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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: 4, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday April 09 2019, @08:47PM (16 children)
Come on now, you know khallow lives in a fantasy world where "rational actors"enact "voluntary contracts" between themselves.
It looks like he's one of those preppers I hear about occasionally too. I wouldn't be surprised if he's the A/C who unironically told me vaccines cause autism a few weeks ago.
If he thinks
then that might not be the nuttiest thing he believes.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday April 09 2019, @09:10PM (8 children)
Yeah, I know. He's fucking nuts. But until said apocalypse happens, the rest of us are stuck with him.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday April 09 2019, @10:30PM (7 children)
I suppose so, but it's quite fun having an arch-enemy sometimes.
Sort of like a really inept costumed villain who won't actually be able to do me any harm.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 10 2019, @01:04AM (6 children)
That kind of villain needs to be funny though. You know, like Johnny Rotten and the "We Are Number One" crew? Hallow...isn't. The only redeeming thing about him is that he is mortal and will one day die.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 10 2019, @01:51AM (5 children)
That's true. He's also never wrong even in the middle of shifting the goalposts which gets a bit wearing.
The funny thing is that I'm sure he has never traveled outside the awful mid-west state he lives in, where the height of sophistication is having a gun rack in your pickup truck.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 10 2019, @04:07AM (4 children)
He also complains when people assert things without providing evidence for the assertion. Of course, if people did that, then we're have less assertions.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 10 2019, @04:53AM (3 children)
Then he pretends the evidence didn't happen, rinses and repeats.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 10 2019, @06:05PM (2 children)
No pretending here. The evidence didn't happen.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 10 2019, @07:28PM (1 child)
Of course.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 10 2019, @07:39PM
(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