Bike Project to Bring Tourists Back to Fukushima

In case you are interested, don’t forget to bring with you a good protective mask to stop you from inhaling radioactive nano particles….

Can this bike project bring tourists back to Fukushima?

(CNN) — It’s been over six years since the northeast coast of Japan’s Honshu island was hit by a devastating earthquake, leading to a deadly tsunami and nuclear disaster.

The hardest hit of all the affected prefectures, Fukushima is still fighting to lure tourists back to its beautiful natural landscapes.

Among the locals helping revive the local travel industry is Jun Yamadera, founder of bike share company Fukushima Wheel, based in the prefecture’s capital of the same name.

“In the year of 2011, we have almost no people,” says Yamadera. “It really hurt my feelings. That’s my main motivation to start this project.”

Like other bike share systems, Fukushima Wheel encourages citizens and tourists to explore the city on a shared bicycle. But there’s so much more to the project.

It also serves as a cost-effective way to collect big data from the city through citizen science. An environmental sensor has been mounted on each bike, measuring data such as radiation levels, temperature, air pollution and more.

The wheels are equipped with LED displays that can be customized to show advertisements.

The project also comes with a complementing smartphone app that doubles as a city guide, offering points-of-interest and discounts to the venues around you. It also measures how much you’ve exercised and carbon emissions.

Fukushima Wheel is still in development stage but it has already received enthusiastic praises from media and tech fairs around the world.

http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/fukushima-bicycles-japan/

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On behalf of the blogger Shaun McGee aka arclight aka Sean Arclight on FB and @Arclight2011 on Twitter, my co-blogger, one of us 3 bloggers of Nuclear news blog (https://wordpress.com/post/nuclear-news.net):

Shaun needs badly to replace his computer, which is kaputt. During the past 8 years he has been unceasingly researching and blogging about worldwide nuclear and about Fukushima, producing quality articles.

Please let’s help him to get a new computer, tip in whatever you can spare him. His paypal connected email is arclight2011@riseup.net for donations.

Advanced thanks, Herve Courtois aka Dun Renard

A good news story: Jay Inslee Is Betting He Can Win the Presidency on Climate Change
The Washington governor believes his focus on the environment will resonate with voters. But can he persuade enough Americans to pay attention to him? EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, The Atlantic JAN 2, 2019 “………When you’ve been working on something for over a decade, and now seeing people awakening to that, it’s just really gratifying and heartening,” the Washington governor recently told me, sitting in his private study on the top floor of the governor’s mansion. When it comes to climate change, there now appears to be “an appetite for someone who has credibility and a long track record and, most importantly, a vision statement. It’s changed to show an opening in a Democratic primary, I believe.”…..

As he did in Washington State, Inslee would propose a mix of government investments and incentives to spur other investment, restrictions on power plants and emissions, and programs to promote R&D and job growth. An endless number of jobs can be created in the climate arena, Inslee says. It’s the way to make a real dent in income inequality and have the Democratic Party bring tangible solutions to communities in rural America that have been left behind……… https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/01/washington-governor-jay-inslee-running-president/579217/

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EVENT

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will host a live international news conference at 10 a.m. EST/1500 GMT on Thursday, January 24, 2019, to announce the 2019 time of the Doomsday Clock. The news conference will take place at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Watch the announcement live on our website, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter. more https://nuclear-news.net/2019/01/10/the-doomsday-statement-2019-bulletin-of-the-atomic-scientists/

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A Good News Story: A Surge of Climate Lawsuits Targets Human Rights, Damage from Fossil Fuels Cities, states and the fishing industry want courts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for global warming. Others argue government inaction violates rights.BY NICHOLAS KUSNETZ “….The past year saw a surge in new lawsuits filed against fossil fuel companies, and major developments in cases pressing governments for action in the United States and abroad.”

“Lawsuits, even if unsuccessful, can help shape public opinion,”

“Mr. Scopes lost the monkey trial, but it led to a lot more awareness about the issue of teaching evolution.”

In Colombia and the Netherlands, citizens won rulings in 2018 ordering their governments to cut emissions and protect forests. By framing climate change in terms of human rights, those cases and similar ones filed in the U.S. and other countries are transforming how the courts address the issue………. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04012019/climate-change-lawsuits-2018-year-review-exxon-fossil-fuel-companies-human-rights-children-government

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