how to grow food from a nuclear bomb
I’ve been imagining post-apocalyptic worlds lately, and not out of abandon but out of hope. It could reflect my own inner longing to mature and thus for nature to thrust down upon my childish mind and pull me to new unforeseen heights, while simultaneously setting roots deeper into the Earth; the equal and opposite phenomena present in the gaining for new awareness.
It could also be a necessary story for our time.
The idea was born out of a conversation I had yesterday with a student about the most efficient energy system we have on the planet today, and how it can be used to help with the ecological crisis. I informed him, ‘to my understanding, nuclear energy is overwhelming the most sustainable energy form we have access to.’ He agreed. We talked for some time about the downfalls of solar and wind, and the various mental biases that blockade nuclear from taking its rightful foothold in our society as our primary clean energy source.
As a moth, the flame I am drawn to seems to be consciousness and how human beings understand and perceive reality and the powerful consequences that has on our world. I keep trying to ‘have a foot in the real world’, and yet find myself again back at the frontier that, if fear and self-preservation did not prevail, would be the primary motivation of all of our actions collectively. Instead, we meander along, overwhelmed and beaten by our own minds. Not all of us, but enough that we still walk the plank with our eyes wide open.
It begins in the final years of ecological collapse, and we are desperate to find serious answers to the situation that befalls humanity – and all other life on the planet. The forces of the human psyche are not obscure walls that must be torn down and vehemently defended as we see in politics today. But rather, they are reversed and the enormous power to create and transform is unleashed in this sense of emergency.
Legislation is passed. Nuclear power plants are built within weeks. Food is distributed to all. Farms and seeds are shared. Resources are distributed, as necessary. Systems of corruption are dismantled overnight. Natural leaders take their rightful position due to competence, not greed. It was necessary after all the create the situation that would redeem us.
After creating these nuclear power plants, we use up the stored uranium and still use the various renewable energy sources available, but as we are nearing the end of our stock of uranium, and as our fossil fuel energy system is no longer functioning; a global treaty is unanimously signed to convert all the destructive power of nuclear bombs into energy for food, water and the continuation of life.
It may be that this is a band-aid solution, but one that was achieved a supreme victory. It has vanquished the selfish, childish and ignorant perception of those flimsy men and women who previously ruled. We may still be doomed as a race and civilisation may still be at an end, but the new frontier of consciousness is one of hope, clarity, lightness, humour, insight and wisdom.
We are no longer blind to the consequences of our actions. We have seen the consequences of ignorance. Now, we feel the sewing of our every action as it happens, and taste the fruit — bitter or sweet, of every action known or unknown to us.
Podare
