When reading | When the crisis really appears in front, they are not prepared ...

"Disaster, Risk and Revelation"

[New Zealand] Steve Matthewman

Translated by Li Yuliang Wang Li

Published by Beijing United Publishing Company

Disasters have become the era syndrome of the world today. It reveals the operating mechanism and its shortcomings, tolerance, and response capabilities of society. It is the cause of the lack of human security and survival anxiety. This book combines disaster research with sociology, focusing on large -scale accidents and disasters, and analyzing the catastrophic consequences brought by capitalist production methods. Mazkman has collected various disaster -related data, combined with the latest research results, further analyzes the causes and consequences of the disaster, and put forward suggestions on how to avoid disaster risks in the future.

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Disaster comes to Happy Island: An unfortunate place

The "Gravity Field and Static Ocean Flow Detection" (GOCE) satellite of the European Space Agency received low -frequency sound waves generated by the earthquake. The power transmission effect has triggered a small earthquake worldwide. The tsunami triggered by the earthquake shakes the Suzberg ice shelf covering the Antarctic continent. The two -meter -high waves rushed to the Chile coast. The coastal houses in Indonesia were destroyed. More than 10,000 people in the low -lying areas of the Russian Qiandao Islands were evacuated. At Papua New Guinea, Brand Hospital announced that the loss caused by the tsunami was as high as $ 4 million. The entire earth was surrounded by radioactive isotopes. A piece of more than 3,000 kilometers of earthquake tsunami floats on the northern Pacific Ocean. On the Internet, calm calls and official denials of being accused of conspiracy theory and covering the facts. According to reports, there is a wave of potassium iodide films in British Columbia, Canada. In the United States south of the border, the sales volume of anti -virus masks, cover counts, and survival tool packages surged. A truck production plant in Louisiana closed down. Chicago live bull -time goods have reached a record high. Swiss reinsurance company's stock price plummeted. Professional paint pigments are disconnected globally; the supply of aluminum capacitors, dinomoidide-triazine resin, silicon chip, and key car components is also increasing. Many European countries have announced a thorough reform of their national energy policies. The world market has fallen sharply, and the price of LNG has soared suddenly. The mining of uranium ore in South Australia was shelved. In Africa south of Sahara, some uranium mines are postponed. The original planned uranium merging and acquisition proposal was canceled. British gas power generation has fallen into losses. A container transported from Japan to Guyana was returned by Jamaica Customs, because the goods inside were radioactive. The first commercial seaweed farm in the UK opened.

The above described are the consequences of the media caused by the consequences of a disaster and its response measures. Although the disaster occurred in a distant place, its influence affected the continents and even the outer space. On March 11, 2011, a large -scale backbone earthquake at the Northeast Coast of Japan occurred. This is the largest earthquake experienced by Japan since the beginning of modern scientific instruments began to measure the earthquake. It was later known as the East Japan earthquake. The earthquake moved to the east of Japan's Island to east of 2.4 meters, so the earth's rotation axis shifted. The earthquake triggered a tsunami of up to 40 meters. The tsunami water walls are huge, and they devour one of the most complete coastlines of the world's Shanghai howling prevention measures. In the Sendai area, the waves were rushed into the inland for 10 kilometers. At the Fukushima First Nuclear Power Station, the waves broke down the sea and caused an explosion. The cooling system of the nuclear power plant fails, and the three reactor units are melted. Subsequently, the largest radioactive substances in history were discharged into seawater. International atomic energy agencies announced that according to the classification of the hierarchical table of the international nuclear and radiation events (a grading mode similar to the seismologist measured the hierarchical model used by the earthquake), the Fukushima nuclear leakage accident level is 7, which is the most serious nuclear leak accident.

