After Corbu

The Alvarez Hypothesis claims that sixty million years ago an asteroid 80 miles across hit the Yucatec peninsula in Central America. It threw up fifty trillion tons of dust and ashes into the air (note: speculative statistic), blotting out the sun and causing a worldwide mass extinction.

People, those of us who think about the impact at all, tend to regard it as a good thing since it got rid of those pesky dinosaurs and allowed our rodent-like ancestors to evolve into people—a win-win. I think that spinning an asteroid impact as favorable is indicative of either clueless optimism or disgusting vanity—your choice.

One of the pieces of evidence for the hypothesis is the distribution of cenotes—huge, circular sinkholes filled with fresh water—which form a circle around the believed impact area. The cenotes were sacred sites to the Mayan peoples who have lived on the peninsula for thousands of years. Some were sources of water for towns, while others witnessed human sacrifices

Today they also serve as spring break swimming pools for the ‘Girls Gone Wild’ set of rich Americans. I believe this refutes the claim that society is engaged in inexorable progress towards a better world. Clearly real progress is going to require more effort.