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Yellowstone Supervolcano Threat: Conspiracy Theories

Moooksta

Moooksta

Gone But Not Forgotten
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I was going to post this in Earth Mysteries but it probably belongs here....

LINK

Volcano Eruption Fears Fire Up Yellowstone Conspiracy Theorists

Fear of a cataclysmic eruption from the super-volcano under Yellowstone National Park continues to increase among conspiracy theorists after scientists' announcement late last year that the "caldera" is 2.5 times larger than previously thought, and could therefore threaten the entire globe were it to erupt.

The newest conspiracy theory is that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and key members of the federal government are hiding data that proves an imminent eruption, and have been negotiating behind the scenes with several foreign governments to create a disaster plan, The Epoch Times reports.

Millions of Americans could be relocated to Australia, Brazil, and Argentina, claims the South African news website responsible for the rumor. According to its report, South Africa was also approached by U.S. officials, but declined to shelter any significant influx of eruption refugees.

"South Africa will not be part of the plan, because there is a risk that millions of white Americans could be sent to South Africa in an emergency situation and that this would pose a risk to black national culture identity," Dr. Siph Matwetwe, spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, is alleged to have said.

"We have our own challenges, even if there is enough housing and infrastructure available, it will destabilize the country and may even bring back apartheid."

The conspiracy theories have gotten so rampant that the USGS released a frequently asked questions (FAQ) article to separate the truth from the conspiracy, Wired reports.

"Recent weeks have seen a flurry of news, real and imagined, about the Yellowstone volcanic system," the article begins.

The geologists and seismologists at the department freely acknowledge that earthquake activity has increased recently in the park, but say this is nothing to worry about, as Yellowstone regularly experiences thousands of small, imperceptible earthquakes year-round. As Newsmax previously reported, the Yellowstone volcano is also not dependent on earthquake triggers for its eruptions.

Addressing reports that recent landslides are a sign of the coming eruption, the FAQ states, "Current rates of ground deformation are well within historical norms."

The FAQ also points to a "Rumor Control" YouTube video in which Park spokeman Al Nash addresses a number of the rumors, including the alleged evacuation of local animals, who he says are following normal migration patterns like clockwork, and are not "running" from any impeding eruption.

Despite or because of each new natural phenomenon and attempt to put it in context, the conspiracy theorists continue to allege a government cover up, some maybe for kicks, others because they genuinely think we're in for it.

In any case, evidence from the last eruption 600,000 years ago shows that it was so damaging to North America and the rest of the globe that there's probably nothing we can do to stop or avoid it.
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Should I start hoarding more tins of beans and water in that cave I have in NW Scotland?

 
Do you actually have a cave in NW Scotland? Can we all share it?
 
A quick Google brought up a 2011 article from the Mail warning of the same thing.

Scary stuff!
 
Quake42 said:
A quick Google brought up a 2011 article from the Mail warning of the same thing.

Scary stuff!
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In the article were the immigrants cooking Swans over the hot springs and bringing down house prices?
 
In the article were the immigrants cooking Swans over the hot springs and bringing down house prices?
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Sadly no, but like all the best DM headlines it ended in a question mark.
 
Moooksta said:
Mythopoeika said:
Do you actually have a cave in NW Scotland? Can we all share it?
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Define "we"?
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The active members of this Board along with their loved ones, pets and livestock.

Does the cave have cannibals?
 
ramonmercado said:
Moooksta said:
Mythopoeika said:
Do you actually have a cave in NW Scotland? Can we all share it?
Click to expand...

Define "we"?
Click to expand...

The active members of this Board along with their loved ones, pets and livestock.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's 'we'. :D
 
ramonmercado said:
Does the cave have cannibals?
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Depends how long the food lasts.

Just for future reference I imagine I would taste rather bitter.
 
Have just skimmed through rynner2's linked-to thread (2002 -- early 2014). A widespread human tendency -- surfeit / overdose -- not to mention "heard it all before" -- can't help but come into play.

