Starfish dying in the NW Pacific

[Generic Other]

78. I used to post articles too

especially during the Gulf/BP disaster. And I also was mocked when I did. I have family near Fukushima. I live in the PNW. I don't want to be mocked for being alarmed and wanting to talk about what is happening.

I am not an expert, but I want to stay informed. I mostly don't post about it anymore. There is a chilling effect when I open thread after thread on Fukushima and they are filled with personal attacks, belittling comments, etc. It might not be so noticeable if there were more threads on the topic that contained "information" that was considered valid.

On DU, one of the strengths is that I get to hear the opinions of others. Some DUers are incredibly knowledgeable about issues they feel passionate about. Madfloridian comes to mind. She mostly posts articles on education topics, and she is IMO a foremost expert on the topic. I appreciate her insoghts on the issues she follows. Same with some of the other voices here. And that is especially true of the some strong environmentalists at DU who consistently post information that help me understand and be better informed. Do you really think it fair to equate their focus on specific topics to Nigerian spam? Even if as you say this OP has a history, it is as far as I can see about two things. He is dismissed for citing EneNews as a source. And there are many who disagree with his conclusions. They use ad hominem attacks rather than trying to have real conversations about the topic.

I am interested in those who presented opposing information in this thread to refute the OP. But that really didn't happen very often, did it?

I guess I wonder if there is a better way to address the concerns about Fukushima and the seemingly unrelated/or possibly directly related string of catastrophes occurring in the Pacific. When I respond to posts on DU it is usually the topic I want to discuss, not the poster.