Disasters now and in the future
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The other day I was sitting in our living room with an engineer and a microbiologist and chatting while the wives were preparing a special lunch: crêpes (also pala?inka in my wife’s tongue and palacsinta in my language).
Since the microbiologist is heavily involved in reserach for alternative energy sources and the gas prices are climbing like crazy — it was natural that we ended up contemplating about the future of our energy usage, the scarce(?) resources of fossil fuels and everything in between. Our friend has even travelled recently to places like India, so he could experience first hand what the hunger for energy means in some emerging Asian places.
His verdict was one of that of an objective scientist: we simply cannot afford anymore to live and consume as we do. We will need new renewable resources. Btw, we also learned that a mere 3% of the Canadian grain is used to produce biofuel (and even that amount is coming not from the first grade grain for human consumption, so don’t believe the media hype about “food crisis”…) There wasn’t anything surprising in this if you follow the news at least randomly.
But then he suddenly added: there will be some huge disasters in the foreseeable future. Epidemies and diseases will decimate the population in over-crowded places in Asia and, eventually, Africa. They are simply not prepared to deal with such catastrophes. The humankind is not prepared, although the West might do better…
Then the excellent palacsinta lunch makes you to forget everything. Until the news about the devastating earthquake in China arrive. What next?
Hello Moshu,
Interesting blog.
Oh how I love it when someone predicts disaster but doesn’t include the reasoning behind the prediction. :) Did your microbiologist friend explain why he felt there would be epidemics and diseases that will decimate Asia and Africa in the foreseeable future? Just curious.
Richard
Richard,
Actually, he did not “predict” the disastrous earthquake in China - sorry, if I created that impression. The earthquake just recalled that conversation in my mind…
However, I think he just looked at the miserable conditions these living organisms (Homo sapiens?) created on this planet, and especially in those areas: overpopulation, too many individuals crammed in megacities, not enough food, less resources etc.
I suspect the Malthusian crisis theory could have had an impact on my friend’s thinking, although he might disagree. Maybe I should invite him over to clarify :)
[Nice pictures over there at your site!]
Moshu,
Thanks for the link as it helped in my understanding.
I hope I didn’t come off too harsh in my initial post. Your friend’s thoughts just triggered memories of 20 years ago where some of my friends were into apocalyptic predictions and I got drawn into it a bit more than I care to admit.
Thanks for the compliment on my photography. :)
Maybe I can do some good with it if I can convince others that what surrounds us is worth caring for and preserving.
Richard
Hi Moshu,
I would like to eat many palacsinta. Is it Hungarian palacsinta?
In English?
Eastern Europen palacsinta… Actually, the English doesn’t have a word for it and, as it happens so often, they just borrowed the word from French (crêpes) - of course, getting rid of the “accent circonflexe”… crepes.
P.S. The Bosnian pala?inka is exactly the same as our palacsinta!