X-Message-Number: 18852
From: 
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 21:16:08 EST
Subject: Re: The End of the World according to Chicken Little. 

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  Actually it is entirely possible that a major natural calamity will take 
out a city in the next thirty years. (And even a very minor natural calamity 
like a one-kiloton asteroid hit could easily start a big war if it hit 
Pakistan, India, or Microsoft.) But I agree completely with Mr. Smith that 
attempts to prevent the unknown calamity by sacrificing virgins or raising 
taxes are worse than useless. For instance, for all we know the best thing we 
can do is to melt some of the ice off Antarctica. One study suggests that 
every so often, when the ice hits a critical depth on the Antarctic land 
mass, it just SLIDES OFF. That would be disturbing. But we just don't know 
whether we should be trying to warm the planet or cool it, and so it is 
pointless to launch trillion-dollar "save the planet" initiatives.

--part1_198.42dd7af.29cd3f68_boundary

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