In a poo economy
There was a wonderful article in New Scientist this week, about algae that can produce fuel. The overall affect of the algae fuel would be to reduce rather than add to CO2, which is monumentally exciting. The algae themselves need feeding, and using human waste and farm waste would be the way to go, which solves additional problems. Post-algae-munching you get something that can be put on the land as fertilizer. I think its win all round.
The more I think about the implications of a poo based economy, the more excited I get. Oil is owned and controlled by the few but shit is the property of the masses. In a poo economy, we all get to be producers. I rather imagine that when it is locally sourced poo and not shipped in oil that makes your economy tick, the producers will have a different status. In such a reality, there would be no reason to stigmatise poor people as ‘scroungers’. Instead, every last one of them is a valuable producer. So much else would change off the back of that.
We all shit. It’s a fundamental human process. Ill people shit. Disabled people shit. People of all skin colours and religions shit in the same ways. If shit was a valuable commodity with a distinct application, how much would change? So much of the ‘logic’ of our cultures is economically based, and has everything to do with assumptions about money equating to value and worth. If shit is what makes the world go round, everyone has an economic value.
I rather think that if shit was the power source, then we would easily get a better consciousness of output in relation to power use. Most of us have no idea how much shit we produce, or really what happens to it. What if you needed to balance that personally against the fuel that goes in your car? A revolution in awareness is almost inevitable.
And, to finish on an amusing thought… we might finally get some real value for money out of the political classes, because after all, when it comes down to the issue of being full of shit… Who better than a politician to serve the needs of the many?
