Scary happenings...:(

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

Ok, now this is getting a bit scary. Two major earthquakes and a volcanic eruption in one day....
I pray that our New Zealand folks are ok. Hugs to all of ya'll...
Cat

[roy m cox]

it's now called global waring , all the news keeps telling people is dogma by paid for scientist that say it nothing to worry about it happens every 100yrs , well I have been in bio science and have been studding the environment and can tell every one this is not a normal thing that is just happening every 100yrs or so,, like when it started to worm up a week ago i told people just watch it'll get cold and snow a few more times and just got laughed at by a loco weather man who was just coming in the store and then every one just walked away thinking i was being funny but now its 14'f out and we have a foot of snow ,, so now who is being funny ,

but yeah it's getting very scary i have food and water stored away to last about 3 or 4 months and hope every one on this site will do the same i care about you all even tho i don't know you in person ,,..

[Hephaestion]

While climate change is a reality, global warming is not universal as we in the UK are to expect cooling with the disruption of warming influences.

More importantly, the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions mentioned are from mechanisms that are not derived from climate change (but may cause it in turn). These events are geological phenomena that have been going on for thousands of millions of years and are linked to plate tectonics and continental drift.

It is conceivable that geological processes have been influenced marginally by undeground nuclear explosions but the likelyhood is that the effect has been small and much localised e.g. possibly delaying the Yellowstone caldera activity by releasing pressures in the earth's crust.

As with Cat - concerns and thoughts for the people affected.

[Arthas]

Things will get worse all the time. I'm one of those paranoid guys who see worse in everything and prepare for it.

Nothing scare me more than a zombie apocalypse. But, it's something that's possible to survive.

Wish we have holodeck or something like that to prepare better.

[mikey3000]

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY

(because the kid in the video looks like me when I was that age)

[tenni]

When people make such statements or I have these feelings, I find myself reflecting on the reason(s) why.

It seems to me that we are not really concerned about climate change or the Earth's teutonic plates bumping as much as we are able to empathize and place ourselves in that situation. Yet, we are able to pass over other tragedies and only feel a slight "too bad"?

That is what really scares me. Did I picked the most significant one? Am I being manipulated to feel this emotion?

Hundreds and thousands are killed in wars and by our people and yet we become numb to it. Certainly if the media is present we are more than likely to have an increased empathy for the tragedy. That seems to depend upon how we are informed and what is put in or left out. Most definitely when we actually personally know of someone who has become involved we empathize and feel the fear.

I think that I found it more shocking/scary to read this weekend that Khadaffi stopped the Libyan national blood bank from sending blood to the hospitals where civilians had been sent after being shot by his forces. The hospitals ran out of blood. How inhumane that deed was. That event was not really shown visually clear to me though and yet the horrific novelty scares me. The man speaking from Libya voice was crackly but the woman's voice in Canada sounded visibly schocked and said "Oh my God". Was it her voice that made me feel more fear? Probably, it did emphasize the horror of the Ghadaffi deed bringing it to a repulsive level for me..maybe not you though?

Yet, still seeing buildings collapse and historical ones is sad especially when you know that people are buried under the rubble. If any of us had ever been in such a similar earthquake it must bring awful scary feelings back.

In order to survive or not become overwhelmed we pick and chose what to react to.

[mikey3000]

When people make such statements or I have these feelings, I find myself reflecting on the reason(s) why.

It seems to me that we are not really concerned about climate change or the Earth's teutonic plates bumping as much as we are able to empathize and place ourselves in that situation. Yet, we are able to pass over other tragedies and only feel a slight "too bad"?

That is what really scares me.

Hundreds and thousands are killed in wars and by our people and yet we become numb to it. Certainly if the media is present we are more than likely to have an increased empathy for the tragedy. That seems to depend upon how we are informed and what is put in or left out. Most definitely when we actually personally know of someone who has become involved.

I think that I found it more shocking/scary to read this weekend that Khadaffi stopped the Libyan national blood bank from sending blood to the hospitals where civilians had been shot by his forces. The hospitals ran out of blood. How inhumane that deed was. Yet, still seeing buildings collapses and historical ones is sad especially when you know that people are buried under the rubble.

In order to survive or not become overwhelmed we pick and chose what to react to.

Tenni, I also think it is a built in coping mechanism. When a million are killed we cannot comprehend that large a loss of human life, especially in a foreign land with a foreign way of life. But in NZ, the number is not overwhelming, and the people? Well, they are us, our way of life. Thus we see ourselves in the disaster making it easier to put a human face on the tragedy. But people are people the world over, and so is tragedy.

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

Well Tenni, people dont scare me or concern me as much as Mother Nature Does. We human have dug deep down into her, causing a maze of tunnels and holes, blown her up on top and underneath the ground, then Humans have the audacity to act surprised when there is a cave in and miners are trapped. The cover the Earth with cement so she cant move, or breath and grow, then are horrified when she shifts a little and causes massive earthquakes. There is so much weight on the earths surface that its a wonder it doesnt all collaspe inward one day from vehicles, building, roads, billions of tons of concrete and steel, and humans expect her to just sit still and be a good girl. We have compacted, constricted, and squished her to the point where she has to rearrange to get comfortable, and when she does, somethings gotta give! You cover the earth with concrete and when a quake Does happen, its got no where to go, it cant just rumble thru, its Going to cause some major distruction.


The Earth has tilted slightly, and that's going to cause some Major probs for us mere humans. We've messed up this old world so much over the years, and are now shocked and surprised that these events are happening. The poles shifting, the Arctic melt down, the multitude or quakes, the bizzare weather patterns, the cold fronts coming in all over, animals, birds, and plants dying off, and freaks of nature surfacing. We've poisioned the air to where its hard to breathe almost anywhere you go.

Face it folks, we as humans have fucked up, its our faults. We gots to deal with it. We fucked up our environment and we are going to have to deal with it the best we can.
Cat....Not completely insane, but close..:}

[mikey3000]

No, not insaine.

It's all apart of Gia's revenge. Remember people... If the earth dies, we all die, but if the people die, the earth lives. I accept that.

[tenni]

Gee...lol
You two(Cat & Mikey) posted a response while I still need to clarify my thoughts and was editing...lol

I don't disagree with you Cat on the environmental issue. I completely agree with you but after being concerned for decades and still creating art about these issues created by humans, I do feel some numbness or hopelessness that I can do anything about it. Don't get me wrong, I still am concerned. When I read or see about such natural disasters as has happened in NZ, images immediately come to my mind about the horror of the 2009? Tsuenami caused by an earthquake and huge waves engulfing people and buildings. Some might say totally unrelated but a horrific natural disaster that is etched in my memory.

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

Careful Dumpling. You and I being in agreement on something is Bound to cause some kind of other natural disaster Somewhere..lol Demons are still blaming Us for the Ice Age they've experianced......lol
Silly Cat.

[Spiro]

Days like today and what is happening in the world, I am glad I am a meditator. Most things I can not change, but I can change what is in my mind and in my thoughts. Everything else God help us.

[roy m cox]

I'll just word it like this ,,

some times words and feelings can be just that ,,

then some times words and feelings should be heeded ..

i just like to be safe not sorry :2cents:

[Nadir]

