Yet again I find myself considering the human race’s capacity to inflict upon itself far more damage than all the other forces of nature put together.
The devastating and heart rending earthquake and tsunami in Japan will one day, and perhaps not so very long from now, pale into insignificance compared to the self inflicted nuclear catastrophe that is sure to come.
Many people know that nuclear power stations leak on a regular basis and sometimes explode, even without the interventions of terrorists. However, the big and I believe inevitable disaster will be an increase in general background radiation brought about by many small incidents. The number of places on Earth that are contaminated is growing all the time and we delude ourselves if we think it won’t happen here. Even if we avoid a major incident in Western Europe we are not safe because it happens on the other side of the world.