Sci-Fi Channel ponders “Doomsday” scenarios

Matt Lauer hosts “Countdown to Doomsday,” a telecast from Sci Fi Channel that should make every one of us sit up and take notice.

With a team of scientific experts behind them, the producers of “Doomsday” look closely (and graphically) at such possible horrors as volcanoes, asteroid impacts, gamma ray bursts, solar flames, pandemics and the like.

The B-movies apparently aren’t enough; now we have doom-n-gloom documentaries on Scifi. I have to wonder sometimes why the media, and particularly Scifi, seem to think we need to be alarmed all the time. Yes, there are natural disasters. Yes, we have enemies. Yes, there are dangers about. Take reasonable precautions, but don’t let fear keep you from living. After all, everyone dies eventually, and you never know when or how. When I was in high school I read a news report about a fifty-something year old man who was walking down the sidewalk with a mug of coffee, tripped, fell on a shard of the coffee cup and bled to death. Who needs volcanoes?