On Overreaction

With the terrible tragedy that has befallen Japan (do you like how I start this blog with a current event everyone is talking about?) I've had the unique opportunity to observe something I see on a daily basis, on a much more pronounced level.

I'm talking about people overreacting. In this case, to the problems currently plaguing the nuclear power station in Japan.

The people I work with tend to react in the same way to any given crisis/problem/papercut. Whether it's over reacting, under reacting, or somewhere in between, at least they're predictable.

The majority of events that we deal with are, however, local. A car broken into in our parking lot, a change in company policy or benefits, etc... You know, the kind of thing that you expect people to react to. Japan is not one of those things (at least not for this type of reaction)

When the earthquake and tsunami hit, most of my coworkers took the approach of "Well, that's terrible, but it's not our problem so please stop telling us about it." Some of us were more of a mind to donate some money to the relief efforts. However, everything changed with the news that there was now a danger of nuclear meltdown.

One of the individuals I work with, let's call him Ethan, is immediately worried. "What if the radiation gets here and we all get cancer? They need to fix this, or it's going to be the end of the world!" By this point, numerous scientists from various countries have already pointed out that the radiation would have to travel thousands of miles before reaching the west coast (I'm in the midwest, by the way), and prior to reaching it would dissipate. I would like to point out that now, quite a bit later, this statement has not changed. In fact, it's been reinforced with diagrams and further explanations. Science!

This led to a discussion, as I am the type of person to call people out on their silly thoughts. Silly, silly thoughts. The basis of his argument - You're not a "nuclear scientist". The basis of my response - You don't need to be a scientist to understand the basics when spelled out for you.

After this I realized just how many people in our building, and others in the community, share his fear that radiation will sweep over the world from this single plant, destroying life as we know it. Disregard the fact that the world didn't end when Chernobyl had a meltdown. Three Mile Island, while classified as a nuclear catastrophe, didn't even extinguish life in Pennsylvania. Both of these arguments are struck down as they were "too long ago" for the technology involved to cause this level of disaster. In case anyone is wondering, Chernobyl was actually in use for nearly 15 years AFTER the reactor meltdown (just a fun fact)

Now comes the fun part. Nuclear weapons. We bombed Japan (twice), something that a few people seem to forget. And these bombs didn't just explode, they irradiated. Not only did Japan bounce back (over time, of course), but the spread of radiation due to winds and whatnot didn't destroy life as we know it. We did nuclear testing in areas of our own country, and STILL we haven't destroyed it. The fear I'm seeing is completely baseless and unwarranted. It's a knee jerk reaction that shouldn't be there. And it happens all the time, all over the world. His solution? Bury that entire AREA of Japan in concrete. Not just the damaged reactors, but the 12 mile area that he saw on CNN as a "potential impact" region. And he is PISSED that it hasn't been done.

I ask of you, anyone who ever eventually finds their way to here and reads this... Don't over react. Take a few deep breaths and review the facts. And then? Help. Help other people understand what's going on, and do what you can to help out. Not just for this, but any other tragedy. The human race isn't going to get anywhere if we don't all help each other out.