tagged w/ environmental activism
-
CNN...
.
.
Japan shuts down last nuclear reactor
.
By Kyung Lah, CNN
updated 1:57 AM EDT, Mon May 7, 2012
.
Click link or photo above to play video
Japan is nuclear energy free
.
.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Japan closed down its last operating nuclear reactor on Saturday
Final shutdown follows a swing against nuclear energy after the Fukushima meltdowns last year
Thousands marched through Tokyo Saturday to celebrate the final closure
Government has warned that summer energy demand may prompt rolling blackouts
.
.
Tokyo (CNN) -- As Japan began its workweek Monday morning, the trains ran exactly on time, the elevators in thousands of Tokyo high rises efficiently moved between floors, and the lights turned on across cities with nary a glitch.
What makes this Monday so remarkable is that for the first time in four decades, none of the energy on this working day is derived from a nuclear reactor.
Over the weekend, Japan's last remaining nuclear reactor shut down for regular maintenance. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, reactors have not been allowed back on. Japan is now the first major economy to see the modern era without nuclear power.
Tomari Nuclear Power Plant's reactor 3 in Hokkaido shut down Saturday evening in a much-watched move by government, industry and environmentalists, who are waged in a public battle over the future of Japan's energy policy.
"I think it is not easy, but this challenge is worth fighting for," said Greenpeace Japan's Junichi Shimizu. "There is an increased chance of earthquakes in Japan, so that has a significant risk to the Japanese people and the Japanese economy. The only way forward is to rapidly shift the energy source from nuclear to other sources of energy."
That's not the call just from environmental activists, but from a public suspicious of nuclear energy and its regulatory bodies since a tsunami and earthquake triggered nuclear meltdowns at three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011.
Thousands marched through the streets of Tokyo on Saturday, celebrating the shutdown of the final reactor.
The protesters waved colorful, traditional "koinobori" carp-shaped banners for Children's Day that became a symbol of the anti-nuclear movement.
That movement grew from the grassroots level in the wake of the disaster, as the country watched tens of thousands of residents living within a 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius of the nuclear plant evacuated and the area remaining turn into a contaminated wasteland.
Prior to the Fukushima disaster, Japan relied on nuclear for approximately 30% of its energy. As reactors have come off-line, the country has increased its imports of fossil fuels.
Japan's government predicts it won't be able to keep up that pace, and the void will result in an energy crunch this summer, possibly leading to rolling blackouts.
The national government's ruling party, the Democratic Party of Japan, has been urging local communities to allow reactors to return to operation.
The DPJ's deputy policy chief, Yoshito Sengoku, bluntly said without nuclear energy the world's third largest economy would suffer. "We must think ahead to the impact on Japan's economy and people's lives, if all nuclear reactors are stopped. Japan could, in some sense, be committing mass suicide," said Sengoku.
Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Japan's biggest business lobby, Keidanren, joined the plea in an April press conference. "We cannot possibly agree to do the kind of energy saving yet again this year, or every year from now on," he said, referring to the country's efforts to turn off air conditioners and shift operation of production lines to weekends. "The government must bring the nuclear power stations back into operation."
Economist Jesper Koll, managing director at JP Morgan, says Japan could avoid the economic fallout by defining a clear energy policy, something it has failed to do so far.
"The issue to the private sector of Japan is the government is taking its time in a very emotional, highly politicized debate. And the end result is very, very slow or no decision making at all. After all, if you don't have an energy policy, you don' really have an economic policy because everything revolves around the energy," he said.
Japan's prime minister has promised a clear energy policy sometime this year, perhaps this summer.
But Yukie Osaki, who used to live in Fukushima, says she won't accept any policy that includes nuclear energy. "Nobody believes the government anymore when it says nuclear plants are safe," she said.
"Japan is an earthquake country. It is already dangerous to have nuclear plants here. If we have another accident, we won't have anywhere to live in Japan anymore."
.
.CNN...
.
.
Japan shuts down last nuclear reactor
.
By Kyung Lah, CNN... more
-
-
The piece connects individual alienation, anomie, depression with damage (overt and subtle) wrought by US corporate capitalism i.e., its degradation of US landscapes and individual mindscapes...to the destruction this mode of living inflicts on the global ecosystem.The piece connects individual alienation, anomie, depression with damage (overt and... more
-
-
On US Interstates, we meet the US empire coming towards us. In this evocative video, we meet confederate ghosts and demons of consumer emptiness. We travel down the highway, propelled by engines of extinction, towards empire's end, where we find ourselves bearing much grief yet are stranded amid ferocious beauty.On US Interstates, we meet the US empire coming towards us. In this evocative video,... more
-
-
On US Interstates, we meet the US empire coming towards us. In this evocative video, we meet confederate ghosts and demons of consumer emptiness. We travel down the highway, propelled by engines of extinction, towards empire's end, where we find ourselves bearing much grief yet are stranded amid ferocious beauty.On US Interstates, we meet the US empire coming towards us. In this evocative video,... more
-
-
Tonight the Long Beach City Council will decide to move forward on an ecosystem restoration for Long Beach which could include modifications to the Long Beach Breakwater.
I have spent the last few months working on a piece of completely independent, rogue journalism that has evolved into the most comprehensive film about the history of surfing in Long Beach and the facts surrounding the San Pedro Bay Ecosystem Restoration (and Breakwater modification).
