Well in today's news... more uplifting stories about how the world is going to end.
Two Billion people across the world are going to be impacted by severe drought by the end of the century. Not to state the obvious but... that's a lot of people so...
Taiwan and Hong Kong are experiencing the worst Typhoon of the season. If you're into terrifying weather graphics you should check this out.
Seth Baum wrote a classic "the world is going to end" piece for Huff Po looking at the broader possible implications of the Russia-US battle over Syria. Spoiler Alert: the possible implications are nuclear war leading to the end of human life as we know it. As always Baum doesn't mince words. It at first may seem like a heartless article minimizing the human suffering in Syria on a daily basis but someone's got to look at the broader picture and who better than the Director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute.
I'll leave y'all with this public service announcement:
As you may have gathered I hold a deep-seeded and justified(!) distrust and frustration with mainstream media. Their lack of fulfillment of their role as the Fourth Estate is putting this country at risk in a unique and terrifying way. Combined with the ability of anyone anywhere to post anything on the internet has (or at least should have) led the public to have some serious trust issues. I try, for the benefit of my own personal knowledge and education, to find sources that offer the most accurate telling of the situation. This is especially true in what I choose to post on this blog. It's not always perfect. I succumb to false reports too. During the Colorado flooding situation I had several people ask why I was not posting about it more on my blog. First of all, my main area of expertise is not response. Second, I am unfamiliar with the "situation context" of Colorado. I couldn't possibly point to Denver or Boulder on a map. This gap in my knowledge of the context surrounding the flooding limits my ability to interpret any media reports that discuss the situation in any critical way. Once Colorado is more securely in recovery mode I'll have much more to say. Speculation during the response to a disaster (or really any emergency type event) is, in my opinion, the greatest failing of current media outlets (specifically mainstream... which Jon Stewart brilliantly addressed). While emergency management specifically needs to address these issues with the media until the broader framework and societies standards are changed I'm not going to hold my breath... Until then here's a guide for you to use to induce critical thinking as Wolf Blitzer mutters on.
Two Billion people across the world are going to be impacted by severe drought by the end of the century. Not to state the obvious but... that's a lot of people so...
Taiwan and Hong Kong are experiencing the worst Typhoon of the season. If you're into terrifying weather graphics you should check this out.
Seth Baum wrote a classic "the world is going to end" piece for Huff Po looking at the broader possible implications of the Russia-US battle over Syria. Spoiler Alert: the possible implications are nuclear war leading to the end of human life as we know it. As always Baum doesn't mince words. It at first may seem like a heartless article minimizing the human suffering in Syria on a daily basis but someone's got to look at the broader picture and who better than the Director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute.
I'll leave y'all with this public service announcement:
As you may have gathered I hold a deep-seeded and justified(!) distrust and frustration with mainstream media. Their lack of fulfillment of their role as the Fourth Estate is putting this country at risk in a unique and terrifying way. Combined with the ability of anyone anywhere to post anything on the internet has (or at least should have) led the public to have some serious trust issues. I try, for the benefit of my own personal knowledge and education, to find sources that offer the most accurate telling of the situation. This is especially true in what I choose to post on this blog. It's not always perfect. I succumb to false reports too. During the Colorado flooding situation I had several people ask why I was not posting about it more on my blog. First of all, my main area of expertise is not response. Second, I am unfamiliar with the "situation context" of Colorado. I couldn't possibly point to Denver or Boulder on a map. This gap in my knowledge of the context surrounding the flooding limits my ability to interpret any media reports that discuss the situation in any critical way. Once Colorado is more securely in recovery mode I'll have much more to say. Speculation during the response to a disaster (or really any emergency type event) is, in my opinion, the greatest failing of current media outlets (specifically mainstream... which Jon Stewart brilliantly addressed). While emergency management specifically needs to address these issues with the media until the broader framework and societies standards are changed I'm not going to hold my breath... Until then here's a guide for you to use to induce critical thinking as Wolf Blitzer mutters on.