Monday, March 14, 2011

The Tragedy in Japan

My condolences to the people of Japan following the earthquake and tsunami that hit it the other day.  The footage on the news is staggering, and on top of that, there is the nuclear crisis to contend with.  The latest I've read is that the U.S. military ships sent to Japan are moving away from their coastline to distance themselves from a possible nuclear meltdown.  If the radioactive fallout blows far enough (across the Pacific), it can hit us as well.  This could be far worse than Chernobyl.  Russia could afford to lose a few acres, whereas Japan cannot.  Also, it could affect Tokyo, one of the largest, most busy cities in the world.  Chernobyl was a single-reactor meltdown, whereas in Japan, 3 possible reactors are in states of meltdown.  Eh, it makes me dizzy just to think about it. 

If the footage on television and on the Internet isn't enough to convince you that Japan is in a really bad way, here are aerial photos from NASA satellites.  You can use the slider below to contrast the before/after footage.  It looks like a completely different country. 

No comments: