From Fearsome Pollution to Fukushima: Environmental Activism and the Nuclear Blind Spot in Contemporary Japan
From Fearsome Pollution to Fukushima: Environmental Activism and the Nuclear Blind Spot in Contemporary Japan
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从可怕的污染到福岛：当代日本的环保行动主义和核盲点
DOI：
10.1093/envhis/emr154
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发表时间：
2012
影响因子：
0.7
通讯作者：
S. Avenell
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
S. Avenell
2011年9月19日，六万人聚集在东京，抗议福岛第一核电站反应堆熔毁后的核电和辐射污染。他们的抗议让人想起20世纪60年代，当时日本是地球上污染最严重的地区之一，空气、水和地面污染达到危险水平。观察人士当时将中国描述为污染者的天堂，并建议游客带上防毒面具。然而，到了20世纪70年代初，日本已经解决了许多最棘手的污染问题，该国拥有世界上最严格的一些监管标准。在这篇文章中，我分析了一个有影响力的自然和社会科学家团体--污染研究委员会--的活动，该委员会带头与污染作斗争。我有两个主张。首先，从积极的方面来看，该委员会通过其实地研究、污染受害者倡导和广泛的国际活动，在日本的污染好转过程中发挥了决定性作用。但是，第二，该委员会和其他当代团体以受害者为中心的被动环境议程从未发展成为能够识别和审查辐射等潜在污染形式的预防性运动。其结果是日本环境行动主义中的核盲点，直到2011年福岛灾难才显露出来。
On September 19, 2011, sixty thousand people gathered in Tokyo to protest against nuclear power and radiation pollution after reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Their protest evoked memories of the 1960s when Japan was among the most polluted locations on the planet with hazardous levels of air, water, and ground contamination. Observers at the time described the country as a polluters' paradise and advised tourists to pack a gas mask. By the early 1970s, however, the Japanese had addressed many their thorniest pollution problems and the country possessed some of the strictest regulatory standards in the world. In this article I analyze the activities of an influential group of natural and social scientists, the Pollution Research Committee, which spearheaded the struggle against pollution. I make two claims. First, on the positive side, the committee played a decisive role in Japan's pollution turnaround through its field research, pollution victim advocacy, and extensive international activities. But, second, the reactive victim-centered environmental agenda of the committee and other contemporary groups never developed into a preventive movement capable of identifying and scrutinizing potential forms of pollution such as radiation. The result was a nuclear blind spot in Japanese environmental activism only made visible with the Fukushima disaster of 2011.