Guardian UK: Japan: Seeking higher ground

[kristopher]

Japan: Seeking higher ground

Tepco may apologise profusely, but the nuclear industry has lost the stranglehold it once had over the energy debate

It took 10 years to rebuild Kobe after the earthquake in 1995, but that timeframe is now looking optimistic for the reconstruction needed along the north-eastern coastline of Japan. Two months ago, the black wave of the tsunami engulfed 16 towns, 95,000 buildings, 23 railway stations, hundreds of miles of road, railway tracks and sea walls. Over 60,000 acres of agricultural land were contaminated. It will take three years just to clear the debris.

In spite of the enormity of the task ahead, there are signs that Japan is moving away from disaster management. It may not be, however, politics as usual. Hauled over the coals, not least by his own party, for the way his government dealt with the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the embattled prime minister, Naoto Kan, has begun to make decisions which are political in nature. He ordered the temporary closure of Hamaoka – the nuclear plant which sits on an active faultline – while a new tsunami wall is built, and he has abandoned plans to build 14 reactors over the next 20 years, opting instead for a 20% increase in renewables.

This contrasts with the recommendation of Britain's climate change committee this week to increase reliance on nuclear energy. The Department of Energy and Climate Change is also considering a proposal that would cut the subsidy, through feed-in tariffs for generators of solar power. Disaster-stricken Japan is moving in the opposite direction, and it is brutally clear why. Over 80,000 people living within 12 miles of Fukushima have been forced out of their homes and it is far from clear when they will be able to return. Farmers have been forced to abandon their cows, or dump their milk. The compensation bill alone for the 50,000 families forced to leave the exclusion zone could be astronomical. Tepco may apologise deeply and profusely, but Japan's nuclear industry has lost the stranglehold it once had over the energy debate. There are no votes in trying to defend it now.

Stabilising Fukushima and building 70,000 temporary homes are immediate problems...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/12/japan-seeking-higher-ground

[Xipe Totec]

1. Higher Ground

Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wZ3ZG_Wams

[iemitsu]

2. this is the high ground

when compared to the british or american response to the meltdown of these reactors.
our systems will not even consider any options that might decentralize the power distribution grid. they stand to lose too much control (and income) if we become more self-sufficient.

[Demeter]

3. What cannot continue, will not continue

I see the kind of global tidal wave that overturns all the strangleholds present today, and allows the grassroots to start over, if they have the smarts, timing and will.

[iemitsu]

4. i hope you are right.

i too see this potential but am (obviously) too old to have confidence that the slaves will revolt.

[Demeter]

5. That Sounds Like the Old Joke

"The peasants are revolting!"

"You need a bath yourself."

[iemitsu]

6. haha,

that is an old joke. but one that makes me smile.
thanks