Why is danger so pretty?

Mount Vesuvius in Italy is a volcano that blew it's top in 79 AD, burying Pompei and Herculaeum, and has erupted many times since then. But people still live at it's base, and apparently, from what I've seen on TV Specials online, more people are moving there all the time. Why? Because it is a fabulously beautiful place to live.

I live in Vancouver, BC. It's in the Ring of Fire which surrounds the Pacific Ocean and is known for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. And yes, we know, we're due for a big earthquake. So why do we live here? Because it is a fabulously beautiful place to live.

So what about the more physically "stable" areas in Canada? Well, there was an earthquake near Montreal yesterday - a place not in the Ring of Fire. And yes, you guessed it, it's a beautiful place as well!

The sun had a hiccup last weekend sending a coronal mass ejection (CME) our way. This image from NASA of what it looked like when it hit the earth in eastern Canada and the US is also stunningly beautiful! Sure, GPS tools everywhere had a hard time giving accurate distances for the past few days, leading to some dangerous situations, but people who see the Northern Lights far further south than usual still went "ooh, aah".

So why is danger so pretty?

Maybe it's a coping mechanism of evolution. We are attracted to dangerous places because the whole planet is a dangerous place to live, and if we didn't enjoy the scenery... we'd be a depressed bunch of monkeys on the verge of extinction. Not that we aren't in danger of extinction... but we can at least enjoy it. Because it looks so pretty.