The Real Superpower: Nature

by

Five days after the devastating earthquake and tsunami off the northeastern coast of Japan, the country and its citizens are still reeling from those natural disasters while alarm continues to rise over a looming man-made nuclear disaster.

Japan is a country lauded for its emergency preparedness, yet although the Japanese government and people are responding as quickly as possible in an extremely difficult situation (compare the U.S. response to the comparatively smaller disaster of Hurricane Katrina), there are still countless people without access to food, clean water, and shelter. The death toll continues to rise, with more than 15,000 people unaccounted for.

All of us in the industrialized world should sit up and take note of the Japanese crisis. One lesson we should take to heart is that there’s no avoiding nature. People who live in the developing world, who are generally less cushioned from the day-to-day impacts of nature than those of us with air-conditioned houses and cars and well-stocked refrigerators, already know that. Those of us in the industrialized part of the world, who burn a disproportionate amount of the world’s fossil fuels, need to absorb this lesson before we have pulled the rest of the world with us into climate chaos.

Once we hit the climate tipping point, the cumulative effects of global climate instability will be unstoppable, like Friday’s tsunami wave that took out everything in its path. Scientists have been warning us for decades about the effects of our continued warming of the earth’s atmosphere by unrestrained burning of fossil fuels. Why wouldn’t we all be working together now, while we still have time, to stop the climate change “earthquake” from happening?

From Al Jazeera, a summary of how a nuclear meltdown could happen at the Fukushima power plant:

More links:

For comprehensive information on how to reach out to the Japanese people, to go CBC’s Japan Relief page.

Peter Sinclair over at Climate Crock of the Week has been providing excellent and frequent updates on the Japanese nuclear situation: ClimateCrocks.com

Special Rep0rt: Disaster In Japan

Lesson From Japan: There’s No Avoiding Nature

Compilation: Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, Nuclear Emergency 2011

0 thoughts on “The Real Superpower: Nature”

  1. “Once we hit the climate tipping point, the cumulative effects of global climate instability will be unstoppable, like Friday’s tsunami wave that took out everything in its path.”

    Really? Even the most alarmist of “climate scientists” do not maintain this. Where on earth have you dreamed this up? Presently the almost imperceptible “global warming” remains plateau’ed out for the last 10 years or so and there is absolutely no sign of any such thing as “global climate instability”. You have just made that up!

    Personally, I think the present huge sums of money spent on the speculative future dangers of climate change should be spent on the only too present dangers of hunger and shortage of potable water and basic medical care for large swathes of the world’s population. Why do you not give up this pointless “350” crusade and do something a bit more useful?

    Maybe a few more people would then read your blog. I only come here every now and again to see what the truly ” climate baffled ” are saying. I am sure you are very well meaning but I do find your “sky is falling” utter alarmism verging on the deranged.
    Do try and calm down. Read a bit of science and you will find that even if the worst the IPCC suggests might, just might, happen will not be as bad as you make out.
    Hope there is not too much snow up where you are!
    Cheers!

    Reply

Leave a Comment