Fear can Paralyze, and can Blind

One of the possible consequences of this war could be a nuclear exchange. A full exchange will destroy life on earth five times over. It will be the worst disaster for life on the planet in the last sixty-five million years. I doubt humanity will continue or for that matter higher chordates on the surface of the planet.

Life will persist as it did at the end of the Devonian. Life deep in the oceans will be protected from ionizing radiation. Perhaps in fifty to eighty million years, another sentient species will arise. Perhaps their equivalent of Luis and Walter Alvarez will come across our version of the K-T line. They will conclude that something horrific happened. They will ask what happened? Or perhaps life on earth will not recover with the second rise of a sentient species.

However, life will go on.

This is of course a worst-case scenario. One that most of us are unable to consider. Some among us have, including Carl Sagan. This may very well be the simple explanation to the Fermi Paradox. Sentient species reach a point where they commit suicide, and a full nuclear exchange is certainly one way. Climate change is another. We are batting one hundred here.

This though is paralyzing a lot of us. Death will be quick for those of us living at primary targets. But it will not be for those poor bastards having to…