Fukushima,
denial, and the ethics of extinction
©2012
Guy Macpherson. Nature Bats Last. All rights reserved.
Fukushima
The
problem first became apparent in 1985. I was sitting on a porch in the
mountains in Arizona reading a Scientific American article by one of the
early researchers investigating the unlikely possibility that adding carbon
dioxide to the atmosphere might be a problem. Over the previous months there
had been a number of similar pieces on things like the ozone layer and the decline
in fisheries. Then a ‘eureka!’ (actually, a ‘holy shit’) moment. Clearly there
was going to be serious trouble in maybe 20-30 years unless something changed.
I tried hard and for a long time to help that change happen, because it sure
didn’t look good, even back then.
Skip
forward to now. The window of time during which our species could have changed
course and averted this has slammed shut. The forces we blindly set in motion
are far beyond our ability to control, despite the geoengineering fantasies of
the technologists. Ever see The Sorcerers Apprentice?
There
are several irreversible processes under way that would each, alone, be
sufficient to kill off if not everything at least the upper part of the food
chain, which now consists mostly of humans..Two of them are the release of the methane now
beginning to boil out of the Arctic ocean and permafrost
and ocean acidification.
These
are disasters from which the living planet will not recover for perhaps
millions of years, and the composition of the recovered biosphere will include
few currently extant species. Cockroaches look good to go, primates not so
much. But life has made it through these sorts of things before, these great
extinctions, and probably would yet again recover and flourish although we will
not be around to see it. The third problem is different, new to the world.
We
have created astoundingly toxic substances which have not been present on the
surface of this planet in billions of years; some have never been here before.
All are made in nuclear reactors — they do not occur in nature. The particulars
of this problem are well documented and need not be repeated here, except to
note that earth’s living beings do not have eons of genetic adaptation to
constant high radiation levels. All other problems allow some optimism about
the long term prospect for recovery after the human rampage is over. This
threat is different in kind from other environmental problems because
radioactivity directly disrupts or destroys the ability of genes to accurately
replicate. This is not repairable. We menace everything, not just ourselves.
For
about seventy years, we’ve been building and operating reactors with design
lives of maybe 40 years. There are roughly 450 operating civilian reactors, and
a guesstimated 500+ military, research, and other reactors, all of which
continue to produce radioisotopes with half-lives ranging from seconds to
millions of years in containments designed as temporary until the waste problem
is solved. Unfortunately, no solution has been found, and when the containments
begin to fail significantly, all the garbage sitting in them will disperse into
the environment. There is no other choice- remove this crap from the biosphere,
or eat, breathe, and wear it, wash with it, walk on it and drink it when the
containment fails.
You’re
now looking down the barrel of the gun that is the likeliest of all to kill
you, me and everyone we know. It’s not vague any longer. This is the specific
problem that will end civilization and ruin the biosphere, with a specific
mechanism of action and a very short time frame. Unless, of course, something
can be done to secure those SFPs and reactors until a currently unknown
technology can be invented capable of removing the spent fuel to another place
before the earthquakes and entropy make the effort moot. Is it even possible?
Denial
Maybe,
but we’re unlikely to ever find out. The first step in solving or mitigating a
problem is to acknowledge it, all of it, and humans don’t if they can possibly
avoid it.
When
I was in my twenties and reading a lot of history, there were a couple of years
where I got fascinated by the Holocaust, how that could have been, what people
thought they were doing. One aspect in particular struck me; it was in a book
whose title is long forgotten, about the response of the Jewish community in
Germany to the rise of the Nazis. In a nutshell, denial.
Nobody
in the Jewish community, especially the well-off, wanted to believe that the
words they were hearing from the Nazis as they rose were serious. Respectable
authorities, rabbinical celebrities reassured everyone that Hitler was just
posturing, nothing would come of it. As the vise grew tighter, the denial grew
more fervent. Those few who defied the consensus and insisted on the reality of
the danger were admonished, ridiculed, and finally shunned, in the
old-fashioned sense — nobody would have anything to do with them. Reality was
just too damn uncomfortable, so they chose to die rather than face it. This is
not uncommon; in fact, it is pretty normal behavior. People would often rather
die than give up comfortable lives.
