Global Catastrophe

The term ‘ecodisaster’ may be defined as ‘a global catastrophe of the human species’. Any ecodisasters occurring in the near future will, almost certainly, be caused, directly or indirectly, by the present overpopulation of the world, accompanied by unwise and irresponsible disregard of environmental deterioration.The suggestion is made here that Man's first and, it is to be hoped, last, ecodisaster may already have begun. Although not dramatic, it is taking the form of a steady decline in the standard of living nearly everywhere, coupled with massive pollution, and widespread malnutrition in the under-developed countries of the world. It will persist until world population eventually becomes adjusted to environmental resources.It is ironical that control of the pests and diseases which have inflicted so much misery on mankind in the past, should have helped to engender the present population explosion with all the hunger and privation that accompany it in the under-developed regions of the world.

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SARS-CoV-2-Cholesterol Interaction: A Lot of Food for Thought

Pathogens ◽

10.3390/pathogens10010032 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 32

Author(s):

Giovanni Di Guardo

Keyword(s):

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽

World Health Organization ◽

World Health ◽

The World ◽

Global Catastrophe ◽

Health Organization

With over 80 million cases, and 1,800,000 deaths reported at the end of 2020 by the World Health Organization, the “CoronaVirus Disease-2019” (CoViD-19) pandemic, caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), should be viewed as a global catastrophe [...]

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METAPHOR OF «DESTROYED WORLD» IN THE POLITICAL PROJECTION OF WORLD-SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Central Russian Journal of Social Sciences ◽

10.22394/2071-2367-2021-16-1-73-86 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 73-86

Author(s):

V.E. BAGDASARYAN ◽

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Keyword(s):

System Analysis ◽

Political Process ◽

World System ◽

World Order ◽

World Systems ◽

Political Processes ◽

The World ◽

Global Catastrophe ◽

Systemic Nature ◽

World Center

The purpose of the article is to present an analysis of modern global political processes characterized by the unipolarity of the destruction of the former world system. The current situation of political transit is assessed as a failure of technologies of controlled chaos and transition to a state of turbulence. The basic approach of the research was the methodology of world-systems analysis. The article provides arguments that substantiate the systemic nature of the crisis of the World Center, the problematic nature of the restoration of the unipolar system of the world order. Four scenario perspectives of further development of the world political process are considered: 1. restoration of the leadership legitimacy of the World Center; 2. change of the core of the world system; 3. transition of a state of chaos to a global catastrophe; 4. the establishment of a system of a multilateral world of civilizations. It is indicated that the West-centered world-system has paradoxically diverged at some stage from the values of the Western civilization itself. And it is obvious that the transition to a multilateral world should be linked to the basic civilizational values of the world-systems, their differences from the values of other communities. As a result, practical recommendations are presented for the activity steps of building a system of multilateral world order as a desirable prospect for overcoming the state of turbulence and preventing a new geopolitical hegemony.

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RISK ECONOMY

Экономическая наука сегодня ◽

10.21122/2309-6667-2018-8-16-55 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 16-55

Author(s):

S. SOLODOVNICOV.

Keyword(s):

High Tech ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Theoretical Substantiation ◽

Economic Concept ◽

Stage Of Development ◽

Global Catastrophe ◽

Knowledge Intensive ◽

Definition Of ◽

Political Economic ◽

Current Stage

The article is devoted to the theoretical substantiation of a new social paradigm – risk economy. The current stage of society development and the economy is characterized by a critical increase in financial, technological and technological, political and economic, geo-economic and other uncertainties. It is impossible to understand their ontological nature and reveal the phenomenological specificity without a meaningful definition of the current stage of development of the economic system of society. The article consistently revealed the characteristics of current society, which allowed the author to present a new political and economic concept that characterizes the current stage of development of society and the economy – the risk economy. The risk economy is an economy of high-tech and knowledge-intensive industries, characterized by the highest degree of political, economic, technological, financial and environmental uncertainties and risks. These risks are becoming comprehensive, many of them are in principle unpredictable, and their possible negative consequences could lead Humanity to a global catastrophe. Understanding the nature of risk economics is critically important for developing effective political and economic mechanisms to counter these risks.

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The Theme of Apocalypse in Australian Cinema

Journal of Flm Arts and Film Studies ◽

10.17816/vgik74111-120 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 111-120

Author(s):

Irina A Zvegintseva

Keyword(s):

Motion Pictures ◽

Nuclear War ◽

The World ◽

Global Catastrophe ◽

Alien Invasion

The article analyses the Australian apocalypse films. Apocalypse is often used as a synonym to the worlds end or a world scale catastrophe. The world knows hundreds of motion pictures of different talent and artistry, where the set takes place either before, during or after a global catastrophe. Reasons for the apocalypse vary: nuclear war, alien invasion, riot of the machines, a gigantic meteor, a disease unknown to science, etc. Nevertheless, the result always remains the same: humanity ceases to exist. Australian filmmakers, too, have not stood out of their foreign colleagues and made a large amount of films, that tell about the worlds end, out of which many are impressive and significant, indeed.

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Margaret and the Victorians

PMLA ◽

10.1632/pmla.2019.134.3.507 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 134 (3) ◽

pp. 507-523

Author(s):

Alicia Mireles Christoff

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

New York City ◽

Contemporary Literature ◽

Gerard Manley Hopkins ◽

Aesthetics And Politics ◽

Artistic Production ◽

Informal Empire ◽

Global Catastrophe ◽

The Cost ◽

Literature And Film

This essay examines Kenneth Lonergan's stunning and underviewed New York City film Margaret (2011), placing it in a larger corpus of post-9/11 artistic production while also drawing out its Victorian intertexts—most notably, the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem that gives the film its title. Margaret derives its organizing thematics and formal experiments with sound from the Victorian cultural trope of hyperesthesia: the drive to look beyond the self (the protagonist, the nation) and the answering anxiety that doing so would mean being overwhelmed by the frequency of human suffering. Margaret demonstrates the continued pull of Victorian aesthetics and politics of representation on contemporary literature and film and, I argue, the cost of this persistence. At once emphasizing and occluding the far-reaching and long-lasting violence of formal and informal empire, Margaret carefully attunes us to particular forms of suffering—but only by disattuning us to global catastrophe.

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Boredom, Apocalypse, and Beyond: Reading Havel through Patočka

East European Politics and Societies and Cultures ◽

10.1177/0888325417752251 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 278-284

Author(s):

James Krapfl

Keyword(s):

Philosophy Of History ◽

Human Beings ◽

Contemporary State ◽

History Of ◽

Global Catastrophe ◽

Technological Civilization

What is the power of the powerless today? By drawing on the philosophy of history that informed Havel’s landmark essay, this piece presents notes for a possible sequel. It assesses the contemporary state of what Havel’s mentor, Jan Patočka, called “technological civilization,” particularly with respect to the growing linkage Patočka perceived between boredom (a product of this civilization) and orgiastic violence. Reflecting on the Havelian panoramas of our time and the ideologies associated with them, the piece situates our present in the multimillennial Patočkan history of human beings’ relation to meaning, violence, and responsibility. Following the logic behind Patočka’s and Havel’s Cassandra-like warnings from the 1970s, the piece concludes by confronting the increasing probability of global catastrophe, but it takes inspiration from their work to outline a program of responsible hope.

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