A French computer simulation carried out by someone who might be better employed has shown that due to some calculated irregularity in the orbit of the planet Mercury, Venus COULD collide with the Earth billions of years from now. This is a story that appeared in the main media lately, including television where a vivid animation of the destruction of Earth was shown – on the main news!
What is the point of publicizing this in this way? Is it to add another fear to the growing number of fears that intrude on our daily lives, often in the name of sensationalism or indoctrination?
We’ve already had our fair share of detailed accounts of encounters with comets and asteroids and super volcanoes that may have caused radical changes on the surface of the Earth in past eras and could devastate the Earth and its inhabitants in some (near) future scenario.
Isn’t it enough to have in depth news of wars everywhere, deadly epidemics, threats of violence from terrorists, financial collapse? Then there’s the much reported street violence and rampaging drug users whose brains have been so destroyed by science that they are only capable of carrying out irrational acts of violence against innocent people.
Yes, I know, “No news is good news” is an old adage of the media industry and censoring is a dirty word as it should be, but there should still be room for professional integrity allowing one to draw the line somewhere.
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