This is terrifying and scary sounding, there is still so much we don't understand about the earth. It seems we are involved in quite a dangerous experiment as society continues to scale out and consume resources at an ever increasing rate.
Are we most likely screwed as a species in the medium term? Is the best plan really to rely on the benevolent leadership and good intentions of low-EQ celebrities like Elon Musk and Uncle Jeff Bezos along with the government to save us from catastrophe?
I sure hope we (and our children) aren't stuck on a dead end path, but sometimes it seems quite probable. We can't even stop putín from doing crazy stupid murderous shit because we are rightly afraid of a ww3 nuclear holocaust. This doesn't even start to address the reality that the universe doesn't care whether or not humanity continues to exist. It's frustrating and depressing.
For whatever it's worth, while there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about sustainability and resource consumption, this particular type of natural disaster has absolutely zero to do with humanity.
This is very much something we understand quite well. You're seeing volcanic activity on a volcanic island on a plate boundary. Basically, this is the geological "normal" for this area that's been going on much longer than human civilization.
It's fair to be worried about increased human population in areas that are affected by this, but it's not in any way something caused by civilization's toll on the environment or even something we "don't understand" in some way. There's _tons_ that we don't understand in detail, but the broad brush strokes of volcanoes at a mid ocean ridge is something we understand relatively well. Note that the evacuation is beginning _before_ the eruption due to both local seismic monitoring of the sub-surface and space-borne monitoring of deformation at the surface.
>Is the best plan really to rely on the benevolent leadership and good intentions of low-EQ celebrities like Elon Musk and Uncle Jeff Bezos along with the government to save us from catastrophe?
If we learned anything from the global pandemic (covid-19), the world would do better by building and strengthening institutions like WHO and CDC to solve global problems.
Are we most likely screwed as a species in the medium term? Is the best plan really to rely on the benevolent leadership and good intentions of low-EQ celebrities like Elon Musk and Uncle Jeff Bezos along with the government to save us from catastrophe?
I sure hope we (and our children) aren't stuck on a dead end path, but sometimes it seems quite probable. We can't even stop putín from doing crazy stupid murderous shit because we are rightly afraid of a ww3 nuclear holocaust. This doesn't even start to address the reality that the universe doesn't care whether or not humanity continues to exist. It's frustrating and depressing.