If The Earthquakes, Tsunami and Radiation Doesn't Get You, The Pseudoscience Will

If The Earthquakes, Tsunami and Radiation Doesn't Get You, The Pseudoscience Will

By now you're either one of the millions of people who felt the earthquakes in Japan, or one of the billions who heard about them. I'm one of the millions. You have probably seen awful videos of the Magnitude 9 earthquake already (if you haven't, watch this), as well as the ensuing tsunami (see these three videos) and then there was the nuclear threat. The last thing we need here in Japan is something to lower our spirits even further.

With all the pain and horror looming over the North-East prefectures of Japan, the locals are all cooperating, persevering, and generally trying to maintain some semblance of their routine life. Since Monday last week (three days after the massive quake people started returning to work, children were returning to school, and parents were again cooking dinner for their families. Most news broadcasts suggest that life is basically back to normal in Tokyo. However, throughout the Kanto and Tohoku regions, food is off the shelves quickly, and classrooms are not filled with so many students, because parents have to strategically ration their limited gasoline supplies. Trains around Kanto are unreliable, and rolling blackouts make traveling anywhere difficult, if not dangerous. So while it seems that life has somewhat returned to normal in the affected areas, there's still more than a few hints of change. And yet there's always one thing we can count on to remind us that things haven't changed too much: pseudoscience and scams.

Never mind the nonsense on the internet saying that this is all God's way of punishing Japanese people for their transgressions, such as whaling (right, because the tens of millions of people living in North-Eastern Japan are all whalers & did I miss my initiation rite?). The Globe and Mail, Canada’s most widely-circulated newspaper, was one of the sources that mentioned a phenomenon called the "supermoon". They say that it was possible that the earthquakes in Japan were caused by the moon's position in relation to the Earth. "This year’s supermoon has been called an “extreme” supermoon because not only will the moon be full, it will make its closest approach to the earth in 18 years."

There are two major problems with this. Firstly, there is no correlation between the position of the moon and earthquakes. The moon will just be 2% closer than usual, which is meaningless. Secondly, the "Supermoon" hadn’t even happened for over a week after the quakes. Head over to Bad Astronomy, where Phil Plait thoroughly debunks this nonsense, and check out this article by 80Beats if you want a scientific explanation of what actually happened. There’s no need for pseudoscience when you have real science.

Oh, and what's that? Ahh yes, the familiar smell of exploitation.

More:
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1249-if-the-earthquakes-tsunami-and-radiation-doesnt-get-you-the-pseudoscience-will.html

yup

thanks for posting.

Sid

Sadly, even here on DU, many posts have included unscientific speculations about this earthquake and its effects. The disaster is bad enough without inaccurate and speculative musings.

Sometimes it's embarassing.

explaining things to people with my profession of writing. I've also spent a lot of time online pointing out erroneous nonsense. There appears to be no end to people who make a profit by exploiting ignorance and superstition. It's embarrassing to the entire society, I think, that nonsense often replaces fact in so many areas.

Apparently it was such a super moon this time that it was able to affect things BEFORE it happened! It's a time-traveling supermoon!

illogical reason for an event of nature, but are even more willing to reject a logical, scientific explanation for the event. We know what causes earthquakes like the one in Japan. We understand the cause very well, even though we're unable to predict such quakes in advance. So, why would anyone seriously consider this "supermoon" thing?

It's amazing and troubling to me.