5 major changes in our lives after Fukushima
The whole world is shocked by what happened in Japan. Starting with the earthquake, then the tsunami and right after with the nuclear factories located at Fukushima city. The news is really shocking, but in the same time it has maximized my admiration for Japanese people and their society. They deal with one of the world’s worst catastrophes without losing their discipline, self respect, devotion to their country and other important characteristics of their society. I don’t even want to imagine about what chaos could be created if the disaster would have taken place in another country…
Right now the nuclear factories are still not under control, but we can have a first clear view over the results that we expect in our lives after all that happened there.
Consequences for the decades to come…
The nuclear “problem” in Fukushima will dominate our lives for the decades to come. The consequences will be revealed slowly, as the world will notice several problems being created. There will also be new opportunities as well, as this situation may change our approach for many environmental issues. Let us check today five major changes…
1. Nuclear energy: “No, thank you”
(especially in areas with high probability for an earthquake to occur)
During the last years, the discussion about “clean energy” returned. The lobbies of companies (and countries) constructing nuclear factories were very active, trying to convince us that nuclear energy is safe. Fukushima reminded to us that it is not. It is sure that many more people will fight against new factories or existing ones. The situation will be even more tensed in areas with high probability for an earthquake to occur…
2. “Green energy” will become much more popular
Photovoltaic, Aeolian, bio mass and other kinds of “green energy” will be much more popular. As nuclear energy will not be the preferred choice for many countries, they will search for alternative energy sources.
Simple example: Romania. After what happened in Japan, the project of Cernavoda might be reconsidered. So how are we going to substitute the energy that we were supposed to produce there? By wind, photovoltaic etc…
3. Japan will lose ground as economy (and most probably lots of its companies will migrate). Japan was overcrowded and overbuilt already. The nuclear threat will cause major problems to a big part of the country. People with money will probably migrate, as living together with the nuclear danger will not be their first option. Chernobyl area in Ukraine is still deserted after 25 years…
Tourism in Japan will suffer as well, hundreds of thousands of foreigners who used to work there will avoid the country. The consequences will be enormous in all the segments of economy, so Japan, the 3rd economy of this planet, will lose ground.
4. Any kind of food produced in Japan (and the nearby countries) will be more expensive. How many people will continue eating Japanese food products? For sure not many for a period. In the same time Japan will need to import a big part of its local production. Less supply and more demand… Take the list of products and think of their prices in the near future…
5. A reason for new recession? There are already too many analysts who expect the gas prices to rise, as the world will try to avoid nuclear energy and the “green energy” will still be under development. Japan will need a river of trillions of dollars in order to recover. Before the recovery period, when things will start being reconstructed again, several people consider that the reason for new recession was found again.
I could tell you plenty of more consequences, but let us discuss first about these five. Japan’s incidents will mark our century forever and we will have plenty to discuss…
What is your opinion about this?
The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012