The first of two volumes of William T. Vollmann's magisterial reckoning with the most important issue of our time. In his nonfiction, William T. Vollmann has won acclaim as a singular voice tackling everything from poverty to violence to American imperialism as it has played out on the U.S./Mexico border. Now he turns to a topic that will define generations to come--the human actions that have led to global warming. Vollmann begins No Immediate Danger, the first volume of Carbon Ideologies, by laying out the many causes of climate change, from seemingly beneficial agricultural practices to the manufacture of the steel and plastics we all depend on. The justifiable yearning of people all over the world to live in comfort and the quest for continued economic growth obscure fundamental questions: What is this thermodynamic work for? How wastefully are we performing it? Vollmann offers the quantitative tools to compare fuels, emissions, human activities, and the harm they do. Can we avoid global warming and still satisfy energy demand? One way forward might be nuclear power. To study this issue, Vollmann recounts multiple visits he made over seven years to the contaminated zones and ghost towns of Fukushima, Japan, beginning shortly after the tsunami and the reactor meltdowns of 2011. He measured radiation and interviewed tsunami victims, nuclear evacuees, anti-nuclear organizers and pro-nuclear utility workers. Vollmann found that the safety of many localities, even after decontamination, may remain questionable for decades. And yet nuclear power, like its kindred energy 'ideologies,' remains on the table in Japan. How could anyone still support it there? Because radiation, in the repeated phrase of the Fukushima people, is 'invisible.' Addressed to humans living in the 'hot dark future' and featuring Vollmann's signature wide learning, sardonic wit, and encyclopedic research, No Immediate Danger, whose title co-opts the reassuring mantra of official Japanese energy experts, builds up a powerful, sobering picture of the ongoing nightmare of Fukushima. (Publisher)
...MoreBook William T. Vollmann (2018) Carbon Ideologies: Volume II, No Good Alternative.
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Maxime Polleri;
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Post-political uncertainties: Governing nuclear controversies in post-Fukushima Japan
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Valerie Arnhold;
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Normalisation of nuclear accidents after the Cold War
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Kazuto Tatsuta;
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Ichi-F: A Worker's Graphic Memoir of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
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Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen;
(2019)
The Energy of Russia: Hydrocarbon Culture and Climate Change
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Sugiman, Toshio;
(2014)
Lessons Learned from the 2011 Debacle of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
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Book
Ana Romero de Pablos;
(2019)
Las primeras centrales nucleares españolas: Actores, políticas y tecnologías.
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Reihana Mohideen;
Pankaj Batra;
Prabhjot Khan;
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Low-Carbon Energy Transition in India: Implications for Gender Equality and Social Inclusion
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Tessa Dunlop;
(2022)
Energy efficiency: The evolution of a motherhood concept
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Melanie Arndt;
(April 2018)
The Babushkas of Chernobyl
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Book
Thomas Raymond Wellock;
(2021)
Safe enough? A history of nuclear power and accident risk
(/isis/citation/CBB609552152/)
Article
Kerry Smith;
(2021)
Commentary on “Sources of Disaster: A Roundtable Discussion on New Epistemic Perspectives in Post-3.11 Japan”
(/isis/citation/CBB626048684/)
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Lisa Onaga;
Chelsea Szendi Schieder;
Kristina Buhrman;
Julia Mariko Jacoby;
Kohta Juraku;
David H. Slater;
Anna Wiemann;
Alexander Dekant;
Stella Winter;
Jacob Herzum;
Levi McLaughlin;
Angela Marie Ortiz;
(2021)
Sources of Disaster: A Roundtable Discussion on New Epistemic Perspectives in Post-3.11 Japan
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Hiro Saito;
(January 2021)
The Developmental State and Public Participation: The Case of Energy Policy-making in Post–Fukushima Japan
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Aya Hirata Kimura;
(2016)
Radiation brain moms and citizen scientists: The gender politics of food contamination after Fukushima
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Edward D. Blandford;
Scott Douglas Sagan;
(2016)
Learning from a disaster: Improving nuclear safety and security after Fukushima
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Article
Shin-etsu Sugawara;
(2023)
Eliminating Human Agency: Why Does Japan Abandon Predictive Simulations?
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Gregory Clancey;
(2021)
Commentary on “Sources of Disaster: A Roundtable Discussion on New Epistemic Perspectives in Post-3.11 Japan”
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Sovacool, Benjamin K.;
Brossmann, Brent;
(2013)
Fantastic Futures and Three American Energy Transitions
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Article
Pritchard, Sara B.;
(2012)
An envirotechnical disaster: Nature, technology, and politics at Fukushima
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Schlögl, Robert;
(2012)
The Role of Chemistry in the Global Energy Challenge
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