Saturday, March 20, 2010

Nuclear energy

Reading Peña's latest post (on Obama's energy policies) has got me thinking about the supposed resurgence in nuclear energy. The Seattle Weekly even ran an article (which I did not think was that great), which you can find at http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-03-17/news/atom-s-eve/. As someone who's family has been heavily involved in nuclear power and weapons, and who completed a 15-20 page research paper in high school on the combined nuclear industries, I think it is a terrible idea.

First of all, much of the argument for returning to nuclear power is that it does not release as much carbon dioxide as coal and other such things. The idea is that it is a "renewable" energy source that will not run out and is somehow better for the environment. In particular, the lack of negative effects from 3-Mile Island's near meltdown has been touted as proof that radiation is not that bad. Never mind that not very much radiation ended up being released, it can difficult to track the effects of radiation (how do you know if it caused a particular cancer case, for example?), and many of the potential effects of the accidence may not have shown up yet or may have manifested themselves in harmless ways. Never mind how close the reactor was to a FULL meltdown, which would have been much much worse (residents of the areas around Chernobyl have certainly seen that).

Another idea being thrown around is that the waste from energy production is really not that bad. It's just the waste from weapons production that is. And while there may be a kernel of truth in this, in that it is much more difficult to deal with waste from weapons production, we still don't really have a good method of dealing with any sort of nuclear waste. At least, not beyond "stick it in that heavy-duty container and hope it doesn't start leaking out any time in the next several million years." How could anyone think that creating more radioactive waste when we don't have enough room to store what we've already got is a good idea? Somehow, politicians are all for it until the wast is going to be stored in their state... Clearly showing how 'safe' they think it is.

The one note of sanity is from a new-ish company called Intellectual Ventures that recognizes that nuclear waste is an issue. It follows that up, of course, by claiming that their new technology would actually use existing radioactive waste to safely produce energy without re-fueling for up to a century. Needless to say, I am extremely skeptical. It would appear from their website that there is not even a functioning prototype reactor using their technology at present, leading me to believe that, like many other new technologies and nuclear power at almost every stage, their claims will not be borne out by reality. One of the Hanford reactors that my grandpa helped design was also new "safe" technology, and even won safety awards for its design. After Chernobyl, they had to shut it down because of design similarities. ...

In fact, the nuclear industries have always been plagued by safety concerns. Despite being a brilliant nuclear engineer abreast of the latest technologies, my grandpa always dismissed nuclear waste as "just trash" up until he died in 1982. When doing research for my paper, I came across a blurb in the New York Times' Science section (back in the 1950's or 1960's) talking about the "revolutionary" new method of nuclear waste disposal scientists at Hanford discovered: dumping the waste straight into sand. ... I think we now know that this is not the best method after all.

Even worse than all of the untintentional dangers of the nuclear industries have been the intentional dangers created by the industry. These dangers have been created primarily a desire to cut corners, increase efficiency, and make more money. They do sometimes have other purposes (as when Hanford scientists intentionally released thousands of curies of radioactive iodine into the air to test Soviet monitoring systems), but they are never good. There is a long history in the nuclear industries of ignoring safety and quality control regulations, to the detriment of workers and the public. Many of the workers who have fought against unsafe conditions have been ostracized and penalized--or worse. For a good film on a former worker in a nuclear plant who was run off the road and killed while working to expose critical safety violations at the plant, watch Silverwood. It could have just been an accident, true, but it is a little weird that the papers she was currently taking to a reporter were never found amongst all her other things in the car...

Even the research on nuclear safety is not very good. Much of the research has major flaws. For example, one study that examined the risk of a certain type of cancer (bone?) due to X-rays back when they were less safe than now found there were no cases in the group they followed. The study was 9 years long, but the cancer had an incubation period of 10 years, so they would have expected to see no cases even if X-rays had a huge effect on cancer rates. Another research study found a smaller difference than expected between cancer rates of people close to the atomic blasts in Japan and those in the suburbs (of those that survived, of course). Yet if an atomic bomb goes off in downtown Seattle, people in Shoreline will still have a pretty high exposure. It would be better to compare to people in another state who received little or no exposure to the radiation.

In sum, nuclear energy is a no go. For more on the history of the nuclear industries in Washington, check out the Washington Nuclear Museum and Educational Center (WANMEC) at this link. http://toxipedia.org/display/wanmec/Welcome;jsessionid=2FD67EB7C4176329E8196A8D0018460B

A great blog on environmental and food justice

So a UW professor who teaches a class on food justice has a blog, which my friend (who is taking the class) recommended to me. I checked it out, and it has some great posts! I have only read some of his more recent ones, but they include a great post (Jan 14) outlining some of the basics of food justice and, important for many Americans, urban food justice. It discusses everything from the capitalist structure of the current food production and distribution system to locavorism and food deserts. When I was in Rome, there were many more farmer's markets (most of them at least 6 days a week) selling fresh produce all around the huge city. Most people think Seattle does well with only one daily farmer's market--and that's Pike Place Market, which no longer has large numbers of produce suppliers. There were also lots more small neighborhood grocery stores with standard grocery fare (as opposed to convenience stores that don't have produce and carry mostly junk/highly processed unhealthy food). Healthy food was much more easily available than it is here, the health-conscious city of Seattle. In Seattle's case, some of it can be blamed on (lack of) density, but I think it tends to hold true for much of the U.S., which is confirmed by findings around the prevalence of "food deserts," or areas where access to healthy food is highly limited, in poor urban areas.

