All posts by Marshall Brain

Domestic terrorists are threatening their desire to “blow up the capitol”

February 28, 2021 Marshall Brain Leave a comment

Domestic terrorists are ready and willing to blow up the capitol and kill politicians:

Police chief says militia groups ‘want to blow up’ Capitol building at Biden State of the Union

“US Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman argued to maintain increased law enforcement presence at the Capitol ahead of Joe Biden’s first address to Congress, following warnings from militia groups that she says want to “blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible” in connection with the president’s upcoming State of the Union address.”

Who are these “militia groups”? Several lists are readily available:

The armed militia making their voices heard in the last days of Trump’s presidency

US Election: The Heavily-Armed Militia Groups Who Could Take Over the Streets

Global Warming, Government, Mass Extinction, Ocean Acidification, Sea Level Rise, Warnings

Humanity needs to change course immediately on climate change

February 27, 2021 Marshall Brain Leave a comment

This report from the United Nations is sobering:

U.N. Says World Has 10 Months to Get Serious on Climate Goals

“The language of diplomacy rarely allows for a true sense of emotion or urgency. But reading between the lines of the latest report commissioned by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—the body representing the 197 member nations of the Paris Agreement to minimize a global average temperature rise this century—the message is clear. The world has precisely ten months to get our act together if there is to be any hope of staving off a climate catastrophe by the end of the century.”

As described many times in this blog, there are steps that humanity could take (e.g. the immediate halt to fossil fuel usage and the immediate initiation of direct carbon dioxide capture from the atmosphere). But humanity shows little interest in averting the catastrophe that is approaching. Even though we know what will happen, and even though it will cause trillions of dollars in damage along with the displacement of millions of people, humanity seems unable to take action.

At this point it is difficult to imagine anything that would cause humanity to change course in any significant way. And what is really needed is an intense effort, similar to space program in the United States in the 1960s, where significant funding and hundreds of thousands of scientists and engineers are dedicated to the task of solving and then reversing climate change.

“Failing to address climate change is “marching forward to what is almost tantamount to a mutual suicide pact”, said Kerry. “We bury our heads in the sand at our own peril. It’s urgent to treat the climate crisis as the urgent security threat that it is.””

“The Doomsday Book” by Marshall Brain lays out this scenario in amazing detail and offers solutions to prevent this doomsday scenario from unfolding. You can order the book today on Amazon and other retailers.

Chemical Attack, Pandemics

Anthrax: Nature’s Perfect Bioweapon

February 27, 2021 Marshall Brain Leave a comment

Anthrax: Nature’s Perfect Bioweapon

In The Doomsday Book there are chapters on both chemical attacks and biological attacks. As suggested by this video, anthrax was cultivated by several countries for use as a bioweapon in WWII and has appeared several times on the world stage. In the United States the most famous appearance involved mailing anthrax to people:

Anthrax Attacks | Flashback | NBC News

Death by mail: The anthrax letters

Global Warming, Sea Level Rise, Warnings

The collapse of the Gulf Stream

February 26, 2021 Marshall Brain Leave a comment

Several articles appeared this week talking about the weakening of the Gulf Stream, a river of warm water that flows from the Gulf of Mexico northward. Climate change is affectin g the flow, and if the flow stops then it will have unpredictable but likely catastrophic effects on the Earth’s weather, oceans and marine life.

Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest in a millennium, say scientists

Scientists predict that the AMOC will weaken further if global heating continues, and could reduce by about 34% to 45% by the end of this century, which could bring us close to a “tipping point” at which the system could become irrevocably unstable. A weakened Gulf Stream would also raise sea levels on the Atlantic coast of the US, with potentially disastrous consequences.

The “end of the century” part is interesting, but there is reason to believe that it could happen much quicker. Another article:

A Major Ocean Current May Be Hurtling Towards Collapse

“The AMOC is at risk of collapsing when a certain level of freshwater flow into the North Atlantic from increasing ice melt in Greenland is reached,” Johannes Lohmann, one of the authors of the study, said in an email. “These tipping points have been shown previously in climate models, where meltwater is very slowly introduced into the ocean. In reality, increases in meltwater from Greenland are accelerating and cannot be considered slow.”

There is no way to stop the collapse of the Gulf Stream without ending the burning of fossil fuels, along with the removal of excess CO2 from the atmosphere.

Pandemics

The NEXT Pandemic

February 25, 2021 Marshall Brain Leave a comment

One this that is especially uncomfortable about the COVID-19 pandemic is that it will not be the last pandemic we face. In fact, pandemics may become more common in the coming years, as explained here:

The Next Pandemic: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

The problem is that humanity is doing thing to stir up new germs (e.g. cutting down rainforests and thawing the Arctic), and humanity is more interconnected than ever before, making it easy for pandemics to spread globally. As the video’s description describes it, “As COVID-19 continues to spread, John Oliver discusses what could cause the next pandemic, what we can do to avoid it, and why you shouldn’t kiss pigs.”

Warnings

One more thing to worry about – the collapse and reversal of Earth’s magnetic field

February 24, 2021 Marshall Brain Leave a comment

As if pandemics, Climate Change, economic hardship, terrorism, etc. are not enough to worry about, now comes the reversal of Earth’s magnetic field:

Could Doomsday Come From a Reversal of the Magnetic Poles?

