This is a big issue I have with nuclear fission plants. The waste products are deadly for close to a quarter of a million years before becoming inert. Anyone ever tried storing something for 250,000 years, or know of a stable society that's lasted that long?
Recorded human history is barely 10,000 years old. The events in the New Testament happened only 2,000 years ago.
But let me let you in on a secret.
I saw a mentally disabled man yesterday in court, and the world doesn’t give a damn if he’s cold and hungry tonight. I advised him how to stall an eviction, and directed him to the nearest Christian Church who might help him find shelter, if he asks.
The open secret is we don’t care about our living brothers and sisters, and surely don’t care about them a quarter million years in the future.
The main business district in this town is well over a century old. When new it was all heated with wood, or coal, and now natural gas.
These buildings will last centuries more.
Even today, the little houses with the little old ladies on Social Security and flower boxes are powered by a technology and a science far beyond any normal citizen’s ability to fully grasp.
My garage is warm and snug tonight, my new tin of Capstan has produced a flake of fragrant tobacco I’m savoring in my Lee Five Star.
That poor disabled man, I hope is warm too, you know?
Whatever we do to preserve the world for generations unborn must not add one little brick, to his already heavy load.
And if our ruin comes from overspending, which I do not a moment believe it will, spending 1% of the defense budget on nuclear fusion research won’t be the cause.