Some of the argument and speculation about Y2K has been along the lines of, "Man has survived so far, 2 World Wars, Depressions, Natural Disasters - We'll make it through this too. If Man was so stupid, how'd he survive this long?"

We live in a unique time in History. It's only been in the last 50 years, that a single man or act of man, could DESTROY the planet. In earlier ages, nations could war, but the destruction of the planet was never possible. Today, it is. Whether through military means, or just the depletion of life sustaining resources, We can now impact the entire PLANET. We haven't survived "long" at all with our current planet wrecking potential.

Lets assume that Man has been around for one million years. We've had the capacity to destroy the place for 50ys.

50 divided by 1,000,000 = .01%

That's one one hundredth of ONE percent of 1,000,000. Just because we haven't blown it yet, in that infintesimally small window, is no assurance that if Man behaves as he has the other 99.99% of the time, Man will be OK.

Given our potential to do irreparable damage to the planet, our leaders should be the MOST responsible people that have EVER held office in the history of the world. Not just responsible for all people alive now, but all the unborn generations of the future.

Yet, what do we have? Just the opposite! We have people who are yo-yo's for money, power, personal ego, etc. Leaders that lie to us, leaders that in other areans would be thought of as scum. Where are the leaders that are seriously considering the fate of humans the next 200 years? Most people are concerned about as far ahead as next week.

In comparison to how long Man has been around versus how long we've had the ability to totally destroy things, would it be surprising that we would screw up the first chance we got? I never do things as well the first time out.

Couple this to the general world Oil situation, and Y2K or not, it looks like the future ain't gonna be no Mayberry RFD.

-- Gregg (g.abbott@starting-point.com), December 06, 1999

Answers

"If Man was so stupid, how'd he survive this long?"

Ya know, when I couple this question to those "Chemtrail" posts, I wonder the same d*mned thing. It just blows my mind...

-- Rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 06, 1999.

Your math is wrong.

50 divided by 1,000,000 = 0.00005

Point taken, though.

-- (dot@dot.dot), December 06, 1999.

i agree most wholeheartedly, with the following clarification: the Earth is incredibly resilient, having survived billions of years of cataclysms: polar shifts, ice ages, meteor storms and cometary impacts, floods, et al.. it is the race Mankind, itself a cataclysm, that will not survive if this course is held. we cannot destroy the planet; we can only make it unviable for a span. talk about "biting the hand that feeds you."

-- RZN (robinsun@netscape.net), December 06, 1999.

50 divided by 1,000,000. = .00005

1% of 1,000,000 = 10,000

50 divided by 10,000 (or 1% of 1,000,000) = .005

.005 changed to a percent = .5% (.5% of 10,000)

That's 1/2 of one percent of one million.

-- Gregg (g.abbott@starting-point.com), December 06, 1999.

Well heck -it's a really small number!!

-- Gregg (g.abbott@starting-point.com), December 06, 1999.

(1000000/100) = 1 % of 1000000 = 10000 correct. One percent of 1 million is 10 thousand.

(50/10000) = The decimal representation of the ratio of 50 to one percent of 1000000 OR 0.005 of one percent of one million.

0.005 per cent it the correct answer. The point is well spoken as are others. We can not destroy the planet because we will be dead before we can complete the act. We can make it uninhabitable for a very long time.

I don't believe we will accomplish that either. I believe just when we are about to get that job done, we are going to discover there really is a God after all.

-- (...@.......), December 06, 1999.

I'm willing to agree that mankind will survive...I'd just like my family to be part of the surviving group...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), December 06, 1999.

Greg, your argument is valid. But remember that mass extinction's are not uncommon in the history of the world. Life finds a way to perpetuate itself. The (proposed) comet that hit near the Yucatan may have wiped out 70-90% of all organisms on this planet; the interesting (proposed) phenomenon after a mass extinction is rapid evolution. I'm not saying humans don't have the power to cause a mass extinction, because we do! Keep in mind that this planet has been around the block a few times and the only thing that will annihilate all organisms here is a supernova.

Sorry, I know this isn't encouraging for humans -- I hope very much that we can wise up. But if we're too greedy to get along we'll all get ours sooner or later. Then the planet (or some other planet) can try again with more agreeable complex organisms.

-- Mori-Nu (silkenet@yahoo.com), December 07, 1999.