Our World Facing Hundreds of Tipping Points by Louis Evan Palmer
Quoting Malcolm Gladwell, a "tipping point" is "the name given to that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass." It also refers to the point when a spinning object like a top or a planet stops spinning in a stable manner and starts to wobble and fall over. Or when that type of phenomenon occurs in society. As well, it is reminiscent of the quantum mechanics postulate - "the butterfly effect" - regarding the non-linear cumulative effects of actions and things; and "critical mass" as it applies to the moment when a nuclear reaction becomes self-sustaining.Unfortunately, our world is facing hundreds of potential tipping points and while a tipping point can be positive or negative, the necessary focus is on the negative because almost all of them involve our survival as a species.
Such as, nuclear bombs and depleted uranium shells in their ten of thousands as missles and millions as shells and tons as radioactive dust and waste; and, as micro and mini nukes anywhere. Weapons programs gone awry all over the world spewing our their deadly possibilities in the form of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, plans, attacks, accidents and disasters; programs, likely illegal, delving into areas best not touched like weather modification and the manipulation of earth energies to facilitate or produce earth and sea quakes.
So-called technological advances like nano-technology and genetic modification speeding like runaway trains towards the inevitable canyon with its bridge out. Pollution fouling our air and water and soil, the oceans with huge dead swaths and frightening drops in key species. Coral reefs withering. Our atmosphere under seige, increases in cosmic radiation, increases in sunspot and other solar activity. Our surprisingly thin layer of topsoil being blown away and paved over though poor agricultural practices and unbridled urban development.
Resurgent diseases like tuberculosis, smallpox and leprosy becoming resistant to our drugs, and exotic ones like ebola and others not previously seen, ready to sweep like a wraith across the globe scything its victims down like fields of grass.
Climate change and disruptive weather endangering lives and food & water supplies. Our flora and fauna disappearing and sickening - bees, amphibians, numerous sea species, butterflies. Destruction of our biodiversity and seed supplies through monoculture and companies like Monsanto with their terminator seeds.
Collisions or too-close pass-bys with comets or asteroids.
Collapsing infrastructures and our over-reliance on them which sees our power, water, food, transportation, storage and distribution systems hanging by the proverbial threads. Wars, social unrest, oppression, tyranny.
Revolutionary contacts with unfriendly non-terrestial beings.
It seems that given the array of things that can go wrong, it's only a matter of time before they do and we're engulfed in a mammoth catastrophe from which there is no escape. It may be that our salvation lies in one or more of the positive tipping points. If so, we must uncover them and communicate them. We must not allow secrets and their covetous, self-righteous custodians to keep our planet from getting out of a reckoning we're not likely to survive. Zero-point energy, friendly advanced aliens, whatever good there is, we need it, we need help.
Our World Facing Hundreds of Tipping Points, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2007 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.
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