
Massive crater under Greenland’s ice points to climate-altering impact - thrower123
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/massive-crater-under-greenland-s-ice-points-climate-altering-impact-time-humans
======
HocusLocus
I find this bit especially chilling:

"But Jay Melosh, an impact crater expert at Purdue University in West
Lafayette, Indiana, doubts the strike was so recent. Statistically, impacts
the size of Hiawatha occur only every few million years, he says, and so the
chance of one just 13,000 years ago is small."

Pay special attention to that idea. This guy is drawing a line in the sand,
offering an opinion based on statistical probability alone... on a topic that
has grave implications for our kind -- because with space travel and weapons
technology we have been in a position to DO something about the threat -- and
we have so far done NOTHING.

He is just a gambler, engaged in the most dangerous "gambler's fallacy" of
all. It is a mental disorder just as surely as any homeless compulsive
gambler, and his disorder affects others. And there are many like him. Try
this one:

[https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/throwback-thursday-
are...](https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/throwback-thursday-are-
asteroids-dangerous-1ce5dec7cb0b)

There we have someone telling _children_ that asteroids are nothing to worry
about, because.... we have this statistical engine of perfect clockwork and
big rocks only fall according to our statistical 'timetable', and none are
'scheduled' for next week. And he goes on to imply that we should accept the
idea of extinction (despite being technologically advanced) as a stress
reliever. It's an insidious way of thinking. People do it out of angst too.
They'll take a dark view of humankind as if the planet would be better off
without us, completely ignoring the concept that if we could defend the planet
we would be protecting _all life_ on it.

It's one of the issues I write letters about,

[https://www.scribd.com/document/374712301/20180227-David-
L-G...](https://www.scribd.com/document/374712301/20180227-David-L-Goldfein-
Letter-SC)