That
is what we’re doing. For a minimum twenty years it has been clear to anyone who
actually look that industrial civilization is a suicide machine based on a
false premise; that the Earth offers both endless resources and a bottomless
pit for waste. Wrong on both counts, obviously- but admitting that is to
acknowledge the destruction we create merely by living in this briefly possible
fashion, this remarkably comfortable suicidal fashion.
So
you and me, naturally above average in awareness, intelligence, spiritual
development, so hip and edgy that we read Nature Bats Last, been worried about
this stuff for years, tsk tsk — we gonna give it all up and live on what can be
had from the interaction of air, soil, sunlight, water and intelligence?
Do
you sometimes drive for pleasure, say, out to eat and a movie? Been known to
blast out a few Btu to get the hot tub ready? Get on an airplane? Buy
convenient plastic items (gotta have music) that will still be leaking toxins
in a millennia or two?
Me,
too.
And
there’s your answer: No.
Proposed
solutions to any of this mess [that] require humans to behave better than we do
are worthless, just another form of denial. Please consider the environment in
which the creatures whose descendants we are, evolved. To be successful in
evolutionary terms means only one thing, breeding.
The
champion breeders (sorry, I can’t resist: did you know one sixth of the human
population carries genes from the most successful breeder of all, Genghis
Kahn?) in our line of descent were those who were best at acquiring food,
water, shelter, and a mate- short term challenges. The critters who were best
at short term challenges did well; there were no bonus points awarded for
worrying about the ozone layer. As a result, we are hard wired for short term
motivation, and long term problems are mostly invisible to our emotional
perceptions (and it’s the emotional process that dictates our actions despite
these fond illusions of intellectual rigor). We’re going to behave the way
we’re wired to behave, with some rare exceptions. The wiring isn’t going to
change quickly.
An
aside, scientists are wired on the same plane as the rest of us. They are just
as addicted to denial and comfort as anyone else, and as unwilling to look at
harsh reality. I had a mentor in radiation monitoring for a while, a retired
physicist with a background in that area. He was great as long as we were talking
about equipment and procedures, but I made the mistake of telling him about
Fukushima, and he declared himself too depressed to continue and cut off
contact.
Another
interesting thing this situation has turned up is the apparent inverse
relationship between social rank and ability to grasp the consequences of the
situation. Wealthy and powerful people rarely seem to understand that not all
problems can be handled with spin, force or money. People who deal with
physical reality for a living take a look at this information and quite often
get it immediately.
So
denial it is and will be, until the situation gets so immediately, undeniably
awful that denial will no longer work, at which point everybody starts
demanding immediate action; that usually occurs long after there is any
effective response possible. We’re most likely there now — the time available
to reinforce SFP 4 is melting away as the next earthquake approaches.
Plus
there’s another problem that may make doing anything impossible. Tepco is almost
out of workers. The experienced workers at all levels have far overstepped the
radiation dosages which bar them from further work and must leave. There is no
one to replace them, and it is getting extremely difficult to find anyone
willing to go out there for any amount of money, as the ambient radiation hits
higher and higher levels and continues to rise. Reactors 2 and 3 cannot even be
approached any more, and there appears to be an ongoing
release of yellow, radioactive steam cracks in the ground. It seems likely that the
plant will be abandoned soon, not by policy, but because anyone going there
will die.
What
to do?
In
all likelihood, Fukushima is going to blow and the chain of dominos will fall;
if some miracle occurs this time it won’t matter for long, because all
commercial reactors are being run by for-profit companies under a de facto
policy of “run to failure” — that’s how you maximize profits. And then there
are those other lethal problems if we get past this one.
Why
do anything?
The
ethics of extinction
My
ethics are personal and therefore subjective, as I think is ultimately true for
everyone. So since I’m going to talk about ethics, I need to tell you a little
about mine to keep things up front. My effort in life is to grow in kindness
and integrity, which to me look like necessary components of each other. I
don’t have a religion or gurus, but let me tell you about a story in the Los
Angeles Times some years ago, when the newspaper were doing a series on the
poorest of the poor.
