Now Fairbanks Alaska getting hit!

Ray, they may well have thought the same thing during the Civil War, as well as the First and Second World War; but that was only yesterday in the grand scheme of things. One or two hundred years is nothing when you look at the history of the earth. I'm talking about a general increase in the severity of distasters, both natural and those self-inflicted (ie. wars). How often do your hear "this has been the worst *fill in natural disaster here* since *insert godforsaken year here*" these days? It just doesn't bode well.

Originally posted by Arledrian: Ray, they may well have thought the same thing during the Civil War, as well as the First and Second World War; but that was only yesterday in the grand scheme of things. One or two hundred years is nothing when you look at the history of the earth. I'm talking about a general increase in the severity of distasters, both natural and those self-inflicted (ie. wars). How often do your hear "this has been the worst *fill in natural disaster here* since *insert godforsaken year here*" these days? It just doesn't bode well.

You bring up an intersting point [img]smile.gif[/img]

You do realize that there are statisticly no more nor less natural disasters than at any other time in the worlds history, don't you? The only difference is that within the last 50 years, you now get to hear about it as it happens. It used to be, if 500 people died in a flood in rangoon, a person living in Boise would never know about it. Global communications is the only difference. You often hear words like "Worst in recorded history" well guess what, usually that will be an exageration and when it isn't you have to realize that recorded history is a rather short amount of time. As for the Apocolypse thing well you can't look at the entire history of the world since those prophecies are less than a thousand years old.

You hear a lot about how Andrew was the worst Hurricane ever, well that is only if you are talking about sheer numbers of people and $$$ impacted, 200 years ago a hurricane three times that size could have hit the gulf states and outrside some native americans no one would have known.

Remember when doing historical comparisons, take into the account that we didn't have global weather sattelites and communications 50 years ago.

Relax folks, the end of the world is not necessarily as close as you think [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 11-04-2002, 01:55 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[Mack_Attack]

Thank you Magik for calming my nerves. I also heard that some pipe lines had to be shut down do to the earthquake.

I also beleive that there is no more of an increase in natural diasters. But with the world getting more populated it is having a much larger impact on us. You right to say there may have been much worse happening out there. But who really cares if effected some birds and deer. It is the ones that are hitting now that are causing the trouble.

Anyways you all had some good points.

Originally posted by Mack_Attack: Thank you Magik for calming my nerves. I also heard that some pipe lines had to be shut down do to the earthquake. Actually the Trans-Alaskan Oil Pipline was shut down as a precaution and is now being checked for leaks. There has been no reports of nay damage to the pipeline as of yet. Slightly [img]graemlins/offtopic.gif[/img] I might Add that the ecologists of my youth in the 1970's predicted dire irreversable ecological impacts from this pipeline and tried every trick int he book to keep it from being built. I would like to point to everyone who was a doom sayer back then..."See, there are still caribou in Alaska, and moose and seal, apparently the pipeline did not end Alaskan wildlife as we knew it to exist. (think about that next time ANWAR drilling is mentioned) I will now return you to your regularly scheduled programming [img]smile.gif[/img] I also beleive that there is no more of an increase in natural diasters. But with the world getting more populated it is having a much larger impact on us. You right to say there may have been much worse happening out there. But who really cares if effected some birds and deer. It is the ones that are hitting now that are causing the trouble. Anyways you all had some good points.

[Ar-Cunin]

Another reason for the increasing 'severity' of natural disasters - there are many more people living in the world - and frequently they live in dangerous (flood-prone, earthquake-zones etc.) areas. Therefore casualties will be larger than previous.

Originally posted by Ar-Cunin: Another reason for the increasing 'severity' of natural disasters - there are many more people living in the world - and frequently they live in dangerous (flood-prone, earthquake-zones etc.) areas. Therefore casualties will be larger than previous.

Yep thats exactly right. Of course none of this stops rich people from building homes right on the beach where the hurricanes will obligingly take them out to sea within a few years [img]smile.gif[/img]

[K T Ong]

Dunno about the increasing frequency or otherwise of natural disasters -- and MagiK certainly has a point when he says we have no truly reliable records from earlier than a couple hundred years ago to compare against what we find today, in order to see whether there has indeed been an increase -- but it remains my conviction that we're collectively in for some serious trouble given the current way of life we follow. I shan't elaborate (unless requested to): suffice it to say that I'm no pessimist/fatalist insofar as I believe it is possible for us to avert the coming disaster by opting to change our ways. Whether we will is, of course, another matter.

[ 11-04-2002, 07:27 PM: Message edited by: K T Ong ]

[DragonMage]

Originally posted by MagiK: My message still stands, live your life as if each day were to be your last, and don't sweat wether tomorrow is doomsday. Worry about your life today.

Magik, dear, I think you misunderstood the point of my post. At the end, I stated the storm before the calm (reording the common phrase 'the calm before the storm'. Also part of that quote says 'be thou not afraid'. I'm not worried about any of it. I also stated this has been building over the past generations. My only meaning behind posting it was because I am well aware that this is building up to something better. We must endure the hardships and the suffering before all of this will be over. I'm not one of those 'the sky is falling' type of people. I accept what is coming, look forward to what comes after and I DO live each day as though it may be my last.

[img]smile.gif[/img]

Originally posted by DragonMage: Magik, dear, I think you misunderstood the point of my post. At the end, I stated the storm before the calm (reording the common phrase 'the calm before the storm'. Also part of that quote says 'be thou not afraid'. I'm not worried about any of it. I also stated this has been building over the past generations. My only meaning behind posting it was because I am well aware that this is building up to something better. We must endure the hardships and the suffering before all of this will be over. I'm not one of those 'the sky is falling' type of people. I accept what is coming, look forward to what comes after and I DO live each day as though it may be my last. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Your right, I did misunderstood your "Storm before the calm" comment [img]smile.gif[/img] I automaticly translated it to the calm before the storm [img]smile.gif[/img] My mom has a really nasty habit of messing up like that so I have sort of gotten used to auto-correcting [img]smile.gif[/img]

I just worry about people who get all tense thinking that the end of the world is coming, just because of the press. The press is really my enemy [img]smile.gif[/img] I hate inaccurate distortions of fact, and to get ratings they need to do just that.

[ 11-05-2002, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[Redblueflare]

7.9 is a *really* big earthquake. But since it's in Alaska I can understad why no one was hurt. Can I ask something? Why worry about the end of the world? [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img] When it ends it'll end, and there probably won't be much *anyone* can do about it. So why care at all? [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img] Just use the time you've got to the fullest. [img]smile.gif[/img]