End of the world as we know it and I feel kinda blasé about it
Apologies for the rambling nature. No real point here other than to kick out some random thoughts.
I’ve been pondering the possibility of the end of life or civilization as we know it. Not from a conspiracy theory or religious perspective but from events I find likely or at least possible. Such as:
Natural disaster – Ice age, major seismic shifts, global warming, etc.
Interstellar event – Meteor hits us, black hole opens up next door, the universe decides to unbang itself.
Unnatural (i.e., man-made) disaster – Nuclear war and subsequent winter, splitting some subatomic particle we shouldn’t be splitting, some group of scientists decide to splice tyrannosaurus rex DNA with a koala which creates the koalasaurus rex who breeds fast, swarms the land, and likes to dine on tasty humans.
Socioeconomic – Some sort of food shortage, running out of oil (say, are we after the peak oil curve now?), some political wing in power decides to engage in brutal suppression of the earth’s population, massive and coordinated civil uprising.
The first three, I’m not worried about so much because there isn’t a heck of a lot I could do about them. They’d just happen and we’d have to deal with it (or not because we won’t be around). And they could pretty much happen at any time with or without warning. Kinda random like that. Well, except maybe some of the man-made incidents which I would hope we’d have some restraint in.
The Socioeconomic possibilities are where I struggle with a general lack of faith in people. These are items that the human race could likely anticipate and work to prevent or deal with after it happens (work on fuel alternatives, kick up food production, etc.). But would people, on a large scale, do that? I tend to doubt it. Look at the looting and general mayhem where people just went and got theirs in the aftermath of Katrina or the LA riots. Also, the socioeconomic possibilities seem the most likely to me in the short term.
March 7th, 2006 at 12:16 pm
I agree in the sense that I have very little faith in most people. To make a long story short, my goal if something like your Socioeconomic possibilities were to occur is to survive long enough to be one of the people who helps rebuild what was lost. The means to achieve this end include having sufficient ‘stuff’ on hand to provide myself and my loved ones with food, water, shelter, physical protection and means of transportation to avoid ending up in Darwin’s ‘not your ancestor’ column.
Oh, and I also take it upon myself to encourage as many of the ‘good’ people as possible to do the same. While I wouldn’t mind trying to repopulate the world myself (get you mind out of the gutter!), a little help would be…well…helpful.
March 7th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
With regard to rioting in LA–the rioting, burning and looting was confined to a relatively small area, with even smaller outbreaks in other, nearby areas (what I would consider “contact high” behavior).
Was it scary? Hell, yes–the TV coverage was relentless! Yet civilization didn’t break down, life went on and things settled back to relatively normal.
You say: “Look at the looting and general mayhem where people just went and got theirs in the aftermath of Katrina or the LA riots.”
No–look at the looting and general mayhem where people of low or criminal character just went and got theirs. The Korean shopowners protected their businesses; I would imagine that many people of reputable character did not commit mayhem, arson or engage in looting.
March 7th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Nuclear war could do it, but don’t worry about nuclear winter. That was anti-war BS that Carl Sagan pulled out of his ass. He pulled the same crap in Gulf War I (“if Saddam lights the well on fire we’re all going to freeze!”) and it didn’t happen. There has been cooling before from volcanic erruptions (which can put more particulates in the air than even a full nuclear exchange) and it was just a few degrees, not iceball. We survived.
There’s a couple of natural disasters to look out for. The coming super-erruption at Yellowstone seems to be the biggest. Yellowstone is going to errupt pretty soon, geologically. Of course, pretty soon means “sometime in the next 10,000 years”. Maybe today, maybe 8998. That one, though, will burn North America down and put ash and sulpher gas all over the globe. Gonna be a definate bad hair day when that one comes. When Toba went in Colorado 75000 years ago, it put six inches of ash all over India.
March 7th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Hell, Socialist Insecurity. People saw that train wreck coming before I was even fracking born.
Not exactly a few degrees. Google “year without a summer”. But yea, we survived.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_A_Summer
Yea, we could have our own “two thousand and froze to death” at any time. It also begs the question of if there’s a more cost effective way to manage the one degree rise that’s attributed to human activity than forcing all the rich countries of the world to stop using R-12 (freon), only to turn around in twenty years or so and force a retrofit, yet again, because R-134a is a potent greenhouse gas. (I’m predicting this from the eco-wacks sometime shortly)
March 7th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
More reason why we should reduce the production of DHMO. It is associated with all of the demises that you mention!
March 7th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
There’s already enough DHMO loose in the environment. The yearly man-made amount is less than one tenth a percent of the total naturally occurring supply.
