BP Armageddon

Forethought may be the key to survival

As the movie ‘Armageddon’ played recently on my TV. during a dreary, overcast day, I came to a realization.

That realization being, if God-forbid, anything even remotely close to the story line happened in real life, we as a people, are done for. The human race will be adios, toast, stick a fork in us because this goose is cooked.

Now before I go any farther, I want to let it be known that I am an extremely optimistic person. I always try to look for the good in everything, and no matter how bad a situation gets I feel like myself and any others involved will be able to pull through it just fine. With that said, if the horrors of ‘Armageddon’ came to life we would be absolutely done for, our expiration date is up, homo sapiens have bought the farm. Go to the DVD menu and pick the alternate ending because this one is not ending in hugs and kisses.

Now here is my reasoning behind why I feel so certain that this would be the case. In the movie, N.A.S.A. becomes aware of an asteroid the size of Texas which is on a collision course with Earth. They have 18 days to come up with a plan before this humongous rock turns the Earth into one big fireworks extravaganza. According to Hollywood, the plan works and Bruce Willis saves the day. Maybe I am just gullible, but when I first saw the movie I had thought, or at the very least hoped, that this was somewhat plausible.

Thanks to the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill though, we have all been dealt a healthy dose of reality. If we can’t even fix a disaster of that magnitude in a reasonable time frame, how are we going to save ourselves when faced with certain extinction.

I feel that the vast majority of Americans, including President Obama, would qualify the oil spill as a disaster. Some say it is the greatest environmental disaster of all-time. With some of the ‘best’ minds in the world working on the problem, it still took us 113 days (April 20 – Aug. 11) just to plug a hole a few thousand feet underwater. With that kind of fast thinking, how are we going to develop a plan which will actually succeed in us traveling hundreds of thousands of miles to stop a global-killing rock hurling through space in under 18 days.

Looking at the one bright spot in all of this, at least the oil pipe is finally capped. After the several months of planning scientists were able to use a procedure called a static kill to stop the pipe from gushing oil. What the static kill involved was filling the pipe with mud and cement. It took some of the best minds in the world 113 days to figure out this whole disaster could be ended by some mud and cement.

Now, while I realize that I am most likely completely and totally over simplifying the problem of the oil spill, the point remains the same. With some forethought, the blunt of this disaster most likely could have been reduced greatly.

There are obstacles in life, some bigger then others. Some expected and some unexpected. We as a species need to start planning for obstacles before they happen instead of waiting for them to come to fruition. The longer we take to start planning for the unknown the worse off we are going to be. Whether it is planning on how to pay an unexpected bill, or how to stop an asteroid. We as individuals, and as a species would benefit from a little extra forethought.

Having a plan for something that never happens, is a whole lot better then not having a plan for something that does. n