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Top 10 Naturalistic
Risks to U.S. Well, for those who accept that naturalism best explains existence in both a rewarding -and- risky environment, the following details some of the most pronounced naturalistic risks to the United States of America. Excluded from this list, risks due to hostile acts by humans, risks like mass murder by terrorists, nuclear war, biological war, and the like. Implied by this list, for religionists which includes believers among the roughly 50% of the U.S. who attend religious services on any given Sunday -and- 90% or so of the U.S. who claim to believe that some magic being or beings is the master con- troller at the helm, for better -or- worse: o God taking no part in the disaster, as if it doesn't exist or doesn't care or is power- less or is anti-human or is evil o God actively implementing the disaster, in which case it would be difficult to make a case that it's benevolent or pro-human, but easy to make a case that if it exists, it's either uncaring, or powerless, or anti- human, or evil - - - [inserts, not part of original articles, included in brackets] - - - Natural Disasters: Top 10 U.S. Threats http://www.livescience.com/environment/top10_naturaldisasterthreats_us.html - - - Excerpt: Government officials are evaluating and revising disaster plans around the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, just as they did after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While war and automobiles kill more people than nature, find out what natural disasters top scientists' worry lists. - - - 10. Pacific Northwest Megathrust Earthquake Geologists know it’s just a matter of time before another 9.0 or larger earthquake strikes somewhere between Northern California and Canada. The shaking would be locally catastrophic, but the biggest threat is the tsunami that would ensue from a fault line that’s seismically identical to the one that caused the deadly 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050103_cascadia_tsunami.html - - - 9. New York Hurricane Major hurricanes have made direct hits on the boroughs before, but the interval between them is so long that people forget, and offi- cials fear they might not take evacuation orders seriously. The larger problem: It would take nearly 24 hours to make a proper evacu- ation of New York City, but hurricanes move more swiftly as they race north, so real warn- ing time could be just a few hours. http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050601_hurricane_1938.html - - - 8. Asteroid Impact Scientists can’t say when the next devastating asteroid impact will occur. Odds are it won’t be for decades or centuries, but an unknown space rock could make a sucker punch any time. Many experts say planning to deal with a continent-wide catastrophe should begin now. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_040412.html - - - 7. Los Angeles Tsunami An earthquake fault just off Southern California could generate a major quake and a $42 billion tsunami that would strike so fast many coastal residents would not have time to escape. Add to that the unprecedented destruction from the earthquake’s shaking, and the situation would be reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina. http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050331_tsunami_california.html - - - 6. Supervolcano It probably won’t happen for hundreds or pos- sibly even millions of years, but nobody really knows when Yellowstone will blow again, des- troying life for hundreds of miles around and burying half the country in ash up to 3 feet ... deep. http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050308_super_volcano.html [of note, any supervolcano eruption on the planet would pose a worldwide threat of annihilation due to the nuclear winter that would result in years of difficulty in any human survival; the Toba super- eruption about 74,000 years ago came perilously close to causing the extinction of homo sapiens] - - - 5. Midwest Earthquake It has been nearly two centuries since a series of three magnitude-8 quakes shook the then- sparsely populated Midwest, centered near New Madrid, Missouri. Another big one is inevit- able. Now the region is heavily populated, yet building codes are generally not up to earth- quake snuff. What’s more, geology east of the Rockies causes quakes to be felt across a much wider region. Shelves would rattle from Boston to South Carolina. Some homes along the Mississippi would sink into oblivion. http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050210_earthquake_arkansas.html - - - 4. Heat Waves Heat waves kill more U.S. residents than any other natural disaster. As many as 10,000 people have died in past events. As urban areas get hotter, electricity systems are strained and the population ages, the risk grows. http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050131_weather_disasters.html - - - 3. East Coast Tsunami It seems no coast is immune to the threat of tsunami. For the Eastern United States, the likeliest scenario is waves kicked up by an asteroid splashing into the ocean. Astrono- mers already have their eye on one rock that could hit in the distant future, but the cosmos could hold a surprise, too. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/tsunami_asteroid_030602.html - - - 2. Gulf Coast Tsunami A fault line in the Caribbean has generated deadly tsunamis before. Up to 35 million people could be threatened by one in the not-to-distant future, scientists say. http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050316_tsunami_carib.html - - - 1. Total Destruction of Earth Okay, so nobody is spending too much time worrying about what to do if the planet is anni- hilated, but at least one person has seriously pondered whether and when it could happen. From being sucked into a black hole to being blown up by an antimatter reaction, there are scientifically plausible risks of an event that would render this whole list moot. http://www.livescience.com/technology/destroy_earth_mp.html - - -
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