1,000,000,000 | Wall*E

The first time I saw Wall*E I understood that the movie is about what we might look like in the future - what with the bone atrophy and the uninhabitable planet. They were buried under their own garbage and left the planet. At least we know we'll never get that bad.

Maybe we are that bad - I'm starting to think about the movie more and more within this context.

In their race to grow the economy to continue to enrich the already richest 10% of the planet - banks found themselves holding more toxic paper than they could contain. Many ordinary folks have lost their primary investment - their homes.

In their race to supply the energy necessary to continue to enrich the already richest 10% of the planet - the Tennessee Valley Authority found themselves holding more toxic sludge than they could contain. Many people have lost their homes - or their homes are uninhabitable.

Interestingly I found a Popular Mechanics article indicating that new regulations dis-allowed the release of this waste into the atmosphere. Apparently instead it's gathered in sludge ponds to be released into the rivers after accumulation of 1,000,000,000 gallons. Civil disobedience?

I wonder how long it will take Wall*E to clean up 1,000,000,000 gallons of sludge from 400 acres of land - and how long after that it will be before the first plant sprouts through the damage - and how long after that the first probe reports back that we can re inhabit the land and start growing pizzas again.

One thing is for sure - toxic waste flows down hill.