A Plague of Insecticons

I got an email this morning from Orkin. It contained a graphic I'd never noticed before and almost couldn't help but laugh at. 

It's the most pestilent time of the year.

Remember this? 

Hands down, everyone. We're going to go over why this was dumb.

Created following the September 11 terror attacks, the Department of Homeland Security created this color-coded terror alert system to notify the public of the current threat level. This system was in effect for nearly ten years before being scrapped in favor of a more "text-based" alternative that would offer more specific information than a simple color. At no point during that time did the terror threat fall to green or blue. 

From the start, I think we were all asking similar questions about this scale. What exactly would a "low" threat level look like? What in Hel's Realm is a "general" risk? What exactly makes a terror threat more or less threatening? Moreover, if your job was monitoring terrorist activity, wouldn't you almost always see some kind of threat somewhere in some form? It's like that saying about how giving someone a hammer causes them to see only nails. This is a problem inherent in communicating a lot of information in a clear and concise way to a lot of laypeople. It's a messy process with a lot of trial and error, all while balancing on a knife's edge of trust and authenticity. Too much certainty, and you set yourself up for a fall. Not enough certainty, and there's no confidence in your abilities in the first place. It's an "Us vs. Them" scenario that shouldn't exist. The worst part is it's nothing remotely new. 

Ever heard of this thing?

At least we're not arguing over colors.

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 by a nonprofit organization called the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a name so simultaneously cool and boring it alleviates all doubts I may have had about the involvement of actual scientists. It was in response to growing public concern over the use of nuclear weapons following the end of World War II. Unlike the terror alert system, this has been more or less completely unchanged in form since its inception, showing the upper left fourth of an analog timepiece, the minutes hand representing how close we are to a man-made doomsday scenario. The "time" is updated in an annual announcement, currently sitting at "100 seconds" from midnight. In case you're wondering, the hour hand has never moved, and probably isn't meant to, depending on who you ask. The minute hand, meanwhile, started at about 7 minutes from midnight and has moved 24 times up to the present day. 

The lowest it ever got was back in 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved. It was practically off its own scale at "23:43." I guess we weren't too concerned with climate change back then, despite what Captain Planet would have had to say about it. In fact, climate change wasn't officially added to the threat  list until 2007. This 17 minutes to midnight streak lasted until 1995. Exactly what happened in 1995? In a way, nothing. Military spending remained at Cold War levels and there were growing concerns over a power vacuum created by the Soviets packing it in. Many of the changes to the clock in the subsequent years could probably best be summed up as, "Little has changed, therefore it's getting worse." That said, since the clock was only concerned with nuclear armaments, neither Three Mile Island nor the Chernobyl disaster had any impact on it. 1988 did see a little improvement in the United States' relations with Russia, doubtless because of the awkward position they were in during the cleanup of the disaster. 

Jury's out on whether or not the Pandemic has or will have any effect on the clock. I mean, the virus wasn't man-made (despite what conspiranoids would have me take on faith), but the spreading across the globe was pretty much squarely on us. 

I don't necessarily have a point beyond my usual advocacy for media literacy.  I just thought it interesting to see a pest control company using such a tactic in their marketing. Granted, I'm no expert on pest control or the life cycles of various insects that fall under their purview, so I don't doubt there's merit behind the data. I've used Orkin for years and I don't begrudge them for doing their job. It's only the perspective and priorities I question. 

"I would only agree that a symbolic clock is as nourishing to the intellect as a photograph of oxygen to a drowning man." -- Watchmen

Goodnight, and good luck.