Analysts Fear VW Diesel Clean-Up Might Be The Costliest Environmental Disaster Ever

the fines and monetary impact on VW should be much greater than the last greatest fine for environmental impact against BP

VW Diesel stuff is the costliest environmental disaster ever??? This is just amusing to say the least. Do they not know the fact that Japan's TEPCO and the Japanese government have done FAR MORE damage to the Earth and the pacific ocean both with their radioactive wastes?

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"Shareholders to sue Tepco executives for $67 billion

In the biggest claim of its kind in Japan, 42 shareholders filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court on Monday accusing 27 current and former Tepco directors of ignoring multiple warnings of a possible tsunami and of failing to prepare for a severe accident, lawyers for the shareholders said in a statement.

They want the executives to pay damages to Tepco, which would then use the money to compensate those affected by the disaster.

There is deep public anger over Tepco's handling of the crisis and the perceived arrogance of top management, including underplaying the seriousness of the disaster in its early stages and delays in compensating those forced to leave their homes. Government officials have walked a tightrope between that taxpayer anger and keeping afloat a firm that provides electricity to 45 million people in Japan."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/05/us-tepco-lawsuit-idUSTRE8240RY20120305

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"A Tokyo doctor who has moved to western Japan urges fellow doctors to promote radiation protection: A message from Dr. Mita to his colleagues in Kodaira, Tokyo

It is clear that Eastern Japan and Metropolitan Tokyo have been contaminated with radiation."

http://www.save-children-from-radiation.org/2014/07/16/a-tokyo-doctor-who-has-moved-to-western-japan-urges-fellow-doctors-to-promote-radiation-protection-a-message-from-dr-mita-to-his-colleagues-in-kodaira-city-t/

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" 'Uncertain Radiological Threat': US Navy Sailors Search for Justice after Fukushima Mission

The Fukushima catastrophe changed the world. Nuclear reactors melted down on live television and twice as much radioactive material was released as during the Chernobyl accident in 1986. The disaster drove 150,000 people from their towns and villages, poisoned entire landscapes for centuries and killed hundreds of thousands of farm animals. It also led countries around the world to rethink their usage of nuclear energy. Fukushima is more than just a place-name, it is an historical event -- and it would seem to have changed the life of Leticia Morales as well."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/navy-sailors-possibly-exposed-to-fukushima-radiation-fight-for-justice-a-1016482.html

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"Fukushima Disaster Aftermath: Japanese Government Has Something to Hide

It is obvious that Tokyo has something to hide and it must be really big, the journalist stressed, asking rhetorically: "Why else adopt a hard-hitting secrecy law on the heels of the worst disaster to hit Japan since America dropped A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945?" "

http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20150921/1027306028.html

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"Fukushima Not Even Close To Being Under Control

Fukushima’s still radiating, self-perpetuating, immeasurable, and limitless, like a horrible incorrigible Doctor Who monster encounter in deep space.

Fukushima will likely go down in history as the biggest cover-up of the 21st Century. Governments and corporations are not leveling with citizens about the risks and dangers; similarly, truth itself, as an ethical standard, is at risk of going to shambles as the glue that holds together the trust and belief in society’s institutions. Ultimately, this is an example of how societies fail."

"Chernobyl’s Destruction Mirrors Fukushima’s Future"

http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Fukushima-Not-Even-Close-To-Being-Under-Control.html

But what, Volkswagen needs to be punished and Japan simply gets the Get Out of Jail Free Card?

This is just laughable.

It is not an environmental disaster. I seriously doubt the difference in emissions made a measurable difference in any location. First, there wasn't that many cars, even worldwide. The 11 million number has now been modified to say that there's that many that MAY have had the defeat switch disabled. Secondly, while the percentages sound terrible, you have to consider how much the emissions actually amounted to. Even at their worst, they are still cleaner than the older, non-clean diesels.

What VW did is terrible, and they deserve the fines and costs that they are going to receive. I am in no way defending what they did. Yes, I drive a VW diesel, and I expect the company to do what's right by me as a customer and for the overall population. But the media is making this sound like thousands have been "poisoned" by excessive emissions. Balderdash.

EDIT: "...MAY have had the defeat switch enabled."

While I agree with you that the meltdown was a major disaster - it is actually the greatly reduced cost of natural gas due to fracking that has the world rethinking their use of both Nuclear and Coal. Whenever you provide a possible affordable alternative - that is what you get. However - too many countries have too large an investment into Nuclear power to see it go away - but just as numerous mine disasters did not make coal go away - neither will this - but it will result in greater oversight and new controls in the plants to make them safer.

AS far as the emissions problem - there are several areas of the USA that have high levels of Hydrocarbons in the atmosphere due to the number of evergreen trees giving off hydrocarbons. WHile these cars gave out more emissions than they were supposed to - they still gave off far less than a car from 40 years ago - when Trucks and Buses just spewed their emissions into the air. Proving an effect to an individual will be impossible.

I just wish to see Japan being punished for what they have done, because really, I don't see how this Fukushima disaster helps Japan, or the world, you know.