Conceited, Irresponsible America

Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It seems like a beautiful paradise, but more nuclear tests were carried out here than at the infamous Bikini Atoll. Today it is just a dumping ground for the nuclear experiments of the past. There is no protection around this island, no sea patrols, no fences or guards, and just a 46cm thick concrete shell, intended to be temporary, which covers tonnes of radioactive waste, the remnants from some of the worlds most powerful nuclear tests.

Climate change threatens the security of the island because as the waves rise the islands are in danger of being flooded, and the flimsy concrete shell hiding the radioactive waste is likely to be breached, if not straight away, over time. Even the US Government ha admitted that a typhoon could break apart the concrete shell and expose the radioactive waste.

The video below from Al Jazeera brought this to my attention. I thought that people would never return to these islands after nuclear testing, but 3 decades later they have, although they suffer from many illnesses related to radioactive exposure.

Really the wall Donald Trump should be thinking about building is one to maintain a safe perimeter around Runit Island (one of the Marshall Islands) and not a wall to keep out the Mexicans.

Then you have climate change deniers like Trump opting out of commitments to protect the environment. The sum of this is a treble slap in the face for the residents of The Marshall Islands. First, with their idyllic paradise ruined by tests for some of the cruelest most ruinous weapons known to man. Secondly, the nation that performs those tests presides over a clean up operation that is rushed and poorly done. Third, that same nation that performed the tests and failed to properly secure the dangers it left behind proves to be one of the most polluting nations on earth, and by its policy denies climate change, perhaps sealing the fate of The Marshall islands to become an unhinabitable area destroyed by toxic radioactivity. This just reflects the careless, unfeeling, conceited, irresponsibility of America.

What will you think the next time a President says “God bless America”> I always feel a sense of striking irony.

Posted in Climate.

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