So how does this affect the great folks here in Mohave County Arizona you might ask... I'll get to that in a minute. First thing though the important bits from the linked article...
The asteroid, called 1999 RQ36, has a 1-in-1,000 chance of actually hitting the Earth at some point before the year 2200, but is most likely to hit us on 24th September 2182.
It was first discovered in 1999 and is more than 1,800 feet across. If an asteroid of this size hit the Earth it would cause widespread devastation and possible mass extinction.
Oh. Still long odds I see. Not as long as the other killer asteroid zooming around in space with a chance to give it to us real good in 2036 (a chance as in a one in 250,000 chance) but still.
Let's imagine that science was actually good enough today to be definitive about tomorrow and 1999 RQ36 is locked and loaded with a delivery date of 9/24/2182. What would we (you or I or they or anyone) do?? I figure it this way.
1) It is the year 2010 right now a goodly number of folks are going to say that they won't be around for the show some 170 years from now so no big deal. Fair.
2) Some folks will be very pessimistic and feel that nothing will be able to stop the impending collision. They'll say this today -- maybe even on the Internet -- even though 170 years ago things like the Internet, computers, and space vehicles were impossible in that time.
3) Others will want to do something about the approaching menace. These folks will begin a concept called problem solving. Even though in the year 2010 the problem is not going to be felt by the people of this era, there will be people that will begin work on solutions -- knowing that it will be people in future generations that will actually solve the problem. But the solutions have to start somewhere and for a impending problem as large as total destruction the sooner the better.
4) Still others will simply want to move. Sure that may be tough to move off this planet right now, but it is an option.
These are just my opinions as to what people would do faced with an impending dire situation. Because there is only a 1 in 1,000 chance that 1999 RQ36 is going to hit the planet some 170 years from now, I put myself in the first category above. However I could see being part of the third or fourth category if there was something more definitive about the future. There may be plenty more options and I won't argue those. So why share this on a local blog??
Well, we here in the Kingman area of Mohave County are said to have some impending problem in the future. That's right some of the very brightest and most 'enlightened' minds in the county have said the aquifers from which this community draws its water only has about 100 or 200 years worth of water left before it runs dry. Yet these same folks haven't a care to actually do anything about changing the future -- well the future they represent anyway.
Just like in my example above the 'enlightened' want to do zilch about the problem putting them in the second category and to make matters worse, not allow anyone else to do anything about the impending problem either. Think about it folks, anytime someone brings up the beginnings of any sort of possible solution to some far distant problem they scream that it is impossible. These folks are simply the most greedy among us. Sad that they cannot see the damage they are doing to the future.
Oh sure, they'll say they are protecting the future -- but they are the ones saying that the water will be all gone come a couple hundred years or so -- just how are they protecting the community for the kids and grandkids?? The grandkids will know that they may only have 50 to 100 years of water left, which will put them in the fourth category from my earlier asteroid example but they will no doubt have many different places to choose from to move to. The grandkids might be able to find other solutions but their backs will be closer to the wall than if WE had begun to find solution for the problem... if the problem actually exists in the manner the 'enlightened' among us insist it does.
There is no future for Kingman if there is no water. No matter how much we save today, tomorrow, and the next day we are still using water and will eventually use it all -- again if the 'enlightened' are as correct as they say they are.
The biggest problem for everyone on both sides of this perhaps impending problem is that as of today it doesn't feel like a problem. Gonna get in a shower today, brush the teeth, make some lemonade, wash the car, run through the sprinklers, and even do some laundry. All possible right now because for our community water is abundant TODAY. We have more than we could use TODAY.
But what about tomorrow?? IF the problem is as big as it is represented by the 'enlightened' where are the folks that fall into the third category from my example above?? Maybe many of them have already exercised the fourth category or simply fall into the first one??
