Now comes the inevitable word that the Japan government "rubberstamped" operational plans drafted by the country's nuclear industry.

Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of the Japanese environment group Green Action, calls the horrific accident at Fukushima Daiichi "humanly created."

"It looks like a combination of natural disaster and human disaster,'' Smith said Tuesday on Chicago's WBEZ's news radio program Worldview. "But this plant should not have been [sited] at Fukushima. There should be no nuclear power plants operating at Fukushima. And so this disaster is really humanly created. And there’re people responsible."

Smith says the nuclear plant was built on an earthquake fault line and allowed to operate despite vehement protest for area residents.

“The public voice has been really ignored. That’s the problem,'' Smith said. "The lack of democracy has created this crisis. And now it’s spreading contamination potentially around the world.”

Smith says public objections to plans for nuclear plans are routinely sought after planning has ended, and then dismissed offhand for coming from people who "don't understand about radiation."

Smith's comments echo charges published in the Christian Science Monitor that "lax oversight of Japan's nuclear plants" contributed to crisis.

US diplomatic cables provided by WikiLeaks to the Telegraph indicate that Japanese authorities were warned two years ago that the country's nuclear safety rules were outdated. "The cables also show that Taro Kono, a high-profile member of Japan's lower house, told US diplomats in October 2008 that the government was 'covering up' nuclear accidents," according to the Telegraph.

Increasingly, the word "democracy" becomes meaningless as corporate boards collude with government officials whose motives are not always transparent. It's the reason why WikiLeaks is so frightening to those who hold power in big government and business. And if you pay close attention, you'll see that's why U.S. corporations acquiesced to the U.S. government in its effort to grind the secrets-busting organization to the ground. If that means using >soft torture against Bradley Manning to get a charge against Julian Assange, well, then, so be it.

The apocalyptic pictures emerging from Japan are raising the world's anxieties about the threat to humans and the environment. Won't be long now before we hear reports of more mass die-offs of animals around the world. And always, some government "expert" explains that these deaths are normal in nature. Expect such deaths to become more commonplace in a world poisoned by radiation.

In a world so compromised, it's hard to hang on to hope.