Japan Panel Response

So, remember how I had asked in my first post about the status of Japan? Well, I had a great opportunity to go to a panel that the Honors College was hosting about the status of Japan in respect to the media coverage and the implications of the disaster. I wished they covered more about the time line of events, but their focus on the media coverage, particularly in by the US of the event sparked equal interest in me.
The panel leaders spoke briefly about the geology of Japan and how it's an earthquake prone area and the compounded dangers of the domestic nuclear power plants that humans have put there. From this, they spoke about how Western countries are focusing on the radioactive dangers of the plants whereas other nations are treating the earthquake and tsunamis as natural disasters. The speakers elaborated, citing Perrow's "Normal Accidents" to explain the media coverage phenomenon that focuses on the radiation instead of the quake. Perrow claims that before WWII, disasters such as the quake were largely localized, could be corrected by natural circumstances, were quantifiable in their damage, and people could move away from damaged zones. Case and point; coal mines. Coal soot covered local areas, after they were shut down the coal soot would eventually be removed by natural forces such as the weather, one could estimate the damage from the soot and the loss of labor, and if it was bad enough citizens could leave. However, Perrow explained, disasters related to nuclear power are the opposite. Radioactive fall-out is insidious as it spreads around the globe, it lasts far longer than humans and because of the nature of its damaging effects it is difficult for natural forces to correct, estimations on the damage are incredibility difficult because of the scale and effects of the damage from the radiation, and since it has the potential to spread everywhere, there is no escape.
This panel definitely shed new light on the developing catastrophe in Japan, particularly in light of how Japan is considered a 1st World Country. Still, while this discussion may have satisfied one question I had about Japan, it has invariably ignited many other questions, questions that that we all must answer for ourselves =^. .^=