Last evening at a dinner party my friend impressed us on his belief that climate change was an existential threat to our human civilization. Our group listen to his declarations with deference and pause. No doubt climate change was on our minds and we have been experiencing some of its effects on our live. For example, my wife and I were to have an eleven day drip to Calgary, Banff, Lake Louis, Jasper, Kamloops, ending in Vancouver a few weeks ago but forest fires in the area were reported to cause severe air quality problems for those sensitive to smoke inhalation. My wife was a prime candidate to suffer since she has had problems in the past when exposed to smoke. 

Our climate environment has changed so that temperature extreme heat has caused human suffering, ecological problems with dying vegetations, drier periods in forests and then fires. Rivers, lakes, reservoirs are drying up. Yet on the other hand weather patterns have been changing so that storms and flooding is causing havoc and destruction, coastlines are being inundated, and sea currents changing while our artic ice melts, permafrost warms, and methane gases besides our carbon dioxide levels rise. 

So my friend has a strong point for us to be alarmed.

Should we stop here a conclude that if we can reverse or solve these problems we move away from more devastation, disaster, and lowered quality of life?

No, there's more to consider in our doomsday analysis. 

Back during my training days as a psychiatric resident in Boston, I joined a smaller group who supported an organization attempting to limit if not abolish the use again of nuclear weapons. That was over forty years ago Then I was convinced that we had weapons that could destroy our very existence. I have not changed my mind. The U.S.A. is upgrading its delivery systems for ballistic nuclear missiles in tandem with China, Russia, and maybe Pakistan and India. Other nuclear weapons state include Israel and North Korea who could destabilized a truce barring their use since World War 2 add more anxiety in me. We have regional conflicts now in Iran, the Middle East, the Ukraine, Russia, and Africa and Central and South America to add to the mix. Doomsday scenarios are readily available in our fiction, movies, and articles that seem so real and possible to me. Let's say someone dropped a nuclear bomb...(https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/24/books/review/nuclear-war-annie-jacobsen-countdown-sarah-scoles.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share). So in summary I'll add nuclear holocaust as another serious credible treat to our planet. 

The Dooms Day Clock Bulletin of Atomic Scientist can point to these threats with more facts and analysis  https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2026-statement/ .

Take a moment now and look at this site because You will find more issues besides climate change and nuclear holocaust to be concerned about. 

Artificial Intelligence a broad subject that has interested our small group of mostly retirees that meet every Monday. Some in our group have become enamored and use it to write articles, research subjects, and be entertained. We have experienced some of AI's problems in accuracy and hallucinations but enjoy its attempts at clarity, truthfulness, and research capability when we may be unaware of the reverse problems it may report that are biased, made up, and yet influential.  Our news sources now are polluted by information reported by fake news outlets, sensationalist reporting, propaganda from foreign governments, hackers and profiteers and scammers. Our own biases lead us to digest misinformation sometimes made up in whole cloth but believable to us. A fictional example is the TV show written by Alan Sorkin The Newsroomhttps://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tLP1TdIryjKM88xYPQSLMlIVchLLS8uys_PVSjOyC8HAKD3Cro&q=the+newsroom+show&oq=the+newsroom+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgCEC4YgAQyBwgAEAAYjwIyCggBEAAYsQMYgAQyBwgCEC4YgAQyBwgDEAAYgAQyBwgEEAAYgAQyBwgFEAAYgAQyBwgGEAAYgAQyBwgHEAAYgAQyBwgIEAAYgAQyBwgJEAAYgATSAQg3NjQ4ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&source=chrome.ob&ie=UTF-8 .  If our reliance on AI continues could we be the beneficiary of robots and machine manufacturing, a new ease of living in which we no longer need to work or could we find ourselves much worse off. Both outcomes are reported in the literature I have read or saw. We do know that the high energy requirements for the AI industry has caused some significant hardship on consumers of electricity and our water systems. Ai and hackers are a threat to our water, electricity, transportations, and health systems. We have examples of AI use in warfare with drones and now mechanical AI enhanced robot soldiers and devices being utilized. Many other current examples abound. For example, Russia a nuclear bomb carrying country very recently threatened Britain with war because Britain allowed the Ukraine to have its missiles that have targeted Russian civilian infrastructure (https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQhWBmnljktJKpPmZMrvDtxDVCR). 