We sometimes use the term "Fukushima" to represent this series of events. Sometimes we call it "3 · 11" so that people are associated with the "9 · 11" incident. The "September 11" incident is considered to be an incident that affects the world pattern in the 21st century. Fukushima (meaning happiness island and lucky place) is quite different. The World Bank considers it as the first "four -fold" disaster on the earth: earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor accidents are combined with the world's supply chain interruption. The Fukushima incident also made us foresee the risk and harm of the 21st century. Today's risk is characterized by its complexity and exacerbated by our interconnection. The uncertainty and potential influence of modern industrial production technology (including nuclear energy) increase. The novelist Douglas Kopulan wrote: "Radiation is always existed. I think that as a species, our conversation with radiation has just begun." Radiologist David J. Brunner wrote in the book: "In addition, although we evaluate the impact of low -dose radiation on health, the evaluation still has great uncertainty. Without understanding the risks, it means that we have a reasonable evacuation area, who needs to evacuate, when to evacuate or evacuate or evacuate When you are allowed to return to 'things to know nothing. "

The 21st century disaster showed many new characteristics. The first is the large scale. They have more infrastructure and more people affect them. During the Fukushima incident, Miyagi Prefecture, Iwate Prefecture, and Fukushima Prefecture were the greatest. 20,000 people were killed, and the number of people who lost their troubles was 1,000 times the number of deaths, and 1 million buildings were destroyed. The cost of cleaning up the scene of the disaster has exceeded $ 1 billion -whether radioactive pollution can be "cleaned up" is still a controversial issue. The nuclear leak was widely considered to be the most complicated nuclear accident so far. In addition, "indirect losses caused by supply chain interruptions may be as serious or even more serious as direct losses." The Fukushima incident also led to large -scale power outages and millions of people's water supply interruptions (this is why only the "four" disasters are likely to underestimate its destructive power). Secondly, these new disasters are much more complicated in distribution. Their influence is too wide, so that they have become extremely difficult for them. What happened on Happiness Island was not controlled on the island of Happy, but spread away. Whether it is radioactive waste or tsunami wreckage, it cannot be controlled within the scope of Japan's sovereign territory, and the impact of the supply chain has also affected the world. Third, before the incident, these new disasters were "unimaginable." As revealed by a survey in Fukushima, the factory operator "" has fallen into a security fallacy, and it is impossible for serious accidents such as core melting. Therefore, when the crisis really appears in front of them, they are also also in front of them. No preparation. " Just as Fukushima plays a role in various earth systems (atmosphere, land, and ocean), it also plays a role in many human systems (communication, economy, energy, health, technology and politics). Of course, these two systems are closely linked. Structure, waves, ocean currents and winds are mixed with settlement models, stock prices and business practices. These processes show multiple spatiality: zero point on the ground, 250 kilometers (edge ​​of space), and 13,000 kilometers (in Antarctica). They integrate all aspects of nature, humans and social technology, showing different time. A disaster can be many incidents that occur at the same time, or many different events that occur at different times. Although the number of tourists in Japan is equivalent to the disaster, Fukushima is still scarce. The Japanese automotive industry is now operating normally, but even if the nuclear reactor can be cleaned up, the cleanup work will continue for generations or longer, and the evacuation zone will maintain a restricted area within decades. Some things will never return to the original state. On the contrary, we must make adjustments to cope with the new normal. The ending and fate of human beings will also change due to the environment and the occupational changes they are located. For those counties that are directly affected, the Fukushima incident is bad. It enabled Japan to experience the worst after -war crisis and pushed the nuclear industry practitioners into the bottom. But this incident brought vitality to people engaged in anti -cancer drugs, shale gas fields and liquefied natural gas. In the UK, it also gave birth to a brand -new commercial enterprise -seaweed farm.

This makes us have to consider the impact of the Fukushima incident. We must consider losses in the field of energy, politics and economic. The Fukushima incident destroyed the trust of the authorities in the Japanese public. Globally, the pressure that the nuclear power is required to remove the nuclear power from the national energy policy portfolio is increasing, and it also shakes the confidence of the business community about the "real -time" production system. The problem of sustainable development is increasingly prominent, mainly to increase the requirements of corporate transparency and political transparency, the needs of clean renewable energy, and the safety of supply chain.

Author: Steve Matthewman

Edit: Kim Jiuchao

Editor in charge: Zhu Zilong

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