It also has a great post that gives more information about the water crisis and the commodification of water (which hopefully helps explain why Ethos water bothers me so much), and a series on Hispano farmers and myths around them. The series reminds me a lot of the way that traditional Western medicine has viewed medical traditions in other cultures: primitive and ineffective, despite evidence that the other traditions are not primitive and may in fact be more effective! For example, Peña writes about how Hispano (his term) farming methods are seen by many researchers and analysts as inefficient in large part because their plots of land are sometimes smaller and they grow more things on the land. But increasing scientific evidence shows that the large, efficient monocultures praised by these same researchers and analysts are actually less efficient over time because they deplete the land without replenishing it, leading to far greater need for fertilizers and reducing the land's output, contain no natural pest control, increasing need for pesticides, etc. I was excited today to see that he has begun posting a series on Obama's policies in several areas! Overall, a very cool blog. :) I linked to it in the title, but there is another link below.

http://ejfood.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A nice general article on how to deal with privilege

http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2006-03-08_146

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Some articles on the disability rights movements

The first article is a description and analysis of the politics of the disability rights movements. The second is a blog post on the article that takes the sentiments of the article a little further. The disability rights movements are frequently ignored, not only within mainstream society and media, but also within leftist/radical society, media, and movements. I remember taking part in an anti-racist, anti-oppression workshop that focused on racism but spent a lot of time evaluating intersectionality and other forms of oppression. Yet so much of the language used in everyday conversation and organizing is ableist (stand up for your rights, speak up/make your voice heard, step up, etc), and that was something both the organizers and participants struggled with at times.

I think it is particularly important that we begin integrating a fuller analysis of ableism and disability rights into other anti-oppression movements because disability and ableism intersect with other movements to a much greater extent than many people realize. For example, a high percentage of prisoners have mental illness(es), and many who do not when they enter prison acquire one due to the physical, social, and emotional conditions of prisons. People of color are also much more frequently "diagnosed" with particular learning disabilities, particular black males. I know of one case where a recent African immigrant was diagnosed with an anger management/behavioral problem--never mind the fact that his family moved to the U.S. as war refugees and he had probably seen some uncool things prior to being moved from his home country to a new and unfamiliar one where he had to learn a new language, etc, etc. Yet his treatment did not involve therapy for any of this or additional English lessons, simply seclusion from his classmates and work on behavior control techniques. Due to the fact that some analysts estimate fewer than a third of adults with impairments/disabilities in the U.S. have jobs, and because many who do have low-paying jobs, disability is also strongly associated with poverty. Any movement that attempts to take class into consideration and fight for better economic conditions is sorely limited by its lack of consideration for disability rights.

I think you get the idea. I think it is also important to mention that, just as general models of health and sickness vary from culture to culture and country to country, models of disability do too. While the lives of many people with disabilities are more difficult in other countries, in some countries and cultures people with disabilities fare far better. In some cases, people we would consider to have a disability in the U.S. are not considered disabled in other places! (This happens even within the U.S., as is the case with deaf people's self-perception and identity vs. that of mainstream society.) Anyway, the articles are below.

http://ww3.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue31/malhot31.htm

http://gatheringforces.org/2010/02/13/thoughts-on-politics-of-the-disability-rights-movement/

Thursday, March 11, 2010

More on consumer activism

This article illuminates more of the reasons why I have problems with "consumer activism," as I like to call it... It allows people to feel good about doing something small (often by doing something they would do anyway, like buying bottled water or clothing) without causing any meaningful, lasting change. Instead, the historical as well as existing political and economic conditions leading to many of Haiti's problems (or the water crisis, or insert cause here) are ignored and obscured.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Checklists

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/the-male-privilege-checklist/

Evidence of economic discrimination against women in the U.S. For the first post in the series, scroll down to the bottom. :)

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/category/21/the-wage-gap-series/


http://gatheringforces.org/2010/01/08/queer-liberation-is-class-struggle/

http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2006-05-09_235

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/25/AR2009112502776_2.html#

frivolity

http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2006-05-24_170

on checking your privilege

http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2006-03-08_146

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2006/03/21/why-its-difficult-to-believe-that-anti-choicers-mean-what-they-say/

straight privilege

http://www.cs.earlham.edu/~hyrax/personal/files/student_res/straightprivilege.htm

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8557084638900203143

Health

What it *really* takes to be healthy

http://www.fatnutritionist.com/index.php/dont-be-poor/

Monday, March 1, 2010

Good words and links 4 ALL!

http://takesupspace.wordpress.com/

http://thepinkpinkelephant.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-i-love-black-women.html

http://urbanfeminist.blogspot.com/

http://www.startribune.com/yourvoices/53749702.html

http://questioningtransphobia.wordpress.com/

http://www.oprah.com/relationships/Mother-and-Daughter-Weight-Loss

http://www.historiann.com/2010/02/10/lets-move-and-the-civilized-american-body-of-2010/

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/02/lets-move.html
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/02/lets-move-part-ii.html

Yay! Help with fuck ups! ^_^

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/12/02/how-not-to-be-insane-when-accused-of-racism/

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/12/02/privilege-is-driving-a-smooth-road-and-not-even-knowing-it/

http://dmp.dreamwidth.org/11437.html

http://portlytruestories.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-to-fuck-up.html

http://angryblackbitch.blogspot.com/

http://genderbitch.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/intent-its-fucking-magic/

(well... disturbing words)

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/patriot-movement-calling-joe-stack-hero/story?id=9889443

(trigger warning related to sexual violence)

http://www.jimchines.com/2009/08/victim-blaming/
http://www.lesbilicious.co.uk/sex-relationships/what%E2%80%99s-the-difference-between-a-bad-tranny-and-a-butch-dyke/

Abortion isn't so bad after all

http://www.vivalafeminista.com/2010/02/is-there-love-after-abortion.html

http://www.msmagazine.com/aug01/pas.html