Humm, I remember that this last holidays, there were lots of report in the news about masses of birds and fishes appearing dead, both in the U.S.A. and in Europe. I remember telling my mother "It looks like a bad omen". I was waiting for someone to provide me with a scientific explanation but sadly there was none of it. My heart goes out to the people of New Zealand. My cousin was there on her honeymoon with her husband, and they told me of how lovely the place was, and how people treated them so nicely they wish they can come back when they are older. I dunno if Cat is right and maybe this is Mother Nature´s way of screaming she is hurt, but I have to admit I am with Tenni in this. Human acts of cruelty against their own kind strikes me more than natural catastrophes. I live on the Canary Islands, just off the coast of Morocco, and we are getting somewhat scared of the riots and revolts that are happening into the Islamic world. On a positive note, I think it would be cool to spread change in those countries and allow them to have a safe transition to democracy. But at the same time, I think about what happened in Iran on the 1970´s when the Shah was deposed and the Ayatollah came into power and I cannot help but ponder if it will happen again with our neighbours. Only time will tell, but at least I am glad that Gadaffi is going to pay for what he has done. He is just another dictator, like Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin or Franco before him...

[darkeyes]

Human acts of cruelty against their own kind strikes me more than natural catastrophes. I live on the Canary Islands, just off the coast of Morocco, and we are getting somewhat scared of the riots and revolts that are happening into the Islamic world. On a positive note, I think it would be cool to spread change in those countries and allow them to have a safe transition to democracy. But at the same time, I think about what happened in Iran on the 1970´s when the Shah was deposed and the Ayatollah came into power and I cannot help but ponder if it will happen again with our neighbours. Only time will tell, but at least I am glad that Gadaffi is going to pay for what he has done. He is just another dictator, like Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin or Franco before him...

I find it much more difficult to deal with our own inhumanities than ever I do with natural catastrophe. Both are appallingly destructive but mother nature herself no matter how hard we try will always win out in the end. We cannot defeat her ultimately.. but like you the tragic waste caused by our own selfishness and greed, our thirst for power and riches I find much more heart rending.. for it need not be.. friends of mine have suffered in the last few weeks in just such an upheaval, and if Libya has taken all the headlines, much of North Africa and the Middle east have unfinished business in that regard, including Bahrain where my friends live and work. That I have stayed silent and have no choice but to do so yet awhile on the issue is not because I have nothing to say, but rather I would have had too much to say and not always, since good friends have suffered, are suffering, and may yet suffer or worse, am even now unable to discuss it rationally and without some hysterical ranting. It is much too personal for me to discuss it rationally at this time.

I may agree with u Nadir darling, and do very much, but this thread isnt the place for it.. :) This thread is largely inspired and about a tragedy caused by nature and the suffering of a people through no fault of their own and was largely unavoidable. It is enough heartbreak for most to be getting on with.

Sorry Nadir.. almost forgot.. welcome back.. its lovely to see you.

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

Human acts of cruelty against their own kind strikes me more than natural catastrophes. I live on the Canary Islands, just off the coast of Morocco, and we are getting somewhat scared of the riots and revolts that are happening into the Islamic world. On a positive note, I think it would be cool to spread change in those countries and allow them to have a safe transition to democracy. But at the same time, I think about what happened in Iran on the 1970´s when the Shah was deposed and the Ayatollah came into power and I cannot help but ponder if it will happen again with our neighbours. Only time will tell, but at least I am glad that Gadaffi is going to pay for what he has done. He is just another dictator, like Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin or Franco before him...


Uhmm, thank you Nadir-Sweetie, but this has nothing to do with what I was posting about. I dont give a tinker's damn about politics or a dictator's last desperate run at power, I'm talking about Natural Disasters. While people like those mentioned Were natural disasters, the one I'm talking about comes from a higher source..Mother Nature herself. We as humans are the ones pissing her off, and she's not a happy camper over it. Let me give you an example: Take a light bulb and paint it over with thick, heavy paint, but keep it lit. Its going to continue to get warmer, but because its encompused with the paint, that heat has nowhere to go, until it gets so hot that it bursts. Its still dangerous because it still has electricity going to it, and can be very bad.
I dont know if I'm making sense, and people can laugh it off as "Native American Retoric" if they want to, but we've fucked up our environment so badly that its getting closer and closer to being irreversable...:( Mother Nature is retaliating, its that simple.
Sad Cat