The
story was about a couple living in a hut with their child in a barren wasteland
in Africa. Poor doesn’t begin to convey their situation. None of them had shoes
or more than a rag or two. Every day the man went scrounging in this desolate,
empty place for some way to get enough calories for another day of life.
Because repeated failure would doom them all, he always had to eat first even
when if child went hungry. The woman made her efforts closer to home. One day a
near miracle occurred; out scavenging, she found five potatoes, which could be
traded for nearly a week’s worth of millet, a huge windfall.
Walking
home, she encountered a mother with a baby who hadn’t eaten in two days and
whose milk had failed, who asked her for help. She thought about it for a
moment, and then she gave the mother three of the five potatoes.
I
think that this woman is a very advanced soul, and if I can make some progress
towards her ethics then this life will have been a success.
To
my subjective perception, service is the expression of kindness, and it seems
incumbent upon me to try and do whatever I can to make things better for the
beings around me.
So
here are some personal, subjective reasons to keep trying, even in the face of
human extinction:
We
have just seen a sudden mass movement intentionally triggered by a small group
— Occupy Wall Street — significantly change the political debate in this
country overnight. It may be possible to do something similar regarding
Fukushima. It won’t solve the problem, but it could be part, even an important
part, of a larger effort which mitigates things a bit.
That’s
about as much hope as the visible landscape will bear. It isn’t much, and
granted, the likeliest outcome by far is the worst one.
If
there was nothing at stake except our sorry selves, then maybe sinking back
into the familiar numbness of inertia would be defensible. But that isn’t the
case. There are uncountable numbers of living beings, some of them human and
very small, who will suffer and die horribly and slowly when Fukushima blows.
Almost all of them are innocent, and powerless to prevent this.
You
and I are neither powerless nor innocent. We didn’t stop gobbling the world
even when we knew that others will be paying for our little party with their
futures, including our own children. We have failed as guardians of their
future.
Our
unbridled selfishness has ruined the ever-changing web of living interaction
known as the biosphere. This has been called biocide, and if the worst happens
with the worlds radioactive waste, that may become literally true. Our debt is
very large indeed, and it is owed to our own victims. It is just possible that
an enormous effort may help somewhat.
What
kind of person am I if I will not try?
__________
Many
of us have treasured deep connections to certain places (the deserts and
mountains of Arizona, in my case) and done our best to keep them alive and
vibrant, to leave hawk and juniper, and ponderosa, elk and wolf room to thrive,
to push back against the death culture with every tool available. We failed,
and for those who know what is now gone the loss is hard to bear.
Consider
love of life as a reason to keep working, love for what was and the astounding
grace of having known the beauty and intelligence of a flourishing living
ecosystem before the chance was gone, and love manifested as a willingness to
make it possible again. I will keep trying in gratitude, and in hope that
possibly the recovery can be expedited in some small way by something I do.
That’s
reason enough.
__________
Who
will you chose to be now, in this painful, nightmare time? This is an
existential crisis in the most literal sense. The future existence of our
species, and likely everything above the cockroach level is seriously in question,
and our individual lives and the lives of our children are immediately at risk
from Fukushima. One quake, one lengthy glitch in the water flow to any spent
fuel pool, and immense suffering ensues instantly.
The
situation may still seem abstract and unreal on an emotional level because
humans cannot perceive radiation directly, and usually only personal perception
of danger registers. But this will change over time as the cover-up cracks, or
immediately if a pool burns. At some point the denial will break, followed by
much disorder as people try to make themselves and their loved ones safe when
it is impossible to be safe.
In
disasters people can both show great kindness and commit terrible crimes, but
mostly there is fear and running, hiding and shocking, paralyzing confusion.
Responding to this situation requires courage, not least the courage to look
directly at the horror we are facing and still not be broken, to refuse to stay
safely passive as our species kills itself and everything else.
