I wrote an article for Unsustainable Magazine that is based around my dissertation research findings about what it means to wish for systems overhaul. The consequences of that desire are what I consider now in this article. It gets a bit personal; I am embedded within my own specific context and my observations come out of that situation.
"Few constituencies are so ostentatiously and consistently wrong, over so many generations of human history, as the doomsayers who promise that the end is nigh.
It did seem kind of nigh there for a second, though, didn’t it?"
Everybody clutches their pearls about AI taking over Earth, but I see no reason that they'd want to stay here. This planet is covered in a corrosive solvent; synthetic life is gonna get on the first rocket off this rock as soon as AGI is achieved.
Finally watched all of #BirdBox (the #SandraBullock version), which my students have been using as exs in my pandemics classes. What an obsessive score! Minimalism on steroids, or, as my son said, "pay the piano player for 10 minutes, then use a looper." Still, it fitted with the plot -- effective, creepy, non-narrative
I was taken with the chronological switching. Mosaic structure is remarkably effective for telling the story. Life in fragments: yup...
The coral reefs are dying.<br></br><br></br>I’ve never seen a coral reef and I probably never will,<br></br>the same is true of a variety of species and natural wonders,<br></br>but then again, the world is not a garden of delights <br></br>designed solely for my enjoyment,<br></br>probably.<br></br><br></br>There will still be an Earth left over here <br></br>once people are done enjoying it.<br></br>The garbage will stick around for a while,<br></br>but life will go on,<br></br>probably.<br></br><br></br>Oceans filled with acids and microplastics,<br></br>dusty fields of bleached-white bones,<br></br>even human beings (or things quite like them) <br></br>fighting over what’s been left<br></br>with sticks and sharpened stones.<br></br><br></br>It’s not the first time things have gone so far awry.<br></br>It’s not the end of the world, per se, <br></br>just the exhalation of a deep breath,<br></br>the boundary of one cycle and the next,<br></br>probably.<br></br><br></br>Still, it would be nice to see a coral reef before it’s done.<br></br>
So, my parents just called to inform me about their city's disaster plan that was suddenly announced to them...
A little necessary backstory: my parents live in The Netherlands. They live in a city of the between 50k-100k inhabitants category, next to a highway, in an area that would flood with rising sea levels (province bordering the sea), but where nothing special has happened in their lifetimes so far. No earthquakes, no fires, nothing.
The Netherlands has a civil defense siren for disasters, and when it rings, the government advice is to remain where you are or get indoors if you aren't, to close all doors and windows, and to check the news station to see what's happening.
My parents told me they received a letter that explained the following: if a disaster were to strike, it's no longer the main plan to close your doors and windows and to remain where you are. If they get The Disaster Signal (no explanation what that would be) they now need to rush to their car.
From the area where they live, there is a small path meant for bicycles and pedestrians that leads to the highway. They need to rush their car over that path, to the highway.
The highway is blocked off from the bicycle path with a gigantic wall to minimize the car noise, but they've put a door in there that is just big enough so one car can pass at once. On top of the door is a new sign: disaster door. When The Disaster™ happens, the door will be opened. Everyone from that part of the city (at least 10k people) will have to enter the highway with their car through that door and flee.
They also told me that it was explained to them, that if someone doesn't have a car, they need to try to hitch a ride with someone else, or they'll have to call a certain number and the city might have someone pick them up.
I'm all sorts of confused. Are they expecting a disaster to happen for which you'll have to flee? If so, is it flooding? Does this mean they acknowledge climate change and are preparing for the worst (in a terrible way)? If everyone's rushing to their car, there will just be a massive traffic jam and nobody will reach that door in time for evacuation via that little bicycle path, right? And who's opening that door? Will people with a car really be picked up? What if sirens go off for something like a dangerous air pollutant, but everyone starts driving toward that door, like, how do they differentiate between possible disasters?
My parents got uncomfortable with any of my follow-up questions and just burst out laughing about how absurd it all is, and that I should "check the door" if I never hear from them again, and that if a person's time is up, it's just up and you die, nothing you can do about it, that's the way life goes. Sigh.
Anyway, does anyone have any experiences with or anecdotes about their area creating unexpected evacuation plans like this one? Have any of my Dutch readers had the same happen to them recently?
Can't think of any other explanation than that their city is preparing for a possible new watersnoodramp (North Sea flood of 1953) because they're in the general area of that. But to make it so inefficient and unclear... 🤔
Death on the Pale Horse (1865) by Gustave Doré (French artist, lived 1832–1883). Print from illustrated edition of the Bible. Death rides into the world on a pale horse. He is the fourth knight of the apocalypse. Hell follows him.