What''s finally going to get us?

[Allisonfaye]

I just read an article about some recent cases of bird flu and how they are afraid it will mutate and kill millions of people. This morning, I heard on the news that the global warming could be at a crisis point by the end of this centry and that it is already impacting our weather. In the paper this Sunday, there was an article about all this uranium that the American government somehow put out in the world back in the 50''s or 60''s(even to risky countries) in an attempt to insure world peace but how they can''t retrieve it now and it can easily get into the wrong hands. I am fuzzy on the details of all these stories but each one of them really scares me. I always read them and think...Ok...THIS is what is going to destroy us all.

What do YOU think about these issues? Do you get a little nervous when you read about it? I guess I worry mostly about my children.

 

[Mara]

really...it always seems like SOMETHING is so dire about our world from year to year. remember like what 5 years ago when it was worried a big meteor was going to crash into earth? armageddon anyone? or that movie about when the earth froze that had jake gyllenhall in it? soon there will be a movie about bird flu and/or whatever else the dire thing of the year or generation is.

typically i feel like something like dying in a car crash or getting hit by a car, or something like cancer is going to ''get us'' in our day and age...especially since cancer just seems to grow from year to year in terms of people getting it and/or dying. way more than when i was younger.

 

[FireGoddess]

Haha yes, I see what you mean. There is always something sensationalized in the press. However, there is some truth to all of the stories. The basis starts in truth, but then things get blown up because we are drawn to drama. Oprah did a whole show on what would happen if the bird flu turned into a pandemic. It gets ratings.

What I take from these stories is...what CAN I do something about, and what CAN''T I? What IS happening as opposed to what COULD happen? Not much I can do about bird flu...''cept have a ''survival'' kit ready (which would be the same as an earthquake kit in CA anyway). Global warming IS an issue that I feel strongly about, because it IS happening right now, as opposed to a bird flu scenario that *might* happen. So I do feel that we should be as eco-conscious as possible because it can only HELP the situation. Uranium...not much I can do about personally.

So basically, I try to weed out what IS going on, and what CAN I do about it?

 

[Kaleigh]

Years ago it was the killer bees that were on their way to the US. I remember hearing about them and really being scared!!!! I am concerned about global warming. But probably obsess more about getting cancer, being killed in a car accident, etc....

 

[Allisonfaye]

Mara: I just heard on the news last week that cancer death rates were sharply declining. So hopefully that makes you feel better.

I guess it is true that there is little that we can do about things like bird flu. But really, how much impact can any individual have on the ecosystems? I would guess that the vast majority of the damage to the ozone is caused by manufacturing and cars.

I guess what bothers me too is that we are so out of control and that the people that do control all of these things are politicians...and stupid politicians at that. It scares me to think that the government is supposed to protect me from a lot of things. I used to work for the government which is why it scares me even more. (Not that they hired me

...that I saw how they did things).

I hate to thing that the end of our planet is caused by our own stupidity.

 

[perry]

Allisonfaye

Most likey old age or some common known medical condition or accident.

That article about the research reactor fuel was at best poorly researched and at worst outright misleading.

This is not a new issue and efforts have been underway since the mid 1970''s to return this fuel to the US and other countries who supplied research reactors to the world (Russia supplied the second highest number of them).

To date something like 80% of the bomb grade fuel has been recovered - and the reactors converted to operate on much lower grade enriched fuel. Over the next decade almost all of the rest will be converted. There are only a few of these reactors that can only run on bomb grade material and discussions have taken place about just replaceing these reactors (but no actions have been taken to do that).

However, there has not ever been a problem or loss of this fuel. Research reactors are the source of medical and industrial isotopes - something that all industrilized countries depend on. The reactors are also used for training people in nuclear reactor technology - which is used for power plants. Even the countries that persued nuclear weapons never touched the research reactor fuel. We also know where it all is.

Also, allmost all of the remaining fuel cannot be easily handled or converted to bombs becasue of all of the rad waste products now in the fuel. The fuel rods must be handled well under water (20+ ft of water is commonly required) or behind significant shielding to pack them into very massively shielded shipping containers for safe handling. Building a reprocessing plant to extract the material is a very large and complicated project as well (on the order of a billion dollars for just a small plant).

The enriched uranium that was offered for sale that was reported in the press recently was from an enrichment plant and not metalic pellats. There does remain questions to this day about all of the output of the Soviet era enrichment plants - and even some questions about how many nuclear warheads were produced and if they were all properly accounted for (centering on the extreemly portable ones). Fortunately, the extreemly portable nuclear bombs have a fairly short usefull life without some very high level maintenance and overhaul that can only be done in a few places in the world. Thus, if any are actually missing they long ago degraded to non-functional status and the international community has really good control and accountabiltity of the places that could rebuild them.

The research reactors fuel is the least of our concern on the nuclear side of the issue; and I found all kinds of references and international agreements dating back to the mid 1970''s to return and recover this material in less than 10 minutes of internet searching.

Here is part of an article at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_reactor

"The U.S. Department of Energy initiated a program in 1978 to develop the means to convert research reactors from using highly enriched uranium to the use of low enriched uranium, in support of its nonproliferation policy. [1] By that time the U.S. had supplied research reactors and highly enriched uranium to 41 countries as part of its Atoms for Peace program. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Energy extended its Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Acceptance program until 2019. [2]"
It is easy to find a lot more information with the right targeted searches as well (and any reporter writing on nuclear issues should know what terms to use for targeted searches).

So why didn''t the reporter find all of this information.... My take is that either they did not even look - or they wanted to present a false picture.

As far as all the other "hazards".... Beware of the fear mongers. Remember, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" (I believe Teddy Rosevelt). How true.

