These fateful words penned by William Shakespeare hundreds of years ago, long before nuclear energy was even a thought, aptly sum up what ought to be the response to the tragic events now unfolding by the hour in Japan and rapidly affecting the rest of the world.

Last week’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami has left the inhabitants of the island of Japan reeling from the effects of a horrible tragedy that Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan has described as the worst since the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the close of World War II in August 1945.