After re-watching Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, I started thinking more about the end of the world. Of course, this is not anything new; such a topic has been run over and over in numerous literary works and movies. In The Birds, the birds obviously go serial killer on humans. I found it interesting that only a couple of people in that movie bothered to talk about a solution; everyone else was either pondering the cause of it all which I previously stated was useless or panicking which ironically is no better. My question is not of cause but of effect. I realize that a great number of us if not all would die in such an apocalyptic incident; therefore, worrying about the medium of this apocalypse is quite futile.
While it is true that doctors often diagnose from the symptoms, some diseases and disorders can be quite the paradigm. For example, depression can cause mental anxiety, but there are cases where it has also caused physical pain with no apparent cause. So how do they approach the problem in tricky situations like that? They try to gather information using tests and previous given information from a medical history to infer a possible diagnosis in the hope of being able to treat the patient. However, knowing the disease is sometimes not enough to save a life in cases of diseases such as cancer. If I was to compare human society facing imminent wipeout and a sickly patient with a fatal malady, the two situations would be similar.
Simply, the doctor and some of the human race must realize that they must fix their problem, though the doctor does not have his life at stake. In an apocalypse scenario, the human race must adopt a warrior attitude where they must be resourceful, calm, and organized. They simply do not have time to whine about death; they must work together to find either a way to prevent wipeout or a way to reduce casualties.
Currently, there are many threats, both long-term and short-term to humanity. First, fossil fuel is not renewable, and eventually it will be consumed. Towards this problem, humanity has made some progress: electrical power and wind power do seem to be sufficient, though the increased consumption rate of fossil fuel is evidence that humans could do with learning moderation. Long-term, the sun will eventually expire, meaning that all the heat and energy provide from it will disappear, and with that solar power goes down the drain. Aside from losing a great source for heat and energy, sunlight is a source for vitamin D, and some people are already Vitamin D-deficient. Needless to say, losing the sun could possibly be the end of human life, unless we make some serious technological advancement.
Fortunately for the human race that is a long time until such an event occurs. Of course, they are more fantastical horrors that some people like to imagine... Comets did allegedly kill the dinosaurs, but such another comet would have to be quite gargantuan.
Lesser dangers, the many wars and the limited space of earth definitely make life inconvenient, but they are not fatal to this race. Every day, the landfills of earth are quickly filling, and despite that some people still do not see the need to recycle or to help the environment. On the other hand, many governments are claiming to aim for world peace; however, this seems unlikely to happen in such a small time frame. Furthermore, some superpowers seem to think that peace is achieved through war. No, this is not the case. All war does is damage infrastructure and kill people. While there may be a small moment of peace post-war, I guarantee the losing nation will be too pissed off at their attacker to even think about staying within this truce.
Given these two types of threats, fatal or damaging, the question of priority arises. While it is easy to worry about events that could obliterate this world as we know it, we also have no idea when it will happen. Thus, it is in the best interest of the world to resolve the petty issues, the problems that are currently plaguing every country. For if we cannot squash the little yet numerous bugs, how can we ever expect to survive the ferocious beast.
