A Horribly Pessimistic View of the Future

Since everyone keeps on posting past visions of the future, I decided to “think outside the box” and post some current predictions of the future of mankind or, more precisely, the current predictions of the dismal and hopeless future entailed in the complete eradication of mankind.

http://www.flowthefilm.com/
This documentary covers the very real and very dangerous problem of water scarcity. The status quo has led to an increased unavailability of fresh water. Now, with dramatic privatization of fresh water, water is less available to those who need it and is leading to an unavoidable global crisis. Don’t let my poor delineation of the film affect your willingness to see it: WATCH THE TRAILER.

http://www.climatecrisis.net/
This is the official “An Inconvenient Truth” website. I’m sure you already know about it.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/supervolcano/supervolcano.html
This slideshow applies directly to the future of America. Through seismic feeds and geological surveys, scientists have discovered that Yellowstone houses the largest volcano in North America. The volcano is referred to as a “super volcano” in accordance to the VEI scale of predicting the magnitude of an eruption. Should the volcano erupt, Professor Bill McGuire of University College London predicts “more than 1,000 sq km of land can be obliterated by pyroclastic ash flows, the surrounding continent is coated in ash and sulphur gases are injected into the atmosphere, making a thin veil of sulphuric acid all around the globe and reflecting back sunlight for years to come. Daytime becomes no brighter than a moonlit night.”

http://www.nautilus.org/gps/scenarios/future.PDF
I don’t think you should read this document. This is probably the scariest report I’ve come across. It brings to light the devastating, and not too unrealistic, possibility of nuclear war and the all out destruction of civilization. It provides information on who has nuclear weapons, who might have them, who might be making them, who might use them, and who might give them to nations who shouldn’t have them. For all of you who have been putting off those plans of building a nuclear bomb shelter for fear of Armageddon, read this paper and get that inspiration you’ve been looking for.

http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2001/010308tw.pdf
This cite essentially outlines the most crucial threats to American life in particular. The Vice Admiral covers looming threats such as globalization, overpopulation, rapid technological development and proliferation, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, and intelligence threats. Wilson also hones in on American challenges such as with military mobilization, increases in crime, and foreign threats e.g. our old friends: China and Russia.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/apr/14/research.science2
The Guardian looks into the crystal ball and asks scientists to figure out how we’re all going to die in this article. An inference I drew from this article: we should all just give up right now. We have robots, epidemic, asteroids, cosmic rays, black holes, and even our own DNA out to get us. For the most part, this article covers the likelihood of these dangers happening in our life times. Luckily for mankind, most of these threats will come to fruition and kill us all in the next 70 years. At least we don’t have to spend so much time worrying about them ever happening, right?

Some special acknowledgements for our runner-up sources of Armageddon are: zombies, giant rabbits (Night of Lepus), food scarcity, aliens, sterility, the 2008 presidential election, oxygen depletion, mountain lions, eradication of a keystone species (bees and Mark Wahlberg), really bad eggs, gay marriage (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/06/huckabee-gay-marriage-wo_n_75680.html), chlorofluorocarbons, and the Van Buren boys. I apologize for my tasteless sense of humor.

I also apologize for only including these horrible specters of doom in my posting. Much like my generation, I blame the media. I implore you to find as many positive outlooks on the future as there are negative predictions. Other than The Jetsons, the current media tends to envision the future as bleak and apocalyptic. So you should blame the media for all the gloom and doom of my blog post. I know I do.