SCENES FROM AN APOCALYPSE

I was going to say that I don’t know what to think, but the truth is that I suspect I’m avoiding thinking. An anonymous Fukushima worker is reported as saying he “was not afraid to die, that that was his job.” In Tokyo, our friend Yukiko now sounds desperate. “Re the nuclear plants, it's hopeless.” In China crowds line up to buy iodine salt in anticipation of a real or imagined radioactive cloud. In California, our pal Elf Hellion tells how the panic is more sophisticated and supplies of potassium iodide have been bought up to protect against jet-steam born radiation. My own TV observation is that the helicopters dumping seawater on the reactor seems more like a last-stand gesture than a solution, and a small voice notes that the Japanese mega-quake may not be the only seismic event along the ring of fire. The commentary I’ve just been reading all seems to be slightly smug, Green anti-nuke “I told you so” which may be very true, but somehow seems inappropriate in midst of such massive grief, anxiety, and actual misery. So much of this talk – especially in the US – is also so very national-centric. “Can it happen here?” Am I the only one who sees Fukushima as the trigger point of what must be considered a global calamity?

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The secret word is Overawed