Cell Biology and Radioactivity

Nostalgic for a time that I that was never part of....

Sitting in class last week, I imagined 1,000 giant storage tanks at the Fukushima, filled with radioactive water.  The water is meant to keep the plant cool by neutralize the intense heat emitting from plant.  The unnatural collision of atomic particles creates a profound amount of energy that humans can capitalize on to live lives that are unsuitable to the planet. The outcome is a boat load of reliable-ish power, the byproduct is radioactive ions and too much heat.  This is the cost of sustaining the modern lifestyle that most of us take for granted without batting an eye.

 This parallels the use of plastics in the modern world.  A product created in a lab, combining chemicals that would not coexist in nature.  The chemical reaction once done cannot be undone.  Recycling does not rid us of the unsurmountable pile up of plastics on this planet, taking over or earths most precious resrouces.  We see the massive island of plastic in the middle of the pacific. But the unsustainable aspect of this practice is hard for us to conceptualize fully, because truly living on and with the land would look completely different then life in the developed world. Still there is a yearning for something different.  We actively limit our plastic intake, but are you going to accept an injection at a doctors office that was not sealed in plastic, I think not.

Still I cannot resist taking advantage of the privileges we have of modern medicine, technology and the capacity to fly across the world in a day.  This is the world that we know.  But it is not without the knowledge that we are banking on borrowed time.  The tiny ripples that mark the human footprint are not ripples at all.  They are massive breakers with a voracious undercurrent.  Fukushima brought an incredible amount of energy to the surrounding communities, but a 9.0 earthquake made a good idea into a disaster.  The radioactive particles did not cease to exist, the just diffused themselves through the ocean until the numbers were declared "safe."

There is no fool proof damn.  It always has the capacity to break and cause widespread suffering.  Nature cannot be defied, but modern humans are trying their damnedest.

Inside we all know where this planet is headed. If you can't see it, you're not paying attention. Our current administration is a exemplifies the combination of ignorance, self-absorption and apathy.  Where is the reverence for our natural resources? Where is the respect for those who came before us and for the generations who will be either cleaning up the mess and/or living in a world of natural disasters that we can only dream about.

Get outside.  Smell the salty air, and soft touch of a tulip.  If we don't cultivate some empathy for the planet as a living entity, then we won't have the motivation to fight against its genocide.