Tournament: Voices | Round: 1 | Opponent: Mission San Jose JP | Judge: Heidi Chen

1AC

The detonation of the first nuclear bomb marked an auspicious moment in the lineage of humanity. Humanity assaulted the planet and biosphere with nuclear weapons and they left a mark. This is the start of the Anthropocene, a new epoch where humanity has conquered nature for a modern way of life. Waters et al. 15:

~Waters, Colin N., James P. M. Syvitski, Agnieszka Gałuszka, Gary J. Hancock, Jan Zalasiewicz, Alejandro Cearreta, Jacques Grinevald, Catherine Jeandel, J. R. Mcneill, Colin Summerhayes, and Anthony Barnosky. "Can Nuclear Weapons Fallout Mark the Beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch?" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 71.3 (2015): 46-57. http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/barnosky/BoAS.pdf~~ SF
Seventy years ago - at 5:30 a.m. on July 16
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unit: the Anthropocene, from the Greek words for human and new.

The Trinity Test Site bomb test was the physical indicator of the gradual creation of a dualism between humans and nature. Nuclear science is the culmination of the Industrial Revolution, we no longer live with nature but above it. Waters et al. 15:

~Waters, Colin N., James P. M. Syvitski, Agnieszka Gałuszka, Gary J. Hancock, Jan Zalasiewicz, Alejandro Cearreta, Jacques Grinevald, Catherine Jeandel, J. R. Mcneill, Colin Summerhayes, and Anthony Barnosky. "Can Nuclear Weapons Fallout Mark the Beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch?" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 71.3 (2015): 46-57. http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/barnosky/BoAS.pdf~~ SF
The standard accepted practice for defining geological time units during the current eon (which
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analysis and debate of the whole ensemble of stratigraphic evidence currently being assembled.

The logic of the Anthropocene that justified this violence towards nature is the capitalist "modern way of life" based in consumption that justifies the exploitation of resources that creates global warming. Our extinction was guaranteed when that bomb dropped because we can never shed our way of life in the name of nature. Alternative energy makes us feel safe, but distracts us from the core question: why do we need all this energy? Cohen 12:

~Tom Cohen (Professor of Literary, Cultural, and Media Studies at University of Albany), "Murmurations—"Climate Change" and the Defacement of Theory", Telemorphosis: Theory in the Era of Climate Change, Vol. 1.~ SF
Warnings regarding the planet earth's imminent depletion of reserves or "life as we know
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"—a sort of, again, auto-occupation that is accelerating.

Even if all anthropogenic emissions were stopped immediately the catastrophic impacts of climate change would still be irreversible, basically we're done for – this is the most recent scientific consensus. IPCC 14:

~Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the leading international body for the assessment of climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. Currently 195 countries are in the IPCC. It's where all of your statistics come from), 2014 Synthesis Report, http://ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/SYR_AR5_FINAL_full.pdf~~
Many aspects of climate change and its associated impacts will continue for centuries, even
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.5.5, WGII 4.3.3.4~}

The prophetically solvable apocalyptic imageries of climate change that are used to justify nuclear power create a culture of fear and compulsion that stunts our ability to react to the Anthropocene. Our response should not begin with speculative technology that fuel capitalist markets; it should start with what we can do as people to get ready for a world without humans. Swyngedouw 09:

~Erik Swyngedouw (professor of geography at the University of Manchester in the School of Environment and Development), "Climate Change as Post-Political and Post-Democratic Populism," "The Desire of the apocalypse and the Fetishisation of CO2," 7/21/09. http://www.variant.org.uk/events/pubdiscus/Swyngedouw2.pdf**~~ SF bracketed for clarity
We shall start from the attractions of the apocalyptic imaginaries that infuse the climate change
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words (Rancière, 1998), so that nothing really has to change.

