Steve Kraske: Things sure look bleak out there

Here we go again. Another plunge into the abyss.

We’re all recovering from Paris, and we’re hearing new thoughts about what this all means.

You hear the phrase “be vigilant” a lot now. Take “extra care.” And I came across this one: “Be willing to take proactive steps to prevent another tragedy.”

Washington, D.C., is in the crosshairs, one report says. No, it’s Great Britain. Hey, hold on. The real next target is New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio was quick to step up to the microphones Wednesday to urge New Yorkers to go about their normal business.

“The people of New York City will not be intimidated,” he declared.

Haven’t seen Kansas City mentioned. Not yet, anyhow.

All this comes amid a series of other dark and sinister forecasts I’ve stumbled across in recent days. Elizabeth Kolbert, who writes for the New Yorker, was in town this week talking about her 2014 book, “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.” She outlined how human activity is taking a toll on the planet in the same way an asteroid knocked out the dinosaurs during the fifth extinction.

Carbon dioxide emissions pumped into the atmosphere winds up back in the oceans where we’re looking at elimination of one-third of all underwater creatures by century’s end. Eventually, the oceans will look like, in her words, a “vacant lot.”

Important information, to be sure. But on top of Paris, it was, well, like taking that plunge into the abyss.

All this came on top of Ted Koppel’s recent visit to the radio program I host. Koppel, of “Nightline” fame, was talking about his latest book, “Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath.” It’s about what happens if terrorists knock out the electric grid. And, for some reason, Koppel’s view of the abyss got to me, maybe because he’s warning Americans to stock up enough food for their families to survive three months. Do it now, he says.

And he’s already done it. Lots of freeze-dried.

Koppel points out that our nation has only three electric grids. Take down just a portion of the system, and millions of Americans are left without power for weeks — or even months.

Think Kansas City ice storm on steroids.

No water. No lights. Can’t flush the toilet. He adds this: Other states may not welcome a mass migration of Midwesterners to wait it out because that would only tap out their systems. It’d be like another Syrian refugee crisis.

This was Ted Koppel speaking, folks.

Thank goodness the Royals won the World Series this year, or I don’t know where I’d be.

But seriously, we go on with our lives. Still, every once in a while, a lot of us have moments when we stop and think, “Where is this thing going? What about the kids? What about the golden years?” That Donald Trump continues to top the polls in New Hampshire even after Paris isn’t comforting.

Where’s this thing going? In my house, not all that far because I don’t have enough room in my basement for all that food.

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 10:10 AM with the headline "Steve Kraske: Things sure look bleak out there."