On Sunday afternoon my neighbour was standing in his garden wearing dark glasses and waving his arms wildly, pointing at the sun and urging the boules players to take cover.

World War II didn’t disrupt our cup-winning boules team, they are proud of their record, and it wasn’t just the ability to monitor the activities of the SS from the vantage point of the boules pitch – they are solid, stoical French farmers. Even they were looking alarmed. One or two looked as though they might consider taking cover – once the game was over.

I looked up at the Sun. ‘Cover your eyes’ screeched my neighbour, ushering his pregnant wife indoors. ‘Look! It’s the radiation from Japan, it’s arrived’!

Sure enough, there was a strange ring around the Sun – I have no idea why, but I was confident that we weren’t being showered with radiation. Even in France, a country which has long supported nuclear power, people were panicking.

Such is the power of the media.

In America, citizens are falling sick with diarrhoea, vomiting, racing hearts. Why? They are popping potassium iodide by the handful, convinced that they will die from Thyroid cancer if they don’t get another half dozen pills down them today…..let’s hope the media thinks to put them right, another two weeks of this and they will all be suffering from hypothyroidism and taking thyroid replacement tablets for the rest of their life – and nursing the rheumatic arthritis that follows in its wake.

In Germany, they have shut down seven of their nuclear plants whilst they try to work out the possibility of them being hit by an earthquake and a tsunami at the same time.

People are afraid of the unknown, and particularly afraid of the invisible unknown. Like radiation. I can still remember being drilled in anti-nuclear precautions (like hiding under our beds – I kid you not!) at school in the 60s. I can see us now, lying face down on the lacrosse pitch, tugging our gymslips down to cover our bare legs, as the countdown to 3pm started, the time we had been assured that Russian bombers would be flying overhead to drop nuclear weapons on America, hearts racing. Phew! 3pm past and we were still alive.

We continue to be alive after Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Windscale; after smoking for 50 years; we have survived the ‘Millennium bug’; we all got excessively fat after we were scared off using artificial sweeteners by the discovery that if you injected the stuff into a chicken, some of them produced deformed chicks. We pulled down thousands of houses and schools because someone somewhere got asbestos in their lungs. We saved a few dicky birds banning DDT – and killed thousands of sub-Saharans with malaria in the process.  We ruined the hefted flocks of Welsh sheep and built huge pyres of carcinogenic barbequed beef, terrified of foot and mouth disease which has rarely spread to humans.

This morning it has been announced that we have been munching on GM crops for years – via the Cadbury’s chocolate that we fought the EU to keep on making. Anybody dropped dead from GM foods yet? Have another choccie.

Why do we insist on ruining the life that we have – which for those of us who are children of the 40s and 50s, is probably the best anyone has ever known, by living in fear of the life we might not have come tomorrow morning….?

Enjoy today! Go on, fry a salmonella egg with some dioxidic Danish bacon, slip it between two trans fatty acid spread slices of cancer creating white bread, sup a mug of cancer causing hot tea, and reflect on the fact that you are still alive, you can still whinge about how bad life is – or you could reflect on your good fortune to have been of a generation and a country that has enjoyed a more privileged life than 99.9% of the world.

23 degrees here today, and I’m off out for the day, chatting to my weeds. I tried talking to my plants and they withered and died. We shall see.

Michael March 22, 2011 at 00:43

On the Nuclear Power issue, I’m not frightened, but I’m not a big fan
either. If risk equals impact multiplied by probability, I’ll grant you that
the probability of Dungeness going bang tomorrow is pretty low, but the impact
of such an occurrence does not bear thinking about.

But this is not the whole story. We have to take the probability factor not
just for “tomorrow”, but for dealing with high level radioactive waste that
will need to be managed for the next few million years. On that basis, the
probability of human error/terrorist attack/act of nature taking place
increases greatly (even though the impact lessens over time).

And of course, none of this should be looked at in a vaccuum. Burning coal
isn’t all that healthy for us either.

Interestingly, a quick glance over at Wikipedia suggests that coal has a
far higher reserves-to-production ratio than uranium, but maybe that’s just
because we’re not using it so much these days.

TheNoseyMole
March 21, 2011 at 22:03

“Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.”
Plato

Bill
Sticker March 21, 2011 at 14:33

Halo around the sun? I think that’s something to do with high altitude ice crystal refraction. Japanese radiation?
No.

Peter March 21, 2011 at 14:26

An equally good menu.

http://nannyknowsbest.blogspot.com/2011/03/dangers-of-pies-ii-who-ate-all-pies-i.html

Eleanor March 21, 2011 at 12:54

There was No Aura around The Super Full Moon, so I am hoping it is a bit
tired after the recent activities. We could have a good month.

PS. I don’t like bananas. This leads me to suspect that they could be good
for me.

Joe Public March 21, 2011 at 12:41

I suppose after areas around Chernobyl & Fukushima have been evacuated,
plans will be drawn up for our SW.

Great swaths of Devon and Cornwall – where more than one in three homes
have higher than recommended levels of radon – expose their occupants to the
long-term risk of cancer.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article2933461.ece

We’re all doomed.

