12 Monkeys
I don’t know about you, but ever since that ‘swine flu’ broke out in Mexico, I can’t help thinking of that 1995 movie “12 Monkeys”, by Terry Gilliam. The movie is set in a grim post-apocalyptic future. In 1996-1997, the Earth’s surface was contaminated by a virus so deadly that it forced the surviving population to live underground. If you have seen the movie, you probably remember that it turns out that the virus was spread by an evil scientist, set on a tour of cities (by plane), which turned out to be the path of the worldwide viral outbreak. A real bioterrorist attack, so to speak.
I suppose, there are many possibilities when it comes to what might turn out to be a doomsday event that kills all (or nearly all) life on earth. Next to a pandemic event, there is the current 2012 Doomsday Prediction that has people speculating. But basically we have four options when it comes to extinction: either it is going to be a man-made event, a natural event, a supernatural event (if you are religious), or maybe even an ‘alien-event’ (as in ‘War of the Worlds‘).
If you look at those possibilities, I think the first two options (man-made versus natural) are more likely then the others, and they seem to be competing now for who will be first. So either the human race succeeds in eradicating itself, or nature does. If you’d ask me, then now it looks to me like nature might be first to succeed. So the big question is, if this swine flu will turn into a Pandemic Influenza, or if it will turn out to be a near miss, just like the H1N5 bird flu did? Either way, I think the threat is real and people should be aware of it and governments should prepare for it.
Speaking of preparations: it is interesting to know that some non-governmental organisations are actually taking actions in case a doomsday event occurs. For instance, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a vault buried 400 feet inside a mountain in the Arctic with over ten tonnes of seeds from all over the world. Even in conditions of global warming, where the permafrost starts to melt, the seeds will be safe for up to 200 years. Some of the seeds will even be viable for a millennium or more, including barley, which can last 2,000 years, wheat 1,700 years, and sorghum almost 20,000 years.
How about that?
Anyway: Wikipedia has many interesting articles on Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth.
A warning to the reader is fair: one might not feel like getting out of bed after reading 😉