I’m a self-professed “Disaster Junkie”: Major earthquakes, major hurricanes, H5N1, super-volcanoes, global cooling, etc. I’ve always attributed it to being a “Cold War Baby” growing up expecting nuclear annihilation at any moment. What I am not is someone expecting the end of the world on December 23, 2012 because of some Mayan calendar or the Apocalypse unleashed by a ticked-off Christian God.
Few disasters have the potential to have global primary effects, but there are a few: a severe pandemic, a large asteroid, a super-volcano, nuclear war, an ice age event — geographically dispersed EMP bursts over populous nations. And, oh yeah, Armageddon and TEOTWAWKI when the Mayan calendar ends.
I enjoyed reading this on yesterday’s Salon.com:
The Four Horsemen send their regrets [Excerpt]
A list of failed predictions of the end of the world, including a few current theories that probably won’t pan out
By Gabriel Winant
Sep. 25, 2009
In a recent poll, 8 percent of respondents in New Jersey admitted to thinking that Barack Obama is the antichrist. As in, they think the president is the Beast of Revelation, he whose coming portends the rapture, the battle of Armageddon, and the end of the world as we know it. Thirteen percent weren’t sure, perhaps waiting for more and better evidence to arrive via chain e-mail.
If you’re shocked by those stats, remember just how many Americans think the apocalypse is right around the corner. In a poll from earlier this decade, 17 percent said they expected the world to end in their lifetime. Perhaps that’s why, even though Jesus may have admonished that no man knows the day and hour, so many people can’t resist making a pseudo-educated guess about the day and hour.
One of the more popular theories making the rounds lately has centered on the Mayan calendar, which runs out in 2012. You get the drift — don’t make any plans for 2013. The New Agey claptrap is popular enough that it inspired Roland Emmerich’s upcoming apocalypse-porn blockbuster “2012,” due in multiplexes everywhere this November. With a hat tip to the citizens of New Jersey, Roland Emmerich and the ancient Mayans, we present this honor roll of doomsday panics and false messiahs — a whole lot of past predictions that didn’t pan out, and a few more current revelations that are looking iffy. This is the way the world doesn’t end. No bang, lots of whimpers.
I enjoyed reading it for several reasons but the main one is that since things have tended to look sorta “Apocalyptic” these last few years I have taken to reminding people [when appropriate] that each generation [at least in Western Civilization] tends to view their age as The Last Days.
While I have a certain morbid fascination with large scale disasters, and lived through one [1989 Hurricane Hugo] and I like to think that I have an appreciation for “the science” that underpins our understanding of the threats, I do not believe that I will necessarily live to see any of them happen. But, more importantly, I do not believe that they would be driven by anything more that the “Crap Happens” rule of life or humanity’s stupidity and/or arrogance.
We can smugly snicker at the beliefs of others, and that can be cathartic in some ways, but can we risk not believing that something could happen along “Biblical Proportions”?
My own favored global disaster scenario, a severe pandemic [A/H5N1] is a potential threat I believe so real that I’ve dedicated the better part of four and half years to watching – learning – and advocating on. How great is the actual potential of it coming about is something that I do not know, and frustratingly, no else does either.
Having been caught ignorant of what a strike from a major hurricane would visit upon my world I vowed to never be caught so ignorant [and unprepared] again.
So, sometimes I quietly snicker at the beliefs of others, Armageddon, Peak Oil, Global Warming, and 2012 to name a few of the current crop, but I do have my own, and no doubt plenty of folk quietly [or not] snicker at me. A genuine case of to each his/her own TEOTWAWKI scenario I suppose.
Which brings up the point: What does TEOTWAWKI mean? The popular acronym stands for The End Of The World As We Know It. But it is worth a further definition…
When the world ceases to be the world we know that is the end of the world as we know it. An event of such scope and magnitude has happened with regularity throughout humanity’s run. The effects are not usually negative however, such as the invention of the printing press, personal computers, vaccines, the Renaissance, etc., each having very positive impact. But sometimes they’ve been bad, such as the Black Death. Or in the case of future events, have the potential to be negative, such as nuclear war, major asteroid strike, or a severe pandemic., to name but a few.
The world forever changed or will change – a clear line of demarcation: life before event – life after event. My favorite TEOTWAWKI event happens to be one I view as positive: when computers become self-aware, Ray Kurzwiel’s Singularity. And oh how I hope I live long enough to see it.
I guess that means I am eagerly awaiting TEOTWAWKI – but in a good way – I hope.
Posted via web from SophiaZoe
