After several weeks of human-caused disasters like the fiasco in Wisconsin and the budget battle in Washington, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have forcefully reminded us of the power of nature to wreak havoc in our lives. And right after the quake and the killer waves, we were again reminded of the power of human folly to exacerbate the damage done by natural disasters. Scientists say the massive earthquake in Japan moved Japan a full 12 feet closer to North America. But it still wasn’t enough to move Republican views on nuclear energy. On Fox News Sunday, Mitch McConnell said “I don’t think right after a major environmental catastrophe is a very good time to be making American domestic policy.” Of course not. Let’s not make any decisions while we’re distracted by things like the consequences of those decisions. Mitch believes that we have to resist the temptation to stop and think every time something goes tragically wrong. If Mitch McConnell was at the sinking of the Titanic, after it sank he would have tried to ram the iceberg with the lifeboats. “This is no time to question the policy of ramming into icebergs!” The only upside to disasters is that we might learn something from what happened. In this case, I think we’ve already learned that Mitch McConnell is an idiot.
We can’t stop earthquakes or tsunamis, but we can avoid having nuclear reactors melting down in the aftermath of earthquakes and tsunamis. If there were no nuclear plants in Japan, right now we’d be talking about the tragedy that just happened… not about the tragedy that still could happen. But then if the BP oil spill can’t make conservatives question oil drilling, why should this disaster make them question nuclear power? You know that conservatives are just going to reflexively defend the nuclear power industry like they did the oil industry during the BP spill. At least they can’t just yell “Drill, baby drill.” And “React, baby react” makes a terrible chant.
Scientists say the quake was so powerful it caused Earth to rotate somewhat faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds. You know what that means—Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is going to want to dock that time from state workers’ paychecks.
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Before and after imagery shows the extent of the post-tsunami flooding in the Iwanuma-Matsushima area of Japan…
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