536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018) • Hacker News Board

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#71

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 7:55 PM UTC

SllX wrote: post #23

deanCommie wrote: post #10

These kinds of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions could happen today right? What's.......our intended process for dealing with this? Are there any technical solutions for dispersing ash from the atmosphere? I know this is a stupidly naive question to some degree - how do you prevent acts of god, but I am curious if someone has thought about it.

Hmm, well we saw something like it recently and it mostly just stranded people in Europe from what I recall. Eyjafjallajökull erupted in Iceland about 10 years ago and there wasn’t anything we could do but wait it out, and it was a lot less severe than what’s described in this article.

Although it's worth asking, did the eruption affect agricultural output in Iceland? Maybe modern farming is just resilient enough against volcanic eruptions, as it is against all the other things that used to cause famines.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#72

Post by CameronNemo » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 7:55 PM UTC

chrisco255 wrote: post #27

pureliquidhw wrote: post #17

How susceptible are we to another catastrophic volcano eruption? After COVID-19 shut down supply chains, there were some problematic delays, but seems like we quickly recovered. If the entire planet's crops were wiped out, we're all just SOL if we don't get canned goods in time? If we had 12 months notice, could we as a planet get it together? 6 months? 3 months? Is there forecasting for volcanoes? (looks like yes: h…

Forecasting volcanoes is a lot like forecasting earthquakes, it's really difficult to do and often there's very little warning, maybe a couple of days at most, but sometimes comes with no warning at all. The White Island volcano killed several people last year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Whakaari_/_White_Island_e... This place was a famous tourist destination. One of my favorite sites for tracking Volcanic er…

How would green/grow houses help in such a situation?

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#73

Post by MannishMan » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 7:56 PM UTC

I know this is pedantic, but based on the order of events in the article wouldn’t 543 be the worst year to be alive? By then you would have experienced the cumulative horror of starving and freezing through two volcanic events and watching a third to half of your friends and family die of plague. 536 would have a been frightening and confusing as the volcanic fog began to roll in, but you couldn’t know the terror of what was to come.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#74

Post by zaroth » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 7:56 PM UTC

Cerium wrote: post #59

pmiller2 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense have we “recovered” from supply chain disruptions? I go to the store and still routinely see empty shelves where TP should be; have experienced meat shortages in recent days; and stores are still rationing things like hand sanitizer (when you can find it), canned goods, meat, and rice.

One angle on the TP problem is that we didn't just have a shock, we had a shock and then lasting change in demand. I saw an article that says demand for residential sized TP rolls is up 40% because a lot of bathroom visits are happening in homes that used to happen in work places.

Huh, I never thought about the demand shift from WFH. Much easier to blame hoarders. But this makes a lot of sense, thanks for pointing this out.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#75

Post by divbzero » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 7:58 PM UTC

subsubzero wrote: post #58

How many people reading this have a years worth of food? Could any of us survive something similar to this eruption? I think covid really opened alot of peoples eyes to extreme worldwide disasters (volcanos, large earthquakes, pandemics) and how most are not prepared for it at all and yes these things do and will continue to keep happening.

I hope this pandemic has opened everyone’s eyes to the benefits of disaster preparedness. If more of us get into the habit of stocking up in advance, we would experience less of a spike in demand when the next disaster strikes.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#76

Post by cs702 » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 7:59 PM UTC

Not just the worst year to be alive, but also the beginning of the worst century to be alive:

"The repeated blows, followed by plague, plunged Europe into economic stagnation that lasted until 640."

Imagine the kind of horror and suffering that a century of global economic stagnation inflicts on generations of people.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#77

Post by f_allwein » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 8:01 PM UTC

lgl wrote: post #62

The 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull [0] was a small sample of the perturbations that a volcanic event can have on day to day lives. And it was a relatively small eruption. Anything much larger than that will most likely have devastating effects on modern society on pretty much all levels and it's not really a matter of "if" but "when". Besides eruptions, many other scarier events can cause huge shifts on…

Michio Kaku wrote about how it is the challenge for each civilization to guard against such life-threatening catastrophes: https://mkaku.org/home/articles/the-physics-of-extraterrestr...

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#78

Post by kanobo » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 8:02 PM UTC

MannishMan wrote: post #73

I know this is pedantic, but based on the order of events in the article wouldn’t 543 be the worst year to be alive? By then you would have experienced the cumulative horror of starving and freezing through two volcanic events and watching a third to half of your friends and family die of plague. 536 would have a been frightening and confusing as the volcanic fog began to roll in, but you couldn’t know the terror of…

That's not pedantic, it's a good comment. I had the same thought when reading the article and wondered if others were wondering the same.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#79

Post by ghaff » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 8:02 PM UTC

pmiller2 wrote: post #61

ghaff wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I can see in the Boston area--not that I've gone to stores much--you still see bare shelves and you can't really go to the store and expect to get everything on your shopping list. On the other hand... Getting food to eat was never a problem at any point. And today, reliably getting meat, chicken, dairy, paper products even if not exactly what you want, most baking supplies, etc. is pretty much a non-proble…

True, I never had a problem getting enough food. But, I am definitely still seeing issues getting most of the things you listed out explicitly, at least intermittently.

It’s definitely not “normal” but it’s been increasingly getting back to it over the past few weeks where I live.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#80

Post by pmiller2 » Thu, Jun 18, 2020, 8:02 PM UTC

Cerium wrote: post #59

pmiller2 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense have we “recovered” from supply chain disruptions? I go to the store and still routinely see empty shelves where TP should be; have experienced meat shortages in recent days; and stores are still rationing things like hand sanitizer (when you can find it), canned goods, meat, and rice.

One angle on the TP problem is that we didn't just have a shock, we had a shock and then lasting change in demand. I saw an article that says demand for residential sized TP rolls is up 40% because a lot of bathroom visits are happening in homes that used to happen in work places.

I know that, but the point remains that the supply chain has not “recovered” in any meaningful sense. Capitalism, in fact, guarantees it will not (too expensive to switch production from commercial to residential TP). We’re going to be seeing this phenomenon until people can go back to work.