The film in it's entirety can be found at the website at
http://mwhbb.com/index/vimeo_teaser.html
or directly here:
http://vimeo.com/12719388Tonight the Long Beach City Council will decide to move forward on an ecosystem... more
-
-
After seeing our recent interview with Colin Beavan about his No Impact Project, my friend Dara sent me an email link from gourmet magazine (of all places) about W. Hodding Carter's extreme frugality series. (she told me she thought his initiative was way cooler in her humble opinion). In the intro to the series Carter confesses the state of his finances and how he and his family have been living outside of their means. As a result, they are forced to return to a "little house on the prairy" existence, where they are making their own candles, canning Cod, and other back to earth activities that you do when you are saving money.
Now is the moment when I should step in and mock this, right?
Truth be told, I have no desire to. (I'm secretly craving a dose of this experience myself.) When the green movement began the media mantra was to show people there was a way to care for the environment and address sustainability issues without giving up the creature comforts of their current life style. And so the great green spending spree began. The message was, "you can keep spending, but use your dollar to vote for the sustainability practices that support your belief system."
But is "extreme frugality" the latest emerging trend? Have we come to a place where we understand that (gasp) resources are limited: and the limited resources in our wallet could be the best metaphor to understand the limited resources on the planet?
As it turns out, while in the middle of writing this post I hopped on over to my personal email account to check in how many love letters I have received today (the answer is none btw), but what I did encounter was an email from my sister-in-law about a new initiative that launched today called "slow money." Frankly, after spending 10 minutes on their site I wasn't entirely sure of what they are up to but it has something to do with a grass roots effort to create a new economy and support sustainable agriculture and involves donating $5. Here's what they have to say:
The perfect combo about slow food, slow money and local sustainable foodsystems, this “Thrive, Don’t Just Survive” set is a loaded, how-to guide on destressing, eating healthier with less, the missing links to achieving healthy immune and eco-systems, personal and planetary transformation, and Feeding Ourselves, No Matter What!
Ok...so they say things come in threes....what do you think? Has "green" turned a new corner? Are we entering into the age of self reliance and frugality? (Meanwhile, I'm going to head on over to the library and check out a few of the Little House on Prairie books, and start studying...)
Related Posts:
Everything I learned about going eco I learned from Twlight
Saving Afganistan's WildlifeAfter seeing our recent interview with Colin Beavan about his No Impact Project,... more
-
-
leahl
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
-
I kept stumbling across No Impact Man (aka as Colin Beavan) over the past few months. He was on Twitter, via his blog, and then there was the trailer to his movie. Each time as I skimmed the stories or posts at high speed I thought to myself, “Cool stunt, I should interview him sometime soon," and moved on.
Then my dear friend Amy Wilson called me up and told me she was working with Collin Beavan while he was on book tour in the Bay Area, and said that he was “the real deal.” Amy eluded to something that his critics have spoken to, which is that now that the main stream sees there is money to made in the world of green (aka people learning how to live a more sustainably), that there are a lot of people out there figuring out to make a buck on green.
With that said, I have yet to come across someone who makes an extreme "green" life style change who isn't truly dedicated to the issue of raising mass awareness about the state of the environment.
And with that said, there is a place where the rubber meets the road, and there is a difference between people who preach green for their living, and those who actually live a sustainable lifestyle. Colin is a refreshing breath of air and embodies both.
I found Collin’s social experiment of unplugging from the grid fascinating. Mostly because all the people I know who made the choice to live off the grid live in Alaska or Northern Idaho or Northern California…you know…out in the boondocks. Colin chose to unplug, and stay right in the center of it all: New York City. And I agree with Amy, he is the real deal. Colin and his family invested a year of their life to showing the world there is another way, and confronts the most famous story of our time: that you need to buy more, do more, and work more in order to be happy. And he manages to tell the story in a charming, accessible informative manner absent of self righteousness.
What makes me stop in my tracks: he managed to stay in the heart of the city, but create a new pace of life that most of us are only capable of tapping when we leave the city.
Enjoy the interview (special thanks to our studio crew who wasn’t planning a drop in guest that day). You can follow Colin on Twitter @noimpactman, his blog, and on his impressive project website: NoImpactProject.org. Or just go crazy and read his book.
Meanwhile, I am posting this one week after meeting Colin, and the issues we discussed aren't leaving. So I was thinking, what the heck, I'm going to take on just 1 of the things Colin did for a year: for 1 week. Starting tomorrow: I'm going to eat locally for 1 week. What the hell. Anyone want to join me?I kept stumbling across No Impact Man (aka as Colin Beavan) over the past few... more
-
-
leahl
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
-
New film ‘Earth Days’ takes a sometimes devastating look at the history of environmental activism
In the 1970s, just after the first Earth Day and in the midst of oil shortages, recessions, and uprisings by restless youth, politicians were suddenly expected to show concern for the environment. President JIMMY CARTER went above and beyond by installing solar panels on the White House in 1979. SOLAR PANELS on the WHITE HOUSE!
Seven years later, President RONALD REAGON took them down.
This mind-bogglingly idiotic reversal is chronicled in Robert Stone’s new documentary Earth Days, about the history of the environmental movement. Seeing “history” and “environmental” in the same sentence probably makes you want to curl up for a 100-minute nap. But Earth Days, though it moves at a contemplative pace and contains less radical-protest/crunchy-commune footage than the hippie in me had hoped for, gives an absorbing overview of how the green movement got started, and why it ended up where it is today.New film ‘Earth Days’ takes a sometimes devastating look at the history of... more
-