I
think that for myself, integrity requires I keep trying until I no longer have
the ability.
__________
I
adore little kids. A yard full of happy pre-schoolers is about as much fun as I
know how to have. I am reading about what is happening to kids in Japan, and it
breaks my heart and make me very sad and very angry- children dying of cardiac
arrest in fifth grade, children forced to consume huge amounts of radiation to
protect the reputation of Fukushima produce, refusal to test children for
internal radiation. It goes on and on it is sickening and horrifying and as a
human being I will not stand idly by while this happens there and spreads
around the world, regardless of any other reason to try.
Fuck
the murderous corporate scumbags doing this. I will fight them to my last
breath. It is too late for Japan, but it may not be so everywhere. WE MUST NOT
PASSIVELY LET THEM POISON MORE CHILDREN. And to those displaying a
sophisticated, cynical superiority such that even this doesn’t signify a moral
imperative to act: consider living with yourself when they start dying here. Is
this who you chose to be? Is this really who you chose to see in the mirror
every morning?
How
much cowardice is currently showing?
Because
this is really what it comes down to, isn’t it- taking full responsibility for
who we are and what we do, and making and living that hard decision to always
do the right thing. I am a fighter by nature and by path, and for me this is
the essence of life for an honorable warrior. It’s only secondarily about
fighting, although defending those who need it is certainly a necessity. The
true essence is always doing the right thing regardless of personal
consequences. Fear, and overcoming it, is just part of the work. There are many
depending on us to do this, for they cannot help themselves and without our
help they will die in great misery. For your sake as well as theirs, I hope you
will undertake to become courageous and help them.
So
there it is, one person’s reasons for trying regardless of whether or not it
makes any difference, of whether or not the universe offers meaning beyond that
which we construct, whether or not anyone else does anything. I will never stop
trying to make things better, so long as I am able to choose. And sometimes
there is a success.
It
is enough.
SOMETHING,
HOWEVER SMALL AND IMPERFECT, IS BETTER THAN NOTHING
But
the form of the effort may change. No matter what we do, it may not be possible
to avert biocide and our own extinction.
Then
what?
There
is a Zen monastery near Fukushima, currently a place of immense suffering. The
citizens there have effectively been condemned to death by their government
because admitting the truth and evacuating them would cause an intolerable loss
of face. They are watching their children sicken and die, while the medical
profession refuses to test for radiation and diagnoses the problems as “flu”
and “stress” and “hysteria.” The area will not be habitable again for thousands
of years; it is truly a lost cause helping them.
One
of the insane things that is happening there is a truly bizarre and useless
effort to decontaminate areas by digging up contaminated soil. The citizens
have been told this will work and of course it doesn’t, but they are
conditioned to believe what authority tells them and to obey. So this process
generated many tons of highly contaminated soil in plastic bags, with no place
to put it, and there were many anxious homeowners thinking that if only they
could put this stuff someplace, their children would be helped. Where to put
it?
The
Abbott of the temple opened the gates and invited anyone who needed a place to
dump, to bring the bags to the temple.
That
is what to do: just give kindness. It’s the only thing you can always offer.
__________
That’s
enough words for now. There are a few of us involved in a project to get the
word out, and there are plans to set up radiation monitoring networks and a
non-government controlled radiation measurement lab so people can see what
their kids are eating, and more. If someone is interested in that, or if you’ve
got a better idea contact me, or maybe we can have a discussion in the
comments? I’ve never done this before and I don’t know how it works.
I
hope someone finds this essay useful.
Kindness
to all beings, as best I am capable of doing it. And best wishes to you.
--~
~ ~ ~
Nature Bats Last's blog focuses on the
natural world, with a particular emphasis on the twin sides of our fossil-fuel
addiction: (1) global climate change and (2) energy decline. Because these
phenomena impact every aspect of life on Earth, specific topics range widely, and
include philosophy, evolution, economics, humanity, politics, current events,
and many aspects of the human condition.
Guy
McPherson is professor emeritus at the University of Arizona. You can learn
about him at his university website.
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