Page 8 - Pakistan Link - April 21, 2023

P8 - PAKISTAN LINK - APRIL 21, 2023 OPINION
n Report and photos Ocean. Along with the Japanese people,
by Phil Pasquini Japan Proposes to Dump China, Micronesia, Russia, South Ko-
Washington, DC Radioactive Water into the Pacific rea, Taiwan and the US governments

ctivists took to the streets in have all expressed strong opposition
to the planned release. The Japanese
San Francisco on April 13 in government along with TEPCO have
A front of the Japanese Consul- decided that it is cheaper to release the
ate to commemorate the 12th anni- water into the ocean by applying the
versary of the second old “out of sight, out of mind” principal
worst nuclear power that has historically failed to ever rem-
accident in history de- edy anything. Once it is released, there
manding the Japanese is no going back.
government not to The radioactive waters’ release is
allow the Tokyo Elec- the stuff of so many Japanese science
tric Power Company’s fiction movies from the 1950s based on
(TEPCO) to dump radioactive water nuclear scenarios of giant monsters at-
from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear how Hamada expressed the need of quake on March 11, 2011. It was the uation of a wide zone around the plant. tacking Tokyo like the movie “Godzil-
Power Station into the Pacific Ocean. attention to the looming disaster and largest ever recorded to hit the island In the twelve years since the ac- la” that promoted the oversize T-Rex-
They also called for “NO Nukes” for Ja- noted too that there are still 30,000 nation and caused a 46-foot-high tsu- cident, according to activists, there are like monster as “Surging up from the
pan and to shut down all nuclear power people who cannot go back to their nami (tidal wave) to strike the plant. “1.3 million tons” of contaminated wa- depths of the sea on a tidal wave of
plants. homes because of the meltdown. Dur- With only a ten-minute warning to ter that the government and TEPCO terror” along with the movie “The H-
Today’s occasion was the 100th ing her sidewalk talk she remarked shut down its reactors, the tsunami now want to dispose of by dumping Man” that warned of the dangers of
time the protesters have demonstrated how Japanese scientists studying the damaged the plant’s emergency backup into the Pacific Ocean. The company nuclear testing.
at the Consulate against nuclear energy area have warned of the adverse effects generators shutting off power to its claims that the water is safe and has In his review of Godzilla, Brian
in warning of the ever-present Anthro- that the release would have, which gen- water-coolant pumps for the reactor’s been treated by an “advanced treating Merchant in a Vice Magazine article
pocene pollution despoiling the planet. erally have been ignored. cores. At the time of the earthquake ra- system” (ALPS) to prepare it for re- dated August 23, 2013, referred to the
Chizu Hamada of “No Nukes Action” Another speaker related how as dioactive water from the plant flowed lease. But according to a report in the film as “a bleak, powerful metaphor
led a small group of dedicated activists a child in the1940s and 50s she would into the ocean in “unprecedented” vol- Global Times published on March 27, for nuclear power that still endures
in calling for the Japanese government accompany her scientist father who ume. the treated water “…still contains ra- today… [a] deceptively powerful film
not to release the radioactive water. was studying tunicates attached to The tsunami’s impact resulted in dionuclides that are not able to be re- about coping with and taking responsi-
Noting that the Japanese people boats when he discovered that they 18,000 deaths, displaced 160,000 peo- moved…including ruthenium, stron- bility for incomprehensible, manmade
consume a great deal of fish and that were radioactive. He was able to deter- ple and was so powerful that it shifted tium-90 and iodine-129, in addition to tragedy, specifically, nuclear tragedies.”
the contamination posed by the waters mine that the source of the radiation the Earth off its axis by an estimated 6.5 tritium.” Greenpeace also begs to differ But this is no movie and the wa-
released into the Pacific further in- could be attributed to nuclear bomb inches increasing its rotation that may from the TEPCO appraisal of the water ters’ release if it proceeds is yet another
creases the long-lasting negative health detonation tests in the South Pacific. have resulted in shortening our days by stating that “the water contains ma- chapter of our blatant disregard for the
impacts for people. “The sea is life, a A study published in the Marine Pol- according to a NASA estimate. terials (carbon-14) that could poten- long-term health of our planet and that
matter of survival” for the Japanese she lution Bulletin in 1977 noted that tuni- Heat generated from the rods tially damage human DNA.” of future generations. And who knows
said. cates “…may serve as marine pollution in the cores was so intense in reactor The plan approved by Japan’s nu- what form of a Godzillaesque creation
The ocean water off the coast of indicators for monitoring the release of number one that it melted the con- clear regulators calls for the construc- will emerge in turn to come back and
Fukushima was described in a Detus- radioactive elements into the marine crete structure supporting the con- tion of an undersea tunnel to run from haunt us.
che Welle article from 2020 as having environment.” Their ability to accumu- tainment vessel leaving it precariously the plant less than a mile out into the (Phil Pasquini is a freelance
“…millions of times higher than the late certain trace radioactive elements suspended and in danger of collapse. ocean where it would enter the water at journalist and photographer. His re-
government's limit of 100 becquerels.” can be used to determine the extent of During the following days, the cores a depth of 40 feet. The release has been ports and photographs appear in the
Marine life as far as 25 miles out to sea marine radioactive pollution making overheated leading to the meltdown scheduled to begin this spring even as Washington Report on Middle East
from the plant has been shown to have them the perfect canary in the sea. accompanied by hydrogen explosions. scientists have warned of disastrous ef- Affairs and Nuze.ink. He is the au-
high radiation levels rendering fishing The event that caused the pres- Radioactive material and water were fects on the marine environment from thor of Domes, Arches and Minarets:
a nonstarter for locals. ent problem at Fukushima was the in turn released into the ocean and the the discharge that would see the water A History of Islamic-Inspired Build-
“Our voices must be heard” was 9.0-magnitude Great East Japan Earth- surrounding area prompting the evac- travel with currents across the Pacific ings in America.)

