Long term waste warning message

In 1981, the USA set up a task force with a team of researchers to develop solutions to warn of the dangers of radioactive nuclear waste in the future. One member was Vilmos Voigt, who with other authors coined the term atomic semiotics in 1984. He proposes in his article to place new texts in different language levels on warning signs at increasing distances around the nuclear waste storage facility so that intruders can understand the original message at the center. The organization of these translations and warning signs is to be undertaken by a team of message guardians.The pictograms show human heads consumed by pain and fear. The petroleum product artificial turf symbolizes a synthetic age.

Artificial turf paints an ideal picture of nature, is easy to care for, hygienic and durable. The pictograms developed by Voigt are shaved into the astroturf. In the dystopian fiction that Lorenzana develops based on her journey to the Canadian oil sands, the areas that have been carelessly renaturalized by the oil sands companies are greened with artificial turf. The symbols shaved into the grass are intended to ensure that the warning not to enter the area remains recognizable for thousands of years.