The problem with the end of the world thing is human ego, that's all. People have only been around, in 'civilized' form, for 50,000 years, and in that time we've had several near-extinction events. Generally speaking your mass extinctions happen every few dozen million years, so the fact that none have happened in the last 500 centuries isn't really a big deal, statistics wise.
So they keep jumping the gun, out of their eagerness for news to report, and the species' collective paranoia about death. The same insane, clinging, fearful avoidance of the subject of mortality that leads to church attendance and bizarre ritual leads to people expecting to be wiped out by whatever the cause du jour happens to be.
Patience, random internet stalker. The oblivion of our world will come, sooner or later. If not by some catastrophic impact or calamity beforehand, then certainly when the sun goes through its slow, inevitable death.
Actually, long before that. The sun's luminosity increases every year as the heavier elements accumulate and increase its fusion output. Each and every year the earth absorbs an incrementally greater amount of solar energy, and becomes a tiny bit less ideally inhabitable. Long before the sun goes through its death throes, this entire world will be a searing desert, devoid of complex life.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-05-13 05:14 am (UTC)So they keep jumping the gun, out of their eagerness for news to report, and the species' collective paranoia about death. The same insane, clinging, fearful avoidance of the subject of mortality that leads to church attendance and bizarre ritual leads to people expecting to be wiped out by whatever the cause du jour happens to be.
Patience, random internet stalker. The oblivion of our world will come, sooner or later. If not by some catastrophic impact or calamity beforehand, then certainly when the sun goes through its slow, inevitable death.
Actually, long before that. The sun's luminosity increases every year as the heavier elements accumulate and increase its fusion output. Each and every year the earth absorbs an incrementally greater amount of solar energy, and becomes a tiny bit less ideally inhabitable. Long before the sun goes through its death throes, this entire world will be a searing desert, devoid of complex life.
That makes *me* feel a lot better.