Sarah’s Blog

During the past school year we were fortunate enough to have great interns, I posted about them before, and we look forward to our new interns this coming year.

That said we had an Editorial Intern, Sarah, who is now about 2 weeks away from starting her freshman year at college. Our experience with Sarah led us to believe she was wise beyond her years, she had a reserved demeanor in the office and seemed to have a serious outlook when approaching life.

During the course of her Sarah’s internship we had asked her about blogging on our web site. Since our goal is to bring multiple perspectives to canvas and we believe in many ways we can learn from our youth we thought this would be an excellent start to build on. Sarah enthusiastically accepted the assignment and the long arduous task of getting her blog post began. I’m not sure what happened but the post never made it on the website. Before Sarah left we had asked her to share the post with us just for laughs and giggles, sadly Sarah said she didn’t know where it was any longer

So here we are today; as I was doing something on one of the other office computers I came Sarah’s blog. As I began to read the post I felt like the Teacher in the ’80’s movie The Breakfast Club after the students left and he’s standing in the library reading what they had written. What a weird feeling.

I’ve now read it a couple of times and I’m not sure if it’s the final version or just a draft. Either way I want to share a voice from our future. The post is below.

Tom Pellicane - Publisher, canvas Magazine

March 10, 2008

I am currently in my senior year at North Shore High School. To graduate I need a certain amount of credits, and since I opted to drop out of physics after two weeks of confusion and frustration, I was required to take a science course this year; the last thing I wanted as a senior.

When it came time to create my schedule for the current year, I had a choice between AP Biology and Environmental Science. Already enrolled in AP Literature, I just couldn’t motivate myself to take another course that would require me to take another AP exam in May. That’s how I ended up in my first period Environmental class.

When you’re a senior in high school, you don’t expect much to get done within the classroom. So, naturally, with no disrespect to Ms. Lis, I didn’t expect my peers to dive head first into animated conversations about the current state of our planet and how it got this way. The course isn’t even meant to facilitate conversations about the present state of things, but the present is a difficult thing to ignore when you’re young and able and it’s staring you right in the face, challenging you to change it.

Last week my teacher split the class into two opposing teams and gave us a situation. The situation at hand involved the building of a nuclear power plant here on Long Island, and the teams were either pro nuclear power plant or anti-nuclear power plant. My team was for building it. Now, to be fair, I had no leanings prior to this debate, seeing as though my knowledge of nuclear power is limited to World War 2 and the scientific concept of fission. Aside from the effects of nuclear power on the people of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, I had never really considered how it would effect, or maybe even benefit, living today.

Our teacher had each member on each team take on a fabricated role in the community. For example, one individual would be an unemployed worker while two others had to present themselves as a married couple expecting children. The class would hear both arguments as the unemployed worker from the pro team would take on the unemployed worker from the anti-side, etc.

I’m making it seem as though my class had a sophisticated, well organized debate, but I must confess it primarily consisted of yelling and people talking over other people. After all, we are a class of seniors in our third (and essentially last, since fourth quarter is meaningless for us) quarter of the year. However, as someone who loathes high school, the fact that my mind was stimulated by a debate that was held first period (that’s around 8:30am, people…) is a milestone.

As I mentioned before, it’s difficult to neglect WW2 when discussing nuclear power. I’m not the only individual whose knowledge is limited. I’m not pointing fingers or being condescending, but the bombings that essentially ended WW2 were travesties and humans do not like to linger on such things, and therefore avoid the subject altogether. The fact is, those bombings has a lasting impact, and not just on people’s mental well-being. I’m talking about radioactive contamination on levels we don’t understand; contamination that affected generations of Japanese families, which brings me to the most relevant argument in terms of nuclear energy, and even just life in general: pollution. Nuclear power is created through fission, or the splitting of two atoms, and this reaction releases harmful radiation. As most are already aware, radiation is immensely detrimental to life on this planet. In humans, we’ve seen it cause illnesses of various types, the most widely known being cancer, and destruction to internal organs. Radiation is not something you can simply wash off. Those mutations in the body, those tumors, manipulate cells ferociously and then those cells are easily passed on to offspring. We are humans, we are at the top of the food chain and I can understand how possibly playing a role in our own destruction would be unappealing to some.

It really comes down to responsibility and how the nuclear waste is handled. Conversations concerning the handling of nuclear waste are being had around the globe, and from what I’ve read thus far, many nations are in favor of containing the waste by burying it deep underground. However, the waste takes millions of years to decay, so we’re just tidying up the problem, rather than solving it. Other methods of containment I’ve come across involve stabilizing the waste into a form that will not react or degrade and concentrating the waste into small volumes via ion exchange. Right now, most nuclear waste is contained in spent fuel pools and in storage facilities, but storing it is the problem. We need to find ways to mutate the waste, so that it either decays more quickly, or is turned into something less harmful. The latter is being investigated but it’s a long process. It’s important to remember that while the waste is harmful, if the plant is constructed in an efficient manner, the waste will be handled more cautiously. When we see smog or see how dirty our water has gotten, we know it’s due to the manner in which waste is being handled right now. However, the use of coal and gasoline seems more innocuous since we don’t see immediate effects of their use. It’s a gradual thing and we’re not worried enough because we don’t have tumors on our bodies telling us we should be. We give up our clean air and water so long as we don’t have danger staring us right in the face. If someone wants to make the case that nuclear energy is more dangerous than dumping waste into our water, and the habitats of other animals, they should be prepared to face the realities of the present.

Aside from being a pollution risk, there is also the fact that nuclear power is completely and utterly destructive. Long Island is very populated. If this were an actual proposal, undoubtedly the more immediate danger of nuclear power would be mentioned. “What if the plant blows up? What about Chernobyl?” For those unfamiliar with the story of Chernobyl…Chernobyl is a now abandoned city in the Ukraine. In the late 80’s the city was evacuated because the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. I’ve heard people tell this story like it was some freak accident that happened because nuclear energy just isn’t safe. They often neglect to mention the fact that workers within the power plant were conducting unauthorized tests involving the reactor’s safety systems, which feeds into what I was saying earlier about responsibility.

Alternative energy is often costly, and nuclear power is no exception. We have a lot of power plants around. Sometimes I forget they’re there, because I’ve grown so accustomed to seeing them without really seeing them. I live in Glen Head and there is a power plant in Glen Wood Landing literally five minutes away from my home, and while it’s grey, steely mass looms over the houses around it like some awesome power, I barely notice it anymore. So, why another power plant if we already have more than we’re aware of? Simply put, we consume serious energy resources without even thinking twice. Why not solar or wind energy instead of something so dangerous, so drastic? Well, both solar and wind energy are great options, but only to a certain extent. Solar energy won’t help you if you plan on taking a shower at 9pm. Wind energy won’t help you if you live in an area where the wind makes a move once or twice a day. The reality is its 2008 and we don’t live in a world that can be powered by inconsistencies.

It’s important to understand that RISK IS ALWAYS PRESENT. People cannot always be trusted, which is why a nuclear power plant, no matter how efficient the energy or how much money could be saved in the long run, will not grace Long Island for a long, long time. As humans, we are concerned with how much money we can save right now, what jobs are available right now, our lives right now, and danger right now. The fact that our waters could eventually resemble cesspools, or that by using more efficient energy sources we could save hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars per year, is irrelevant because change is frightening, and it’s easier to neglect the danger we present to ourselves than confront it. Do we deserve to be part of the present if we’re not willing to save the future?