The White Horse of the Apocalypse

The casual observer is likely to think that pestilence and epidemics are an unhealthy preoccupation among preppers.

This short essay roughs out why some people think the White Horse (pestilence) is about to break out of the barn.

Potential Energy

One article of faith among engineers and physicists is that systems always seek their lowest potential energy state.  One of the methods that is taught to develop the descriptive, mathematical formula for various systems is to define all of the potential energy states, take the derivative (slope) of that energy budget and set it (the first derivative with respect to time) to zero.

The same concept applies at the atomic level with electron orbits.  An electron can be excited to a higher state of energy, but in time it will eventually drop down to the lowest, most stable state.  Because the energy states exist in unique steps (or quanta) for specific elements, the excess energy that is shed when the electron drops down an orbit emits a light wave of a very specific energy...or frequency.  Sodium is orange, copper is bluish-green and so on.

Consider the common mouse trap.  An unset trap represents the lowest energy state unless one goes to the trouble of disassembling the trap.  Setting the trap increases the potential energy in the spring.  The system is held in check by a switch or trigger.  The system appears to be stable but it is not.  A slight perturbation of the trigger allows the trap to return to the lower energy state, less the thickness of the mouse's spine.

Human Biomass

In 2005 the human biomass was estimated to be 287,000,000,000 kg.  That represents a vast amount of protein and metabolizable calories for opportunistic life forms.  From the standpoint of a virus or a bacterium, every human, all 6.5 million of us,  is an open Petri dish seining the biosphere seeking the perfect predator.

Every year the human population goes up....more Petri dishes.  Every year the biomass goes up.  Every year the population density in barrios and mega-cities increases.

There are countless microbes looking for us, mutating by the hour, microbes that would love to participate in short-circuiting all of our biomass to a lower energy state.  It is just a matter of time before one of them finds us.

Perhaps not Ebola

Perhaps it will not be Ebola.  But perhaps it will be Ebola.

In Revelations the four horsemen ride together.  Pestilence, War and Famine ride together.  War destroys the infrastructure that grows and distributes food, destroys the infrastructure that provides healthcare.  Famine reduces our general vitality and vitamin deficiencies make us much more vulnerable to diseases.

Hajj

The mid-East is coming apart at the seams.  So we have the Red Horse covered. 

And into the middle of that chaos we have Hajj

From Wikipedia

The Hajj (Arabic: حج‎ Ḥaǧǧ "pilgrimage") is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, and a mandatory religious duty for Muslims which must be carried out at least once in lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and can support their family during their absence.^[1][2][3] It is one of the five pillars of Islam. The gathering during Hajj is considered the largest annual gathering of people in the world.

Approximately 1.4 million pilgrims are expected from outside Saudi Arabia.  What would you do if you had the money and thought you might soon die of Ebola?  It might seem that this would be a good year to make your mandatory journey to Mecca.

Food Security

The United Nations is already predicting that Ebola will negatively impact the food security of Liberia, Sierra Leon and Guinea.  That would be the Black Horse.

And the fourth horseman

And the fourth rider, the rider on the pale horse, he is Death.