Sunday, September 2, 2007

Daydreaming...

One of my favourite fantasies as a kid was to think about waking up and finding no one else on Earth. I could do anything I wanted, and even though it was a scary dream (and a little morbid in retrospect) I never thought about the dangers of living in a world alone. Never thought about how I would survive. I'd just wander around watching vines grow over neighbourhoods and read and hang out.

Alan Weisman has released a book called The World Without Us which explores just this idea. What if people disappeared spontaneously, leaving everything behind? I find the basics of this idea fascinating and a little bit solemn. But I'm glad to see my fantasy is still alive and well for some people.

The scarier dream for me was the bomb, but that was more of a distant reality. I grew up afraid of the bomb because my mother was afraid of it too. She would tell me the story of the time she was in Florida with my grandfather when the Cuban Missile Crisis started. They were trying to get back to Canada as fast as they could and she watched the pleasant, rolling hills along the American highway slide open revealing the military silos and their nuclear payloads.

I think that's when the bomb became real for my mother.

It became real for me when the front page of the Windsor Star printed a map from a declassified government document created during the Cold War. It showed what could happen if Detroit (which I knew was a nuclear target) were bombed in two situations. One, a nuclear explosion of a relatively high yield. The other situation was a bombing by three tactical nukes of lower yield.

I believe that if I were at home during the large nuclear strike, I would have had a 40% chance of survival. Well, as long as I didn't burn to death, suffocate, starve or shit my liver out. If I were downtown during a strike I'd likely die instantly. ("Instantly" was used rather vaguely, it sounded more like a goal than a likelihood).

The reason why these are both so drilled into my head is that the reality of the bomb killed my fantasy of a humanless Earth.

I remember hearing a story years ago about what would happen to the planet if people just disappeared, and it became apparent that we're here to stay. At least for the time being.

Inside a United States government installation is a key (at least there used to be). And this key wasn't turned to launch the bombs, it was turned to stop them from launching. Every 12 or 24 hours, this key had to be turned.

The way it worked was that if the Soviets, or anyone else bombed the states to the point where no one was alive (or at least alive enough to give the order to turn the key), then the rockets would launch on their own, destroying the Soviets. If someone were alive to turn the key, then there was still peace.

If people suddenly disappeared, then every country with nuclear capabilities could potentially release their payloads simultaneously. It was estimated that within a week of humanity's departure, all the oceans would be vaporized and the Earth would be a molten, bubbling lava pit.

We can't leave this planet, Mr. Weisman.

We're holding it hostage.

1 comment:

James Bowie said...

Your blog needs more hatred, Evil.

Fucking hippies....