Supervolcano

Did anyone else see the programme on BBC1 last night called Supervolcano? This is what I call quality TV. Budgeted correctly with superb special effects it told the story of what might happen if the volcano underneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming were to explode. Granted the storyline was a bit cheesy, but then it was never supposed to be so powerful as to detract from the sheer horror of the effects of such an explosion. The storyline about the various scientists and US Departments was merely a strand with which to explain the cause and effect.

Apparently there is a magma chamber underneath this landmark that is potentially the area of the park itself and contains at a conservative estimate something like 25000km³ of red hot molten rock. Apparently Yellowstone has a record of popping its cork every 600,000 years, and its currently …….errrr……..640,000 years since its last ejaculation. Typically based on computer projects from the US FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) mainframe called HAZUS the programme projected that if the eruption were to last 7 days then around a million would die in the US alone, and the ash cloud would cover around 75% of the US land mass. The sulphur would cover the globe leading to permanently yellow skies, followed by the inevitable volcanic winter, whereby temperatures could globally fall by as much as 20^oC. The days of lazing in the sun during summer would be gone for up to 10 years. The human race would survive because we are nothing if not resilient and resourceful. Livestock would be all but destroyed, crops would fail, large areas of land could no longer be farmed and basically a disaster for the US would become a disaster for the world.

Fuck me, this was scary stuff. So scary I couldn’t let Baby watch it as she has a propensity to be sick when scared by things like this. Vampires and monsters are fine, but natural disasters scare the crap out of her, and being in the middle of Hurricane Charley doesn’t seem to have altered that. What really came across as well was the sheer helplessness of what can be done. In essence nothing can be done at all; we are apparently just waiting for this time bomb to go off and then left with the daunting task of picking up the pieces afterwards.

I wonder what the environmentalists make of this? If we knew this was about to happen for sure in the next , say 5 years, wouldn’t this undermine every “green” principle currently being espoused. Would air pollution matter when 25000km³ of ash and general crap is going to be spued into the atmosphere? Wouldn’t factory farming then become a necessity in order to keep livestock for food, and for clothing…wouldn’t fur become a necessity again as it is for eskimos? Wouldn’t intensive arable farming be the only way to secure crops for the years of darkness? Wouldn’t coal and oil become vital to generate power and heat to keep us alive, especially in those temperate areas where sub zero temperatures are unheard of. Wouldn’t nuclear power then be seen as the potential saviour of the race with its seemingly inexhaustible supply and comparatively small amount of waste? Couldn’t we all just go and top up our tans safe in the knowledge that for a few years the sun would be a stranger and harmful UV rays would be a thing of the past?

Just a thought, Later, GrocerJack