Most likely you will die from old age or some other common medical condition or accident.

Perry

 

[ladykemma]

i would worry more about a concept called "peak oil" - I believe that the world is running out of oil, That, combined with oil supported agriculture maintaining artificially high populations. I think there is going to be a huge mess in the next two generations resulting in no food, and too many people.

i believe we need to start to control our population, like china. and spend the remaining oil developing new strategies for fuel, like solar, nuclear, wind and geothermal.

 

[movie zombie]

with you, ladykemma. we worry so much about disease when our own human actions, imo, will be what takes us down.

movie zombie

 

[poptart]

I often wonder what is going to "get us" in the end, but don't really worry about it. It's GOING to happen at some point so we need to accept that. However, I honestly think that we will somehow destroy ourselves, be it with nukes, global warming, war, whatever. We are our own worst enemy. Throughout the thousands of years humans have roamed the earth we have lost the ability to work with each other let alone the earth. We are always fighting someone or something. Always in conflict with "the other". It's sad, really. But I just live everyday thinking, "I am blessed to have been given this day" rather than, "It could be my last". And with the days I have been given, I would really love to teach others how to work with this world, rather than against it.

*M*

Edited for clarity

 

[Skippy123]

Hi,
I really don''t worry. I think if we do our part to help it will all work out in the end. I am wondering about Global Warming only because we are getting lots of snow and in the past we didn''t. It is funny because these things make me think of some Twilight Zone episodes. Gosh, I am a nerd.

 

[diamondfan]

This all freaks me but I am a worrier by nature. I read about some flu pandemic that killed 50 million people years ago, because the virus mutated and basically drowned healthy strong people in their own fluids, people who can normally fight things. They think the bird flu might get out of hand too. I worry about it all for the sake of my kids...yikes, is it scary to read the news!

 

[KimberlyH]

I think a virus of some sort (since there is no known cure for viruses and they spread so easily) will eventually be the end of us. I, like lk, believe our population is out of control and I think that a virus of some sort will strike and we will end up in a survival of the fittest situation.

The latest article in the NY Times that I read on the subject stated that according to scientists the world cannot survive beyond 2100. I don''t know if it''s that emminent, but at some point the end will occur.

 

[hlmr]

It is hard to say what will get "us"....could be as simple as old age or as tragic as a global pandemic. What concerns me more is our children, grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren. We won''t be leaving a very healthy enviroment for them to adapt to yet we don''t seem too willing to make any changes in the way we live. I guess it really will be survival of the fittest.

 

[FireGoddess]

Date: 1/31/2007 10:31:11 PM
Author: diamondfan
This all freaks me but I am a worrier by nature. I read about some flu pandemic that killed 50 million people years ago, because the virus mutated and basically drowned healthy strong people in their own fluids, people who can normally fight things. They think the bird flu might get out of hand too. I worry about it all for the sake of my kids...yikes, is it scary to read the news!

Yes, that was the 1918 pandemic.

ETA: a little linky

 

[crown1]

thanks fg! i was wondering if the regular pneumonia shot that is available would help a person in such an extreme outbreak as pandemic? would it have to be a vaccine geared to the specific germ or would the regular vaccine do the trick or a least help? i am leaning to think if it did more pneumonia vaccine would be used and if it does help why aren''t we pushing it? tia.

 

[phoenixgirl]

I think we'll get us in the end, one way or the another.

I'd recommend Collapse by Jared Diamond if you are interested in the subject. He looks at societies that have been cut off from outside resources and have had to take care not to blow it, and often that's exactly what they ended up doing . . . the Norse in Greenland being unable to adapt to a colder environment and mini-Ice Age, the inhabitants of Easter Island cutting down all their trees, etc. Steven Hawking says that our only chance of survival is to populate other planets, and I'm sure he's right. Something is bound to go wrong with our precious little planet at some point, hopefully later than sooner.

 

[FireGoddess]

Date: 2/1/2007 3:30:34 PM
Author: crown1
thanks fg! i was wondering if the regular pneumonia shot that is available would help a person in such an extreme outbreak as pandemic? would it have to be a vaccine geared to the specific germ or would the regular vaccine do the trick or a least help? i am leaning to think if it did more pneumonia vaccine would be used and if it does help why aren't we pushing it? tia.

The only thing that would help in a pandemic situation or otherwise would be to be vaccinated against the particular virus itself. The point of the vaccine would be that you'd still get infected, but your body would already have antibodies and memory cells that are specific for the virus and it would get neutralized before you got full on, blown out symptoms.

Pneumonia is a condition that can actually be caused by a bacterium (Strep. pneumoniae) or a virus. Pneumonia describes the symptoms, not the bug in this case...and a vaccine wouldn't help against the flu unless the antibodies you made to the vaccine cross react with the flu virus and neutralize it.

There are 3 types of vaccines:
--- live attenuated - real virus that has been genetically altered to still replicate but not cause illness
--- killed - real virus is heat or chemically inactivated
--- subunit - a protein from the virus is present but not the entire virus

The most effective vaccine is live attenuated, then killed, then subunit. Hepatitis B is a subunit vaccine...that's why you need 3 shots instead of one. It's less effective. But some viruses are more difficult to manipulate or there'd be a harder time getting a live attenuated shot approved, hence the use of a subunit vaccine.

The flu vaccine is a killed vaccine. The virus is made in chicken eggs and then is inactivated and used in the vaccine. The new Flumist vaccine (the one that you get in the nose, not a shot in the arm) is live attenuated and thought to work better. But since it is live (altered) virus, very young or older people are not given that vaccine (could potentially have issues with taxing the immune system?).

Anyway, more info than you probably wanted!

 

[crown1]

thanks!