To answer Chas’ question, I have found the reference. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnbd - with William Crawley as host and interviewer on “Sunday” BBC Radio 4 (13 March 2011). The programme guest was Martin Palmer, Secretary General/Director of the Alliance for Religions and Conservation (founded by Prince Philip in 1995 as “a secular body that helps the major religions of the world to develop their own environmental programmes, based on their own core teachings, beliefs and practices.” - http://www.arcworld.org/). Palmer, in discussing the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power stations’ meltdown from a Shinto perspective said that for Shinto nature is considered infinitely more powerful than human beings. It is not an ethical matter; it’s just what happens. Referring to a famous painting of the 1820s and the great wave image within traditional Japanese religion, Palmer cited the wave as the heroic element; the wave is a divine force. The tsunami is a work of the kami – the spirits that inhabit every part of nature. We are at the mercy of nature but also we are protected by nature. Nature does not consider humans to be the most important thing; the kami, the spirits, are the most important. They can also be maverick; they can be concerned with their own affairs. There is with Shinto no sense of punishment, no philosophical problem of suffering. Palmer pointed out that this is a very different understanding of human significance than that which prevails in the West. In Shinto, we are here by the grace of the gods, but we are not their main concern – we are not the centre of the story. We are not why the gods exist, we are not why creation exists, and we are not why these events exist. These natural disasters occur because this is just how nature is.  Crawley then pointed out that there are two things here: natural disaster and a linked technological accident. To this, Palmer replied that the Shinto had been opposed to the nuclear power stations from day one as being not a good idea. If the stations had been built on sites that were chosen according to traditional Shinto rituals and understanding of the forces that live within the land, they would not be over dangerous cracks in the earth and easily attacked by nature. He referred to “a remarkable arrogance and disrespect for traditional understandings of the power and spiritual forces that reside in the land.” It was here that Crawley cut Palmer off because the programme needed time to present the Dalai Lama’s abdication of political power. If you listen to the programme, you will also hear David Barrett being interviewed about Aleister Crowley just before the Martin Palmer interview.