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@Louis: No, the thread started by an article that tried to exaggerate the threat to human life from the Fukushima accident. All the while not a person on this list raised the point that the failure of the sea walls in Fukushima can easily be repeated south of there, to threaten millions of lives. My point is that the ruling class is split in Japan, with the Kan wing representing the new, anti-nuclear position of a wing of that class. @Shane: for once Shane makes a point more salient than Louis' marshmellow throws... No, I'm absolutely for democracy. I'm for people getting what they want, regardless of how stupid and backward a democratic decision is. That, by being *manipulated* they are by the media and the reactionary Greens who want Japan to go power down-the-drain to something akin to 19th Century level of industrialization. I assume, Shane, that that this works both ways? Yes? http://www.gallup.com/poll/153452/Americans-Favor-Nuclear-Power-Year-Fukushima.aspx The assumption by Shane is that the popularity of any particular issue, now matter how passively or strongly expressed, should be the 'correct' position. I don't agree. It's one thing to support the *decision* based on democratic views (not actually expressed in Japan, BTW, as it's all decided in the Diet there) and other to *agree* to the decision itself, or what it was based on. As to the effects of the Fukushima accident on areas inside and outside the 'evacuation zone' that remains to been seen. If you pay attention to the side-show act of Arnie Gundersen, they ought to start evacuating all of Japan right now. This would serve the purveyors of doom and fear nicely. There is likely to be no increase in mortality from radioactivity-initiated cancers in Japan at all as the result of Fukushima. At least not a noticeable one. Anywhere there. But that remains to be seen, obviously. The bigger question is how society will transition away from fossil fuel consumption and still *increse* overall use of energy without effecting the climate. Japan is moving in the *opposite* direction, as is Germany, both countries increasing, not decreasing their reliance on fossil fuel, thus carbon based, energy solutions. And far more people will die from this fact than will ever die from radiation from nuclear power plants. David ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
