Sunken boat killing hundreds overshadowed by Titan submersible coverage
A fishing boat crowded with migrants traveling from Libya to Italy sank last week. While hundreds are still missing and feared dead, it has garnered far less attention and resources than the Titan rescue efforts for five people.
While fucked up, it's disinguinuous suggest that the news is blowing up only due to the fact that they're billionaires. While large boat disasters are fairly uncommon, how often do you hear of a submarine disaster. Especially one where the inhabitants are missing but potentially on a timer - trapped in a submarine with no way to open from the inside, many peoples ultimate fear. The story writes itself, pile on what seems to be a neglectful company and you've got a story people are going to be invested in. I don't think the coverage or the search and rescue would be any different if it were a scientific submarine with scientists.
The Thai cave boys are another good example. They were rural third-worlders, but it still became a sensation. It just has to be bloody and dramatic to attract attention. A story like "people on boat drown again" is too mundane, it becomes a statistic instead of a tragedy.
What's really irksome is that these rich guys that pay people to put them weird but often already-explored places get called "explorers".
This is effectively saying, "This article is correct but for the wrong reasons". People aren't angry about why hundreds of migrants dying isn't newsworthy. They're angry that it's not newsworthy.
I'm frankly surprised that not enough people find it disgusting that the EU passively killing hundreds of refugees is less interesting because the EU does so regularly.
I think the issue is the resources dedicated to each disaster. I don't know if all the immigrants died though, so there may not have been a point in rescuing them at all.
They found a debris field near the titanic recently. It was a catastrophic failure. RIP to those on board.
If you mean the OceanGate submarine, it seemingly spectacularly imploded after its carbon fiber structure gave in to various microfractures. If that really is what happened, the water pressure killed the crew faster than their brains would've processed anything.
The pressure does not kill. Whales live down there. It’s the compressibility of water. At this depth it’s about 4% compressed. The cabin has 1 atmosphere of pressure, the water around it about 100. Through a microfracture water shoots in at the speed of sound in water (3x speed of sound in air) - that’s about 100 bars. That’s like a water jet cutter. It rips the microfracture open. Within a tenth of a second they get pressed to death by the compressibility of water.
Won't someone think of the poor billionaires?
I'm really loving your username! Was reading that book to the kids yesterday and they too are enjoying it.
Haha, glad to hear it. It amuses me too!
Less people on earth means we will hit the Co2 goals faster.
Ah the Genghis Khan method of environmentalism.
