The Dead Sea
Yesterday, we caught the 7:40AM flight from Newark to Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic.
This meant getting up at 4:00AM to be able to make the flight.
I don’t mind getting up early, so I was in the kitchen getting breakfast together and turned on NPR.
At that hour when, I suppose, there are few listeners, NPR was carrying an hour of BBC World News.
As the presenter (it’s The BBC) was reading through the headlines, she came to the number 3 item on her list:
“Scientists today reported that the world’s oceans are acidifying at unprecedented rates – unseen for the past 300 million years” and that they expect at least 30% of all marine life to vanish by the end of the century. This would include clams, mollusks, crabs, lobsters, all coral – pretty much anything with a shell.
And now… on to Syria.
Well, there is a headline that will get your attention. “In other news, the end of the planet as we know it. And now, sports..”
This, on the heels of a study just released that says that 90% of all large fish have disappeared from the world’s oceans due to over-fishing and just in the past 50 years.
So if you thought that you could replace those swordfish sandwiches and tuna with fried clams, forget it. Apparently the only thing that is going to be left is jellyfish.
On the flight to London I put on the headphones and watched World War Z, Brad Pitt’s ‘blockbuster’ success.
This is, without a doubt, one of the stupidest movies I have seen in a long time.
But it was very popular – although it cost $220m to make, it has already earned $550m, worldwide.
Due to some unknown virus, everyone in the world starts turning into Zombies.
yeah.
well.
OK.
Is it scary?
I suppose so.
But in point of fact, what is happening in the real world is a WHOLE LOT scarier than zombies taking over the planet.
Which seems unlikely.
The death of the oceans seems to be very likely.
And on one has made a movie about that – at least not since Soylent Green.
Which may turn out to be viewed as a documentary by future generations.
If there are any.
Not so much the ‘soylent green is people’ thing, (who knows…), but the whole discovery about ‘the death of the oceans’ which led to soylent green.
There are real terrors happening now that make Zombies unnecessary.
Just tell the truth
Believe me, it’s terrifying enough.
Copyright Michael Rosenblum 2013
