Recently I was discussing random things with the wife and mentioned that I thought it was odd that Hollywood was putting out all these “catastrophic disaster” movies over the past few years. “Armageddon”, “Deep Impact” and “The Day After Tomorrow” were only a few that show humanity coping with the possibility of the end of the world.
“Why is that?”, I asked. Could it be some kind of weird government plot to prepare us for something? Are there scientists buried miles below the earths surface in some desolate laboratory that know something big is coming and have decided we can’t be told just yet?
Surely the events portrayed in the movies are spectacularly fictional. Or are they? In order to keep the movies entertaining the film makers have to make it seem like the events that may lead to our extinction are possible. They back it up with “movie-science” – that is, quick educational bits to help the audience understand the magnitude of what comes next – the payoff.
Are we spoiling the earth so quickly that the planet has no choice but to fight back and exterminate us, ala “The Day after Tomorrow”? Or are we scurrying about in pointless lives only to be eradicated by a stray asteroid? Is there anything we could do to prevent either outcome? I don’t know.
To be fair – I’ll offer you the link that inspired me to post this:
Apophis is the latest “asteroid that will destroy the earth”. In about thirty years. Maybe.