[bizel]

wasn't it sharon stone that earned the wrath of china when she suggested the natural disasters over there were due to karma. she said they had changed the course of the land so much that the earthquakes they were suffering at that time were pay-back (not a quote). she said it shortly after those horrific ones where all those children were killed. and being a one-child society, favouring males, they now have a greater problem of too many males to female ratio. i don't like to think chch was due to manmade problems with the land. i like to think nz'ers have respect for the land, as much as you can in a western society where money rules. have never heard of so many earthquake aftershocks though. 5000 since sept last year. hate to think we caused that, cat. i do believe you may have something though. like global warming. you can't put all this smog and s*#t into the atmosphere, and expect everything to be okay. that's a little unrealistic. and when we know better (by producing stuff with less polution), we should be doing better. once again, money rules. hate to try and breathe in money when oxygen is depleted cos we've chopped down all the trees - 'lungs of the earth' to make more paper items. i agree, cat. what you put out, you get back.

over here, the fishermen are complaining cos there's a new tax on fishing for snapper. the snapper numbers have gone down, and the govt is trying to encourage people to not fish them out. other countries have overfished and now have little stock, so are venturing into other country's waters to fish. whatever happened to plain old common sense? i think there should be a ban until numbers come back up. a little pain for long-term gain. if we don't manage the land and water a lot better, we really will pay a heavy price in the future - a future which is not so far away.

[darkeyes]

wasn't it sharon stone that earned the wrath of china when she suggested the natural disasters over there were due to karma. she said they had changed the course of the land so much that the earthquakes they were suffering at that time were pay-back (not a quote). she said it shortly after those horrific ones where all those children were killed. and being a one-child society, favouring males, they now have a greater problem of too many males to female ratio. i don't like to think chch was due to manmade problems with the land. i like to think nz'ers have respect for the land, as much as you can in a western society where money rules. have never heard of so many earthquake aftershocks though. 5000 since sept last year. hate to think we caused that, cat. i do believe you may have something though. like global warming. you can't put all this smog and s*#t into the atmosphere, and expect everything to be okay. that's a little unrealistic. and when we know better (by producing stuff with less polution), we should be doing better. once again, money rules. hate to try and breathe in money when oxygen is depleted cos we've chopped down all the trees - 'lungs of the earth' to make more paper items. i agree, cat. what you put out, you get back.

over here, the fishermen are complaining cos there's a new tax on fishing for snapper. the snapper numbers have gone down, and the govt is trying to encourage people to not fish them out. other countries have overfished and now have little stock, so are venturing into other country's waters to fish. whatever happened to plain old common sense? i think there should be a ban until numbers come back up. a little pain for long-term gain. if we don't manage the land and water a lot better, we really will pay a heavy price in the future - a future which is not so far away.

As humanity spreads across the earth, and create cities and towns where they never were before, often in areas which are prone to earthquakes and other natural phenomena, it is inevitable that we will both know of them and that more will die or face ruin bodily or materially as a result. That does not mean that Mother Nature is biting back at us any more than was hitherto the case necessarily... however, it does mean, that in cities and towns where humanity has been long established, or in new areas, the very existence of our kind and all its "glories" will exacerbate the effects of what has always been.. the sheer extra weight of billions upon billions of tonnes of extra weight of people, buildings and all humanity's wonders will increase pressure on at least some natural fault lines, and bring forward quakes, or even be responsible for them actually occurring. It will also potentially I would think make such natural events far more powerful than they may otherwise have been.

As the planet warms, tornadoes and hurricanes are likely to increase as weather patterns change.. deserts spread as we destroy our forests, and build on flood plains.. sea levels rise and much desperately needed land will disappear.. nations and peoples very existence threatened by natural events exacerbated by our doings. Water becomes more scarce in many parts of the world, land overused by agriculture and such is the case in much of the rain forested areas, forest felled, used for a few years and when the natural goodness of the land has gone, yields plummet and so humanity moves on and destroys even more forest and rapes and abandons even more land.. this is our doing..