A related concern is cyberwarfare. Our water systems, electrical grids, communications infrastructure are vulnerable to attack. Could Russia, China, or Iran maim our infrastructure so crimpling us? Are we developing similar capabilities and countermeasures? 

We have many examples of doomsday scenarios that may entertain or frighten us. For example, the Silo series of books by Hugh Howey is so far fetched and yet believable to make you tremble ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo_(series)).

Our planet has experienced very serious trouble from meteor strikes. My brief survey search reveals that these catastrophic events are very few and very far removed for our concern to us within the next few hundred years unlike the above concerns. Tsunami disasters, volcanic eruption devastation, glacial melting water and mud runoffs disasters such as the recent disaster in Nepal are real. Forest fires, shoreline erosions, extreme weather events with hurricanes, ocean melting icebergs etc. are current events but not the end (https://www.google.com/search?q=danger+to+civilization+from+volcanic+activity+chances&sca_esv=9f17e9380ec4409d&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS1112US1112&hl=en-US&sxsrf=APpeQnssqosVSbWDM8OexcuRDN2J8UtbBg%3A1787858800481&ei=cI-QaszwHNODm9cPwLh8&biw=1408&bih=885&oq=danger+to+civilization+from+volcanic+activity+chances&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIjVkYW5nZXIgdG8gY2l2aWxpemF0aW9uIGZyb20gdm9sY2FuaWMgYWN0aXZpdHkgY2hhbmNlczIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigAUis0gJQipYCWP3KAnADeAGQAQCYAcEBoAHiCKoBAzAuOLgBA8gBAPgBAZgCC6AC-wjCAgoQABhHGNYEGLADwgIXEC4Y3AYYuAYY2gYY2AIYyAMYsAPYAQHCAgUQIRirAsICBRAAGO8FwgIHECEYChigAZgDAIgGAZAGDroGBAgBGBmSBwMzLjigB88msgcDMC44uAfsCMIHBTIuNi4zyAcVgAgB&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp#lfId=ChxjMe). 

My last concern today involves our arsenal of chemical agents and biological warfare. Yes this is a real threat to our survival. Here's an article that may change your views (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/books/review/biological-war-annie-jacobsen.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share).  A chimera pathogen has been developed according to the author. It is an infective agent that mimics a milder disorder, is extremely infectious, and treatment efforts causes more death.  There is no cure. To my belief, this is not science fiction!

I think so far in this blog I should have convinced you that there are some issues that are human made that needs our attention. Our personal opinions about them vary with many people believing that my concerns are incorrect and even subversive. Since science is based on researchers always questioning and discovering our knowledge is deficient and could be incorrect, why believe our current science on these subjects? To me, what else do we have. My answer is stories and beliefs based on superstition, religious beliefs, atavistic inclinations for a sense of group identity and group think where we know where we belong. 

Recently, I finished the Rama series of books by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee. Like 2001 by Clarke with an alien artifact, in this series an alien spaceship the size of a large city appears in our solar system. Human development over large swaths of time creates opportunities for greater understanding and cooperation between alien species or xenophobia, fear, hatred, and political domination occurs with a few oligarchs lauding over the masses. Even living in an alien ship the size of a big city many of our human counterparts are portrayed as believers of myths, propaganda, and entertainment rather than facts that they are on a ship with alien creatures far superior in intelligence than they. 

Now I'm well aware that my friends and family unless mentally impaired are rational and open to new information so that the subjects I've written about are considered, debated, and are appreciated. 

So the monolith is here. Can you appreciate its significance and the danger if you ignore it?

Leonard

Koko Crater Botanical Gardens