Reflections on Vulnerability

Just how vulnerable the human race is to the unpredictable forces of nature was reinforced recently by events in Japan. The devastation caused by an unprecedented earthquake and tsunami was immense. To make matters worse, the Fukushima Dai-ich nuclear power plant was severely damaged.

It is a bitter irony indeed that the only country in the world to have experienced the atomic bomb during wartime is now experiencing the potential of another nuclear holocaust during peacetime. How could this wartime devastation have been traded for an enthusiastic embrace of nuclear reactors to create electricity?

During the move to adopt nuclear reactors, there were voices raised citing the dangers of building nuclear power plants in an earthquake-prone region. But notions of sovereignty and independence trumped such concerns and eventually 55 nuclear power plants dotted the Japanese countryside.

How, we ask, is it possible for a society to live so near the edge without being concerned? Part of the answer, I believe, lies in the fact that only the dangers of “normal” earthquakes and tsunamis had been taken into account when building nuclear power plants. The Japanese had not prepared for the fact that nature has the capacity to outdo itself.

Sometimes we refer to such events as a “perfect storm” where two or three phenomena, sometimes feeding on each other, merge to create unexpected forces of destruction. For example: A 9.0 earthquake - creating a 15-meter tsunami - in turn disabling a nuclear power plant.

Right, we say. That is Japan; we are different! Are we really? It doesn’t take a lot of insight to recognize that we too are vulnerable to a toxic mix of natural and man-made disasters. For example, we are dependent for our basic necessities upon a massive network that spans the globe. Highways, rail lines, airways, waterways, power grids and pipelines deliver our comfortable lifestyles pretty much on time, every time.

Yes there have been occasional glitches in the past that we take into account. There might be an occasional shortage of oil but we are assured that will, as in the past, only be temporary. There will be a major ice-storm knocking down power lines but power will be restored in short order. Aging pipelines spring an occasional leak, but they can easily be fixed.

But have we taken into account the possibility of some kind of a “perfect storm”? What happens, for example, when a massive ice storm, downing power lines, is followed immediately by a three-day blizzard with minus 30-degree temperatures? Would we suffer in the Southeast? Quite likely, and not only a little.

This is just one “perfect storm” possibility. You can think of many more. And when one or the other does strike, it will be asked of us, “How could they have lived so comfortably so near the edge – unaware of their vulnerability? Could they not have done something ahead of time to reduce the suffering when the perfect storm hit?”

Jack Heppner