
A Giant Volcano Could End Human Life on Earth as We Know It - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/opinion/supervolcano-yellowstone.html
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milkytron
So, what can we do about Yellowstone, and what _should_ we do?

I suppose preparation, including protection and then self sustainability
within that protection. But that seems like a huge investment for something
that likely won't happen in our lifetimes. Are we better off using our
resources to become an interplanetary species, where the fate of earth has
less of an impact?

~~~
ryanmercer
> But that seems like a huge investment for something that likely won't happen
> in our lifetimes

The thing is a lot of the preparations would have multiple use scenarios. Bad
hurricanes, bad earthquakes, bad eruptions, asteroid impact, nuclear exchange,
conventional war relief, massive flooding, significant crop failure.

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perl4ever
Living on earth, there's always a fallback option, right back to the stone
age. On some other planet, at least in the solar system, there isn't going to
be any lower tech option when something high tech fails. One widget that you
can't produce locally fails and everybody is dead. So I can't see how a colony
ever becomes self-sufficient, at least without some "magical" future
technology that amounts to enhanced biology.

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ehPReth
hope it takes me first

~~~
ryanmercer
Sometimes I feel the same way sometimes because "meh life sucks, I truly hate
it"

Sometimes because "I can't imagine the hellish conditions that would result if
an eruption of that level happened, best case I probably die painfully as the
ash accumulates in my lungs a few days later, worst case I die terrified as
the earth rumbles with incredible ferocity and some time later a heat wall
incinerates me"

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Obligatory: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Call 1-800-273-8255

[https://www.iasp.info/](https://www.iasp.info/)

[https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/](https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/)

