing from somewhere they didn't want it into somewhere they wanted it even less, may have some idea of how difficult it is to stop land water flowing into the sea and sea water flowing back into the land. The land doesn't stop at the sea edge does it?  It's just that the sea water comes up over it... King Canute knew this.
In Britain many coastal and riverside communities are still reeling from the floods. The Guardian  has a witness area for people to add their own photos and this is the link to the one I especially like.. for the words underneath! https://witness.theguardian.com/assignment/52a028a8e4b0acc591790cd5/743301
The Environment Agency has a map showing river and sea levels. I was really impressed by it. http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/default.aspx
I hope they can keep it going..  There are apparently going to be massive front line cuts in the department. However, one map that made news in 2012 is set in the future. This is the map showing  nuclear power plant sites at risk of flooding in Great Britain in 2080.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/graphic/2012/mar/07/uk-nuclear-sites-flooding-map 
and http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/mar/07/uk-nuclear-risk-flooding 
As I understand it, usually, people have to wait around 100 years before they can fully decommission a nuclear power plant.
http://enenews.com/nuclear-experts-one-century-before-japan-deals-with-fukushimas-melted-cores-more-likely-whats-left-of-reactors-will-be-left-in-situ-for-100-years-or-more-video 
So will the workers wear radiation proof diving suits or what?