h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Indeed, far the most worrying thing about the Ch4 programme last night was the general attitude of those American car-owners, who feel that George W is at fault for failing to bring down the price of petrol, so that a 5 litre, 11 mpg gas-guzzling Hummer would be economical! And some of those suburban families have several SUVs, some for ludicrous reasons such as their perceived qualities of sexy macho-adventurousness! Which is quite revealing.

The underlying psychology of the American big-car owner was amply portrayed back in the 50's by the novelist, Henry Miller in his excellent book, "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare". There's a part of the American psyche which enshrines the old pioneer mentality, which is basically escapist. When the going gets rough here, you up stakes and head west, east, north, south, or wherever the grass appears greener. Which these days means "hitting the road." [I did it myself in the US in 1969, driving 10,000 miles in three weeks, south to north (St.Pete, Florida to Yellowstone Park, Montana, via New Orleans) and then west to San Francisco and south again to Arizona. And petrol was still 20cents a gallon then.]

Tragically, the "upstakes and hit the road" notion was still much in evidence last night among those SUV owners who happily forsee themselves driving out of the aftermath of the predicted terminal earthquake, over the rough terrain of their less fortuinate neighbours' wrecked houses and smaller cars.

The compelling solution to America's huge budget deficit ( largely the result of extravagant international oil-purchasing coupled with costly war-mongering by the Bush administration ) and CO2 emission problem is to slap a really sizeable European-style tax on petrol and on private cars.

Cheers,

C \|/

I remember being taught in science in the early 80s that we were heading towards another ice age, but that it would take several thousand years to get a grip.

This doesn't make me think ha ha ha aren't scientists idiots to be changing their minds about how to scare us. Rather, it makes me slightly more alarmed that we seem to be going rather rapidly in the other direction.

I just hope we can adapt to our new climate as quickly as the wasp.

Mol

The term "ice age" is a bit misleading. Theoretically we are just in a warm part of a series of cool events. The movements of the Earth around the sun vary over hundreds of thousands of years, (can't remember the figures ), which puts us further away from the sun than when we are outside an ice age.

The tilt of the Earths rotational axis also has an effect on global temperatures, but not to the same extent.


Would also like to mention the role of the sea in absorbing CO2. In the carbon cycle, the sea is the biggest sink for CO2, but takes about 1000yrs to adapt to any changes in atmospheric CO2. So It should be quite difficult to kill of the Earth... But much easier to wipe out unadaptable species.


Think I'll stop now. Been blurting out the first things to enter my head again.

Some interesting figures.

Wealthier industrial countries contribute the most to global warming since they use most of the world’s fossil fuels. Europe, Japan, and North America—with roughly 15 percent of the world’s current population—are estimated to account for two-thirds of the carbon dioxide now in the atmosphere. With less than five percent of world population, the United States is the single-largest source of carbon from fossil fuels—emitting 24 percent of the world’s total. U.S. automobiles (more than 128 million, or one quarter of the world’s cars) emit roughly as much carbon as the entire Japanese economy, the world’s fourth-largest carbon emitter in 2000. China, despite being home to one-fifth of the world’s population and its heavy dependence on coal, ranks a distant second behind the U.S., emitting 12 percent of the global total. The average person in China produces less than one-eighth as much carbon dioxide as the average American.

If you was to look at these days in a Biblical setting you will see, we are closer than some would suspect to the end of times.

Having said that I know a lot of you guys don't buy into what the Bible says. Still it's worth concideration if you ask me. I've been studying the world and it's woes for quite sometime now. There's a lot of things that has taken place that has been pre-warned in the Bible. If you people are interested I can show you from the Bible and the event. I have a Bible programme I can cut and copy from to help with my claim.

>> "I've been studying the world and it's woes for quite sometime now. There's a lot of things that has taken place that has been pre-warned in the Bible"

There have been people throughout history that have taken the same view based on what they could see in the world around them - pestilence, horrible wars, etc. Many have genuinely expected the end of the world to occur in their lifetime, but so far they have been proved wrong.

Regarding the biblical pre-warnings, they'd have to be pretty specific to have any value - vague warnings can end up like Nostradamus's prophecies and be used to fit anything that's already happened. With a whole world of news and events to choose from, it's not generally hard to find something that fits.

The really scary thing is that if people who actually believe the world is likely to end soon are running a major country, they may conclude that it doesn't matter if they screw the environment up completely, since it won't really matter in the long term.

Well the Bible predicted Irael would be a nation again. At the time that prophesy was written it was'nt one. Irael became a nation 5/5/1948. The Bible also predicted that Isael would reclaim Jerusalem that happened in June of 1967.

Wow - if it had such foresight it must have predicted lots of other really big events also!

Can you tell me where it predicted that North and South America, Australia and Antarctica would be discovered? What about the existence of DNA - that's big - it must be there too! What about man landing on the Moon? The germ theory of disease? The Heliocentric Earth? The existence of atoms and black holes?

I mean, another explanation to your "prediction" is equally likely. When the Bible was written, the Romans had occupied the land of Israel and destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem. Now if you were a Jewish writer at that time, wouldn't you have a major wish to see Israel under self-rule again? It appears to me that its highly probable that it was not a prediction, just wishful thinking, and the fact that it *did* come about 2000 years later may have something to do with the fact that the Biblical "prediction" existed in the first place.

