What is BP?

Well this is lame. In these times I wish was born back in the viking days, I could get killed in battle. Now I'm supposed to go out with "Giant bubble blew up on us all :facepalm: "

Damn this century.

I don't mean to burst anyone's bubble, but this is all quite unlikely. About as likely as an asteroid hitting tomorrow - it could happen, but it probably won't.

Yellowstone National Park could also erupt (it's a dormant supervolcano) and that could end the world too, but it's not likely to happen either.

The fact is that we've always been one disaster away from total annihilation, yet here we are...


Broken Pump, Bad Publicity, Big Problem...

I believe the typical reaction to something like this is due to a severe logical meltdown.

Y'see, rather than looking at the odds of something happening, they look at the odds of it killing everybody if it does indeed happen in the worst way it possibly could. So they think the odds of being killed in a global apocalypse is much higher than slipping in the shower and breaking your neck, just because a global apocalypse is worse if it does happen, regardless of the odds of that.

After all, statistically, we are all million and yet million times more likely to be killed by our own toaster than to be killed by that thingy.

It's like the lottery, only in reverse.

You don't think you're actually going to win, but you never know... and that possibility is too great to ignore. Hence all the doomsayers.

That article may all be true for all I care, but I would like to point out that it is the most 'we're all going to die' article I think I've ever read. Like the writer went looking for reasons to call it an apocalypse.

That's what the dinosaurs said. Yeah, they could talk.

Yep, and we should certainly enjoy our brief time while it lasts. But don't cash in your life savings just yet.

If you really want to be scared, though, here's a thought: we're currently in an ice age. Yes, that's right, it's an ice age out there. More specifically we're in a period of interglacial activity known as the holocene, which has lasted for the last 10,000 - 12,000 years, a brief period of warming before we crash back into cold normality. Ice-ages last several hundred-thousand years, if not millions, so this holocene is just a temporary blip - but in that "temporary blip" exists the entirety of human civilization. Just some food for thought.

Ok, I'm not saying that there isn't a giant methane bubble waiting to explode or whatever....but, for some reason, I do not believe it would be nearly as devastating as this article says it would be. I mean, if this happens, yeah, the coasts near the breach would probably be annihalated, and any sort of tsunami would reach pretty far inland. But a world killing event? I don't think so. More like a really big regional disaster.

The part that would have global effects would be increased methane in the atmosphere. That stuff is even better than carbon dioxide at absorbing long wave radiation (heat) and re-radiating it (back down to earth).

Think about it. A regular volcano eruptions spits some ash into the air and it can have a global effect on temperatures for a brief time until the soot and stuff falls back down.

You throw up a bunch of methane like that, I don't know if it'll fall back down!

Even if it doesn't all make it into the atmosphere, there could be negative consequences of it being dissolved in sea water. CO2 in water increases water acidity - from about 7 to down to 4 or 5. It's just like carbonating a beverage - and those are acidic. Ocean acidity is nothing to brush off. I don't know what impact dissolved methane would have. :shrug:

Sometimes it seems like nature is rough and tough and wild, but it can be pretty sensitive to even seemingly minute changes, like the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles.

So many things I haven't gotten to do..

I'm tired of being doomed all the time. Why can't we have imminent good events on the horizon? "Experimental missile misfires, on course to sun, will cause rays of light that heal all skin conditions."

Hmph, I'm of a sudden less worried about the methane, and more about the arsenic that is being pumped into the Gulf. Imagine, arsenic rain....

Judging from your Avatar and Sig, I think your favorite apocalypse theory Involves Chaos Space Marines slaughtering us all.

I always preffered the Tyranids killing us all theory over the CSM theory. At least the Tyranids will let the rippers eat me and make use of my corpse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAa0gd7ClM

Sorry, I had to

He also doesn't cite sources. For example, this bit:



There is a link in that text, but it only goes to an informative PDF about the Thomas Jefferson's specifications. Everything else is totally uncited and unverified. He could be making all this up for all we know.

So, in true internet fashion, I say: http://xkcd.com/285/

Edit: Helium appears to be a freelance style site, where anyone can submit articles, regardless of qualifications (scientific or otherwise--of which, by the way, the article's author appears to have none). Also, the story was featured on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_to_Coast_AM

So...along with citations, I'm also going to need to see a tin foil hat.

Seriously? British Petroleum....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Petroleum?

I'll see you all in 6 months.

bring the vodka.

There'll be plenty of ice. :disguise:

Don't worry, most of that time will just be spent at work, bills, taxes, and having only sometime for things you like. Most peoples lives are like that anyway, nowadays since this recession, so what you have now is probably the best. (There is a reason why advlts say they wish they were back in high school or a little kid again.)

There's no market for good news. Apparently people like to hear "WE ARE DOOMED!"

No, a giant plague that both rots and drives people into extreme violence.

I was going to say this LOL. So I wunder if Jerry Bruckheimer is thinking of a way to make this movie. So will it Bruce Willis plugging something up now instead of drilling? I wonder how they are going to make this into a "disaster Movie". I know of a few people who this can be made around. :rofl: