Image: Frida Kahlo, Love Embrace of the Universe
GS(3) Thunderbolt 7-19-07: In Darfur and Japan -- The Earth is Singing A Promise & A Warning, But Who is Listening?
By Richard Power
Get down low, put your ear to the earth, and listen. It is strong medicine for both body and soul.
In the last several days, two important stories have from risen up from the underground.
Like two distant songs, they are reverberating, merging into one, echoing up through long-forgotten caverns.
One song is a promise, the other is a warning.
In Darfur, the Goddess Gaia has shed tears, and so, a scientist has discovered the "imprint of a vast, ancient underground lake."
It could bring an opportunity for peace in the long-term, if genocide can be thwarted in the short-term. (Hundreds of thousands have already died.)
Meanwhile, in Japan, the Goddess shook her dread locks, and so, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake has revealed the vulnerabilities of the world's most productive nuclear power plant.
The leak of radioactive water into the Sea of Japan is at least 50 times worse than originally reported.
The plant was not built to withstand an earthquake higher than a magnitude of 6.5, and it may have been built directly over a fault line.
The human race has to open its mind and heart to the earth, and embrace it deeply -- only then will we find the collective soul that we have lost.
And only when that collective soul is found again, we will be able to come to grips with the 21st Century security and sustainability crisis.
Here are excerpts from the two news stories, with links to the full texts:
A newly found imprint of a vast, ancient underground lake in Sudan's Darfur could restore peace to the region by providing a potential water source to an area ravaged by drought, a U.S. geologist says.
"What most people don't really know is that the war, the instability, in Darfur is all based on the lack of water," said Farouk el-Baz, director of Boston University's Center for Remote Sensing.
The potential water deposits were found with radar that allowed researchers to see inside the depths of the desert sands. The images, el-Baz said, uncovered a "megalake" of 19,110 square miles (30,750 sq km) -- three times the size of Lebanon. ... His initiative, called 1,000 Wells for Darfur, has gained the support of the Egyptian government, which has pledged to start building an initial 20 wells.
El-Baz, who expects groundwater deposits below the surface can be drilled for water, hopes for backing from other regional governments and has urged non-governmental organizations to get involved. Tanzina Vega, Reuters, 7-18-07
The world's biggest nuclear power station faces an uncertain future after it emerged today that it may lie directly above the fault line that triggered this week's earthquake in which nine people died and more than 1,000 were injured.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant - the biggest in the world in terms of output capacity - has been shut down indefinitely after it shook violently when an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck Niigata prefecture in northern Japan on Monday. The plant was not designed to resist shaking caused by earthquakes of greater than magnitude 6.5.
On another day of embarrassment for Japan's nuclear power industry, the Tokyo Electric Power company [Tepco], which operates the plant, said the amount of radioactivity in water that leaked into the sea during the earthquake was 50% higher than it originally said. The firm blamed a calculation error and said the levels were still well within safety standards. Justin McCurry, Guardian, 7-18-07
If you want to work on overcoming the planet's energy and environmental security challenges, take the Live Earth Pledge! Click here.
If you want to help save Darfur, here are sites that will show you how:
Save Darfur!
Enough: The Project to End Genocide and Mass Atrocities
Genocide Intervention Network
Mia Farrow
Click here for a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur
Darfur, Farouk el-Baz, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, Nuclear Power Plants, Genocide, Water, Sudan,Japan, Natural Disasters, Shamanism,Gaia, Richard Power, Words of Power