We could all be fucked with one volcanic eruption

Good. Take that, capitalism!

I mean, there's so many ways we all could be fucked. I just don't feel the need to specifically dread volcanoes. All-purpose dread is so much more effective.

Wait until the caldron under Yellowstone park explodes. We can all put our head between our legs and kiss our ass good-bye 😳

“ Good. Take that, capitalism!”

And every other ‘ism, too.

OP - and?

*The Yellowstone caldera explodes*

Me, running outside watching the tsunami of smoke and ash billow toward me:

“TRANS WOMEN AREN’T WOMEN!”

There's been increased earthquake activity around this super-volcano an hour from where I live and it always makes me really nervous. Although an eruption is very unlikely, it would take out the entire north island of NZ.

I guess it wouldn’t be the worst way to go

[quote]Maybe there is nothing we can do

There isn't OP. From a practical standpoint, a metro or a volcanic eruption could end 99% of life on the planet tomorrow, and there isn't a damn thing we could do.

So it really isn't worth worrying about. If it happens, it happens. Live life to the fullest today.

Can it happen before Monday morning?

Pompeii away!!!

R9 I didn't realize that the Metro had become that dangerous

Yellowstone Caldera, bathe us in your healing apocalyptic love.

[QUOTE] Can it happen before Monday morning?

Why? Are you in trouble?

Some things can be done.

In the US, nimbyism would stop such measures. And we’d all be blown to bits because some asshole didn’t want her million dollar view obstructed by icky machines.

Embarrassing thread - love it

There's plenty we could do! We could cover the open mouth of the volcanoes with that spray foam Great Stuff. Or run a garden hose up to the top and run water into the volcano until we put it out.

And those are just two ideas I thought up off the top of my head, and I'm not even a volcanologist!

i'll be fine!

Now, to be fair to OP, I'm sure the book is fascinating and worth reading. I'm just not in the mood to pit one means of death and/or apocalypse over the other.

Oh, OP, LIGHTEN UP!!!! Ya gotta live a little!!!!!

The idea of billionaire bunkers that will save the 1% amuses me. When the 99% of us are gone, what the fuck are they gonna do? Cook their own meals?

Earthquakes scare me more than volcanoes.

R22 Wow, fascinating

In the old days they used to toss virgins in volcanoes to appease them, but just try and find a virgin when you need one 😏

[quote]In the old days they used to toss virgins in volcanoes to appease them, but just try and find a virgin when you need one 😏

I have a whole list of blocked posters, who have personalities that all but guarantee they're virgins. We could start with them. I probably have enough to last centuries.

I live in Philly R12.

I kid, I kid.

Are there any volcanoes in Connecticut? I’d love to get out of having to do my estate planning this year.

r21, that's what the robots and AI will be for. You don't think I've been doing ths stuff just for shits and giggles, do you?

There have been five planet-wide extinction-level events in this planet's history. And we are arguably living in the sixth mass die-off, caused by human activity. There are also the smaller-scale extinction events, ranging from meteor impacts to atmospheric poisoning caused by the evolution of algae into an oxygen-generating life form.

In each case, most life on the planet was decimated, but eventually recovered and evolved in a new direction.

The 1% are useless if they were left on their own they’d rot

I hope an asteroid hits a volcano in the crater so we can go out with a twofer.

[quote][R21], that's what the robots and AI will be for. You don't think I've been doing ths stuff just for shits and giggles, do you?

We've seen your tech, Elon. Didn't you just have a spaceship blow up the other day?

If you treat the AI anything like you've treated the employees of Twitter, your robots will probably kill you.

They call them population bottleneck events. The volcanic winter from the Toba volcanic eruption in Indonesia 75,000 years ago may have reduced the human population to as low as 15,000 people (40 breeding pairs).

I like those odds, R33!

Well we almost got fucked with Covid and nobody saw that coming therefore, what ever it is that is going to fuck us all up on a global scale will be nothing like what you read in books.

Unexpected fuckery

The book also goes on about solar activity and even supernovae that have had significant and negative impacts on Earth.

Historically, we are regularly fucked.

And they never call afterwards ...

I worry about solar events. They could really duck our shit up

R38, the shit we think matters now … one supernova that fucks up our atmosphere- no one is gonna care about which bathroom you use.

[quote]I worry about solar events. They could really duck our shit up

Yeah, our moose would be cooked.

There's no point in worrying about things over which we have no control, especially those considered 'extinction level events.'

And all that bother with recycling will have been for nothing.

No, we will NOT accept incels!

Whatever happens, just let it be instantaneous.

That reminds me, remember JOE VS THE VOLCANO? Was that Tom Hanks’s and Meg Ryan’s first rom com together?

OP's author has high academic credentials, but his publications all seem kind of, ahem, public-facing in a broad-brush, big-data sort of way. He seems to tackle immensely long historical and geographical spans. Can anyone assess his work? (I haven't more than skimmed it yet.) Am I being unfair in suspecting he tends toward the sensationalistic and simplistic?

God, I hope so.

The author also notes that the collapse of a North America ice dam caused global cooling about 8,000 years ago.

We live in charmed times.