Final Post - Sinead Gilman

Throughout this course, my group has been following the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. Much of our focus was on the clean up of the nuclear spill, as well as Japan's and the rest of the world's response. Japan - and the rest of the world, for that matter - until recently was uneasy to say the least regarding the seriousness of the radiation and its effects.  Although TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) has urged the public that they are taking measures and that progress in the clean up is being made, they are still having serious issues regarding Reactors one, two, and three that suffered damage during the earthquake and tsunami and are still dangerously radioactive. Similarly, we looked at the governments' role throughout the disaster, and last month we found they they could no longer keep their promise in reducing green house gases. 

Since we couldn't continue to meet every week, each member would research on their own regarding that week's Fukushima news. We created a Google Doc and compiled our information, as well as made edits and fixed any loose ends. One group member was assigned to make sure everything was perfectly in place and after everyone had contributed and looked the document over online, that one member would submit the final post. I believe this was the best way possible to work together even with busy schedules such as ours. 

Before taking this course, I knew very little about Fukushima. I knew that there had been a nuclear accident involving an earthquake and a tsunami, but that was the extent of my general knowledge. I had always been interested in world news, and even though I did and do care very much about what's happening outside of my United States bubble, I never found myself seeking to learn more about what was going on around me. This assignment taught me the importance of regularly keeping up on current events, and learning what their effect might have on me. Fukushima is still one of the biggest issues in our world news today, and it seems that many people in our country still do not know the basics of this monumental catastrophe. I was happy this was chosen to be a group project. My group was always very on task and we were there for one another if we missed anything. I enjoyed my topic and my group equally.