Fishing you mention.. over fishing is happening all over the planet and different countries and trading blocks are trying different things to try and combat it.. in the 1950's and 60's Herring stocks around British shores collapsed and all fishing of Herring abandoned.. Cod and Haddock have been so overfished that the EU has quota systems and operating days for fishermen. Now herring is back in abundance, yet Herring, once a staple of the British diet is relatively rarely eaten or fished for... we have plundered and raped the oceans, destroy sea beds by the way we fish and so remove from fish their habitat and breeding grounds.. we threaten the very existence of many species of shellfish by overfishhing.. we also remove from our diet many shellfish because of our pollution of the seas.. there is a little town next to this city called Musselburgh.. famous 60 years ago for its needless to say, mussels.. fishing of mussels was banned because they were unsafe to eat.. the sewage and other pollution poured into the Firth of Forth had so poisoned them that they were dangerous to human beings if consumed.. over half a century after fishing was banned, and a cleaning up of the Firth, they remain poisonous... these aare but a few of the things which shortsightedness and greed have have been inflicted upon us by ourselves.. there are similar examples across the planet to what happened in Musselburgh, what has occurred to fish stocks in the North Sea.. we are not so flush with food that we are able to make what we have unavailable to us by our own stupidity..

Scary happenings indeed... we have so reduced the planet's biodiversity that we do threaten our very existence.. we have to take stock, clear up the pollution mess, and begin to use what we can sustain. we have to accept that while the natural climate cycle of the planet may be changing, it is changing all the more and more severely than would have otherwise have been the case but for humankind's intervention and contribution.. we must preserve, and we must take care of our little home a bloody sight better than we have over the last 200 years at least. Technology wont solve it all.. we must change, and we must begin to think what we are doing and what we are eating.. and as yet.. we have nowhere else to go.. and may never have.

[DuckiesDarling]

Back to the point of this thread regarding natural disasters. It's been noted that the weather does go in cycles, we don't know what part of the cycle we are in. The last time the cycle came through the land was scarcely populated and therefore less of the events were recorded. But there is no denying that humans have not been the best caretakers of this planet we call home. Too often we see entire cities with no natural grassy areas, we see smokestacks from families and we see an entity made of smog hovering over most of the state of California. At some point in time there will be a major earthquake in California running along all the fault lines and California will separate from the rest of the US mainland and either sink into the ocean or, my personal theory, float free as an island. Will it happen in my lifetime? I don't know. But all the signs point to it, just as they point to an inevitable eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera. And when that goes, may the Goddess help us all.

[Nadir]

Sorry guys, I know I shoudn´t have changed the topic so suddenly, and you are right, it is not the place for that :) I am glad to see you guys too.

The thing is, darkeyes, I think humanity is not able to make stock of all its possesions and clear the pollution that we ourselves have caused. The reason? Well, from my humble point of view, humans are a species who lives day by day. Allright, some of us care about the land that is going to be inherited by our descendants, but most of us just doesn´t care because at that point we are going to be dead anyway. In that respect, I consider most humans to be like animals on the wild. They just care about surviving another day, and that´s it. What happens fifty years from now? They dont consider it their problem, at all. I think that maybe I am coming across as too obnoxious, but I have one thing for sure. Earth is taking a toll too strong from us. We are basically taking advantage of her, drilling her, essentially depriving her of everything that should be free for all of us to take and transforming it into a way of making useless green papers that only are valuable for us...

And dont worry Cat, I would never laught it off as "Native American Rhetoric", anyday. What you have said is true, Mother Earth has every reason to be angry at us. But I just hope like any good mother would she forgives her sons and daughters for having pissed her off for the last hundred years or so... once that we stop doing it, of course.

[darkeyes]

Sorry guys, I know I shoudn´t have changed the topic so suddenly, and you are right, it is not the place for that :) I am glad to see you guys too.