New Study Reveals Woeful Lack of

Diversity across News Beats

n By Ethnic Media Services sports (82% white). Social policy, along 77% of all workers in US newsrooms
CA with education and health, are more are white, far behind the overall work-
likely to be covered by reporters of force in the country, where workers
new Pew study looks at diver- color or women, though only slightly, of color account for about 40% of the
sity across news beats in the according to the study. total, according to the Bureau of Labor
A US. The data comes from a “What we wanted to do here was Statistics.
2022 survey of 12,000 journalists and to provide some really important data Among the 12,000 journalists in-
finds that, like the newsrooms they to create conversations around who cluded in the survey, only 6% identi-
work in, an overwhelming majority of was covering certain beats,” says re- fied as Black, 8% as Hispanic and 3%
the reporters covering major beats in searcher Jeffrey Gottfried, who helped as Asian. Sixteen percent identified as
the country are white and male. author the study. working in newsrooms targeting spe-
Those beats include energy and He adds the figures are in line cific demographic groups.
the environment (84% white) and with findings from last year that found Gottfired says his team first had to do a project like this unless we made
Low wages and the lack of clear settle several key questions. “We were sure we were very thoughtful that we
pathways to entrance in the media pro- trying to decide, what is a journalist. were including journalists very broad-
fession for young people of color are How do we conceptualize what we are ly,” said Gottfried.
some of the reasons behind the figures. studying here?” With the explosion of Among some of the more telling
“It’s difficult to figure out how social media and the increased frag- data points was the fact that while a
these numbers square with the ethnic mentation of today’s media landscape, majority of journalists reported that
media sector, since the overwhelming trying to figure out who in fact quali- diversity is lacking in their newsroom,
majority of ethnic media newsrooms fies as a journalist can be a slippery less than half said it was considered a
employ people of color who are cultur- question. priority, while conversations around
ally and linguistically fluent with the To answer it, Gottfried and his diversity and inclusion were more like-
audience they serve,” says EMS Execu- team cast a wide net to include “any- ly to happen among journalists of color
tive Director Sandy Close. “If anything, one working to create, edit, and report and younger journalists working in the
the study underscores why ethnic me- original news content.” That definition, profession.
dia play such an indispensable role in notes Gottfried, allowed the research- Gottfried also noted the “overrep-
the news media landscape – to report ers to gather data from a large swath of resentation” of journalists included in
on and reflect the lives of those com- the sector, offering as broad a lens as the survey who tended to be clustered
munities underserved by the general possible on the current state of diver- in major metropolitan areas like New
market media.” sity within the media profession today. York, Los Angeles, and Washington DC.
In preparing the original survey, “We didn’t believe that we could (Continued on page 23)
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