Imminent Disaster

Image from QZ.com: AP Photo/ Rick Rycroft -- Australia sculpture inspired by the country’s wildfires.


Imminent Disaster

... oozing out of the movie theatre and onto the world stage.

The above image was not just inspired by the "wildfires" (which, it turns out, were not so much "wild" as often "prescribed"); I think most would agree that Edvard Munch originated "The Scream" in 1893, long before disaster movies were considered entertainment and "climate change" became something to fear.

The "Doom Porn" actors are much more highly placed these days:
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YouTube Video: Live: 2020 Doomsday Clock Announcement
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists - Jan 23, 2020 - 1-1/2 hours.

We've had a triple disaster dose in this newest New Year.  How exciting is that, eh? The clock people have tossed two terminal threats at us, omitting a third one, the threat of world-wide viral contagion, that being a gift to the failing disaster media who desperately need a big hook.

From the World Clock Bulletin: 

•  Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers--nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond. The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode. 
• Political conflicts regarding nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea remain unresolved and are, if anything, worsening. US-Russia cooperation on arms control and disarmament is all but nonexistent.
• Early this year, amid high US-Iranian tensions, the US military conducted a drone air strike that killed a prominent Iranian general in Iraq. Iranian leaders vowed to exact “severe revenge” on US military forces, and the Iranian government announced it would no longer observe limits, imposed by the JCPOA, on the number of centrifuges that it uses to enrich uranium.
• Despite declaring its intent to bring China into an arms control agreement, the United States [aka Donald Trump] has adopted a bullying and derisive tone toward its Chinese and Russian competitors.

Hands up: how many people think that voting Democrat will solve that problem?  Maybe it's not entirely a coincidence that the clock has been moved ahead in a US election year?

There's more:

​Bulletin.org: Earth is heating at a rate equivalent to five atomic bombs per second. Or two Hurricane Sandys.

Huh?

Commenter Nick C Schroeder asks a very good question: When did atomic bombs and hurricanes become official units of measure?

I always laugh when a young weather guy reporting on a hurricane says, "I've never seen anything like this!" If he hasn't seen it, it couldn't have happened, right?  But how many TV watchers stop to consider his age and personal experience?  I'll bet Nick C Schroeder does.

Then you've got your fixers. One way to fix things is to pretend to support the C02 theory even if you haven't a clue what it entails, or should entail, or even if it really is the cause of the predicted "global warming", sorry, "climate change".

Another brilliant suggestion is to stop eating meat. Maybe after one last massive, world-wide barbecue to use up all of the pigs and cows and chickens.  Why? Because cattle and pigs give off methane when they pass gas. (I'm not sure what they're pinning on the poor chickens.)

Wouldn't it be more expedient to get rid of humans, I wonder? They, too, pass gas, and talk a lot of hot air, and there's far more of them than there are cattle.  If they really want to do something about "climate change", that is. The great nations of the world certainly have the nuke power to accomplish that very quickly.

Here's a deep philosophical question: Is there anything to worry about when there's nobody left to worry?

From the Vegans, via The Bulletin: 

• Since the United Nations has stated that a global shift toward vegan eating is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change, we encourage the Bulletin to consider the effects that animal agriculture has on the environment (let alone on animals and human health) and to set an example by adopting and advocating for vegan diets. Please also consider recommending that Americans who do not go vegan eat less meat and encourage leaders to do the same—or even go as far as mandating restrictions on meat consumption or meat taxes.

And we still think the Chinese are commie dictators!

The government will go for meat taxes, for sure. But what we really need is a massive contingent of Meat Police!  The Pope might go for it, since the Catholics had tried in the past to curtail meat eating, but could only manage it on Fridays and, even then, parishioners cheated something awful. They finally had to make it optional because there wasn't enough manpower to enforce it.

(I realize "manpower" is a sexist word, but there are no women in the Catholic priesthood, and it was Jesus Himself who set the precedent for that.)

The ideal thing to do is get rid of all animals, period, and then you need only a few cops to do freezer searches. It's probably okay to eat bugs.  Ant farms could be both amusement for kids and supermarket offerings.

Considering the rise in numbers of children skipping school to swarm through the streets, speaking rudely to their elders all the way up to heads of government, I can easily envision world-wide youth militias whose sole purpose is to spy on and turn in any adults caught eating meat, or even talking nostalgically about the good old days. The only really good old day was when Hitler banned the Boy Scouts in favour of "Hitler Youth".

Already there are music groups with dsytopian identities: Youth Brigade, Vandals, The Bastards [YouTube]. Dystopian novels written specifically for kids are all the rage now. One author happily admits: "The adults are the oppressors. The children are the liberators."

All that being said, how much you wanna bet that when the scary clock reaches one second to midnight, and after all of the restrictions have been put in place, some die-hard derelict, living rough in the woods, will be found cooking himself a nice rabbit that the Meat Police will be more than happy to confiscate?

But seriously folks, no matter what happens, Life will continue to adapt, we humans being mere manifestations of Life Itself -- just apes with bigger egos and, sadly, more destructive than any of the Earth's other creatures, except for maybe termites.

Call me a dreamer, but I have a very strong feeling that, since "climate change" has always been, then it will always be, and so will Life in whatever form Nature allows it to manifest. I'm not so naive as to think there won't always be scraps between neighbours, because animals, human or otherwise, will always have their chest-thumping alphas.

I'm putting my faith in the collective unconscious which is always Lifeward and always, out of sheer necessity, somehow finds a way out of its predicaments.

We need to remember also that disease itself is induced by living entities, just as alive as you and I, and no matter how many antidotes are produced, infectious disease will never, ever be eradicated, because the strongest bugs will always survive and mutate into something even stronger.

I can hear them right now, buzzing amongst themselves, "This is WAR".

Maybe they pick up their attitudes from people? Maybe we could stay physically healthy if we entertained healthier thoughts about all of humanity and not just ourselves?