Forgive another short post, but I noticed yesterday more evidence on the
BBC website that a major area of ice in the Western Antactic is melting
rapidly.
Last night it struck me how much visual news there is about earthquakes in
various parts of the world. There are a few suggestions that the disasters
are the responsibilityof stupid less educated people than ourselves who do
not observe proper expensive building regulations. However the impact of
the powerful images brought by extemely efficient global news services,
tends much more to emphasise our common humanity. There is pressure for
deeper scientific analysis, which shows to millions of people around the
world, that our planet is in fact continually shifting and unstable,
balancing as we are on moving tectonic plates, governed by the laws of
chaos theory.
It also raises the issue of how to insure against such unexpected
disasters, whether they are earthquakes, or a viral variant which infects
much of the protein supply of half a continent. This requires serious
management of reserve funds to the tune of billions of dollars.
The long term ("secular") pressures for the reproduction of human life to
be brought again under some sort of social control, are extremely strong.
Chris Burford
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