Actually, while I’m not sure it’s a megadisaster, there are geologic faults running through NY and New England. AIUI most buildings in those areas do not have anything like the earthquake resistance that’s the norm along the west coast. I suspect that an earthquake under Manhattan would drop much of the skyline.
And just for Zambini57, crack open the waste fuel storage pool at the plant in Westchester…
On preview: Little Nemo - colonize the Megallanic Clouds. I leave the method for that as an exercise for the student.
BTW, since someone has mentioned the expected magnetic field reversal, does anyone have a more detailed estimate of what will happen, besides that it’s likely we’ll lose the Van Allen belts for a few years?
Er, I mean…I think you’re poking fun at me, but that’s okay. I don’t really believe all that stuff will happen. I was just hypothesizing what would result if those things happen.
Awww, c’mon out, Gus, you’re safe enough from most of our imaginary disasters, in your little corner of Arkansas! Besides, all them cats’d warn you in plenty of time to evacuate!
My favourite mega disaster was the Gamma ray burst. Sure earth had one several billions of years ago, and it isn’t likely from a nearby source.
I have to admit that the changes that they said would come sound interesting. Basically, the sky would turn brown and the oceans would turn red. Also, there would be a reduction of 90% of sunlight that hits the planet surface and large numbers of people will die, yada, yada, yada. I wonder what a brown sky would look like.
Ah but the real fun part is that these things aren’t imaginary. Are few are unlikely, many are worst case senarios but most will happen, sooner or later. Mostly later.
Yeah, but we’re just imagining them right now, so **Gus ** is pretty safe to come out from under the bed. I personally believe *most * of these will *eventually * happen, but I refuse to worry about 'em.
yeah, but you’re in Atlanta–where the current drought is gonna kill you all of thirst long before you can gloat about this list of merely potential disasters.
My number one personal disaster fear is tsunamis. I’ve had a number of tsunami nightmares. National Geographic Channel did a marathon of disaster shows awhile ago and their tsunami episode’s hypothetical scary as shit tsunami (because apparently real life tsunamis aren’t scary enough?) was a mega tsunami hitting Honolulu. They had this CGI movie of giant waves destroying downtown Honolulu. Mental note to self: never visit Honolulu.
We’ve been gitin’ some rain lately, and rain season is on the way. But if the drought continues then we realy need to stop sending an extra 100,000 gallons a day down the 'Houch to the Gulf. In other words "fuck the mussles.
A lot of these are good in the sense that they kill a lot of people but they have no style. There’s just not enough suffering in most of these. At most, if you were in the open you’d be able to look into the sky and murmer, “Oooh…pretty” before becoming a pink paste.
So, put me down for old school doomsday scenarios like a nuclear war or a new virulent flu which kills hundreds of millions of people. Sure, in a nuclear war a lot of people will just die instantly, but if it’s done right (i.e. a “limited exchange”) a whole lot more people will die of starvation, disease, and radiation poisoning than in the primary blasts. We’d be looking at a complete shutdown of civilization as we know it – no food, no water, no services, no economy, just several square miles of rubble where cities used to be and an entire population entering monkey mode for what little remains and there’s not enough for everyone by a long shot. Now that’s how you go down in style. A lot better than how the Romans went about it, anyway.
And the virus thing is also good. There’d be the paranoia, the long and painful sickness where you may or may not die, and a situation where there are more corpses appearing then there are places to bury them. Everyone would have to watch loved ones get sick and die a horrible, painful death as they cough up blood and vomit black goo. Follow that up with a shut down of the world economy over several months.
