If there had not been a devastating earthquake and then a tsunami in Japan, we would never have known that one of the nuclear plants in that country is called Fukushima. And that it has 6 reactors. Only when a chain reaction took place in them - did the world hear about Fukushima. Japan was beset by a tragedy the likes of which they do not remember and from which the people and the country are recovering as only they, I guess, know how. Quiet and unique.
But while it is being speculated to whom, from Japan, the smoke clouds of dubious content will move and who else could be touched by the pain caused by what happened in Fukushima - the consequences of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami are more far-reaching than anyone could have expected. And they will be obvious.
According to the principle of chain reaction - where nature ceases to rule and man begins to rule, the real "Fukushima" happened. In the heart of an old lady - the German chancellor experiences a fiasco in the elections in the Baden Württemberg region. In that region, Angela Merkel's party has been in power for six decades. That is a longer period of time than the duration of communism or socialism (as one prefers) in our country. In the conservative stronghold of the Christian Democratic Party, the Greens won.
A party that advocates for environmental protection. They will thus find themselves at the head of an area within Germany for the first time. The fear of nuclear plants and of a disaster like the one in Fukushima dominated the election campaign and moved voters to rally around the Greens. And regardless of the fact that the chancellor made politically smart moves at the end of the campaign after the events in Japan (closed older nuclear plants, announced trials and safety tests for everyone else, but also a review of the policy in this area) it was not enough for the voters who trusted the Christian Democrats for six decade.
Very clear. Fukushima in Japan shook the traditional core on a completely different continent. But Merkel, quite naturally, did not remain immune. Neither on Fukushima, nor on the Greens who overthrew the Christian Democrats on their decades-long territory. She called on the party to draw new conclusions from new events. She added that Japan is a new experience and that it cannot be simply ignored.
The fact that after the Fukushima disaster, more and more German citizens want to switch to the use of so-called ecological electricity, which is produced in power plants that do not use atomic energy or coal, may also show how much the events in Japan have caused earthquakes in the energy sector in this country. . At the same time, according to the companies that sell eco-electricity, citizens who decide to change suppliers after the events in Japan do not make the decision based on financial reasons, but exclusively on environmental grounds.
Smoke from Fukushima also reached Italy. Although last November the Italian government began to take concrete steps leading to the introduction of nuclear energy in Italy and appointed a committee that was supposed to consider the issue, these days, faced with the news from Japan, but also the latest public opinion poll which confirms that the number of Italians who oppose the construction of nuclear power plants increased by 17 percent and is now 68 percent, the government made an emergency decision that is in line with the law - which establishes a one-year moratorium on plans to introduce nuclear energy. Thus, all procedures related to the localization and implementation of nuclear power plants and facilities on Italian territory are postponed.
Until when - is the question.
A fever is shaking Europe. Fukushima can happen to anyone. Wherever.
Obviously man's desire to gradually reach higher, further and better was not good at the very start. Nuclear power plants have had two major problems for humanity since their inception until today. The first is the disposal of extremely dangerous radioactive waste, which even today is, at best, buried deep in the ground and left for decades and centuries to possibly become harmless. Others are accidental situations that, for example, in the Chernobyl disaster, caused more deaths (in a long series of years after the disaster) than all the disasters in the energy sector combined.
But what is absolutely certain is that for some time many countries can forget about the support of public opinion for these energy sources. We are talking, of course, about countries with developed democracy, where public opinion is "law". The carefully planned and implemented thawing of public relations, after the tragedy in Chernobyl, towards nuclear power plants and the huge amount of money spent for this purpose fell flat in one day and returned the public mood to the period after the Chernobyl disaster more than two decades ago.
Will all of the above lead to the expansion of alternative energy sources that are the future. Far or near, however, depends on man and his technological progress. But also from the interests of energy companies, which are not really excited about new sources that do not make money like the existing ones. Because profit was the main driver but also the main obstacle to man's technological progress.
It is fascinating, viewed from the Balkans, how Japan's Fukushima operates. Chained. A reactor ignites, a cloud is created, the cloud is carried away by the wind, the wind covers the institution, the citizens do not blow to disperse the cloud, but want to investigate why it is above their heads and what it is made of. They will destroy him only when they understand why he is there.
Here, in our part of the Balkans, it is not like that. The citizens disperse the cloud, never taking an interest in why it has stopped above their heads, or what it is made of. They just scatter it. Don't mind. The chain reaction, for some strange reason, doesn't work. Fukushima is far away. We don't think about her. The mantra is important. If you don't call for change, it won't happen.
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