Japan Disaster

On Friday Japan was rocked, literally and figuratively, by a 8.9 level earthquake which caused a tsunami. This is an awful thing to happen to anyone. As of Tuesday morning 2,414 people were confirmed dead with an estimated 10,000 deaths due to the earthquake. The country is now in shambles, struggling to recover. The worst news out of all of this involves Japan's nuclear reactors. If the nuclear plants melt down it would be catastrophic. The problem is that under normal conditions if a nuclear power plant was to shut down then cooling systems and pumps would control the temperatures until the energy finished cooking off. The tsunami disrupted these cooling systems which causes the rods to heat up. If things go badly, it could infect numerous people with health problems and ravage current and future crops in Japan and surrounding countries. This is some scary stuff. It would be devastating to Japan's economy. Reprecussions would be felt around the world. Rising costs are likely. The silver lining from this horrible tragedy could be that other countries, such as the U.S., could produce more crops and possibly get out of their slumping economy and put more people to work. It could also temporarily lower gas prices. With a lot less people driving in Japan due to the damage, they won't need as much oil. How much or if it will at all is unknown. In theory though, it should go down some. The most important thing is to try and help get Japan back on their feet. Even without the worst possible scenarios it still is going to hurt Japan's economy for a while. It will take some time for them to produce goods like cars, electronics, food, etc. This will affect countries around the world that import products from Japan, which could cause shortages and lead to rising costs. 

Currently there have been three explosions from the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. Officials are urging anyone withing 19 miles of the plant to stay inside or else get radiation sickness because the levels are "very high."
Tragedies like this bring out the best in the world overall. People from all over the world are donating money and supplies to help out Japan. It goes to show you that even with all of the disagreements in the world we can still all agree on something and join together to help the victims of a tragedy like this. But be sure if you want to donate that it is a reputable organization to donate to. There are many scammers who use catastrophes like this to pounce on people's sympathies. Organizations like the Red Cross are good places to start.

You can go to http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html to see before and after pictures of Japan.