2012/03/19

Baseless Rumors about Fukushima

Since March 2011 the Japanese government has worried that bloggers and tweeters would spread "baseless rumors" about the dangers of the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. In June 2011, the government passed “The Computer Network Monitoring Law” as a way of policing the Internet and silencing information that it judged to be "baseless rumors."
Because I love Japan too, I became quite alarmed by the harm that these baseless rumors could cause, so I carried out my own search to help the Japanese government fight this great evil. Here is a list of a just a few of the unsubstantiated rumors being passed around the Internet by careless and irresponsible sources. If anyone has information about the parties responsible for initiating these rumors, please leave a comment. 

Quash these rumors now:
  1. The Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant is in a stable and safe condition.
  2. It's safe for residents to move back to some of the evacuated towns in Fukushima Prefecture.
  3. It is possible to decontaminate Fukushima Prefecture and other contaminated parts of Northern Japan.
  4. Monitoring of food has been adequate.
  5. All people under the cloud of fallout were evacuated in a timely manner.
  6. Everyone who should have been given potassium iodide was able to get it.
  7. We can say for sure that there will be no long-term health effects from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant.
  8. There were only partial meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. (This rumor was put to rest when the guilty party admitted to lying.)
  9. The earthquake and tsunami were beyond expectation. (This rumor also lost its currency some time ago, as it's purveyors realized it had no credibility.)
  10. Low level radioactive waste can be safely burned and spread all over Japan.
  11. Emissions from the burning of this low level waste will not cause real or reputed damage to the agricultural products grown around incinerators.
  12. The burning of low level waste produces ashes with concentrated, high levels of radioactive waste, but these can be safely buried without danger to soil or groundwater.
  13. A network of millions of people sharing and evaluating information couldn't possibly sort out what information seems credible. They need a ministry of truth to tell them what to think.

1 comment:

  1. I'm waiting for the debut of Daiichi-kun and Daini-chan, the lovable reactor twin characters who play outside all day, get dirt in their ears, don't want to eat their vegetables, but sulkily submit to spinach. Their world includes Ushi-san, the lonely wandering cow and Ebiko, the the land-shrimp who grew lungs. But no one else.

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