“After studying the reversal of Earth’s magnetic pole known to have occurred 42,000 years ago, a science team led by Alan Cooper from the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, Australia concludes that the event had significant environmental repercussions, especially at lower and mid-latitudes. That time period, known as the Laschamps Excursion, had anomalously high radiocarbon concentrations in the atmosphere, which were linked to a higher influx of radiation. When the reversal occurred, within a span of about 1,000 years, Earth’s magnetic field weakened drastically and the magnetic North and South Poles flipped, temporarily leaving surface-dwelling organisms largely unprotected from high influxes of both ionic and ultraviolet radiation.”

The Earth’s magnetic field provides several protective functions, and without it the protection disappears.

Power Grid, Warnings

The next solar storm could be catastrophic for civilization

February 23, 2021 Marshall Brain Leave a comment

Solar storms are random in their timing and location. Since the sun is a sphere, these storms burst out of the surface of the sun in random directions. But occasionally, the timing and direction are exactly right for a solar storm to hit Earth:

Solar storms can wreak havoc. We need better space weather forecasts

“Without a good way to anticipate these solar storms, we’re vulnerable. A big one could take out a swath of our communication systems and power grids before we even knew what hit us. A recent near miss occurred in the summer of 2012. A giant solar storm hurled a radiation-packed blob in Earth’s direction at more than 9 million kilometers per hour. The potentially debilitating burst quickly traversed the nearly 150 million kilometers toward our planet, and would have hit Earth had it come just a week earlier. Scientists learned about it after the fact, only because it struck a NASA satellite designed to watch for this kind of space weather. That 2012 storm was the most intense researchers have measured since 1859.”

There are two types of solar storms, both of which could be catastrophic. Right now there are some efforts underway to harden power grids against these storms, but there is much left to do and the hardening is expensive.

Asteroids

The asteroid threat to Planet Earth

February 23, 2021 Marshall Brain Leave a comment

We know that asteroids have hit Earth in the past, and there are thousands of potential asteroids that can hit Earth in the future. Many of these asteroids are still unknown to us, as described here:

Huge mile-wide Asteroid Approaching Earth in March

Given the threat, it seems prudent for humans to have a strategy and a system in place to guard against rogue asteroids.

Power Grid

Dozens of people in Texas died of hypothermia due to the power failures

February 21, 2021 Marshall Brain Leave a comment

Just unbelievable for a modern nation to see a doomsday collapse like the one seen in Texas. In the process dozens of people have died of hypothermia:

Suspected hypothermia deaths in homes mount in Texas

“With the snow and ice clearing in Texas after days of unusually cold temperatures, bodies are being found of people who likely froze to death as they struggled to stay warm after electricity was cut to millions of homes… They include an 11-year-old boy who died in his bed in Conroe, near Houston, and two older men found dead in their homes in the small West Texas town of Buffalo Gap in Taylor County.”

Electricity and water disaster in Texas

There is no question that the situation in Texas, which was completely preventable with proper regulations and management, has been an unmitigated disaster for millions of people:

‘CATASTROPHE’ Biden declares Texas major disaster after winter storm kills 69 & leaves millions without clean water, power or heat

“THE winter storm death toll continues to mount as millions of Americans are thrust into third-world conditions amid widespread power outages and contaminated tap water. At least 69 people have died of carbon monoxide poisoning, hypothermia, car crashes, house fires, and drownings, among other tragedies related to the freak weather in Texas and neighboring states. “

Many doomsday scenarios are caused by nature or terrorism. This one was caused by incompetence through purposeful deregulation of the grid.

Texas power outages: How the largest energy-producing state in the US failed in freezing temperature

Texas oil expert calls for change after ‘third world’ power outages

Dam Failures, Power Grid

Frozen pipes add misery and property damage to texas Power Disaster

February 20, 2021 Marshall Brain Leave a comment

When the snow fell and power went out in Texas due to freezing temperatures, people no longer had heat or light, they could no longer drive, there was no food to be had in stores, and then there was one additional consequence that caused huge property damage – frozen pipes:

THAT’S MY CAR – Pipe Break Disaster as Texas Thaw begins

Pipes freeze and burst in Texas

The amount of damage that leaking water can cause is amazing because it destroys floors, carpers, drywall, furniture, etc. If on an upper floor it ruins the ceilings as well.

Just one more layer of misery added on top of everything else is Texas.

Doomsday Now

All posts by Marshall Brain

Domestic terrorists are threatening their desire to “blow up the capitol”

Humanity needs to change course immediately on climate change

Anthrax: Nature’s Perfect Bioweapon

The collapse of the Gulf Stream

The NEXT Pandemic

One more thing to worry about – the collapse and reversal of Earth’s magnetic field

The next solar storm could be catastrophic for civilization

The asteroid threat to Planet Earth

Dozens of people in Texas died of hypothermia due to the power failures

Frozen pipes add misery and property damage to texas Power Disaster

A companion website for "The Doomsday Book" by Marshall Brain