Is the Apocalypse Coming?

Is the Apocalypse Coming? Part 1

I wrote a book about the apocalypse and now I’m worried

Perhaps you’ve read Mr 303 and came here looking for Part Two. Or maybe you’re looking for a glimpse of more apocalyptic shit or SHTF related stuff (Shit Hit The Fan). After writing a book about an impending doomsday, I began to wonder, Is there an Apocalypse Coming?

First, let’s take a quick look at what an apocalypse really means or more importantly, what measures would need to be in place before we say, “Yep, we’re fucked.”

Let’s go with the dictionary meaning: an event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale

After releasing Mr 303, in which a virus devastates approximately 90% of the world, I had a few emails and comments from readers who are excited about book two coming and thinking about how likely a SHTF scenario would be. I’d say it’s as possible as the next president of the USA being a gun-toting cowboy who wants to create fear and discourse in the world. Highly likely. That dude’s gonna bring about an apocalypse to remember all right if he gets in…but I’m not here to get political.

There’s a whole ton of things which could bring about the end of civilization as we know it. In fact, odds are in favour of such an apocalypse coming and the more I read about the topic and listen to other people’s fears, the more I think I might be right.

But how will it happen? Here’s my list of potentials that I considered when writing my book. I chose a pandemic for Mr 303 because I felt that it was the most realistic and would have a more predictable outcome than the other scenarios.

My scale is from 0 – 10, where 0 is impossible and 10 is definitely going to happen.

  • A Virus – 7

How likely is a virus that destroys our world as we know it going to be? I’ve given it a 7 and here’s why:

We’re due for a big one. We’ve already seen what happens when a virus like Ebola, is unleashed on an ususpecting and unprepared population. The problem with a virus like Ebola, is that it’s nearly always incurable. The good thing is, we haven’t yet seen a strain of Ebola which is airborne. Yet. Something like Rabies, would run amok in our world because it’s pretty fatal and would make everyone go nuts. In fact, the closest we would come to a true to life zombie apocalypse would be a strain of Rabies – you’d have to be bitten by someone who is infected to turn. If we had something that was extremely infectious, such as the common cold,  and perhaps had a long incubation period such as HIV, and was as fatal or incurable as many diseases are today, we would be absolutely up shit creek without a paddle and have you screaming that there’s an apocalypse coming.

Let’s add terrorism to that, actually, let’s add Bioterrorism to that. It’s not difficult to manipulate a virus to play ball and do exactly what we wanted it to do. If you were a terrorist and had access to a high-tech lab where you could play out your mad-scientist feature at will, you’d easily come up with a nasty bug that could wipe out billions. In fact, this has almost happened many times and been stopped. It just wasn’t on a scale that’s caused that many deaths and we were lucky to have been able to quickly stop it.

Sometimes this is accidental. Let’s take the Zika virus as an example. This virus was intentionally Bio-engineered to help reduce Malaria infections and was released intentionally in genetically engineered mosquitoes. It then spread unpredictably, however, it’s not really that deadly – luckily for us. This is a prime example of such a seemingly innocent intention to minimize disease that went wrong.

The biggest problem with viruses today, whether they are bacterial or viral, is that they mutate and quite often, do so unassisted. Mutations occur frequently in animals, such as we have already seen with the Swine Flu and the Avian Flu.

It’s not that difficult to imagine a highly transmissible virus, that is highly infectious and has a long enough incubation period, and is also incurable, to wipe out very large numbers of people. It’s not a case of if, it’s a matter of when there will be a pandemic that signals that an apocalypse is coming. With such frequent travel today and increasing migration of agriculture and urban environments into more rural and remote areas, this increases the chances that a pandemic pathogen will come into contact with humans and spread rapidly.

  • Super Volcano – 1

Holy shit. As unlikely as a scenario in which a super volcano could be the cause of an apocalypse coming, if it did, we would be totally and utterly screwed, depending on which one went off. There are 6 major super volcanoes, such as: Yellowstone (US), Valles Caldera (New Mexico – US), Toba (North Sumatra – Asia), Taupo Caldera (New Zealand), Aira Caldera (Japan) and The Long Valley Caldera (Nevada – US).

In the movie ‘2012’, we saw the Yellowstone super volcano explode. Not a great movie, though some of the effects were pretty decent. If perhaps John Cusack had died, it might have got a higher rating.

There are always fears that one of these super volcanoes could go off and if that were to happen, here’s a potential outcome.

Let’s take Yellowstone as an example. If this were to erupt, we could see ash as far away as 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) away. The resultant winds could cover the majority of the United States in centimeters of ash. If that were to happen, you’d have crops dying off due to lack of sunlight and destroyed because of the ash. Transportation, livestock, communications, electrical power supply could all be disrupted. If this were to happen overnight, there’s no telling what the outcome would be and it would certainly qualify for the dictionary meaning of an apocalypse. Strong winds could also push the ash further away into south and central America and even further.

You only have to see what destruction a much smaller volcano had on flights over the world, when the Icelandic volcano with a name that spells like someone fell asleep on their keyboard – Eyjafjallajökull, went off. Then you’d know there’s an apocalypse coming.

