Superheroes smashing into buildings won’t do enough damage. An alien invasion probably won’t account for Will Smith saving the day. And robots taking over just feels overdone. So why must we worry about anyone else destroying our planet when we’re perfectly capable of doing it ourselves?
In cinema today, the hope for any sequel is to recreate the accomplishments of its predecessor. While some achieve box office success, most sequels tend to lack the magic and wonder of what made the first story so special. Rarely do sequels pack the same punch as the first experience, but the most recent Science & Entertainment Exchange event was the clear exception. It was the second installment of The Exchange’s wildly successful “Night of Total Destruction” from 2012. Once again, guests were treated to some of the most frighteningly entertaining doomsday scenarios imaginable.
Held at the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the event was moderated by the incredibly talented David Goyer. The screenwriter responsible for reinventing the superhero genre with the Blade franchise, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and the upcoming Batman v Superman, Goyer is certainly no stranger to manifesting epic destruction. Accompanying him on stage were four speakers who are not only experts in their respective fields but also masters at conveying the eye-opening, global implications of their daily work.
Kathryn J. Jackson, who serves on the Board of Portland Gas and Electric and of Hydro One, reminded the audience that most of our country’s power grid is still using technology and wiring from the 1960s. She also warned that where natural occurrences outside our control like solar flares or epic storms could be catastrophic for millions of people, perhaps more alarming is that most of the physical infrastructure that keeps our lights on is not so easily replaceable. For example, if a large generator were to be attacked, it would take many months before it could be replaced. Millions of people would be without power … for more than two years.
An Associate Director of Clinical Microbiology in the UCLA Health System, Omai Garner then discussed his daily role in identifying some of the most lethal diseases on Earth. One expertise of Garner is working with deadly viruses, comparing their size and elusiveness to “Chihuahuas on a cruise ship.” The captivated audience shifted from being comfortably relaxed in their seats to noticeably paying closer attention to their personal space when Garner explained that more than 85 percent of the world’s population has some sort of parasite living in them at any given moment. Soon any itch or sneeze in the room caused the overly cautious to take notice.
Next up was Special Agent James W. Peaco, the Weapons of Mass Destruction Coordinator for the FBI Los Angeles Field Division, who specializes in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive dangers. While his job involves obvious WMDs like nuclear bombs, Peaco must also consider threats that we tend to forget. For example, while small pox may be eradicated across the globe, it is still very much a threat. If a strain of the disease were to be weaponized today, those infected would have to be quarantined for 17 days and nearly 30 percent of the entire population could be killed because no vaccine is readily available.
The night’s final speaker was Mika McKinnon, a physicist and geophysicist who entertained the room with frightening example after frightening example of how earthquakes have wide-ranging and long-term effects on the planet. By using the Cascadia earthquake of 1700 as a model of what could happen to the West Coast once again, McKinnon reminded everyone of the potential power of a quake that lasts not for 15 seconds but for 15 minutes! And as the audience was reminded, it then only gets worse, as subsequent 100-foot tsunamis and aftershocks all the size of what we consider “the big one” would soon follow, many were left shaking in their seats.
One of the great ironies of the evening was that while most of what was discussed dealt with destroying our planet, the focus was not on how we are all going to perish but rather how we might be prepared. And as the event concluded and many of the smiling guests spilled out into the DGA lobby to mingle, I could not help but wonder if they were truly interested in small talk or if they were just genuinely too frightened to leave.
