Johnston Atoll
 

I found this link the other day to Johnston Atoll. I had never heard of it before, it looks pretty cool in it's peaceful setting on google maps, but when you get a closer look, it's been devastated. What a few humans can do with buckets and spades when let loose.

In truth I suppose it means nothing, but I watched a film called Avatar the other day for the first time. I was quite shocked to see such a brutal portrayal of human kind and it's endevours on another planet, is this a sign of things to come, are films like Avatar a warning to us all.

http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2010...ohnston-atoll/

Those few humans with buckets and spades built a base that helped to defeat the aggressive forces of fascism in WWII and communism in the Cold War. Peace and Freedom come at a high price.

And rather than just leave their crap behind, these particular humans tore down all their structures and hauled the debris away, or buried it, leaving the island much larger than it was originally, and obviously in a condition that local wildlife can utilize. The only thing that remains is the runway, and that's no worse than the original coral was.

Looks like a job well done to me.

From the article: "A 25 acre landfill on Johnston Island holds radioactive debris from the failed 1962 nuclear test, along with chemical residue from Vietnam and sarin nerve gas from the former Soviet Union."

Well done...

There's a tendancy to think every Pacific atoll is a balmy pleasant place like Tahiti. More often they are sweltering places with high humidity, no fresh water, covered with bird guano and infested with land crabs that won't even let you sit down in peace. Johnston Atoll was one of the latter.

We have a lot of that right here in Utah. As long as it's buried deep I see no problem. Well, as long as it's buried deep there...

Being in a populous area where open space is a potential strip mall or Wal-Mart. I always wondered are sites like this guarded? Or just buried in a mine with a big padlock on the doors? Are they marked as dangerous, or just a non descript "federal property, no tresspassing sign" like they have here at Naval Weapon Station Earl (they used to let people fish off the pier pre 9-11, the signs are burned in my head)

Just asking as it seems a manpower waste (especially with spent uranium with massive halflives) to guard dump sites. (for thousands of years)

I guess what I am asking, is whether an enterprising terrorist with a backhoe can "find" this stuff?

Reminds me in some ways of Bikini Atoll.

80% of Utah's population live withing 50 miles of each other. Tooele Army Depot is in the desert, miles from nowhere and fenced, guarded and patrolled. Not a lot of manpower, but humvees with guns on a regular basis. Anybody who took a backhoe into the range would be spotted soon enough, and if the .50 cal on the humvee wasn't enough an airstrike could be there from Hill AFB in a matter of minutes.

As far as I can see all humans are involved, I see the Atoll as a testiment to all. Those who would take our freedoms as well as those who would control our freedoms, the weakness is part of us all, the beast within as it were.