# Disasters that never materialized
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 11, 2020, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840 "2020-08-11T23:22:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2020, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/1 "2020-08-11T23:22:35Z")
As I watched my neighbor drive away in their Tesla, I realized that the wholesale slaughter of pedestrians due to their lack of engine noise seems to not have happened. What other predicted problems ended up being a non-issue?
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### Author:  [@feppytweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/feppytweed)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/2 "2020-08-12T00:19:11Z")
First thing I thought of when I read the title was Y2K. Sure, it gave us the film **Entrapment** , but there were no nuclear missles going off, no bank failures, nobody thinking it was the year 0. Pretty tame.
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/3 "2020-08-12T00:30:29Z")
Lots of people predicted “out-of-control gun battles in the streets” if concealed carry laws were passed.
Didn’t happen.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/4 "2020-08-12T01:33:24Z")
I don’t hear much about killer bees these days.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/5 "2020-08-12T01:39:45Z")
The murder hornets have a better agent.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/6 "2020-08-12T02:45:16Z")
That’s funny.
I was going to mention them. I remember when there were articles following their relentless march north, and the catastrophe that awaited the US…
Well, they are here, and pretty well established (all wild honeybee colonies are assumed to be Africanized out here, since they out-compete European bees). They kill a few pets and maybe a person or two every year, but you get used to it…
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/7 "2020-08-12T03:21:10Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> They kill a few pets and maybe a person or two every year, but you get used to it…
It is what it is.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/8 "2020-08-12T04:19:57Z")
Yeah, and here I was thinking that only zombies get used to getting killed every year.
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### Author:  [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/9 "2020-08-12T05:03:59Z")
I remember that when the Large Hadron Collider was powered up for the first time, it was going to create a black hole and we’d all get sucked into it.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/10 "2020-08-12T05:29:27Z")
We are approaching the 33rd anniversary of my favorite disaster that never materialized: 16 -17 August 1987… the Harmonic Convergence.
It was hilarious; people all around the world were actually worried it was going to destroy the planet.
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### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/11 "2020-08-12T06:04:46Z")
[hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com](http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/) is still operational. I wonder if there’s a code condition for ‘YEP’ 😉
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/12 "2020-08-12T06:24:33Z")
Maybe not what the OP means, but I did some reading last night for fun about the averted 1999 Providence airport collision. On a foggy night, an un-listening air traffic controller **twice** cleared a US Airways airliner to take off when a United jet was blocking the runway and complaining to the un-listening controller that he was, in fact, still on the runway. The US Airways crew wisely refused to take off despite the controller’s urging, demanding that the United jet’s whereabouts be known with certainty first.
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### Author:  [@Lantern2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern2)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/13 "2020-08-12T06:44:02Z")
Y2K comes immediately to mind. BTW has there been a good book after the event which examines the issue in detail? I recall two schools of thought: one which said that the problem was overblown the whole time and the second which says that it was precisely the preventive work done which successfully minimized any issues.
Given the enormous sums spend by both governments and corporations around the world it’s important to figure out which side has the better case.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/14 "2020-08-12T08:37:29Z")
> [@Lantern2](#):
>
> Given the enormous sums spend by both governments and corporations around the world it’s important to figure out which side has the better case.
Both are true. The problems were overblown and the actual problems were minimized by the preventive work, Plus millions upon millions were spent just to be extra careful looking for non-existent over-blown problems. Every industry could benefit from a fictional disaster that drives investment like that.
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### Author:  [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/15 "2020-08-12T14:48:26Z")
I remember when Global Cooling in the 1970s was predicting Ice-ball Earth. Some of those climate scientists were the same ones who now talk about Global Warming.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/16 "2020-08-12T15:02:01Z")
No they aren’t.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/17 "2020-08-12T16:14:03Z")
> [@Turble](#):
>
> Some of those climate scientists were the same ones who now talk about Global Warming
They are now talking about Climate Change, things evolve as we understand more. Some people just can’t seem to grasp that. Or they do understand and live to cause confusion. Much like the COVID-19 deniers and mask usage.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/18 "2020-08-12T16:19:19Z")
> [@erysichthon](#):
>
> I remember that when the Large Hadron Collider was powered up for the first time, it was going to create a black hole and we’d all get sucked into it.
Also, the Cassini probe [was going to kill everyone](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/09/cassini-protests-environmentalism/539865/) on Earth.
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### Author:  [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/19 "2020-08-12T16:25:09Z")
That makes no sense.
Are you really claiming that none of them changed their minds? Or that they all died before Global Warming became the current dogma? Or erasing it from history, denying that it was ever a thing?
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disasters-that-never-materialized/917840/20 "2020-08-12T16:31:06Z")
I remember stopping for gas back 2011 and glancing up at a [Harold Camping billboard](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/us/harold-camping-radio-entrepreneur-who-predicted-worlds-end-dies-at-92.html) having no idea who this yahoo was.
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