Yesterday’s chilling article has prompted some responses.  Here are two from the Alas Babylon Yahoo Group.

Regarding a Conversation in Pakistan

Stuart Johnson
California

Thanks for Peter Landesman’s astonishing commentary on one Pakistani’s willingness to cure overpopulation through weapons.

1)As I thought about it I realized that I feel the same way about my own country. So many people casually destroying the biological base for our existence. I wish something drastic could happen.

2) Aman’s comments are important for another reason. A few months ago I came upon the information that in the 1980s the Soviets produced many tons of smallpox virus, perhaps genetically engineered to be even more deadly. The US and the world’s immunity to smallpox wore off by the 1990s. Russian scientists went off to new jobs, possibly carrying samples of highly saleable bioweapon agents, including smallpox. The US knew this since the early 1990s and did nothing. Scientist Michael Osterholm noted that any single person in the world who had a sample of smallpox virus could start an unstoppable worldwide epidemic by infecting himself and walking into any crowds in, say, an international airport. Thirty to fifty percent of the world’s people could die during the months thereafter.

Then I went to a nationally known writer of bioweapon texts (a PhD microbiologist and Bioweapon Nonproliferation expert) and asked him if he was not worried about this crisis. Here is what he said, as close as I can recall:

“No Muslim would release such a dangerous virus since he would have to answer to the other Muslims who managed to survive the smallpox dieoff.”

I was not convinced. It seems that a Muslim with the smallpox virus might become uncontrollably angry, say, over the capture of Osama Bin Ladin.

This Pakistani’s willingness to use nuclear weapons tells me that the smallpox bioweapon is still the greatest threat we face. What’s that old saying: “Cancer cures smoking”? Smallpox cures energy loss and starvation.

Another Response

K.M.
Denmark

I think that many who realize the grave situation the world is in would rather have the WW III or some similar disaster, killing off 90% or so of the human population, than have the situation drag on to the point of gradual diedown of all life on earth… which we have been experiencing on earth for the last 200 years (though not to humans to a great extent yet!). In a “cosmic” perspective I would rather have life continue on Earth for a few billion years than have humans wipe out most of the lifesupporting systems within the next 200. (OK, mother nature will most likely eventually clean up the mess but it may take some million years to recuperate…

I do think that humans will eventually “self-destruct” some way or the other, just a matter of how and when (is it in our genes?) – if we do not return to our old “native” way of living in balance with nature.

Humans are the king of mammals, who took over from the dinosaurs, who were the kings of their era. Maybe the next cycle will see insects and birds as the winners, a most likely scenario in my opinion, as both are well suited to survival in a post doomsday world.

Viruses and bacteria are becoming more and more resistant to all kinds of drugs, and the eventual outbreak of say a highly resistant tuberculosis could have some drastic effects on any continent. The trick for the virus or bacteria is to be highly resistant to any kind of treatment, a “slow” killer and being able to transmit itself through touch or by air. Tuberculosis fits all of these criteria… Small pox could be an another option but it is more easy to detect who carries it.

An infectious outbreak could easily be the all time exterminator to clean up the mess, the “human virus”. One outbreak of The Black Plague wiped out 1/3 of the European population in only 2 years :

“The plague came to Europe in the fall of 1347. By 1350 it had largely passed out of western Europe. In the space of two years, one out of every three people was dead. Nothing like that has happened before or since.”

This link provides an excellent account of the incident. When I read it I shiver, as I realize that a like scenario may very well hit us soon. On the other hand, it is only a natural reaction from mother nature to counteract the “human virus” infecting the earth life support systems. Again it underscores that living in a city is very dangerous when hell breaks loose.

As I remarked yesterday, in a sad way the sentiment expressed by Aman and today seconded by Stuart Johnson and KM makes a strange kind of sense. Especially in our present world of overpopulation and fossil fuel depletion. Joseph George Caldwell has come to a similar conclusion and provides the rationale for that conclusion in his online book: Can America Survive ?

It is time for humanity to wake up and grow up! Our house is on fire and we are all asleep. Most of us continue as blind men and women earning our livings in the great market and leaving our future in the hands of politicians locked in the adversary paradigm of the third world where one bullet=one vote, or here in the West where one dollar=one vote.

We must put away the toys of adversity and neutrality, and begin to seriously work together.  Only a synergic society can change our future.  –Timothy Wilken