"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal"
Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1917
This quote by Einstein reminds me of the problem of Fukushima nuclear power plant. From the beginning of the 1950s, people were mostly for constructing nuclear power plants according to the public opinion poll, because of the various campaigns by the government and the media. It was not until the 1970s that movement against nuclear power plant appeared. However, the government still proceeded with the nuclear power plant. There were even advertisements of nuclear power that says, "Because nuclear power plant does not emit CO2, it is kind to the Earth". However, after the 3.11, the hydrogen explosion of Fukushima nuclear power plant caused problem of environment, health, or economics. People did not stop the nuclear power plant and pursued with it blindly, though they did not know what it was nor had enough knowledge to control it. The way people continued to stick with nuclear power can described as one technology that can be referred as an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.
The example you cite is powerful and very instructive. We can only hope that people all over the world learn from what happened on March 11 this year. I don't see the authorities yet fully coming to grips with the full scale of the problems they helped create, but I see awareness of the danger of nuclear technology among the public growing stronger.
返信削除