Why I Write Diaries Regarding the Fukushima Disaster

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Wednesday November 05, 2014 · 10:51 PM PST

2014/11/05 · 22:51

The reason I started summarizing the peer reviewed scientific literature with respect to the Fukushima disaster was in response to questions from friends and family about the likely impacts on the North Pacific Ocean ecosystem and residents of the North American west coast. My writing was also a response to the volume of stories that either misrepresented or misunderstood scientific inquiry into the impacts of the disaster on our environment. I post the following youtube movie, recently brought to my attention through a rather nasty email, as an example of what happens when individuals rely on websites like Energy News as their primary source for information about the Fukushima disaster and the need for the general improvement of scientific literacy in our society. The video below the fold is offered without further comment. My purpose in posting this is not to reply to personal attacks or threats within the recording but to point out what some fraction of the public believes about the disaster based on the misinformation they are being fed.

There are many scientifically unsound and unsupportable assertions in the movie. While I do not suppose that everyone is swayed by evidence based discussions of issues my hope is that by presenting the results from studies that employ the scientific method we can improve scientific literacy and understanding of our planet and the challenges facing it. I'll continue to report the results of the international scientific community's investigation of the Fukushima disaster as they become available.

A project to monitor the impacts of the Fukushima disaster on the west coast of North America and the Canadian Arctic is now underway. Measurements of isotopes of interest in seawater and marine organisms are being made by an international team of scientists and citizen scientist volunteers and these results are being interpreted by health professionals. The goal of the project is to get this information to the public in a timely fashion. Information about the InFORM project can be found here www.fukushimainform.ca

I enjoy the information rich cartoons produced by xkcd. The following reflects my recent experience with respect to Fukushima.

Original cartoon by xkcd can be found at the following permanent link http://imgs.xkcd.com/...

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