Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

I probably look a bit stupid trying to blog about this because, to be honest, I'm a bit cut off from the news. I've pretty much been relying on Twitter and Stuff.co.nz for all my updates cause what I normally do is tune into SKY (NZ's cable television) for all the good news channels, but since I'm away from home at university I'm a bit cut off from good news.

Here's what I do know, the nuclear plant situation is really scary. Three power plants in Japan have been declared a state of emergency after Japan's earthquake and here's a quote from Stuff.

"A grim-faced Prime Minister Naoto Kan described the crisis at Japan's worst since 1945.

"The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War II," Kan told a news conference."

It's easy to underrate the catastrophe of this earthquake, especially after New Zealand has just had a bunch of it's own crises in the last six months, such as the Pike River mine disaster and Christchurch earthquake, but this latest Japanese quake and tsunami completely owns it in a destructive sense.

Japan most likely would have had the safest of all nuclear power systems in the world, but I think at the end of the day, it is an incredibly risky and dangerous business and I don't think any energy source that efficent comes without it's own flaws and dangers. I think if there are any alternatives, which there are (eg. solar, wind, hydro), these should always be considered initially before nuclear. Sure Japan's monstrously populated, but is nuclear really the answer? I'm a fairly rampant Greenpeace supporter so obviously I say no.

Still, it's a bit late for that sort of discussion where the worst-case scenario of a disaster is almost imminent. I hope the situation can be contained but the fact the first two nuclear plants facing problems have turned to the last resort of using sea-water to cool the reactor is not good at all.

Needless to say, I'll be tweeting the '#prayforjapan' hashtag and I guess raising a little awareness for this blog, also I intend to donate but... yeah, god knows how it'll all go down. Seeing stories headlined with "millions without water" and "Overwhelming scenes of destruction after Japan earthquake and tsunami" aren't comforting at all.