A central focus of the event was the release of a 100x Declaration, calling for the hundredfold increase in the detection and monitoring of asteroids. Lord Rees read the declaration, which resolves to “solve humanity’s greatest challenges to safeguard our families and quality of life on Earth in the future.” – Astronomy.com
A rumor is emerging from the online doom & gloom community. Apparently, as the story goes, a large asteroid is scheduled to impact the Atlantic Ocean somewhere northeast of Brazil, at about the same time as Asteroid Awareness Day.
Before you go out and build yourself a bunker, remember this story comes to you from the same folks that brought you news of the 2012 doomsday. So until any real evidence is presented there is no need to panic.
But this is not a call to go back to sleep.
What to do?
Change is a constant, and things have been pretty stable for America for the last 50 years. Many people also seem to think that exponential growth is normal. If you’re bad at math, you might even believe that exponential growth can be maintained exponentially.
At some point, some catalyst for change is bound to knock that exponential curve back down and we’ll need to rethink how we live and adjust. The problem is that when you’re atop an exponential curve (think cliff), its a long way back down to normal (think bottom of cliff).
The pressure to seek equilibrium is also so great at the top that the chances of things changing in a snap are greatly increases. So no matter the change event: asteroid impact, economic downturn, energy crisis, war, etc… the chance of change on the horizon is higher the higher we go.
Those of us that are prepared to downsize, live more sustainably and self-sufficiently, will find it easier to traverse the distance between the top of the cliff and the bottom.