The PR Apocalypse

Can I ask a dumb question – is it safe to build a nuclear power station on a known fault line and then leave it there for 40 years?

The Japanese authorities are only finding out now, and yet the full horror of the situation remains shrouded and shadowed. As the Fukushima reactor appears to be slipping ever closer to meltdown, so an ever greater number of PR trained scientists and experts come forward to calm the situation. Who is paying the platoons of nuclear experts to play down the crisis? I’d love to see exactly who the paymaster to the various foundations and universities is.

It doesn’t help that the Japanese authorities have been playing fast and loose with the truth, evacuating people and then claiming there is no radiation, as mushroom-shaped clouds billow out of ruined power stations. This has all been a fantastic exercise in news management but trust is in short supply.

Pouring oil on troubled waters is to add insult to injury in a country that has suffered a devastating earthquake and then a tsunami – the waters are slick with enough already.

What is needed is truth and transparency – not to the point of fear mongering of course, but a straightforward approach to disaster. It is also time that serious money is put into viable power alternatives – we cannot, as a species, afford to play so fast and loose any more. Can nuclear power really be seen as a useful option any more? More importantly, can we get serious debate on the matter without the waters being muddied and the issues drowned by lobbyists and PR distraction tactics?

It is a horrific irony that the Japanese, victims of the only two nuclear attacks in history, should risk falling victim to this self-made disaster. The only way to honour the victims of the earthquake and all its consequences is to change the way we think, to be straightforward about the consequences and to work towards a world where such things can occur with far less ease.

The next generation will otherwise pay a heavy price – those in power must step up and show a serious change in behaviour, before we all stew in the big powers’ toxic soup. PR is the only clear winner in Japan. Big PR is, without doubt, making a tidy profit from managing apocalypse.