Greenwood's old friend, Ron living in Manhattan Beach and Greenwood living in Seven Mile Beach has been exchanging their views on various aspects of the world through email over more than 12 years. With the permission of Ron, a record of mails exchanged in 2011 were compiled in chronological order.
Mails exchanged in the past 4 year have not been compiled yet. But mails exchanged after Fukushima melt down are worth to read it.
2011/5/6 11:24
Dear Greenwood,
What a wonderful word. Especially in English; being very close to our slang word
"Bunk" - meaning "absurd, ridiculous, nonsense". Did you invent it with that
connection in mind?
Thank you!
The "Two Cultures" are especially clear in Britain and Japan; less so in the
USA. Snow's lecture grew from an article of his in the New Statesman in 1956
when I was still in school - and was widely discussed by us. That was a major
factor in my moving - first to Canada on graduation, and later to the USA.
In place of the literature, law and economics graduates here we see more
influence from business. These people graduated from any or no field of study.
They have in common little more than the single-minded pursuit of wealth. They
are more aware of the importance of technology than the bunkei - but strictly on
a "useful" level - meaning it makes money.
Sadly, the position of science, technology and mathematics has been dropping
here too. It's influence peaks slightly whenever a technical disaster occurs -
such as the Gulf spill. I'd hoped the rise of computing would have helped, but
has only marginally, if at all.
I hope the success of Messrs. Hatoyama and Kan is a good sign there, at last
there is a new party in power, which must really have reduced the influence of
many established people. I do not remember hearing about their policies with
regard to science, but changing parties of government is a step forward. I'm
sure their scandals have not helped their agenda.
With the impending exhaustion of most natural resources, perhaps a more
permanent increase in technical influence will occur - from dire necessity. On
the whole, though, I'm glad I won't be around to "enjoy" it.
Ron
May 4, 2011
Dear Ron,
I am very pleased that you have exact same feeling about people's understanding
in science and nuclear power.
I have only asked you to read wiki' "perception management" and NY Times. And in
exchange, I've got your thinking about American people. Situation is exactly
same here.
I have written an article "Sarphogus in Fukushima", repeating a phrase that
Japanese elite have non scientific origin and for them, it is impossible to
understand real danger of nuclear power and tend to believe danger could be
eliminated by technology. That is not possible when dealing with nuclear power.
Power of nuclear is beyond control of human capability.
You have used a phrases "mathematically illiterate", "innumerate" and
"Mathematics is something done by uninteresting back-room people of no
importance". In my case, I have used a word "bunkei" meaning a humanities or
graduate who learned mainly literature, law and economics only. Traditionally,
Japanese government leaders were all humanities. Hatoyama and Kan are first
generation of non humanities leader but performing badly because of resistance
from other politicians and government officials mainly composed of humanities.
Charles Percy Snow had defined this situation in a book "The
two cultures and a second look".
I found it is an interesting expression calling nuclear village dwellers as
"tortured people". Yes, that is an appropriate word even for the people here in
Japan. I have seen many of them around me.
Best regards,
Greenwood
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2011 7:07 AM
Subject: Re: NEW US POWER PLANTS
Dear Greenwood.
Many of the articles on energy are written by people who seem mathematically
illiterate. More and more of our population is almost innumerate. All that is of
interest is making money. Mathematics is something done by uninteresting
back-room people of no importance. Now that the few remaining well-trained
engineers are retiring, I'm very concerned that we'll see a rapidly increasing
number of engineering catastrophes. I fear that this applies to other countries
also.
The revelations in the NYT are all too familiar. Our Nuclear Industry also has a
long and murky history of covering up very dangerous situations. They are not
alone in that, of course, but the consequences are far worse than for any other
industries.
I worked very briefly with some nuclear engineers. What was impressive was their
very firm commitment to safety - matched with the almost impossible standards
that had to be met for adequate safety. They were tortured people. Fortunately,
the circumstances [a new business where there was no established "Perception
Management"] were such that they were able to work unhindered. Nevertheless, I
was very relieved when the project ran out of money, so I didn't have to work in
a nuclear start-up.
While I understand the need for more CO2-free power, I'm very nervous about
using Nuclear Power to do so. The oil business, with which I'm very familiar, is
no stranger to danger, but the worst possible oil disasters [e.g. the Gulf of
Mexico, the Exxon Valdez or blowing up an oil refinery] seem insignificant
compared with the danger from the worst nuclear accident. It's very revealing
that US law exempts our nuclear plants from liability for serious accidents.
Without this exemption I doubt any commercial nuclear plant would ever have been
built here.
Ron
Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2011 10:28 PM
Subject: Re: NEW US POWER PLANTS
Dear Ron,
Thank you for your information.
This article is not consistent. What I understand is
Coal: 20%
NG: 41%
Wind: 18%
Nuclear: 21%
in future, PV will be 30% balance
Japan is far behind because of （perception
management） by Government.
Please read
NY Times Asia Pacific.
Greenwood
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 6:26 AM
Subject: NEW US POWER PLANTS
Dear Greenwood.
I thought you'd be interested in this summary of gross total generating capacity
of new power plants here. Renewables are becoming significant, especially wind
power. The reference is at
http://www.renewablesbiz.com/article/11/04/renewables-lead-charge
With best regards,
Ron
May 4, 2011