  • Meteor or Asteroid Impact – Likelihood – 2

Let’s start by clarifying that the size of a meteor or asteroid hitting the Earth makes a big difference. If we’re going to start fearing a meteor on the scale of the one that created the big-ass hole in US, then chances are closer to a rating of a 1. Or if you prefer a more precise calculation, a 1 in 60,000 chance that it could happen. NASA have a program in place that can track an asteroid bigger than 0.65 mile wide (that’s not that big) but would still have global consequences if one struck. If it hit the sea/oceans, we’d see massive tsunamis on a scale not witnessed in our time. If it hit the Earth, it would devastate an entire country and would have consequences around the world. The smaller debris that follow a meteor or an asteroid would cause as much damage in densely populated areas. The one that hit Earth 65 million years ago is apparently what killed most of the life on Earth, including the Dinosaurs.

7,200 windows smashed in over 6 cities when a meteor hit Chelyabinsk in Russia in 2013. Several thousand people were injured from debris; most of them not as a direct result of the meteor which actually exploded in the sky. That was a small one.

The problem with smaller meteors or asteroids is that we can’t detect them. We also wouldn’t be able to detect them if they’re caught in the gravitational pull of another asteroid or meteor going past. It’s the smaller ones we’d have to build an early warning system for because if one was to hit a city like New York City, you’d have a catastrophic scenario that would have you thinking that the apocalypse is coming.

  • EMP – 6

EMP’s – an Electromagnetic Pulse – are both man-made and natural. An example of a natural EMP would be a lightning strike. If a lightning strike were to hit a big city and cause an EMP, it would fry all the electrical components and transformers. Rebuilding that infrastructure would take a lifetime. That city, would see an apocalypse coming.

Here’s a nasty thought. A terrorist organisation deciding to set off an Electromagnetic Pulse in a big city.The United States military have taken this into consideration and there’s even a project to deal with the consequences here. Disrupting the electrical grid would affect food and water supplies, communications, banking, hospitals and law enforcement. You’d have no power for a long time because all circuitry would literally be fried.

Countries such as China and Russia have considered EMP as a means of attack in the event of a war. Releasing an EMP over a major city would have dire consequences. Is an apocalypse coming likely? In this day and age, with the world continually in a flux, it’s highly possible which is why I’ve given it a 6.

Terrorist organisations could easily attack a country with an EMP. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already.

  • Solar Pulse – 5

Depending on which group of scientists you ask, you might get answers such as, there is a 12% chance of a solar pulse hitting the Earth by 2020. From the day that I write this post, that’s in less than 4 years. I’m going neutral, that’s to say, it might never happen and it might one day happen.

A solar flare is initiated by the unexpected ejection of energy that’s stored in the Sun’s corona. This would cause the Sun’s plasma to heat up to tens of millions of degrees and ultimately accelerate; spewing out toxic radiation. If a fairly decent sized solar storm were to occur, the energy from the corona could cause a coronal mass ejection to hit the Earth. That would have devastating consequences for the entire planet and would take decades to recover from. We may never recover from such an event. The simultaneous and resultant fires on a global scale would wipe out most of life on earth.

In July 23, 2012 – most people were not aware that we almost flew into the dark ages, when such an event narrowly missed the Earth by mere kilometers. That’s not a lot by the way when you consider the distance of the Sun to the Earth – 92.96 miles. You wouldn’t even have the time to mutter the words, is the apocalypse coming.

  • Nuclear War – 6

Depending on which newspaper you read, you might think it’s about to happen. North Korea doesn’t really have the technology. Yet. But the threat is there and North Koria are working desperately to try and get a nuclear bomb to fly higher than a kite and aimed at the United States of America. Russia have successfully tested the Tsar Bomba.This has the energy equivalent of 3,800 times what the United States used on Hiroshima. They could wipe out an entire continent in the blink of an eye. You’ve only got to look at current leadership in Russia to get a feel for how likely it would be for Russia to get pissed off and send one flying.

You have to ask yourself, why do our countries need such incredibly destructive bombs? The United States have over 7,200 nuclear bombs in their arsenal that we know about. If Russia have developed the Tsar, then you can be sure the US have a similar one. Bigger than the B83.

You only need to watch Terminator to see what effects this would have in your country.

Tune in soon for Part 2 in which I will cover the following apocalypse coming scenarios:

  • Extreme Climate Changes – 5
  • Financial Economic Collapse – 7
  • AI – Artificial Intelligence – 1
  • Alien Invasion – 1

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Fox

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Fox

3 Comments

  1. Pingback: Surviving the Apocalypse - foxemerson

  2. El June 23, 2022 09:19 at 9:19 am

    Well this was a well written well thought out article, and quite on point in todays geopolitical positioning, compounded by a virus that won’t go away ! Well done for some thoughtful futuristic opinions, some we are already living thru, and as for giving the volcano a 1, I think you under cooked that one !

    Reply
    1. Fox Emerson June 23, 2022 11:46 at 11:46 am

      Thanks dear reader. Hard to think that 6 years ago we all knew a pandemic was coming yet were still woefully undrrprepared

      Reply

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