I'm no conspiracy buff, but is it me, or is something changing in our world? Or has it always been like this and now, because of our media saturated society, we just know about this stuff more than ever? I mean when has the word mega-disaster ever been used before the 21st century?
A University of Delaware researcher says the floating ice sheet covers 100 square miles — more than four times the size of New York's Manhattan Island.
WASHINGTON – Despite their tiny size, plant plankton found in the world's oceans are crucial to much of life on Earth. They are the foundation of the bountiful marine food web, produce half the world's oxygen and suck up harmful carbon dioxide.
And they are declining sharply.
How's that for an uplifting blog post?
To be fair, there were stories of conservation and innovation, but I just focused on the ones of impending doom. As I stated earlier, I'm no 2012 or rapture believer, but I tend to believe, as Buffalo Springfield declares, "Something's Happening Here." And it doesn't look good.
6 comments:
True, something seems to be happening. But looking back through the millions of years Earth has survived, not all of it was spent with proper weather and nature behaving. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.
Agreed. When my mother worried over Y2K, I laughed. I'm sure people during the Middle Ages when the Black Plague wiped out close to half of the total population thought the world was surely coming to an end. And we've moved on since then. Imagine what the news would have been like back then had they had the 24 news cycle we have today!
Perhaps the media coverage, including the Internet with its blogs, is drawing more attention to disasters around the world.
When I was a kid, we didn't hear about things like fires in Russia; the radio broadcasts (remember radio?) were too busy telling of the threat from Russia and "The Bomb."
(If a bomb is imminent, hide under your desk - Im not sure why. Death by desk is preferable to death by roof?"
I can tell you, one item you listed is an annual event. I lived in Riverside, California, for many years and I do not remember a summer without the fires pushed along by the Santa Ana winds. Southern California is semi-desert and becomes a tinderbox in the long, dry summer. The news of fires, evacuations, and homes burned was not considered a mega-disaster in connection with the wider world, although certainly disasterous to the local community.
So perhaps the media coverage of today along with the rhetoric of today are putting fear in the hearts of many.
Who knows? After all, the end of the world will not necessarily be announced in advance through our ubiquitous media giving us time to hide under our desks.
I think the media - and our obsession with it and a 24 news media - has a lot to do with it.
I recall reading somewhere that a radio broadcaster one night got on live radio to read the day's events and news and said, "There is no news tonight!" and concluded his broadcast.
How nice would it be if someone on Entertainment Tonight said, "There is no news tonight!"
Wouldn't that be nice? I don't think that's possible anymore, whether a slanted view of old news or 'entertainment' of what celeb is dating who, there is always be something to report that will stir restlessness in the lives of viewers everywhere . . .
If the media declared a moratorium on news for one day, I'm convinced our initial sigh of relief would be followed by a day of anxiety. I think we've all become news addicts, some without realizing it.
By the way, Kurt, I like your family pictures.
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