The Fukushima Catastrophe: To What End? (Global University for Sustainability Book Series)

Based on a variety of interviews with residents, farmers, scientists, journalists, and activists who have been affected by the Fukushima catastrophe, the authors underscore the personal, political, and humanitarian impacts in testimonies, science, and photos. The book engagingly addresses diverse issues that continue to haunt and persist and calls for collective responsibility to deal with the devastating environmental, economic, and social consequences of nuclear energy. The book offers a critique of the violent history of modernism and the supremacy of science that has been articulated into all forms of social injustice and ecological injustice. About the Global U Book Series Foreword: Not Again, Please, Never Again Downwinder Nightmares Never Again? Looking for Hope Foreword: Charting Contested Contours of Sustainability, Development, Social and Ecological Justice Preface Contents About the Authors 1 Introduction: No Solutions in Sight, Making Possible the Impossible—Lau Kin Chi 2 Introduction: Education for Ecological Justice and Social Justice—Cultivating the Capacity for Affect, Thinking, Autonomy and Action—Lau Kin Chi The Tokyo Olympics Radioactive Nuclear Contaminated Water Personal Experience Moving on Under Stress Message to Teachers, Students, and Youths Notes 3 Introduction: When We Talk About Nuclear Energy, What Are We Talking About? Huang Xiaomei 4 Introduction: We Are in a Critical State—He Zhixiong 5 What Happened in Fukushima? Notes 6 Natural Disasters or Human-Caused Calamity Notes 7 Fairy Tale of Astro Boy Notes 8 Three Questions on Nuclear Power First Question: Is Nuclear Power Good for Environmental Protection? Second Question: Is Nuclear Power Safe? Third Question: Is Nuclear Power Cheap? Are There No Alternatives to Supply Electricity Other Than Nuclear Power Generation? Notes 9 The Long Road Home Notes 10 Revival? Clearing Evacuees to Zero? Notes 11 Glint of Hope Ignited by the Olympic Torch? Notes 12 Where did Contaminated Substances Go? Trees and Branches Cut from 89 Hectares of Forests2 3519 Containers of Radioactive Soil Used in Filtration3 200,000 Cubic Meters of Radioactive Debris4 Disposing of Protective Gear 14 Million Cubic Meters of Contaminated Soil Notes 13 Heart of Darkness—The Molten Reactor Core Reactor Number 1 Reactor Number 2 Reactor Number 3 Notes 14 Returning to the Scene: “Back Then, How Nice It Would Have Been, If Only ...” Notes 15 Absent Supervision Notes 16 Radioactive Contamination Spread Worldwide—The Threat from Nuclear-Contaminated Water Notes 17 Who Protects Decontamination Workers and Nuclear Energy Workers? Notes 18 Mourning of Nature Notes 19 From Nuclear Weapon to Nuclear Energy, From Nuclear Energy to Nuclear Weapon Notes 20 The People’s Self Rescue Actions by Society Keeping Watch Over the Children Keeping Watch Over the Land Anti-Nuclear Movements Notes Epilogue: Resonance that Lit up the Earth