Ancient and Tattered
Airman March 21, 2011 at 22:39

I happen to be Cornish born and bred and live in a house built of granite
in 1744. Not only are the outside walls left in their natural state but also
some internal walls. At over 70 years of age and still disgustingly healthy
I must be in imminent danger of radon attack, mustn’t I? (although I seem to
have escaped the increased radiation dosage from flying at high altitudes
for a number of years). I remember some government organisation sending us
radon meters for our house some years ago. When they were returned for
examination we were told the levels were high. I think it was Oscar Wilde
who coined the phrase ‘Believe only half the lies you are told’ so the mem
sahib and self decided to disbelieve the government.

SadButMadLad
March 22, 2011 at 14:40

Actually, it’s probably the radon that is keeping you healthy. Not
proven yet, but there is anecdotal evidence that a little bit of radiation
hardens the body. A bit like how a small amount of bugs and dirt help
bolster the body’s immune system.

Caedmon’s
Cat March 21, 2011 at 11:43

There is nothing to fear but fear itself, I’m afraid..

Engineer March 21, 2011 at 11:13

I know people who panic at the thought of having nothing to panic about.
Quite exhausting, I’d have tought.

Now, what horrible fate will befall me if I have a mug of coffee?

Livewire March 21, 2011 at 11:12

You’d think the land of Pierre & Marie Curie would know better than
that. The halo round the sun is a natural phenomenon that’s been around since
recorded history.
Lets hope the French pilots on Odyssey Dawn are a bit
more clued up – “Alors, nous fait bagarre sur le Duc de Wellington!” If the
weeds ever talk back get a DNA test, you may in line for the English
throne…

CYNIC March 21, 2011 at 11:06

Always remember to wear clean knickers, in case any of those
accidents
occur.

Engineer March 21, 2011 at 11:11

Do all of us have to wear knickers, or are underpants acceptable?

Clarissa March 21,
2011 at 10:58

Luckily I take the view that life is too short to worry about media scare
stories so tend to let it all wash over me whilst shaking my head at how
stupid the sheeple are.

The only thing I’m really worried is about buses. My mother kept on telling
me I could be run over by one tomorrow so I do my best to avoid both them and
time travelling.

Gildas theMonk
March 21, 2011 at 10:12

Superb writing and common sense in one

Smoking Hot March 21, 2011 at 10:00

My mother took myself and my sisters out of school because of the “imminent
nuclear war” we faced because of the Cuban missile crisis. My mother decided
that if we were all going to die, we’d die together.

2 days later, despite the deepening crisis, we were back at school because
we were driving her crazy!

PT March 21, 2011 at 09:59

In the West, we of this generation have all been trained by various
manifestations of media to suspend our rational disbelief. C’mon Anna, do you
really think common sense is going to catch on again now? We’ve all become too
dependent on the frisson of fear we get from our daily fix of scaremongering,
and what a choice we’ve got! Dioxins, asbestos, AGW, GM foods, airborne
radioactive particles, and so many others, a fear guaranteed to suit any
taste! And if we ever look like running short, our media can be relied upon to
provide some replacements, PDQ.

JuliaM March 21,
2011 at 11:15

Common sense is sadly no longer common.

ivan March 21, 2011 at 13:15

The reason this generation is the way it is is because none of them have
been taught to THINK for themselves.

If the present education minister gets on with the job we might, I must
emphasise might, get back on the road to rational thought. It will be a hard
struggle because an educated thinking population is one that is not easily
controlled – it tends to ask very awkward questions and expect proper
answers, not the ‘because the pseudo science says so’ type of answer the
greens give. They also tend to think the PC stance is a load of manure
provided by bulls.

Joe Public March 21, 2011 at 09:58

And finish the meal with a banana.

Sister Eva
Longoria March 21, 2011 at 10:11

I have long opined on the potentially cataclysmic consequences of eating
bananas but I will not repeat myself here Joe. All I will say is that if
your “joke” (if that is what it was) results in the spontaneous human
combustion of a Raccoon or a child, you won’t be laughing then!

Joe Public
March 21, 2011 at 11:24

I realise some convents may ban phallic-shaped fruit, but surely
Sister, you remember SBML’s posting?

Sister Eva
Longoria March 21, 2011 at 11:33

Indeed I do Joe Public! For was not upon that very occasion of which
you speak that did I opine on the dangerous levels of potassium which
said fruit contains and the risk of spontaneous human combustion thereby
entailed? And was heed taken of my warnings? I fear not. Only this very
morning did I espy an elderly lady eating a banana outside Tescos.
Fortunately, being quick witted, I deployed the small fire extinguisher
which I keep in the car and covered her in foam, thus preventing a
calamity! Although she didn’t seem grateful.

View from the
Solent March 21, 2011 at 12:18

Indeed Sister, as this handy chart http://xkcd.com/radiation/ shows.
1 banana,3rd on
the blue chart, is as dangerous as a double incident of the 1st entry
on that same chart.

Dave H
March 21, 2011 at 18:12

I was shocked to discover that at one point I was getting 10% of my
daily permitted dose of radiation from bananas. Three a day is all it
takes.

Sister Eva
Longoria March 22, 2011 at
09:50

I knew it!