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A NASA thought experiment called, Defending Human Civilisation From Supervolcanic Eruptions, stated that a supervolcano eruption was more likely to happen in the future than an asteroid hitting the earth, according to the Daily Star. It said: “Supervolcanic eruptions occur more frequently than a large asteroid or comet impacts that would have a similarly catastrophic effect to human civilization.” Jet Propulsion Laboratory researchers found that collisions from asteroids which are more than 2km in diameter occurred “half as often as supervolcanic eruptions”.
[...]Yellowstone Caldera[*] is classed as a supervolcano which erupted 60,000 years ago and again 60,000 years before that.
Although there is no guarantee, if the volcano follows the same pattern then it is now due for another eruption.
Researchers have found that if a supervolcano like Yellowstone did erupt, then a “volcanic winter” would ensue which could surpass the “amount of stored food worldwide”.
People living on another continent would not be spared from the aftermath of a supervolcanic eruption.
[*] Wikipedia entry on the Yellowstone Caldera (aka Supervolcano).
The referenced NASA document — Defending Human Civilization From Supervolcanic Eruptions (pdf) — is less sensational; here is the abstract from the paper:
Large volcanic eruptions greater or equal to a magnitude 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (i.e., supervolcanic eruptions) eject >10 15 kg of ash and sulfate aerosols, sufficient to blanket sizeable fractions of continents and create a regional or global "volcanic winter." Such events could seriously reduce worldwide agricultural production for multiple years, causing mass famine. Supervolcanic eruptions occur more frequently than large asteroid or comet impacts that would have a similarly catastrophic effect to human civilization, especially now that many asteroid orbits have been mapped. We assess whether future supervolcanic eruptions could be dampened, delayed, or prevented by engineering solutions.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 09 2019, @11:21PM (6 children)
Well, it does happen in the real world. Unless, of course, everyone who ever makes voluntary contracts is sufficiently irrational that they're, I don't know, legally incompetent or some such. I'm not sure why I'd ever want a human in charge under that situation, if they're so bad off.
Or maybe you are said AC because "it looks like".
I guess you never heard of preppers (despite your use of the term earlier), eh? For example, in my neck of the woods, there is the Church Universal and Triumphant [wikipedia.org] or CUT for short. They have bomb shelters, two plus years of food (hence why I used that particular number), and other prepper things. They wouldn't survive a Yellowstone supervolcano eruption because they're too close, but things like nuclear war and other global disasters whose certain death zones lie elsewhere, they'll survive.
Now, one can do a rational cost/benefits on the value of prepping for global disaster, but it's not nutty to assume that the choice to not prep will always win. For example, if the US and China are in a military conflict and nukes have already been used in anger, I'm not going to assume that everything will stay non-disastrous. That would be nutty.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday April 09 2019, @11:53PM (5 children)
Even the briefest of glances at your link the CUT shows that those guys are not surviving anything.
Like all cults, they need a way for disillusioned members to leave, or they will be killing each other in months.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 10 2019, @02:25AM (4 children)
"Like all cults". Not many cult mass murders. Maybe you're a bit off on the timing?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 10 2019, @03:10AM (3 children)
Apart from Jonestown, Aum Shinrikyo, Order of the Solar Temple, or Heaven's Gate, you mean?
The other cults like the various Fundamentalist Mormon sects who practice polygamy force the extra men to leave.
If they didn't there would be violence.
From the CUT Wikipedia article:
That is really going to go down well when your dictations go against whatever the leaders have announced, won't it?
What happens when there's nowhere to run?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 10 2019, @03:56AM (2 children)
There's a lot more cults than four.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 10 2019, @04:51AM (1 child)
That's OK then.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 10 2019, @06:05PM