The thing is, darkeyes, I think humanity is not able to make stock of all its possesions and clear the pollution that we ourselves have caused. The reason? Well, from my humble point of view, humans are a species who lives day by day. Allright, some of us care about the land that is going to be inherited by our descendants, but most of us just doesn´t care because at that point we are going to be dead anyway. In that respect, I consider most humans to be like animals on the wild. They just care about surviving another day, and that´s it. What happens fifty years from now? They dont consider it their problem, at all. I think that maybe I am coming across as too obnoxious, but I have one thing for sure. Earth is taking a toll too strong from us. We are basically taking advantage of her, drilling her, essentially depriving her of everything that should be free for all of us to take and transforming it into a way of making useless green papers that only are valuable for us...

And dont worry Cat, I would never laught it off as "Native American Rhetoric", anyday. What you have said is true, Mother Earth has every reason to be angry at us. But I just hope like any good mother would she forgives her sons and daughters for having pissed her off for the last hundred years or so... once that we stop doing it, of course.

God Nadir.. in so many ways I do agree with you.. and yet we are sentient beings and we do think of tomorrow and the legacy we leave to our children.. whether that be on the personal level in the way of a last will and testament, or governments trying to better the lot of generations to come.. people such as myself striving for true peace to break out in the world.. many great and lesser minds think of tomorrow.. and in centuries past and centuries to come, individually and collectively we have given do give thought for the future.. until recently we have had little thought of what kind of natural world and environment we leave to our heirs.. we have planned, as the Chinese do, for a huge industrialisation for the future but at what cost? Yet even the Chinese are have realised just how much harm that industrialisation is causing our world.. they do far more in respect of sustainable energy than do most nations.. we think of the huge coal fired polluting power stations they have yet we ignore the good they do.. it isnt enough.. we know it isnt enough.. no nation is doing enough.. yet movement is being made, often in the face of massive opposition from vested less altruistic interests.. the doubters..and I doubt all of them doubt.. they just dont care for tomorrow and those yet to come.. but there are millions who do.. from the great and the good to the ordinary person in the street.. and fight their corner for their children.. and change is being made. Its all much too slow, but there is greater awareness in the dangers we face.. and every year a little more is done.. as time progresses it is to be hoped we as a species pick up the pace of change sufficiently before it is too late... we learn because are quite bright and do think.. sometimes we learn the wrong lessons, and sometimes we act stupidly.. but not always..

You are right in so many ways about living from day to day.. but not entirely.. but if we do not get things under control, and make the huge changes which will be required, the time will come when the population of humanity gets itself into real trouble and will have very little alternative other than to live from day to day....

By our actions we have changed and are changing what Mother Nature does.. and not always for the better.. in fact I would argue quite the opposite.. we are in danger of making our world a much harsher place for life because of the way we we affect the her actions..

[tenni]

This conversation seems to be approaching several aspects. First , the thread title is scary happenings. The OP mentions two earthquakes and one volcanic eruption in one day as being scary. That doesn't restrict the thread to just earthquakes and volcanic eruptions though as scary happenings. (unless there is a control issue going on here?)

Mentioning Mother Nature and indigenous spiritual beliefs about living in harmony with natural forces expresses an interpretation or explanation to rationalize scary happenings. I agree with the concept of living in harmony with the environment. I believe that the human population has impacted other natural aspects of the global environment. The reality is that we are living out of harmony. The simpliest solution is that too many people exist in the world and our technological solutions are not solutions at all. The ugly truth is that there will be a balance happen. More likely than not the human population will be reduced whether it is through war, disease, famine, drinkable water, livable spaces or other natural methods is yet to be determined.

Whether this surface meddlings is connected to natural occurring shifts in the Earth's plates to create earthquakes or not is very questionable and probably unrelated to what is going on the surface of the planet though. These two issues are more than not unrelated.