self destruction

I have long been of the opinion that the human race is not getting any worse, but that we are simply more aware of the horrible things we do to each other on a global basis. Atrocity in your local community is one thing to take in, atrocity across the globe... made as immediate as if it happened in the next city, is something else.

The planet, however, I think is getting sicker and sicker, and we're at the core of the problem. Jeffrey Rowland has been referencing the Bee issue quite a bit, and linked to this article about the potential link between cell phone usage and the vanishing of bees... and I wonder exactly which of the many ways we are killing ourselves will be the one that does us in. I don't use my land line anymore. I rely completely and totally on my cell phone. Hell, I have two. One for work and one for home. I'm not worried about low sperm count, and I don't text enough for RSI injuries, but I'm not too fond of the whole brain tumor thing. If the bees keep dying, though, it won't really matter since we'll all die of starvation long before my little tumorous buddy shows up.

So, what's it going to be? War? Famine? Disease? Global Flooding? I saw a film online called "End Day" that appears to have been pulled from Google video, but that gave a rather chilling look at some of the more likely scenarios to destroy us all. The Strangelet theory is the least likely option, but still rather terrifying because it could theoretically destroy the known universe eventually... and who knows if it hasn't already happened somewhere else and that the void approaches us at this very moment? But a new plague, a meteorite collision, a tsunami, a super volcano... these things are extremely likely, if not inevitable. We will be hit by meteorites again eventually. We will experience another super volcano eruption, like the one that obliterated Krakatoa and that is rapidly building again... and it might happen in other locations that are more densely populated. In a world of rapid international air travel, the idea of a virulent airborne virus that kills rapidly spreading across the entire globe is not too far fetched.

But again, will we even be here if such a thing happens?

I don't worry about it a lot. One cannot live in a state of constant fear. But this cell phone thing, and learning how biofuels are actually increasing global warming is leading me to the desire to never leave my apartment.