People are prone to compare events to get some idea of magnitude or significance. Fukushimi Daiichi certainly could have been worse, given the scope of the events that triggered it – earthquake and tsunami – and the breakdown of infrastructure associated with those events. People ask is it bigger than TMI? Yes, as a whole. But then if you were one of the minority affected by TMI it doesn’t make you feel any better. Is it worse than Chernobyl? Maybe, but we are still sorting through it. The fact that the spent fuel rods are on top of the reactors, and that three reactors melted down – without catastrophic release of more than has been released – gives reasons to be thankful that things are not worse than they are. Yet it is very troubling to see children playing on radioactive playgrounds, and people trying to live normal lives in neighborhoods where geiger counters buzz rather than click. A happy ending to this story is hard to imagine, but I find myself thinking if we can just get the children to safe places so they can enjoy normal lives without fear of later health problems, then we will have done what we can to protect our most precious resources – our children, our future. Then we can sleep at night and know we have done the right thing, no matter what it cost to do it. Of course there are consequences that are economic, political, cultural, societal, legal. But if we don’t do the right thing despite the costs, we aren’t living up to our full potential as a human society. Fukushima isn’t only a Japanese problem. The radioactive particles drifting in school yards also came from England, France, America, and other places. It’s not a time to place blame, but to work together to show how big, not small, we are as a world community. We are now an international society and we all share responsibility for these children. Let’s not forget them, please.
