Lions and tigers and bears...Oh My!

So, a major tsunami, a giant earthquake and radioactive waste. Happy Spring, by the way.

The Japanese government, media and the world press have all been spin doctoring the truth about the situation surrounding the damaged nuclear plant. Nuclear energy is dangerous, no matter what spin governments and media try to put on the situation. The braver of the international media outlets have finally said publicly that the nuclear disaster at Fukushima nuclear plant is worse than Chernobyl, which is a terrifying thought. The word Chernobyl has now become synonymous with the horrors of nuclear disasters. That the Fukushima plant is worse than Chernobyl is a very scary testament to just how deadly nuclear energy is.

Chernobyl was caused not by the effects of a natural disaster, but, by something as simple as a power outage, which then led to many explosions, and eventually major leakage of radioactive waste.

What I find ironic is that a country that gave us the word tsunami, and introduced the word to the English language more than 100 years ago, is still so unprepared for these huge tidal waves of destruction. How can that be?

I have always loved these ancient Japanese paintings. I never used to know that these were artists’ renditions of full-on destruction, c/o a tsunami. I always wanted to get one of these waves as a tattoo, but, now that I now what it is, perhaps something more life affirming would be better.

Back to governments spin doctoring the truth. Here at home, 2 years ago, we had a nuclear power plant fuck up at a plant up north, called chalk River, which leaked 7,000 litres of radioactive waste into the Ottawa River. How does government deal with with the fallout? Fallout meaning having to answer to angry and scared people flipping out at the fact that that government said ‘Cool, dump that shit into the lake.’ Lie. That way they feel they can get off the hook for their greed, stupidity, incompetence and total disregard for the health and safety of everyone; both humans and animals.

In order for the federal government to seem in control in the face of their lies and incompetence, they added insult to injury and declared publicly that not only was there nothing to worry about, but in fact, there had been no leak at all! Below is a posting from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's website.

“No leak into the Ottawa River
Public not at risk due to leaks at NRU facility.” (CNSC website dated 2009)

Wow. To reiterate, Big Government’s strategy for saving face instead of admitting that nuclear power is, in the words of Greenpeace,“ dirty, dangerous, and expensive,”

(Greenpeace website, campaigns) is to boldly lie.

The greed-mongering Harper government thinks that the public can’t see the wool trying to be pulled tight over our eyes, but we can.

In November 2009, the Darlington nuclear Power plant, in Bowmanville, Ontario, sprang a leak due to human error, or more aptly, human stupidity, and as a result of the ‘error’, Lake Ontario was hit hard with 200,000 liters of radioactive waste. Government-paid scientists were, quickly trotted out to tell the public not to worry, that the levels of contaminants in the water were safe. How can any form of radioactive toxicity be considered “safe”?

Officials told the public that the contaminated water didn’t pose any harm to local residents.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency says there are no safe levels of radioactive exposure. Greenpeace and one of Canada’s icons David Suzuki both support a gradual phasing out of nuclear energy.

Just last week, March 16^th, 2011, the CBC reported that “ Canada’s Ontario Power Generation has released radioactive water into Lake Ontario via a leak in the Pickering A nuclear generating station.” (planetsave.com)

Because of the leak, Lake Ontario has once again taken the fall and has been contaminated with “ tens of thousands of litres of radioactive water…” (planetsave.com)

Not only is our health and safety compromised each and every time there is a radioactive spill which gets hushed up by the government, but so too is the health and safety of all the other beings affected even more directly, by the land , water and the air we all breathe being contaminated with radioactive waste which we are told is “safe” by supposed experts.

Some of the long term effects of radioactive emissions which have been documented as early as 1909, relating to miners, can include cancers, especially thyroid, and children, and animals are most vulnerable, mutations in both humans and animals can occur.

So, as we watch Japan try to pull itself back together, we have to hope too that this comes as a painful wake up call to governments who choose nuclear energy over renewable, clean options.

To end on a positive note, my petition, urging the Canadian Government to include animal rights and protections is doing really well. Below is a link to my petition with the most signatures.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/put-animal-rights-into-the-constitution/