Essays in Idleness

The re-awakening fault along the mid-Atlantic ridge under Iceland, after some centuries of dormancy, should remind “environmentalists” and the other smuglies that, even if there is No God, He still controls our material environment — to say nothing of the spiritual. The upheaval on the Reykjanes Peninsula does not proceed on any earthly schedule, detectable by our geological scientists. We are just as much at a loss, listening to their account, as we were when listening to Dr Fauci about the Batflu.

Similarly along the Noto Peninsula, in Japan: where the New Year’s earthquake caused landslides while rearranging the landscape, extending the coast by hundreds of yards out to sea; people and their equipage were washed away. Impressive aftershocks have restricted relief efforts.

Neither was among the more memorable subduction earthquakes, above, say, magnitude 9. But the history has only been recorded on our clever instruments since the end of the XIXth century. And because the shaking can be “improved” by countryside and urban conditions, the casualties do not accord with the Richter numbers.

“Megathrust earthquakes” occur generally undersea, where they generate very high and continuous tsunami waves. Quite apart from extending or reducing a coastline, these also accentuate ocean trenches, and build mountains on their forward side. A quick glance at the Himalayas reveals the scale that is possible, and may suggest the question, Who needs asteroids?

Though we happily waste trillions of dollars and euros and yuan on our extravagant government schemes, to make the earth more suitable for robot inhabitation, all may be rendered pointless in a moment. That is because it was pointless to begin.