Although I do recognize the problem of naturally produced DHMO (a HUGE amount was in the toxic sludge during the Katrina disaster!), The man-made stuff is not the problem. You could pour the entire yearly man-made supply in the toilet and flush it down our sanitary sewer and it still wouldn’t be a fraction of the damage the natural stuff does every year.
Nope, regulating the man-made stuff is not the solution.
March 7th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Oh please! Man made DHMO is upsetting the delicate balance of nature! It is only going to get worse with “alternative fuel” vehicles.
We need to use more organically stabalized liquid hydrogeb (Liquid Sunshine), the 7C18H variety, where plants use the carbon to keep the hydrogen in check and prevent the environment from being flooded with DHMO.
March 7th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
We’ve had four ice ages, and many minor climate coolings and warming even before we knew how to generate DHMO in the lavatory. A little man-made DHMO is not a threat, not at all.
You sir, you are a kook and an alarmist, and I’m beginning to suspect your scientific claims. I’d like to see a cite on a single case of a death from exclusively man-made DHMO. Just one case.
March 7th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Exclusively? There has never been a death from anything that was EXCLUSIVE to one cause.
However, one of the most famous is Mary Jo Kopeckne with DHMO playing an even bigger role than Ted Kennedy.
March 7th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
I said exclusively man-made DHMO!
You need to take your piss-poor gutter science back into the water closet. We require facts to back up argument here. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
Unless you can pull some genuine science out of your ass, I’m gonna ignore you and your trollish ways from here on out.
March 7th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
Oh, come on! Man made DHMO has been found at the top of Mount Everest!
March 7th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Oh yes, don’t forget that man-made DHMO gas has killed thousands of people around propulsion and heating systems.
March 7th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Oh come on. We all know that DHMO can kill and that man-made DHMO is deadlier still (if you don’t believe me try some synthesized vitamin C vs. the organic product, then you’ll C er see).
The only way to protect yourself from this dangerous industrial-age byproduct is to daily innoculate yourself with several glasses of DHMO. Since the contamination of natural DHMO by manmade DHMO is widespread you’ll get a small amount in each glass. Over time you can build up an immunity to man made DHMO in much the same way as you can build up an immunity to iocane, “known to be one of the deadliest poisons in the world.”
March 7th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
wrt to society collapsing – I don’t think anything can destroy it. The incidents listed are listed because they are isolated incidents. Atlanta didn’t have issues while LA rioted (and only portions of LA). Even if a simultaneous attack resulted in mass casualties of urban areas of *any* society – US, Asian, or European – the core values of that society would be preserved within the desparate survivors and rural residents. They would most likely bond together to preserve their culture and fight fervently to preserve what is left of their culture. They would work hard to rebuild initially to survive, secondly to succeed, and finally to carry-on.
We are all hard-wired this way:
1. Preservation of Self.
2. Preservation of Species.
3. Dominance of Environment.
It takes a special person to alter any of these – in a special situation.
The loss of a societal core will (I believe) cause a people to cling to their society even more tightly.
—
I think we just need to find a way to break DHMO down into it’s basic components. Then nature will be able to address the excess that we create. We should pass legislation that requires all ‘artificial’ DHMO to be made in such a way that it is biodegrable. These manufacturers need to be held responsible for the effects their actions have on the environment.
March 7th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
Don’t forget that it wasn’t the winds of Katrina that caused the most damage it was uncontrolled DHMO.
March 7th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
People exposed at a young age to pure DHMO, no matter what the source, become addicted and frequently disguise their addiction by ingesting liquid DHMO masked by other liquids.
Mercury is naturally occuring too, but we shouldn’t spew it into the air and soil!
March 8th, 2006 at 1:04 am
Guy, you’re right, you changed my mind. Ban DHMO Now!
March 8th, 2006 at 8:56 am
. Look at the looting and general mayhem where people just went and got theirs in the aftermath of Katrina or the LA riots. Also, the socioeconomic possibilities seem the most likely to me in the short term.
The reality of both situations, and many more like it, is that the GREAT MAJORITY of people (white, black, Martian) did NOT go into straight anarchy. Most did just what they “were supposed to do” (whatever that was, contextual to their situation).
I think in some of the surviable scenarios you line out, once the social water found its own level again, society as a whole would right itself relatively quickly. Man is, after all, a social animal. Society may change to some degree, or even a large degree, but there will be order and “law” of some type, as there always is. Maybe that means desire for Socialist protectionism (like post WWII Europe) or we go into post-Apocalyptic Mad Max world “armed might makes right”. But something will happen, you can bet on it.
March 8th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
interesting book recommendation on the topic:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0192805711/sr=8-1/qid=1141842021/ref=sr_1_1/103-8439550-8778268?%5Fencoding=UTF8