A few years ago I posted on an underwater garbage flotilla that's lurking right below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. It now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States and is, effectively, the world's largest garbage dump.
At the time I thought that this was about as bad as it could get. That was until Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster occurred in 2011. Two years later one Japanese government official is now saying that about 300 tons of contaminated water is leaking into the Pacific Ocean every day (which the Japanese government won't officially acknowledge).
Cleaning up the nuclear mess is expected to take 40 years, and will cost about $11 billion. No word on how long it will take to clean up the floating garbage dump.
In the mean time, over the last two years large numbers of fish in the Pacific Ocean are turning up dead with bleeding from their eyes, bellies, fins, and tails. There's no confirmed link between the fish and the two environmental disasters. But most of us don't need a road map here to tell us we're on the wrong road, and moving into uncharted ecological territory.
For my purposes, I'm tempted to talk about all the economists who tell us that we shouldn't worry about externalities (costs absorbed by unwilling third parties) because every good produced has the costs associated with its production built into the price. Only the buyer and seller need to be concerned about the creation, purchase, and exchange of a product. But having this discussion (at this time) would be tedious, and even distracting.
The real point is that if we look at what's happening to bee colonies and other environmental disasters, like the one caused by BP in the Gulf of Mexico, the larger issue is more dramatic. Simply put, are we slowly committing global suicide?
- Mark
Hat tip to Tom for the Fukushima piece.
At the time I thought that this was about as bad as it could get. That was until Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster occurred in 2011. Two years later one Japanese government official is now saying that about 300 tons of contaminated water is leaking into the Pacific Ocean every day (which the Japanese government won't officially acknowledge).
Cleaning up the nuclear mess is expected to take 40 years, and will cost about $11 billion. No word on how long it will take to clean up the floating garbage dump.
In the mean time, over the last two years large numbers of fish in the Pacific Ocean are turning up dead with bleeding from their eyes, bellies, fins, and tails. There's no confirmed link between the fish and the two environmental disasters. But most of us don't need a road map here to tell us we're on the wrong road, and moving into uncharted ecological territory.
For my purposes, I'm tempted to talk about all the economists who tell us that we shouldn't worry about externalities (costs absorbed by unwilling third parties) because every good produced has the costs associated with its production built into the price. Only the buyer and seller need to be concerned about the creation, purchase, and exchange of a product. But having this discussion (at this time) would be tedious, and even distracting.
The real point is that if we look at what's happening to bee colonies and other environmental disasters, like the one caused by BP in the Gulf of Mexico, the larger issue is more dramatic. Simply put, are we slowly committing global suicide?
- Mark
Hat tip to Tom for the Fukushima piece.
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