Thousands of Japanese people HAVE died in this natural disaster and that had nothing to do with the Nuclear plants, so please have some respect and understanding before you start posting about their 'intellectual arrogance'.
This thread was made to update people on the horrific events thats are happening over there right now, not to assign blame on those going through it.
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I was speaking SPECIFICALLY about the nuclear power aspect of this event, and of the people who will die of radiation poisoning in the future because of these nuclear power plants. If there were no people making or supporting the existence of nuclear power plants, these ADDITIONAL deaths would not occur, as they would have been totally preventable, and thus were totally unnecessary. Those who believe that nuclear power can actually be safe, including those Japanese who built and supported the existence of nuclear power plants are indeed intellectually arrogant, because they believe that they can guarantee truly safe nuclear power, which is impossible.
People who support nuclear power gamble with human lives. That said, I'm sure not all Japanese people believe in nuclear power, so it is most unfortunate that THEY will have to suffer the same as people who support nuclear power and gambling with human life in such a cavalier manner.
It is the fault of people who believe in nuclear power that people die of radiation poisoning, not natural disaster. The forces of nature have been around a lot longer than human beings have, and so it is incumbent upon human beings not to build things that would cause catastrophe, should a natural disaster affect it, and thus make people far worse off than they would be without said built things.
I think the Hippocratic oath should be applied to making technology. "First do No Harm"
It is truly sad that people have died, and the deaths that will occur in the future because of radiation poisoning, but let us not forget that there were people who were directly at fault for some of these deaths, and that we need to learn from their mistakes to avoid unnecessary additional deaths.
As far as the disaster in general, the nuclear power plants not withstanding, were people AWARE that this sort of disaster would happen and said or did nothing and allowed more building, ect? I don't know. If people were aware that such a disaster would occur and built anyway, they are responsible.
A lot of people would say, it's really sad that people have died, and it's a freak accident that no one could have foreseen, and lets pray for their families, and maybe give them aid to help them rebuild, but to me, that is not good enough.
I have enough problem with people dying unnecessarily to address all of the reasons WHY it happened and determine how to PREVENT it from happening in the future, so that no more unnecessary suffering or death occurs. Real caring about people requires the emphasis on safety, and preventing catastrophe. Otherwise, just feeling sorry for people and supporting the idea of business as usual in the future is actually callous, because that will result in it happening again, which will result in more deaths.
So, if you think that it's bad that people will die from radiation poisoning in Japan, don't support nuclear power anywhere else in the world, even if the other ones don't have problems (other than disposing of spent nuclear waste, of course, which can kill people, ha, ha). People believed that the nuclear power plants in Japan and Chernobyl were safe. Look how wrong that belief was.
I'm not placing blame on all those going through this disaster, just the ones who are at fault.
Make no mistake, people in Japan WILL die because of radiation poisoning. Either sooner or later, dying of cancer, they will, and it's all because of people who believe that nuclear power can be safe.
