Discussion»Questions»Environment» "It's always darkest before the dawn". Alaska has six months of dark and six months of light. Can we survive 4 years of darkness? How?
Last year I had an interesting exchange of emails with a Canadian friend -- Rathkeale, who is now a Mugger -- and she told me about something called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which plays havoc with people who live in sunlight-deprived areas. I'd never heard of it for, in Australia, we never lose the sun for long. It often causes severe depression. But four years of darkness? I think that would drive most people nuts.
The awareness of it on the horizon coming at us at high speed is already driving many of us nuts in the states Didge. Frenzied. We are not happy campers..the anti-Trumpets. Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply. I have heard of that condition before. It's coming to a theater near you! :(
I am intrigued, not by the question itself but by its basic premise.
Whence this notion of a four-year night? Has someone started a myth that the Earth is going to stop revolving or orbiting, or the Sun go out, for 4 years, or something?
And why the apparent link to American politics? The USA might like the rest of the world to think her the world's most powerful nation, but there are limits to that perceived power!
Didge refers to SAD. This is a problem in Northern latitudes - Canada, Scandinavia, Northern Russia - but as its name says, it is seasonal. I can understand why humans diffused from our African origins over a couple of hundred thousand years, but I have often wondered why anyone ever settled in the least hospitable parts of continents - both high-latitude tundra and arid tropical deserts.
Benedict Arnold 