Wednesday, October 13, 2004

In Lieu of Celebratory Bosox Posting I Give You.....

....................

Physical Menaces to Long Term

Sustainability



Mainly Asteroids...well, have fun reading..it's less depressing than being a Red Sox fan, I can tell you that.....


In discussing any menace, journalists, lawyers, and politicians, movie makers, and even scientists who have enrolled themselves in a cause, often take a worst-case approach. They say X could happen if we do Y, and therefore Y should be avoided at all costs. The anti-nukes make up worst cases as do the proponents of extreme laws about potential terrorism. So did the advocates of preventive war against the Soviet Union, and so do some present advocates of preventive war against Islam. A worst case attitude to the possibility of an asteroid hitting the earth would require devoting most of the GDP of the whole world to defenses against it.(ed.mmmhmmm) A worst case policy to a possible pandemic would require that every country quarantine itself, and indeed every state in the US quarantine itself.

Human society is not yet technologically powerful enough, economically rich enough or politically united enough to afford a worst case attitude. On a personal level, no person can afford a worst case attitude to menaces to his own survival.



Idiot up indeed....



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