Is it possible to live in a nuclear exclusion zone? Return to Fukushima captures the aftermath of the 2011 nuclear disaster, chronicling the resilience of people navigating life amid radioactivity.
Fukushima is an ongoing nuclear disaster. The four reactors that melted down and exploded in 2011 are still deadly, even to the robots that get burned up trying to explore them. Over a hundred thousand people remain displaced, their homes frozen in time, eerie ghost towns where slippers sit undisturbed at doorsteps and tables are set for absent guests. Wild animals have moved into the houses. Vines overgrow buildings surrendering to entropy.
But grassroots efforts are reviving Fukushima, propelled by the ingenuity of local farmers and entrepreneurs, citizen scientists, artists, and immigrants from around the world who are intrigued by starting new lives in the red zone.
In 2018 and again four and a half years later, Thomas Bass travelled to Fukushima. The difference was dramatic: The place had been cleaned up and reopened. Gradually, people are learning to live with radioactivity, decontaminate their fields, monitor their food, and prepare for the next wave set to wash over this seismically precarious part of the world. After seven years of research, including travels to Chernobyl, Bass gives us a remarkable account of how Fukushima's Argonauts of the Anthropocene are guiding us into our atomic future.
Recenzijos
"Fascinating . . . a compelling message about a crucial questionone so crucial that it bears on the survival of the earth." Noam Chomsky
Eloquent and haunting . . . Its searing tableau of immense destruction and decades of danger ahead is all the more relevant today as warfare sweeps back and forth across another country dotted with nuclear power plants, Ukraine. Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopolds Ghost and American Midnight
Excellent . . . I would recommend this book to anyone who is as concerned as I am about the ongoing pressure of the international nuclear lobby to construct hundreds of reactors globally as the answer to global warming. Helen Caldicott, co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility and nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize
Return to Fukushima is a powerful examination of the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant and all of the missteps before and after that created this terrible tragedy. It is an indictment of the entire nuclear power industry and a warning to humanity at a time when the industry is trying to sell itself as a solution to the climate crisis." Ira Helfand, Past President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize
Return to Fukushima captures the voices of people who are not just victims but survivors of this ongoing nuclear disaster. Thomas Bass has done a wonderful job in bringing their profound messages to the world. Caitlin Stronell, Citizens Nuclear Information Center, Tokyo
Japan continues to accept levels of radiation exposure for its people that are without precedent. This book explains how the Fukushima nuclear disaster is far from over and how we ignore its lessons at our peril. Tilman Ruff, Nobel laureate, co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
This book is a very useful corrective to the Japanese government's immoral efforts to whitewash the Fukushima tragedy and to persuade Japanese people to accept more nuclear power. Thomas Bass is a fine writer as he guides us through this compelling story. Ian Fairlie, former UK official and consultant to the European Union on radiation risks from nuclear power plants
This book will show you, with remarkable concision, how Japanese officials are pushing the recovery of Fukushima with little care for citizens well-being, let alone any willingness to acknowledge responsibility. So much for any "lessons" learned from the disaster, as Japan prepares to re-open its reactors and dump tons of nuclear waste into the Pacific. Norma Field, Distinguished Service Professor in Japanese Studies, University of Chicago
Return to Fukushima clearly, calmly, and crisply describes this vast nuclear, social, and environmental disaster, its preventable causes, its continuing misrepresentation, and why a sensible least-cost energy policy wouldnt have adopted nuclear power in the first place." Amory B. Lovins, Stanford University
"a useful reminder...as Basss sensitive portrayal shows, even for those brave enough to go to these contaminated areas, life is a daily struggle..."
M.V. Ramana, author of Nuclear is Not the Solution
Daugiau informacijos
Leverage previous endorsements from notable individuals including Nadine Gordimer, James D. Watson, Tobias Wolff, Robert Olen Butler, Richard Dawkins, Tracy Kidder, Kevin Kelly, Tim OBrien, and others. Leverage previous endorsements from notable outlets including The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe, Science News, The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The San Francisco Chronicle, Foreign Affairs, Nature, Smithsonian, Publishers Weekly, The Nation, The Foreword, Newsweek, The London Times, Guardian, Observer, Salon, Business Week, Booklist, Fortune, Library Journal, and others. The author has published work in The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, Wired, The Wall Street Journal. These connections will be used to further promote the author and this title. Build mailing lists with Cision PR platform. Significant digital review copy distribution to media, booksellers, and librarians through Edelweiss and direct communication. Promote through OR Books social media channels and website. Promote through the authors website.
Thomas Bass is the author of eight books, including The Eudaemonic Pie and The Predictors, which are being made into a documentary film. A contributor to the New Yorker, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Smithsonian, Wired, and other publications, he is Professor of English and journalism at the State University of New York in Albany.
In 2018 and again four and a half years later. Thomas Bass travelled to Fukushima. The difference was dramatic. The place had been cleaned up and reopened, not fully, but little-by-little people are learning to live with radioactivity, decontaminate their fields, monitor their food, and prepare for the next wave to wash over this seismically precarious part of the world. Return to Fukushima offers a look at how to confront atomic disaster. Think of this book as a field guide to our future.