Our faith in nuclear power reentrenches global militarism and fascist-like state-run capitalist structures that create mass poverty, Atoms for Peace and Japan proves. Mike 14: Idk about this card, resolve source issue

~Xraymike79 (anonymous anarchist, environmentalist, and prolific blogger), "Radioactive Wastelands at the End of the Anthropocene" June 13, 2014. https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2014/06/13/radioactive-wastelands-at-the-end-of-the-anthropocene/~~ SF
The seeds for Japan's nuclear hara-kiri were planted back in the early 1950's
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living standards deteriorate drastically, and the income inequality gap becomes an abyss.

However, we fear changing our fancy capitalist lifestyle when we could survive off of more traditional means. The culture of fear is used to justify ever increasing levels of consumption in the West that drain the traditional economies of the world of resources – this causes crushing cyclical poverty. Nhanenge 11:

~Jytte Nhanenge (She received her masters degree in Developmental Studies from the University of South Africa where she also spent 13 years researching the connection between patriarchal domination and poverty), "ECOFEMINSM: TOWARDS INTEGRATING THE CONCERNS OF WOMEN, POOR PEOPLE AND NATURE INTO DEVELOPMENT," p.396-397. Published in 2011. http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/570/dissertation.pdf?sequence=1-~~ SF
Apart from preventing satisfaction of basic needs, the Western societies also create artificial needs
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. (Shiva 1989: 13; Mies and Shiva 1993: 73).

The 1AC asks that we do nothing in the middle of crisis. Desires for productivity created warming so in response we should dare to do nothing. No power plants. No turbines. Only solidarity with the notion that we can do nothing to save ourselves can create authentic change. Zizek 02:

~Slavoj Zizek (Slovenian philosopher/psychoanalyst/communist who manages to screw up everyone's day with real talk and funny gestures), "Revolution at the Gates", p. 169-171. Published in 2002. https://kabirabud.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/slavoj_zizek_repeating_leninbookfi-org.pdf~~ SF bracketed for clarity
Indeed, since the "normal" functioning of capitalism involves some kind of disavowal
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capitalist system, in the way the political space and state apparatuses work. 

Therefore I affirm the whole resolution as a site of meditative inaction in the face of crisis, to take on our impending extinction requires us to stopping thinking materially, start thinking philosophically, and learn how to die gracefully. We cannot bounce back from the Anthropocene, we either die in fear wondering how our nuclear plants didn't save us or live authentically and recognize that our way of life confines us to artificial pleasures and metaphysical suffering. This start with rejecting the false hopes of nuclear power. Scranton 13

~Roy Scranton (Served in the United States Army from 2002 to 2006. He is a doctoral candidate in English at Princeton University, and co-editor of "Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War." He has written for The New York Times, Boston Review, Theory and Event and recently completed a novel about the Iraq War…he's also a total badass), "Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene"; November 10, 2013; http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/learning-how-to-die-in-the-anthropocene/?_r=0~~ SF
There's a word for this new era we live in: the Anthropocene. This
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to live in the Anthropocene, we must first learn how to die.

Nuclear power is an insufficient response to the Anthropocene. Only a societal outlook based in our personal practices can deconstruct the "way of life" that makes humanity unsustainable. PSR 08:

~Physicians for Social Responsibility, PSR (Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, "PSR has been working for more than 50 years to create a healthy, just and peaceful world for both the present and future generations"), "Dirty, Dangerous and Expensive: The Truth About Nuclear Power." Nov 20, 2008. http://www.psr.org/resources/nuclear-power-factsheet.html~~ SF
It is clear that alternatives to fossil fuels must be developed on a large scale
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renewable forms of energy to build a new energy future for the nation.

The role of the ballot is to vote for the debater who provides the best method to deconstruct the dualism between humans and nature that has been constructed. The imminence of the anthropocene makes this our foremost educational responsibility. Ecological Thoughtprint 11:

~Ecological Thoughtprint (website for educators that promote sustainability education and teach ecological epistemology) "Dualism doesn't make sense" December 4, 2011. https://ecologicalthoughtprint.org/2011/12/04/dualism-doesnt-make-sense/~~ SF
Have you ever asked someone, "Where is Nature?  Where is the environment
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world but out of some autonomous synthetic factory in a distant industrial land.