Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for March 05, 2025

Eternal darkness and cold from all the ash, who wants to think about that?

What if we fill them all with Tums?

Will we be better off after we end life as we know it? Life as we don’t know it might be better.

“It starts with an earthquake, birds snakes and airplanes, Lenny Bruce is not afraid…”

Ah yes, spring is here and the “news” is full of scare stories. Volcanoes, the epidemic du jour, the strange black feline stalking the moors (a blurry photo of a house cat) and don’t forget the asteroid!

I feel the same Pig!

Except there’s no evidence that supervolcanos are anywhere near erupting, that’s dependent upon the amount of magma and the pressure it’s under and we monitor that.But there’s extremely strong evidence that we’re driving climate change by greenhouse gas emissions

Also there’s been around 10 supervolcano eruptions since the first human typed hominid species evolved, so while a supervolcano eruption would kill a lot of people it’s unlikely to be civilization ending

Why worry about something you can’t control? BTW I’m living next to Yellowstone.

And don’t forget the odd asteroid heading this way!

“Gloom, Despair, and Agony on me, deep dark Depression misery”, Pig must like Hee Haw, the TV show!

Coincident that I’m studying those set backs in civilizations.

On the plus side, one of the super-volcanoes erupting would take care of global warming for a while.

Like Alfred E. said, “What, me worry?”.

Reality check, please.

Advances in the science of volcanology show that the magma chamber of the Yellowstone caldera is thousands of years from collapsing if ever.

The world has already survived many predictions of its end. Some by scientists, some by prophets, poets, priests, rabbis, indigenous tribes, ancient calendars, and network executives.

Less informed, like most Americans.

Can a supervolcano actually destroy all life on Earth? I kinda find that hard to believe considering how big the Earth is.

It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine…

Asteroids. You left out asteroids. Then again Preparation H will help.

Can listen to hours of National Dingbats Radio every day and still be uninformed…

Forget about things you cannot change, live for today. Every day is precious if you take the time to enjoy something.

Too much information…..

Comics are not the place to get your science.

I’m just biding my time ’til the asteroid hits.

The wonderful bluegrass band The Hotmud Family released an in-concert album some decades ago. The cover was a black & white cartoon of a bar with thought balloons; the bartender’s had a clock, one drinker’s had breasts, another’s had bottles, and so forth. In the background was a stage with on it playing, and speech balloon with a full-color scene of an Appalachian mountains.

They called it Live As We Know It.

Let’s take a trip to Yellowstone first… oh yeah, nevermind.

Or, given the way the world is going, we could all blow ourselves to smithereens!

I’m looking at you, Yellowstone Caldera!

Just watched “Supervolcano” a 2005 movie. Interesting. One thing amused me was that when they showed a map of the destruction, it completely stopped at the Canadian border! Never mind that Alberta is right next door. Guess it couldn’t get past our Customs.

rooting for Yellowstone

Anybody watched 2012?

If Yellowstone blows, it may drive the mountain goats in my direction.

Who wants to spend years waiting for a super volcano to end civilization when we’re already waiting for a super earthquake?

same… in the worrying department anyways. :j

There’s a game of statistics here and a less than informative game at that. Spervolcanoes and asteroid impacts are not very likely but when they happen they kill more people. In any case you are much more likely to die of a heart attack, cancer, auto accident, … any number of other things. You are 100% guaranteed to die of something.

Actually the items in panel 1 are far, far more likely to occur or, in some cases, will get worse than they are. So relax.

How many people (since I didn’t look) have already posted the old saying, “Ignorance is bliss”?

Or the ozone could utterly collapse from the more than 2,000 bombs exploded in the atmosphere and every rocket launched; or from forever chemicals; or from the superheating of the planet due to ionospheric interference; or from the complete disappearance of insects…become informed, Rat, before it’s too late.

What, me worry?

Like roaches, we will survive.

We are the dancers at the end of time.

Just what you want to hear on a Wednesday.

The ‘lavanado’ in Hawai’i was something to see.

Climate change caused by humans IS happening, ya dumb rat.

not to mention the asteroids

The thing I keep saying that no one likes is… natural catastrophes are always a matter of “When” not “If” — living in the midwest I’m still waiting for the overdue New Madrid fault to shake up things again.

Ol’ Rat’s wrong on his calculations == the odds that one of those volcanoes will go off any time soon are pretty tiny → “one supereruption takes place every 857,142 years or so. Modern humans have only been around for about 350,000 years or so, so it looks like it’s fairly unlikely that we may ever see one in our lifetime.” <- All the while, the chance of civilization destruction due to viruses, climate shifts, and/or nuclear war within the next couple of decades is approaching unity. forbes. com/sites/robinandrews/2017/08/31/here-are-the-odds-of-you-seeing-a-supervolcano-erupt-in-your-lifetime/

I have a friend like that. A birthday lunch at a diner isn’t much fun when she harps on Yellowstone.

Well, I, for one, am glad we went to Yellowstone early.

That would be the perfect ending to the Trump presidency. Everybody dies.

Who all is rooting for the volcanoes?

Supervolcanoes, pandemics and nuclear wars are big IFs. But climate change is very real.

Did you ever think the day would come when you’d pray for a measles epidemic at the White House?

We live close enough to Yellowstone that when it blows, we will have time to see a flash.

That’s as realistic as the others but I don’t know that I’d call it more realistic.

there’s something to be said for that….

“Fortunately” just like jbruins84341 , I live close enough (New Mexico) that a “boom” is probably all I would hear when Yellowstone blows then it’s over – and I refuse to worry about ANYTHING over which I have no control – I’m in my seventies and the world is going to hell, anyway,,, as I grow older, I’m beginning to appreciate my grandmother’s attitude more and more, which was essentially, “screw it…”

Ignorance is bliss.

That’s a very trenchant and pertinent observation, Rat!

Lava flowing in Iceland again. At least it’s nature and not some sadistic dictator. Somehow I can live with that.

Ignorance is bliss where tis folly to be wise.

The chances of a super volcano erupting within one’s lifetime is perhaps 1 in 1000. Global warming chances are 1 in 1. It happens as we speak. It started to become actually measurable 50 years ago, it is scientifically undeniable for 20 years, and it is utterly stupid to deny as a fact for 10 years now.

Not to act on it was stupid all along. But it was profitable to make people stay stupid since forever.