Most of ten years ago there was, on the mostly US-based "BigfootForums" site -- chiefly populated by proponents / believers re North America's Bigfoot -- in its "chat about other things than Bigfoot" section, a long, earnest, anxious thread about the Yellowstone supervolcano and its envisaged imminent likely going-off. The rather naff, and extremely prolific, American sci-fi / fantasy novelist Harry Turtledove, to some of whose works I confess ashamedly to something of an addiction, has had published during the past decade, a several-volume novel series about Yellowstone popping off, and what would result therefrom (I haven't read the books).

Call me shallow: but there are just so bloody many looming apocalypses earnestly predicted re planet Earth (and people have been predicting them pretty well throughout my 65 years to date on said planet) -- a cocktail of all-natural / man-messing-with-nature / man doing what man naturally does / man falling out with other categories of man / the divine taking a hand -- one can easily get to the point of feeling: OK, I get it, one way or another we're doomed; I'm surfeited and overwhelmed, sod it all, let happen whatever will, I can take no further interest...
 
It's really not so much a question of 'if' but 'when' - but that 'when' may be many years hence. So, we while away our time with a multitude of speculation about what may happen.
 
amyasleigh said:
Call me shallow: but there are just so bloody many looming apocalypses earnestly predicted re planet Earth (and people have been predicting them pretty well throughout my 65 years to date on said planet) -- a cocktail of all-natural / man-messing-with-nature / man doing what man naturally does / man falling out with other categories of man / the divine taking a hand -- one can easily get to the point of feeling: OK, I get it, one way or another we're doomed; I'm surfeited and overwhelmed, sod it all, let happen whatever will, I can take no further interest...
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Ah, but that's what 'they' want you to think. They want you to be a peaceful, obedient, accepter-of-your-fate, as such people prop up the status quo on which 'they' depend. You don't need to know if there's going to be a disaster. If you knew (or thought you could do anything about it) then that would only get in the way.

I jest, of course. Or do I? ;)


A word about the conspiracy element: The conspiracy element in this is actually perfectly rational. We know beyond any possible doubt that governments lie and deceive, sometimes on large scale issues. (Yes, they can keep secrets on a large scale, although not forever). Whether this is for the common good or, as I implied in the paragraph above, simply to maintain the status quo on which the gravy train for the 'ruling classes' depends is debatable. Either way, we know they lie. And would they lie about something as significant as Yellowstone being about go go bang in, say, the next hundred years or so? Yes, that is something they would definitely lie about (at least until the reality was inescapable) so as to maintain calm and to keep the people manageable.

This of course puts the USGS and its employees in an invidious position. Their denials are exactly what they would be required (or even forced) to say, as employees of the federal state[1], even if they believed that an eruption was imminent. All they can do in order to be believed is point to the raw measurements and to the science and say: Make your own analysis.

Of course, this is more difficult still because no one exactly knows what the build up to an eruption looks like. Is increased activity simply part of an ongoing cycle or something that will not be reversed until an eruption. Only time will tell.

In the meantime, suspicion (well-founded suspicion, in many cases!) of a seemingly all-knowing power-hungry government continues...



Footnote:-
1: In fact the sort of 'requirement to lie' that I suggest in the probably hypothetical scenario above can be quite real and can apply even to citizens who are not state employees. We have recently seen it in action with the NSA/Snowden spying scandal.

Both the USA and UK have legislation (so-called National Security Letters in the USA and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 in the UK) which can force recipients of such letters/warrants to say and do nothing to give away the fact that they have been served. Furthermore, and this is the key thing to take on board, they must not give away the fact that they have been served by lack of comment (if they might otherwise normally comment on such issues) or by lack of action (if they might otherwise normally carry out some action). In other words, people who have been served can in effect be compelled to lie, to pretend that it is business as normal when they know it is not.

This explicit lying through legal compulsion has definitely occurred in relation to some of the announcements made by certain large corporations in the wake of Snowden's revelations. Just imagine how much more compelling the need to would be for state employees, were they required to do so!
 
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