Has our Planet had enough?

Is Mother Earth grinding her teeth, or rather, her tectonic plates at us?

There are always more such questions than answers when cataclysmic disaster strikes as it has in Japan, the latest victim in a world-ranging series of earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, floods, and landslides.

Is the mythical goddess Gaia reminding us puny humans that although we've been pretty good at causing death, destruction and despair throughout a history of racial, religious and political warfare and extremism, she can leave us for dead … literally?

Or is it the theoretical Gaia, the self-regulating, self-maintaining single organism that we call the Earth, warning us that if we take too much for granted, and mess with her too much, the price will be heavy?

It is hard to resist being weighed down by the images of tragedy on such a scale. Thousands swept to their deaths; and by the unimaginable anguish of those who have lost everything but their lives and now have to face the sinister perils of radioactivity, all this in bitter cold.

One question jumps right out at me from all this. Why did Japan go so enthusiastically down the road of nuclear power when it is so earthquake-prone?

And what now in South Africa, where the debate about resorting to “clean energy” nuclear power was just beginning to pick up a little steam?

The Fukushima disaster will probably put the issue on the back burner, which is where it should stay unless and until concerns about safe operation, and disposal of radioactive waste, are convincingly resolved.

For South Africans, another question arises from the reminder that nuclear power generation is no green bullet. Why have we been so slow to embrace the greatest, safest energy source of all?

Why, with our wealth of sunshine and open space, and with the chronically under-utilised skills of home-grown scientists, engineers and other professionals who often become unwilling expats, do we not lead the world in the utilisation of solar energy?

I wondered why Africa, is not the solar energy capital of the World.

Because of the cost, perhaps? I'm more concerned about the cost if we don't go boldly down the solar road instead of bickering about the best way to reduce Global Warming.