When I’m contemplating the many ways civilization, and even humanity, might collapose, it doesn’t help to be nudged along by NASA scientists telling me I’d better freak out about the likelihood that one of about 20,000 asteroids will fall to Earth and destroy a major city. (Is that all?) They spend more than $4 million a year at NASA already looking for asteroids, but they want at least a billion dollars to find them all by 2020.

Robert Reich’s article in The American Prospect on NASA’s asteroid report is very well timed, since I also happened to have just finished reading the latest in my series of apocalyptic novels this week — a newish young adult novel by Susan Beth Pfeffer called Life As We Knew It.

See that looming moon on the cover? In the fictional world of the book, scientists told the people of Earth that an asteroid would hit the moon, but they made a little miscalculation.

Last Fall I read another novel of teen post-apocalyptic survival, Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. Life As We Know It is nowhere near as bleak, if that can really be said of such a desperate situation. Through the main character Miranda’s diary, we see her make the gradual switch from superficial teen focused on boards on a fan site to becoming an essential member of her own family as they work to survive a nearly impossible situation.

A lot of reviews of Life As We Know It mention that the readers want to run out right then to buy canned soup and collect firewood. The focus on remaining resources definitely makes it clear that planning helped some survive. Whatever it takes to get people to prepare themselves for catastrophic disaster or more common emergency.

I am keeping my library account on notice to find the companion novel recently finished but yet to be published.

The old symbol alerting us to the presence of radiation was too tame. It doesn’t tell you what to do. It doesn’t tell you how to act. At the very least, considering the era, you might expect to see a desk to hide under.

The old, gold trefoil is not being phased out. It is just being supplemented by a new symbol that the International Atomic Energy Agency — and their 1650 people polled in eleven countries over a five-year project — find the new symbol intuitive. All of the people polled understood the meaning, “Danger — Stay Away.” Technically, it probably says:

1. See the radiation.
2. It is killing you.
3. Run like a girl.
4. In the time it took you to read this storyboard, you have died.

It looks more to me like it says, “Run, Run, Run like hell.”

The new symbol “will not be visible under normal use, only if someone attempts to disassemble” devices housing large sources of ionizing radiation. You are not likely to see this symbol in use.  If you see this symbol, freak out immediately.

So says Sarah Filley, one of the artists who was involved in The Art of Survival, a show of seven artists in Oakland, California, ending last month.  For her contribution she created emergency kits and evacuation maps.

Each of the artists interpreted the theme quite differently.  Sounds like it was an interesting show.  Too bad I was so far away.