In August 1975, in a 24-hour period, a severe typhoon dropped a year’s worth of rain on western Henan Province in China. A giant hydroelectric dam failed under the weight of all that water. In the ensuing torrent, eighty-five thousand people lost their lives, and eleven million people were made homeless.
That bears repeating:
In the ensuing torrent, eighty-five thousand people lost their lives, and eleven million people were made homeless.
I can barely believe it. We—the comfortable “west”—have just spent the last three hundred and sixty-five days wringing our hands over a “crisis” at a nuclear plant in Japan. That “crisis” has produced zero casualties.
What is it about the deaths of 85,000 Chinese and the loss of 11 million Chinese homes that is not worth mention in the western press?
According to professional anti-nuclear lobbyists, the world needs more “renewable” energy, like hydro.
According to them, hydro is safe. Nuclear energy, they say, has been proved by the Fukushima meltdowns to be beyond our control.
Again: Banqiao—a hydro dam failure that killed 85,000 and made eleven million homeless—does not ever get mentioned in the western press.
Fukushima—which has killed zero people—gets a ton of ink.
Nobody should listen to the mediocrities in the anti-nuclear movement.
Instead, they should pay attention to information like this:
[…] Hydro Dam Disaster vs. Chernobyl March 12, 2012By darcyI noticed Steve Aplin mentioned the Banqiao hydro dam event. I understood that 170,000 people perished from this hydro […]
Once again, truth is out of style.