IN THE YEAR 2013
THE COUNTDOWN BEGAN TO
THE PET EXTINCTION OF 2023:
"The loss of pet cats and dogs garnered particular attention among wealthy Westerners, but what was anomalous in 2023 soon became the new normal. A shadow of ignorance and denial had fallen over people who considered themselves children of the Enlightenment. "
THE FALL OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
--Naomi Oreskes & Eric Conway
Daedalus Winter 2013
Oreskes later lamented some readers :
"started crying when the pets die, so I didn’t mean to upset people too much …
I was just trying to come up with something that I thought people wouldn’t forget about, and I thought, well, Americans spend billions of dollars every year taking care of their pets, and I thought if people’s dogs started dying, maybe then they would sit up and take notice."
THE AUTHORS OF THE FALL OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION MAY FIND THEMSELVES IN THE DOGHOUSE IN 2023, AS PEOPLE TAKE NOTICE THAT THEIR PETS ARE STILL AROUND, AND LESS AT RISK OF EXTINCTION THAN PROPHETS OF DOOM WHO FAIL TO DELIVER
