The nightly NHK National New broadcast in Japan has often discussed
global warming lately. Prime Minister Abe says that Japan should take
a leading role in combatting it, and he will say that at the G 8
conference now underway. Former P.M. Koizumi gave a speech the other
day along the same lines.
Japan has had extremely hot weather in recent years, and the news
broadcasters and newspapers now routinely attribute it to global
warming, without doubt or dissension. They have not done much to
stop global warming, but at least they take the problem seriously and
they are beginning to launch serious efforts to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions. Plus they are imitating the U.S. and deploying some
nonsense programs such as ethanol, fortunately on a tiny scale that
will cause little harm. The nuclear power industry is a shambles,
with revelation after revelation of misconduct, accidents and
cover-ups over the past 30 years now coming to light. But this state
of affairs is so common for Japanese industry and government that I
do not think anyone will oppose the expanded use of nuclear power.
The power companies are being grilled by the police and the
Parliament, and the investigations have revealed many problems with
coal and gas fired plants too, and even hydroelectric dams. It is a
little difficult to decide whether you would prefer to live next to a
coal-fired plant run by idiots & street-hood Mafiosi dropouts, or a
nuclear plant run by those same idiots. . .
I do not ever recall seeing Japanese press coverage of the sort of
anti-global warming arguments that are common in the U.S. In Japan
they tend to assume that pronouncements made by mainstream scientists
are authoritative and cannot be questioned. There is no opposition to
global warming from religious kooks, as there is in the U.S. Religion
has had little impact on post-WWII Japanese culture and politics.
That does not mean that officials or industry follows recommendations
made by scientists, but they do not contradict them or contradict
them. Unfortunately, going by the same standard of respect for
authority, nearly all Japanese newspapers and magazines denounce cold
fusion research. The only reason it is still funded to a small extent
is that many aspects of Japanese society -- and universities in
particular -- are heavily balkanized. They are decentralized. The
left hand does not know or care what the right hand is doing.
Industrial and data processing standards, for example, are weak.
Leaders are often figureheads. Political and budgetary power is in
the hands of low-ranking officials in corporations and government.
Japan's disastrous war in China was orchestrated by low-level field
officers who acted contrary to orders from headquarters. (They
assassinated Chinese leaders and organized fake attacks against
themselves, like the German attacks against Poland, and the U.S.
Tonkin Gulf "incident," which as President Johnson said at the time,
'was probably our guys shooting at a whale or something, but who cares?')
This system of letting the staff run the organization may seem
awkward, but it has some advantages, such as the fact Mizuno and
others can continue for years doing research that, in the U.S. or
Europe would get them harassed, fired, or hauled before the kind of
Congressional witch hunt that Rusi Taleyarkhan faces. Nobody at the
University cares what Mizuno does, except for his immediate
"superiors" and they are not all that superior. They have been making
desultory efforts to stop him since 1989, and they told him he would
never be promoted above "assistant professor" (which he has not
been), but they do not care much one way or the other. He will soon
face mandatory retirement, so he will be out of their hair.
- Jed
- [Vo]:Japanese news features global warming Jed Rothwell
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