Japan Goes Into Reverse on Going Green
The country abandoned nuclear energy and is building coal plants that will spew as much CO2 as all the cars in the U.S.
Good politics, not such great policy.
Photographer: Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty ImagesModern living standards — indoor lighting, affordable food, heat in the winter, an internet connection — require energy. And every energy source has its drawbacks. It’s easy to point out the downsides of a given energy source and call for it to be banned. But if we’re not careful about weighing costs against benefits, we’re liable to end up with something even worse.
This is becoming painfully evident in the case of Japan. In 2011, a nuclear power plant in northeast Japan's Fukushima prefecture was damaged by a huge tsunami and had multiple meltdowns. The radioactive contamination is still being dealt with and will be a major drain on government resources for decades to come. The accident also forced the evacuation of a large, densely populated area near the plant, causing a domestic refugee crisis. That catastrophe, combined with the political scandal surrounding the mismanagement of old plants, forced the shutdown of almost all nuclear power in the country.