Exploding our planet out of existence
Ted Folkert
August 14, 2017
Messages to North Korea from our fearless leader, President Trump, the same guy who had five draft deferments when he declined the opportunity to fulfill his duty to serve his country militarily:
“… the world will see fire and fury like it has never seen before” …. “if they don’t get their act together they are going to be in trouble like countries have never been in trouble before” … “military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded.”
We are talking about explosions here. North Korea exploding the United States. The U.S. exploding North Korea. Infrastructure destroyed, buildings destroyed, transportation destroyed, massive killings – all unnecessary, all a no-win situation, all with nothing to gain – just disaster and unnecessary loss of lives of innocent and helpless people.
It seems that our life is dominated by explosions and/or the fear of explosions. Is there a day that goes by without a huge explosion somewhere? One day it is in Mosul. The next day it is in Baghdad and another day in Kabul. Every day in Syria and often in Yemen, frequently in Israel and Palestine. In Africa, it seems rampant. The newspapers display massive destruction of buildings, automobiles, streets, bridges, homes and, of course, people. Lots of people. These occurrences are so common now that they hardly illicit any obvious concern among those of us not directly affected. If the devastation continues in Iraq and Syria, fueled by opposing involvement by the U.S. and Russia, the Middle East may all go up in flames and become destroyed with widespread, completely crumbled, infrastructure. Much of it already is.
Most all of our entertainment now requires explosions. Our movies, TV shows, news programs, children’s toys, and adult’s toys. The mining industry, tunnel building industry and obviously our wars, are all dominated by explosions. We explode tall buildings when we want them demolished. Our development of weaponry and the testing thereof is dominated by explosions. We can’t be adequately entertained without explosions. Not small isolated explosions, but massively destructive explosions. In warfare and in entertainment, we need explosions that annihilate entire buildings, entire neighborhoods, entire cities, with thousands killed with a single explosion, bodies flying everywhere. This provides the same thrill that the Lone Ranger used to do with one “speeding bullet.” A speeding bullet doesn’t get it anymore. Now we need massive explosions. Onesies and twosies don’t provide the necessary thrill anymore. Now we need lots of blood and flying body parts. Otherwise it doesn’t move our excitement needle.
It is hard to find a movie to watch that doesn’t include murder by knife, hatchet, baseball bat, strangulation, suffocation, poisoning, bullet, or explosion – preferably by explosion. Explosions for the film industry must have created a whole new industry. It must have created a whole new degree in film industry education – like maybe: explosives technologist, or master of explosion, or explode-ologist, or mass-killing specialist.
Imagine your lifetime legacy to be the best creator of explosion clips for the film industry. It seems that there should be such a category in the awards ceremonies. You know – the shows where all of the famous entertainers congratulate each other with wonderful awards.
We don’t seem to be getting any scientific predictions concerning the impact of the daily explosions the world over on the sustainability of our little planet to support additional explosions while still supporting human life. This would seem to be a worthwhile subject to address. I mean, where does all of the smoke go? Does it go into our atmosphere from whence we get the air we breathe, the atmosphere that enabled life? And what is the impact of all these explosions on this thin crust that we live on which has been supported by a molten core for millions of years now, this crust that enabled life and sustains life?
The extended use of explosives in warfare, and a friendlier name used more frequently, “police action,” has created, the somewhat softer term, “collateral damage.“ The term apparently justifies, or at least shirks responsibility for, deaths and destruction caused by explosions which were badly aimed or for which it was not possible to destroy the target without killing innocent people or destroying unintended property. So that makes it forgivable for the perpetrator or initiator of the action. Kind of like saying: “sorry I killed you, or sorry I destroyed your city, or sorry I killed your parents, but it had to be done because the message or our intent was more important than you or your parents or your city.”
Explosive devices are becoming so common now, even the most dreaded atomic weapons, that it is only a matter of time until virtually every country on the planet will possess enough of them to destroy other countries entire populations and entire commercial areas. So, then who controls the use of such weapons? Are all the countries on Earth going to, all-of-a-sudden, just get along with each other? Will all the countries reach an agreement to resolve disputes through negotiation and to adhere with the decision of some governing body? Like the United Nations?
In considering the impact of such controversies and festering disputes one can imagine looking at the horizon every night and viewing distant explosions like firecrackers on the Fourth of July.
It’s kind of like what happened to the tough guys when guns became so easy to come by. All-of-a-sudden the little guys were just as tough as the big guys. Like they say, “the bigger they come the harder fall.”
This should be taken literally by the big powerful countries. All-of-a-sudden a little country like North Korea can be feared just like a big powerful country like the U.S. The bigger they come the harder fall. And what happens when Isis and other incessant trouble makers on the planet get access to them? Are we to assume that we can prevent such a disaster forever? Don’t believe it. At some point in time they will fall into the wrong hands. Then what?
The young people of the world need to join hands. They need to communicate across borders and oceans. They need to converge on common ground in moving forward with the necessary goals for saving the planet for human life. The older folks aren’t going to do it. Too many of us don’t understand or don’t believe it when it comes to saving mankind. Look at who we elected to lead our country into the depths of disaster. This is how the older folks think. We have had it too good. We haven’t experienced the planetary challenges that are not only on the horizon but are already in the process of destroying the planet’s ability to sustain human life for the ten billion of us who will soon inhabit this molten rock we live on. That is ten billion mouths to feed daily, 10 billion who require fresh drinking water, a comfortable shelter, 10 billion who need clean air to breath.
The young people must find a way to eliminate explosive warfare from the equation. The planet simply cannot survive unless we take extensive measures to prevent global warming, which cannot be accomplished without ceasing to pollute our air with carbon emissions. This includes explosions. Every time one of the pistons in your car’s engine reaches the top of the cylinder the compressed gas creates an explosion. The elimination of explosions must be accomplished without imposing considerable hardship on the populace. We don’t need explosions to provide food, shelter and clothing, the essentials for survival, except those explosions generated by internal combustion engines in our cars, trucks, trains, airplanes, and tractors. The process of eliminating those is progressing but not fast enough. The future of the planet is all about the young. The young must pursue this challenge aggressively, not the way it is being pursued by those in power. For those in power it doesn’t matter much. For the young it means everything.
Think about it!