Tuesday 19 July 2011

Milly: Waste not. Want not.


Nuclear waste. It's extremely dangerous. How do you get rid of it? Short answer is, you can't. Have you ever wondered what could happen if future generations discovered our nuclear waste? Probably not, I certainly hadn't until I watched this documentary, 'Into Eternity'. Imagine that in thousands of years, we no longer understand the dangers of nuclear waste, or even what it is. Imagine that we discover the place where it is hidden. How do we emphasise how catastrophic exposing nuclear waste could be for humans and all life on earth? Do we even speak the same language and do symbols still have the same meaning? This stunning and thought-provoking film is definitely worth a watch if not only to marvel at the magnitude of Onkalo, Finland's nuclear waste repository. Pretty scary stuff.

See James' post for info on nuclear radiation.


1 comment:

Tania Hershman said...

This is a really interesting issue to discuss - how do we formulate language, signs and symbols, that future cultures, future generations will still understand so that they don't stumble across our waste and blow themselves up? All our symbols are culturally specific - are there academics studying this topic? How will 23rd century peoples draw a symbol for danger (if we are still around then!)? Fascinating!