The second and third posts on this blog were about third-party electricity suppliers in Pennsylvania and my impending switch to support one of them. Three years later, spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I finally got around to making a choice and making it happen. This two-part series is my renewed argument for an easy shift away from fossil fuel-based electricity generation.
The thought of me providing life advice to other people strikes me as hilarious and pointless since I have always felt so aimless myself. I will admit, though, that the circuitous path that has led me to where I am has given me some perspective and helped me find things I love, and I was honored to share that at my alma mater this spring.
This spring I was asked to give a keynote speech at my alma mater and tell a group of physics students about the last fifteen years of my life since graduation. I was flattered, of course, but also baffled because when I was in school, my grades were not the best and I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.
It’s a subject we’ve been taught not to talk about. But in avoiding conversations on race and the privilege that comes with it, we can’t examine or change any biases we hold. I don’t consider myself to be particularly progressive, but I am incredibly privileged. And for that reason I decided to join a discussion group on the subject of White Fragility.
This last post is going live on the anniversary of Chernobyl, an oft-referenced event that has nothing and everything to do with Fukushima. Global concerns about nuclear energy persist as the Japanese government continues cleanup and looks to alternative fuel sources. The request we were left with from residents was this: go home and tell everyone what a wonderful place Fukushima still is.
During our time in Fukushima, we heard many references to Germany’s simultaneous shuttering of conventional generation sources and their accelerated roll-out of renewable energy. The mentality of many Japanese people is “if Germany can do it, so can we.” In this installment of this series, we will take a look at the feasibility of such major fuel shifts in Germany and Japan.
Despite decontamination efforts, some farmers in Fukushima are having trouble bouncing back because of widespread skepticism around claims of safety. The local economy is shifting to include green technology, but it remains to be seen if Fukushima can ever shake its stigma. While the government would like to put the accident in the past, there are some who don’t want it forgotten or excused.
I was hesitant to join an Exclusion Zone tour but not because of radiation: I didn’t want to seem like an insensitive tourist gawking at a disaster. I ultimately went so I could speak with the people who lived there and share their stories. Here is what we heard from people who lived through it – it was both sadder and more hopeful than I expected.
Fukushima is absolutely safe for tourists. In fact, you will absorb far more radiation on the flight to Tokyo than on the ground in the exclusion zone. The image of danger comes from the fact that some places are still closed to the public because of contamination, but cleanup efforts continue (with an expected ¥30 trillion price tag over a 40-year initiative).
When I told friends we would be touring the Fukushima Exclusion Zone, some people were horrified and asked why we would expose ourselves to “that kind of radiation.” Years of misinformation in pop culture and news media have created a general public with such a skewed idea of what happened in Fukushima that many believe it was a second Chernobyl. It wasn’t.