Really?
I'm old enough to remember what the concept of nuclear winter actually is. The theory went that a full scale exchange of nuclear warheads between the U.S. and the Warsaw Pact would result in enough dust being kicked into the stratosphere, that significant global cooling would result, freezing crops in the summer, and devastating life around the globe. Y'know, if the blasts of several hundred to several thousand warheads and ensuing radiation didn't do it.
Worst case scenario for the Japanese nuclear disaster right now? The area immediately around the plant is thoroughly contaminated and a no-go area for a year or two, and a 20 to 30 square mile area is contaminated for quite a while, and in need of remediation.
That's not a nuclear winter. Not even close.
What it is, is a good example of the media absolutely shafting us by not giving out accurate facts, reporting advocacy group hyperbole (or maybe just makin' shit up) as fact, and trying to scare us and sell more better spots to advertisers.
It's not limited to one side or the other. The ubiquitous Drudge Report is sensationalizing the living shite out of this disaster too, and from the looks of it is specializing in scaring the bejeezus out of Californians. Sure, it's fish-in-a-barrel, and something most of the rest of the country has fantasized about doing from time to time... but that doesn't make it right.
Our media is failing us badly, and failing the Japanese too. They aren't even close to telling us the truth and they're ignoring the real story, which is the brutal, massive humanitarian disaster, and the Japanese people's desperate need of charitable donations.
I'll repeat again. Despite the best efforts of Japanese engineers to foul things up, and despite the most horrendous natural disaster we're likely to see in our lifetimes, or our kids' lifetimes, and despite a 40-50 year-old plant design, this is no Chernobyl. [Worst case scenario discussed rationally here.] It's not nothing; the damage is significant and we will need to clean up, and learn lessons, and yes a number of people will be hurt. But it's not Chernobyl, or nuclear freaking winter for that matter. Keep hope, give generously, and say a prayer for the Japanese.
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TOT 20: Delonghi EC 155:
a $75 Slice of +1 Post-Ride Espresso for the Office
a $75 Slice of +1 Post-Ride Espresso for the Office
ToT 19: On My Fixie,
Out W/t Fast as Schidt Sean
Out W/t Fast as Schidt Sean
5 comments:
The job of the News networks is to make us pay attention in order to sell advertising time to their sponsors, therefore they have a built-in incentive to be sensational.
An interesting (and unfortunate) side effect of the tendency for "News" to be sensationalized garbage is that many people have a completely warped sense of risk. For instance, there are people out there who spend time worrying about school shootings, mad cow disease and plane crashes, all of which are highly unlikely to impact them personally EVER, but get reported on the news when they occur. The same people have no problem hopping in the car with their kids a few extra times a week for a trip to the "whole foods" across town, despite the fact that, statistically, driving is one of the most dangerous things you can do.
We've become a nation of risk idiots.
Thanks,
Burt
Wait a second....the media is distorting information and being sensational in its reporting? Well, I never!
One of the biggest problems in the U.S. is the complete inability of 99% of the population to think critically about real issues that don't involve American Idol, the Kardashians or hip hop culture. Then again, that's a primary theme of your blog postings.
Carry on.
The media reflects the increasing "idiocracy" of our culture. It's not enough to have one of the worst natural disasters in this century. It has to be more "kick-ass!". Throw in some porn and commercials for hot-wing-flavored doritos and a 96oz. Coke and we will have revelaed the seventh sign of the apocalypse.
I sent your Pajamas Media link to a pal (Stanford educated Ph.D. in the "hard" sciences) because he has a trip planned to Japan in a couple of months. Sad that I (a liberal arts degree holder) had to educate a guy with a lot more formal education than I have. Ahhh, the joys of living on the Left Coast.
Keep riding, keep writing. Rubber side down and ride like your butt's on fire.
Burt - I'm pretty certain that emotionalism has always had a leg up on rationalism. We've come to think in the last several decades it doesn't, and maybe it didn't for a while, but it's made a tearing comeback over the last decade or so.
Big Mikey - Gotta wonder what it's doing the the breed, in an evolutionary sense. Maybe it's a Darwinian version of Trust & Estates Law - 300 generations to claw our way up from the swamp, 300 generations to squander that evolutionary capital, 300 generations to sink right back into it.
Dr. Brett: Idiocracy is about right.
JJ: Not that I trust everything I read on PJM. Some of their writers are Republican shills and not to be trusted. I try to judge them as dispassionately as anybody else. I read Kos too, but not all the time due to what I perceive (rightly or wrongly) as a high noise-to-signal ratio.
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