Wednesday, March 16, 2011

No Comment . . .

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Scenes from Pennsylvania last September . . .
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33 comments:

Jo said...

Oh, goodness...

Yes.

Oakland Daily Photo said...

When I first saw the photo I thought it was in France. It was so startling to me to see the towers in the distance over a field of sunflowers. I guess many of them look alike. Like everyone else, holding my breath for Japan.

pRiyA said...

hi owen,
last night i was looking at this:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/chernobyl--24-years-on-1954969.html?action=Gallery

Steve said...

And yet we humans fail to see the lesson. So sad.

jeff said...

C'est toi, c'est moi qui avons choisi le nucléaire comme énergie électrique ? Non ! A vouloir domestiquer quelque chose qui dépasse tout de même l'homme, voilà les conséquences terribles, comme, malheureusement se retrouvent confrontés des millions de japonais et...
La cupidité de l'homme n'a de cesse que de vouloir accroitre ses profits au prix d'un environnement sacrifié, détruit voire balayé !
Le politique semble découvrir tout à coup qu'il y urgence à "s'inquiéter" à ce sujet ! Tous ces personnages, dont le moteur pour la plupart, pour ne pas dire tous, est le pouvoir et l'argent, sont pathétiques, grotesques, irresponsables...
Il y a bien d'autres énergies, "propres", qui auraient dû être exploitées depuis très longtemps... Mas les enjeux économiques, comme ceux de la France pour ne pas la citer, sont, aux yeux des industriels cupides, trop importants pour être changés du jour au lendemain !
Tout va à l'envers du bon sens ! On met en place un moteur électrique mais qui va pouvoir se payer des voitures motorisées de la sorte ? Il devrait y avoir à l'inverse un coût plus élevé pour ceux qui roulent avec du carburant et avoir des véhicules électriques pour tous à bas prix pour "préserver" l'environnement ! Mais là aussi, il y a trop d'enjeux économiques qui durent depuis des décennies...
Je ne suis pas revendicatif de l'anarchie ni d'une révolution, mais d'une révolution économique, oui !
La catastrophe qui se dessine au Japon est terrible pour toute l'humanité ! Mais quelles leçons pour le futur si...

Adam said...

Owen - interesting photos, but they have nothing to do with nuclear power do they? Aren't they just cooling towers for a coal or gas fuelled plant?

The Sagittarian said...

We're feeling confident that the current situation in Japan has spelt an end to the endless debate about nuclear power for NZ, and I guess even if they do go ahead it won't be in Christchurch!

clo said...

Oui Owen ...no comment..je crois...les debats auraient du avoir lieu bien avant...c'est trop tard maintenant...
Mon coeur est pres de tous ceux qui sont coincés la bas..sans aucune autre alternative...c'est terrible..
bises tristes..

Mr. Charleston said...

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I did a couple of posts a while back you may find interesting http://termitesofsin.blogspot.com/2010/05/willowy-blonde-great-big-mystery.html and the follow-up http://termitesofsin.blogspot.com/2010/05/great-zucchini.html

mythopolis said...

Chilling....Interesting that the historical marker says: "Events here would cause basic changes throughout the world's nuclear power industry." Clearly, it did not cause enough change, as we watch Japan melt down.

Le Journal de Chrys said...

Je suis si triste de ce qui se passe actuellement car au-delà de la catastrophe naturelle face à laquelle l'homme est démuni s'ajoute le feu qu'il a cru maîtriser.

Lydia said...

Stunning images, Owen. What a powerful post. I am speechless...and so very full of thought and turmoil.

K'line Bloom said...

Terrible...
Je ne sais pas pourquoi, mais il me revient à l'esprit la fin du film "La Planète des singes" avec Charlton Heston...la statue de la liberté, enfoncée dans le sable, le bras tendu vers le ciel, vestige de la folie des hommes...

Owen said...

Adam,
This past September while in the US I drove past both the Limerick Nuclear Power Station, which is shown in the first photo, near Philadelphia, a city with over 5 million people in the greater Philadelphia area, and a few days later I drove by the Three Mile Island Nuclear plant. Both sites are in active operation. Reactor number two at Three Mile Island has been shut down since the accident there in 1979, but reactor number one is still operating today. I took the last four photos at the Three Mile Island site. I thought the gift of a cherry tree by Japanese engineers commemorated with the plaque photographed here was particularly poignant, in view of current events.

You can see more about both sites here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick_Nuclear_Power_Plant


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_Nuclear_Generating_Station

For Three Mile Island there are hundreds, if not thousands of sites which talk about the accident there. It is still unclear today just how large the actual release of radiation in that incident really was. In 1988 I travelled in the Three Mile Island area, and was appalled at the number of abandoned homes there. People had left home leaving clothes in the closets and food in the kitchen or cellars. Today the area seems to have returned pretty much to "normal".

Roxana said...

:-(

quite speechless, too, and stricken with grief...

Stickup Artist said...

