The shutdown is Republicans fault, in fact, they're stupid ugly people that are villains in videogames.
(media.kotakuinaction2.win)
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I think the reactors were still hurting the planet, just less than Sephiroth/Jenova.
Here's why I think not.
Because it's just magic. Materia are just solidified, crystalized Mako in that universe. That lets regular humans use magic. They don't entirely explain the process behind it, but the "what" of is pretty clear.
The Cetra could use magic, which is drawing on the life stream and using it, naturally. This didn't harm the planet, and if did the Cetra wouldn't have done it because they worshipped the planet.
Magic isn't a permanent expenditure of the life stream. You don't cast Firaga and then there are just a few less total souls for everybody to share, forever. It filters it's way back to the greater whole of the planet by whatever means.
So using it for electricity wouldn't be a permanent expenditure either.
I fuzzily recall a piece of exposition that natural Materia would take years to crystalize. However, Shinra's Mako extraction and Materia manufacturing put a heavy strain on the Lifestream to where it doesn't have time to replenish itself.
That's why the area surrounding Midgar (and Mako reactors in general) is a barren wasteland, and it's the first thing you notice once you leave Midgar to explore the world proper.
But again that doesn't grok with what we know of the process. Using it, at all, filters it back in. Whether it's through the death of sentient creatures or the use of magic. Taking more and using it up equally quickly equates to the same thing.
It's about whether when used it is expended permanently, or if it goes back. It's also about how Jenova perverts that process by absorbing the "blood" for itself.
That's Shinra's true crime against the planet, archaeology. They dug this thing up and the cycle of parasitism started over. Shinra's actions didn't result in the Weapons awakening, it was Sephiroth that provoked that reaction.
And the whole thing really is about Jenova. FF7 is a cosmic horror game when you get right down to it. Jenova has destroyed who knows how many other planets in the universe, and who knows if it's even the only one of it's species. It's such an inherently destructive force that even putting it's cells into someone can potentially transform them into the same kind of galactic threat, ready to destroy entire planets and use the fragments to sail the cosmos until another victim is found.