ENV S 3 Lecture 10: How has postwar order shaped the Anthropocene?
Document Summary
Key terms/concepts: typology of 4 environmental worldviews: market liberals, institutionalists, bio-environmentalists, social greens. March 2011: 9. 0 earthquake triggered a 14-meter high tsunami. Waves crashed over retaining walls at fukushima shut down all six working reactors. Generators failed, batteries failed, lost power, lost ability to pump cold water over fuel rods --> explosions and meltdowns, released radioactive material in the atmosphere. Leaders wanted to flood the reactors with seawater and then released directly back into the ocean. Japanese government underestimated the severity of the disaster (created an exclusion zone where they displaced people for their own safety) At least 30 years to clean up properly. 18,000 people who participated in cleanup efforts. Hiding an ongoing brutal labor structure that props up the japanese energy industry. Minority: burakumin --> lowest paid contract workers, no pension, doing the most dangerous work, exposed to high levels of radiation (idea of disposable people)