Madness. Do I dare hope that we can learn and be a better species from this moment on? I keep saying that but it keeps getting harder to believe. It is heartbreaking to see the pictures and read the reports from Japan. Your bleak images amongst the flowers and water, and billowing smoke, need no words but say volumes.

Anonymous said...

Must have felt incredible. Never seen one on me own. If only thoughts and prayers would help. Please have a safe Thursday.


daily athens

Nevine Sultan said...

Sorry, Owen. But this is where I find myself without words. I just don't get (well, here I've found my tongue) why we use our intelligence to create things that might one day hurt us. I really don't understand that. And we fail and then we repeat our mistakes.

That second before last photo... so very sad.

Nevine

Owen said...

This from CNN today in an article about mental health issues related to the crisis in Japan :

"And mental health is just as important as physical health. We know from years of research that poor mental health leads to physical health problems, diminished quality of life, work-related problems, social and family dysfunction, and even early death.

When the partial core meltdown happened at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in March 1979, people in the surrounding communities were frightened and bewildered by the confusing and contradictory information being disseminated about what exactly was occurring at the reactor and whether their health was at risk. Moreover, the population nearby was advised to evacuate and evacuation discussions were also held as far away as Philadelphia."

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/03/16/bromet.psychological.effect.japan/index.html?hpt=T2

Dark days ahead for many.

Pastelle said...

Je redépose ce soir le mot espoir.
Parce que c'est celui que je veux retenir aujourd'hui.

Sar@h said...

La photo d'un même lieu peut traduire des ressentis différents, la première est magnifique … et la dernière.

L'autre jour, avec la copine nous délirions sur un tsunami dans la Manche : Usine Marémotrice, Centrales nucléaires à Flamanville, Paluel, Penly & Graveline, sans oublier la Baie de Seine … Pour la partie française !

Anonymous said...

It really puts things into perspective!

Anonymous said...

It really puts things into perspective!

Virginia said...

Chilling, and so many in France as well.
V

Springman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Springman said...

We, the great unwashed, live on the tenuous edge of cataclysm. This will always be true even if Garden Earth would somehow become the imperative of corporate/government institutions.
The attention span of the world is short. I think this trait evolved to let us recover more readily from trauma. The Gulf of Mexico disaster is just a year old and has left the popular media's focus and thus our own months ago. Here in the U.S. the nuclear lobby and corporate political action committees revved up instantly to put a sunny face on Fukushima and arm wrestle limp wristed politicians into submission.
"They" know how our mind works, plant a cherry tree next to an atomic facility and all we see are the blossoms.

High regards to you Owen.

mythopolis said...

Yes, the mental health concerns are quite serious. Post-Traumatic Stress. True of anyone surviving a catastrophe. The shock of what happened. The fear it could happen again. For children, especially, it is life-changing. Quite sad. It can be helped, but help of any kind is costly. Any nation, every nation, should be wrestling with their priorities right now.

Amy said...

Things to keep in mind...

Owen said...

Merci à tous et à toutes,
Je pense qu'il est clair que notre modèle pour bcp de choses doit être revu de fond en comble... l'energie, les voitures, les banques, et encore...

Je suis désolé si je suis un peu absent du monde des blogs ces jours-ci, c'est juste une période plus que chargé entre boulot et vie, parfois il pleut, parfois il neige, parfois des montagnes de petits m***diers nous tombent dessus... faut déblayer...

Thanks to all, I think it is becoming self evident that quite a number of our basic models and assumptions need to change, to be shaken out and started from scratch; energy, cars, banks, etc, current system is a house of cards.

The world of blogging however is a good place to find solace and refuge... I appreciate your company here enormously...

Carmen Troncoso Baeza said...

All of this, is so sad, great shot!

Pat Tillett said...

I live 15 miles from one and drive by it all the time. I ALWAYS think about the potential for disaster when I do...

Dee Newman said...

Despite the fact that I may owe my very existence to nuclear energy (that another story for another day), it is not and never will be the answer to global warming. The nuclear industry has hoodwink naïve and ignorant politicians, the media, and much of the public into believing that it is a “clean and green” solution to the worlds energy problems. The people of Japan have paid a grave price for the nuclear industry’s hubris, their arrogance and greed. They have operated facilities improperly, with little or no regard for safety regulations for far too many years, and they have often done this with the collusion of government authorities. Nuclear power is not clean, it is not green, nor is it safe and renewable. It is far past time the global community renounce it.

Lulu archive Availles said...

Merci Owen pour ce rappel salutaire.
En espérant que les choses s'arrangent vite et à moindre mal.
En combien de temps vient-on à bout d'une centrale qui déraille, le temps semble bien long...
Que les leçons soient tirées de cet accident et que l'on fabrique enfin un matériel à la hauteur de l'enjeu, puisqu'accident il y a et il y aura... Que ne peut-on faire mieux que ces camions de pompiers et ces hélicoptères standard ?
Bises