The End is Nigh
Last night I was driving home from Anchorage. With thirty-ish minutes en route, I gave NPR a try. Having tuned in just after the top of the hour, I missed the name of the program.
The first segment was given over to a guy who knew the climate was warming, and within 50 years it was going to cook us all, and nuclear power was going to be no help at all, and we are DOOOMED. Unless we change our ways. Apparently, we are too selfish, owning things that we really don't use very much: that means too much consumption, which is why we are DOOOMED. Unless we learn to ditch our individualistic ways, and think in terms of community. I almost get (as in, not by a long shot, but at least not needing to add a half dozen new syllables to "preposterous") how that would work with, say, bikes. But my living room couch? Toothbrush? Oh, and the other problem: waaay too many people.
Then segue to James Lovelock. Nuclear power is good. Waaay too many people. Gaia will fix it: within 50 years, though, the earth will have gotten so hot that the population will drop by 90%, with the remainder living in isolated habitable areas like the Rocky Mountains. And they will be smarter, because of evolution. And it is all a done deal by now; resistance is futile. I wish he could be a little more precise about the end times. I'd feel a right fool if I pay off my 30 year mortgage in 15, only have all turn to toast before the echo of the last payment faded away. Especially since I could have spent all that money, oh, snowmobiles, power boats and fast cars.
One more segue, this time to Margart Atwood flogging her latest novel. It seems she is determined to dominate the dystopia niche. Better yet, the Copenhagen doom-mongering is the perfect tie in.
The garage door closed behind me before the outro, so I till don't know the show's name.
I'm guessing "Sack Cloth and Ashes". A weekly feature supported by generous donations from the Pew Charitable Trust.
The first segment was given over to a guy who knew the climate was warming, and within 50 years it was going to cook us all, and nuclear power was going to be no help at all, and we are DOOOMED. Unless we change our ways. Apparently, we are too selfish, owning things that we really don't use very much: that means too much consumption, which is why we are DOOOMED. Unless we learn to ditch our individualistic ways, and think in terms of community. I almost get (as in, not by a long shot, but at least not needing to add a half dozen new syllables to "preposterous") how that would work with, say, bikes. But my living room couch? Toothbrush? Oh, and the other problem: waaay too many people.
Then segue to James Lovelock. Nuclear power is good. Waaay too many people. Gaia will fix it: within 50 years, though, the earth will have gotten so hot that the population will drop by 90%, with the remainder living in isolated habitable areas like the Rocky Mountains. And they will be smarter, because of evolution. And it is all a done deal by now; resistance is futile. I wish he could be a little more precise about the end times. I'd feel a right fool if I pay off my 30 year mortgage in 15, only have all turn to toast before the echo of the last payment faded away. Especially since I could have spent all that money, oh, snowmobiles, power boats and fast cars.
One more segue, this time to Margart Atwood flogging her latest novel. It seems she is determined to dominate the dystopia niche. Better yet, the Copenhagen doom-mongering is the perfect tie in.
The garage door closed behind me before the outro, so I till don't know the show's name.
I'm guessing "Sack Cloth and Ashes". A weekly feature supported by generous donations from the Pew Charitable Trust.
posted by Hey Skipper at 7:37 PM
2 Comments:
We like telling each other and hearing ghost stories don't we? These radio people seem to have been doing so with particular relish. I hope you found the shiver down your spine pleasurable!
But what if it's true? It's like the boy who cried wolf - he got eaten eventually.
Well, I had several (at least problems) with the whole segment.
1. Puffball questions
2. The anti-human attitude, closely correlated with "just enough of me, way too many of you".
3. The endless harping on the end days being nearly here, with the inevitable conclusion that there is no point even fighting it.
4. If it isn't possible to stop CO2 induced warming, maybe we should spend money on finding ways to mitigate it. I'll bet that notion didn't stir so much as a single synapse in Copenhagen. Why not?
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