Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
But who really thought the likelihood of nuclear war was in our control? It certainly wasn't in the control of kids scared out of their wits watching The Day After. Or people watching increasing geopolitical tension on their TV knowing that with no warning the 200 largest cities in the world could be vaporized and 80 per cent of the rest of the population of the planet would die in the following months from radiation poisoning and nuclear winter. That's a more nightmarish prospect than draughts and extreme weather gradually increasing decade by decade.
And yet with no reason to believe the Cold War would end, we got on with our lives. As will the young people freaking out about global warming today.
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Destruction through nuclear war was always within "our" (mankind's) control. It would have taken a series of conscious acts to begin the end.
You might consider nuclear winter to be more terrifying, but I think the gradual decay of society and the rapid changes that are coming are going to be much more terrifying. The acidification of the ocean is going to kill off the fisheries. Almost half of the world rely on the oceans for their primary source of protein. People will then have to fight for other food sources. Disease is going to become a massive problem and we're going to see a battle between the haves and the have-nots for life saving treatments. Water sources are going to become that more important, and people will fight for access to those. The dominoes for the downfall of society have long been setup, we've just been waiting for something to push that first domino over. Climate change may push them all over all at once. That is way more terrifying than the thought of being instantly vaporized.