M.J. Rose

Here, from Radar magazine online, is an amusing AND yet actually informational list of ways the world could come to an end. In the spirit of the reincarnation theme of this blog, I’d like us to wax a bit on how the world could “reincarnate” itself out of these messes before it actually succumbs to them! Radar helps by suggesting some ways to survive the doomsday debacles…

Let the End Times Roll

With global warming hogging the limelight, and Nostradamus predicting

our impending demise, This excerpt from Radar Magazine’s February

issue explores the other apocalyptic scenarios threatening to do us

in.

From transgenic experiments destined to go awry to the imminent

culmination of the Mayan calendar’s 13th baktun cycle, we’ll have to

dodge a hell of a lot of bullets to make it to the next century. In a

cold panic, Radar sifted through mountains of data, interviewed the

world’s top experts, and prayed to several long-forgotten deities in

an attempt to assemble a list of the planet’s most pressing doomsday

scenarios and, more important, your best bets for staying alive.

BARREL FEVER

True, black gold hasn’t exactly been Earth’s best friend. But it would

be highly inconvenient to have it run out before we find a

replacement. The theory of peak oil—that global oil production will

eventually enter a steep, terminal decline—was introduced in 1956 by

the late geophysicist M. King Hubbert. “Think Rwanda, Baghdad,

post-Katrina New Orleans, on a global and permanent scale,” says Matt

Savinar, the man behind the website Life After the Oil Crash. He

envisions a world of freaky inflation, beluga-level food prices, and

wars between countries desperate for oil. In other words, time to

start investing in buggy whips.

How to Survive: According to James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long

Emergency, people residing in regions with plenty of railroads,

moderate climates, and farmland—like Oregon and New England—will be in better shape than those who live in, say, L.A.

HONEY HOLOCAUST

Remember the buzz about killer bees? So do we, fondly. Because it

turns out bees are really important, but since late 2006 they’ve been

disappearing for reasons nobody can quite explain. And it’s not just

honey supplies that will suffer if the bees bite it. You can also kiss

your fruits and veggies good-bye. “You could have the perfect field,

soil, and sun, and if the pollinator was not there you’d have a vine

and no fruit,” says Dr. Jeff Pettis, head USDA bee researcher. With

honeybees pollinating more than a quarter of the world’s food supply,

that’s a lot of empty vines (and stomachs). The financial impact of a

bee-free season would be $75 billion. Perhaps Albert Einstein put it

best: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man will

have no more than four years to live.”

How to Survive: Become part of the solution—starter hives are selling

for $215 on betterbee.com.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

The supervolcano buried beneath Yellowstone National Park last erupted

about 640,000 years ago. Frankly, we’re overdue for another shake-up.

“Next week, maybe,” according to Greg Breining, author of Super

Volcano: The Ticking Time Bomb Beneath Yellowstone National Park. Then

again, he concedes, the eruption could be a thousand or even a million

years away. But if the lava starts flowing, “All hell will break

loose,” Breining predicts. “A portion of the Earth far bigger than

Mount Everest would be melted, vaporized, turned into ash, and vaulted

high into the atmosphere.” No biggie, right? Until hours later, when

volcanic ash rains down on the southern prairie states, rendering

America’s wheat belt fallow for decades.

How to Survive: Since the jet stream blows east, set up shop somewhere

west of Wyoming, where a giant ash cloud is less likely.

Click here for the rest! There’s a lot more…

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