I do wonder how all this end of times stuff is justified when the bible quite clearly states that the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night, ie when you least expect it and without fanfare.
Of course, if one takes such things literally, one wonders if this means that if you can manage to live your life expecting the world to end at every minute then you can be sure that the world will not end in your life time.

BTW, aren;t we also coming up to the point whent he Aztec calendar end? Or has that passed already?

And how are the towers of hanoi monks getting on? Anyone checked them lately?

The Aztec calender ends sometime in 2012. The Bible also predicted earthquakes wars and rumour of wars. Droughts famine and plagues. Do You see a pattern here. there were more earthquakes in the 20th century that all those of the prior centries combined. The earthquake that caused the rsunami in Indonesha was more powerful tan all the earthquakes in the 90's combined. Ecetra Yada yada yada

Any evidence for this crap?

Well obviously. All you have to do is go and study the seismology records over time. It is quite apparent that as you move back in time there were less and less earthquakes. And tsunami's. and volcanoes.

Where on Earth did you get the idea that there were more earthquakes in the 20th Century compared to all prior centuries combined?

We have more *data* on earthquakes now because we have much better sensing apparatus nowadays. Plain and simple. I mean, the whole science of seismology is a 20th century innovation! The electricity to run siesmometers was only available since the late 19th century. There was no methodical way of recording earthquakes before that. The only reason the record is sparse is because people were not recording them, and had other things to think about.

The earthquake that caused the Tsunami was the most powerful one in 40 years, actually. But still, there were more powerful ones than that in the last century alone, and I'm sure there will be bigger ones in the future. There is also geological evidence of even bigger ones in antiquity. The point is therefore, that this earthquake, bad and all though it may be, is nothing particularly out of the ordinary in the last 2,000 years.

And surely the Bible predicting war and pestilence and famine is like me predicting rain sometime in the future? There have always been wars, and plagues and famines. Let me know, if you can, when we had a period on Earth of complete peace?

4005 BC?

Just a moment...



Now, where were we?

Have to pay for that normally

Erm, trying to work out when there was peace on earth, no earthquakes, no famines, no wars (or rumours of wars, whatever that means) and, erm, stuff.

See, the 'thief in the night' quote states quite clearly that it'll happen ina one big which will blast away the heavens and burn everything up (erm, Skynet anyone?) and be a total surprise.

So, being as how there are multiple explanations in the book which are not mutually agreeable, I fail to see any point in discussing this logically. Allegory and imagery are obviously gonna play a part.

There is, of course, the counter argument that says that the more we believe in it, the more likely we are to bring it about.

I think the difference between now and, say, the year 999, is that now some of the people who are quaking in their boots and in fear of flaming swords and floaty people actually have the power, and inclination, to bring about something very close to the end of the world.

One of the more ironic aspects of the tsunami-fest is that while it has killed a large number of people, 186,000 or so, the main reason it's had all the publicity it has, is that plenty of westerners from several countries were killed. In 2001, the Gujerat earthquake killed over 250,000 people, to remarkably little international recognition. But then, no westerners were involved.

The Rwanda/Congo war has killed roughly 3 million people in the last three years, but virtually no westerners, so it hardly gets reported. Interestingly, the near-extinction of our nearest genetic cousins, the bonobos, who share 98% of our genetic material, has been reported as a consequence of concern from this conflict.

As regards the other apocalyptic horseman, plague, it's interesting how concerned our health authorities are becoming over a possible new flu pandemic, which might come west from Asia quite quickly by plane. Of course, if there was a flu pandemic, loads of westerners would die, much more than in the tsunami.

Until modern media shrank the globe and made world news instantly available (even if not tsunami-warnings!), the world was basically your village, and few people travelled much or far from the place of their birth. A village catastrophe was literally "the end of the world." The difference is that now we live in a global village. Our neighbour's fate should be of concern to us.

Regarding the Mayan calendar and all that, doesn't it run out in 2013? You may remember that it was recently predicted that a major asteroid would intersect Earth's orbit on March 14th of that year, with a one in a million chance of hitting us. And there's a one in 700,000 chance that Yellowstone caldera will erupt in our lifetimes.

Let's face it, no-one gets out of here alive , whether, as Tom Lehrer sang, "we all go together when we go," or whether we just, as Shakespeare's Hamlet says, "shuffle off this mortal coil..." with more of a whimper than a bang.

On that cheery note

C \|/

End of the World?

Probably going to upset a few people, but I couldnt care less. I used to worry about everything - AIDS, Global Warming, etc, etc but then the truth dawned on me that there is absolutely nothing I can do to affect these events. I therefore treat every day like a party and only worry about the things I can directly control - size of mortgage, personal debt, etc, etc.

Makes for a far happier life and less wrinkles on the forehead!

Well You guys have a nice party I was just trying to give you all food for thought. Perhaps it disagreed with you. Still you should not overlook the possibility of the truth in the Bible. T'is your folly to.

Truth in the Bible? When questioned on it several times throughout the Gospels, Jesus consistently promised that he would return within the natural lives of his disciples. So, apparently, the world ended nearly 2000 years ago.

This must be the afterlife. It could do with some improvement.