As our numerous commentaries on Fukushima and its perilous implications to life on planet earth have indicated, the nuclear industry is high-risk.  Anti-nuclear advocate Harvey Wasserman warned again of the nuclear power threat in a BuzzFlash at Truthout commentary posted today, “Pro-Nuke Scientists Should Go to Fukushima.”  

Now The Independent UK reports that an island of trash, some of it presumed toxic from the Fukushima radiation leaks, is floating across the Pacific, headed toward North America:

An enormous floating island of debris from Japan’s 2011 tsunami is drifting towards the coast of America, bringing with it over one million tons of junk that would cover an area the size of Texas.

The most concentrated stretch – dubbed the “toxic monster” … – is currently around 1,700 miles off the coast, sitting between Hawaii and California, but several million tons of additional debris remains scattered across the Pacific.

If the rubbish were to continue to fuse, the combined area of the floating junkyard would be greater than that of the United States, and could theoretically weigh up to five million tons.

Even accounting for a bit of sensationalism in the projected size of the giant bobbing debris field, it is widely assumed that a significant percentage of the trash has essentially been soaked in radioactive water.  In short, more radiation fallout from Fukushima is likely headed our way, and if so in gigantic fashion.

According to The Independent, it may still be years before the colossal flotsam island reaches North America, but the newspaper notes:

Some of the debris may have already crossed the [Pacific], however, with reports of Japanese fishing vessels washing up on the shores of Canada as long ago as winter 2011. If that proves to be the case, the levels of toxic junk already littering US beaches is likely to be high.

This is the type of radiation whose long term impact is still unknown.  But one can safely say, it is not something that improves the health of Mother Earth or the people who will come into contact with it.  In this case, individuals on the West Coast of North America are potentially endangered by the breakdown of a nuclear power plant in Japan.

When the corporate world talks about globalization, this is not the kind of interconnectedness that they want people to think about: a noxious undulating junkyard floating toward us.