By Rady Ananda

In a deepening tragedy, after an earthquake and tsunami caused four explosions at nuclear reactor plants in Japan, most of those who evacuated the area headed south, since winds normally would have pushed the radioactive clouds to the north and east. Instead, winds pushed the r-clouds south, according to The Australian. The shift in winds now threatens Hawaii with fallout from the Fukushima nuclear facilities.

Officials finally admit radiation has reached lethal levels in the area surrounding the explosions. Tokyo, 200 miles to the south, is also seeing higher levels of radiation. “[A]bnormal radiation and traces of radioactive elements were detected around Greater Tokyo, the world's most populous metropolitan region with 36 million people."

The paper also noted that "Hong Kong, The Philippines, Singapore and South Korea began testing Japanese food imports for radiation yesterday.”

Though initial mainstream news sources downplayed the danger, mocking the following map which has gone viral, it now seems wise for North Americans on the West Coast to consider relocating, at least temporarily. Radioactive winds are expected to hit North America tonight.

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By Robert Singer

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October 21, 2008

Postponed, but Not Avoided

On both environmental and financial fronts, the end of our consumer society can be postponed, but not avoided.

We live, after all, in a society that is consumed with unrelenting consumption.

Even the most conscientious consumers are leaving us in a world in which the air and water are polluted, the world’s precious rainforests are depleted and the planet continues its downward spiral into the grip of global warming.

Agrarian economies, even economies ruled under the limited excesses of Communism, are consumption oriented. With hungry capitalistic societies thrown into the mix, it’s estimated that the most of the world’s resources will be gone before the year 2023. The outlook isn’t bright.

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Michael Collins

The Japanese disaster at Fukushima I is a human tragedy of striking proportions. As many as ten thousand citizens may be dead in the general catastrophe, with many more at risk for radiation poisoning at levels yet to be determined. The fact that Japan is a highly organized and wealthy nation in no way diminishes the intensity of the losses and pain experienced by the victims. (Image)

Political and economic implications will emerge rapidly. As the whole world watches, the Japanese experience creates windows of opportunity to learn how to avert future meltdowns at nuclear ticking time bombs placed throughout Europe, the United States, India, and China.

Events have overwhelmed the highly professional Japanese bureaucracy. In a late Saturday night report by CNN, the chief cabinet minister said that he presumed that there was a nuclear meltdown in reactors one and two, with three on the way. A nuclear regulatory official hedged by referring to the "possibility" of a meltdown, which he said could not be confirmed since workers couldn't get close enough to see. The same regulatory official told CNN,

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