FEAR APPEAL CLIMATE SCIENCE AND WHY IT WORKS PART-1: THE ORIGIN OF CATASTROPHISM AND RELATED POST ON OUR INNER NEED TO FEAR: https://tambonthongchai.com/2021/09/20/our-inner-need-to-fear/ IN THE 18TH CENTURY, NATURALIST, GEOLOGIST, AND BIOLOGIST, BARON GEORGE CUVIER OF FRANCE, DISCOVERED SOMETHING AMAZING. HE DUG DEEP INTO THE EARTH AND STUDIED THE SIGNATURES OF LIFE FORMS IN SUCCESSIVE STRATA OF THE DIG AND MADE AN AMAZING DISCOVERY. FROM ONE STRATUM TO THE NEXT HE FOUND COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FOSSIL FORMS OF LIFE. THE DATA IMPLIED A CATASTROPHIC END OF LIFE IN EACH STRATUM WITH AN EMERGENCE OF LIFE ON EARTH ALL OVER AGAIN IN THE NEXT STRATUM. THIS DISCOVERY IS THE ORIGIN OF CATASTROPHSISM, THE IDEA THAT LIFE ON EARTH EMERGES AND FLOURISHES AND THEN MEETS A CATASTROPHIC END TO CREATE A DEAD ZONE WITH LIFE EMERGING ALL OVER AGAIN AND THEN GOING THROUGH YET ANOTHER CATASTROPHE. THE CUVIER HYPOTHESIS IMPLIES THAT THOUGH WE ARE HERE ENJOYING LIFE IN THE GREEN VALLEY WITH THE BIRDS AND THE BEES AND THE FLOWERS AND THE TREES AND THE MOON UP ABOVE AND A THING CALLED THE INTERNET, IT’S ONLY FOR A WHILE UNTIL THE CATASTROPHE COMES AND IT’S ALL GONE INTO A DEAD ZONE FROM WHICH LIFE WILL HAVE TO EMERGE ALL OVER AGAIN. LIFE ON EARTH IS NOT A ONE SHOT DEAL. IT IS A CYCLE OF LIFE AND CATASTROPHE. THIS IS THE ORIGIIN OF CATASTROPHISM. THANK YOU MONSIEUR CUVIER. A USEFUL REFERENCE IS THE BOOK “MEGADISASTERS” BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS: LINK TO SOURCE: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691133508/megadisasters HERE IS A BRIEF SUMMARY OF WHAT IT SAYS Can we predict cataclysmic disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or stock market crashes? The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 claimed more than 200,000 lives. Hurricane Katrina killed over 1,800 people and devastated the city of New Orleans. The recent global financial crisis has cost corporations and ordinary people around the world billions of dollars. Megadisasters is a book that asks why catastrophes such as these catch us by surprise, and reveals the history and groundbreaking science behind efforts to forecast major disasters and minimize their destruction. Each chapter of this exciting and eye-opening book explores a particular type of cataclysmic event and the research surrounding it, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, rapid climate change, collisions with asteroids or comets, pandemics, and financial crashes. Florin Diacu tells the harrowing true stories of people impacted by these terrible events, and of the scientists racing against time to predict when the next big disaster will strike. He describes the mathematical models that are so critical to understanding the laws of nature and foretelling potentially lethal phenomena, the history of modeling and its prospects for success in the future, and the enormous challenges to scientific prediction posed by the chaos phenomenon, which is the high instability that underlies many processes around us. Yielding new insights into the perils that can touch every one of us, Megadisasters shows how the science of predicting disasters holds the promise of a safer and brighter tomorrow. SO WHAT? THE POINT HERE IN THIS CITATION IS THAT WE MODERN HUMANS CARRY THE CUVIER CATASTROPPHISM IDEA DEEP IN OUR HEART AND IN OUR PSYCHE BUT WITH AN INTERPRETATION THAT OVERLOOKS THE GEOLOGICALLY LONG TIME SCALE AND THE COMPLETE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF LIFE ON EARTH IN THE CUVIER DATA SUCH THAT NATURAL DISASTERS, SUCH AS A PARTICULARLY DESTRUCTIVE TROPICAL CYCLONE, CAN TRIGGER CUVIER CATASTROPHSISM DEEP IN OUR HEARTS WITH ITS ASSOCIATED FEAR OF THE END OF LIFE ON EARTH AND MAYBE THE END OF THE PLANET ITSELF. IN THIS CONTEXT, WE PROPOSE THAT MODERN FEARMONGERING OBSESSIONS SUCH AS THE THE ANTHROPOCENE, THE POPULATION BOMB END OF THE WORLD, THE 1970S GLOBAL COOLING END OF THE WORLD, AND THE CURRENT GLOBAL WARMING END OF THE WORLD, OF OTHERWISE INTELLIGENT AND CIVILIZED HUMANS CAN BE UNDERSTOOD IN THE CONTEXT OF A CATASTROPHISM GENE THAT LIVES DEEP IN OUR PSYCHE AND OVERCOMES RATIONAL THOUGHT AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD. THE VEXING ISSUE WITH THE GROSS MISMATCH OF THE TIME SCALE OF CUVIER CATASTROPHISM TO ITS APPPLICATION IN THINGS LIKE CLIMATE CHANGE HAS BEEN SOLVED WITH THE THE WORD “GRADUAL” SO THAT THINGS LIKE ALARMING FORECASTS OF HUMAN POPULATION OR HUMAN ACTIVITY OR BIOLOGY OR GEOLOGY OR CLIMATE ARE POSSIBLE AT ANY TIME SCALE WITH THE WORD “GRADUAL”. IN THIS CONSTRUCTION, WE CAN UNDERSTAND THE CLIMATE MOVEMENT AS GRADUAL CATASTROPHISM. BOTTOM LINE: WE HUMANS NEED TO LIVE IN FEAR AND SO THEREFORE WE NEED TO FIND THINGS TO FEAR.