Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
The Thunderbird is a popular figure in the mythology of tribes indigenous to North America.
Specific beliefs vary, but the idea of a bird bringing with it rain, thunder, and lightning
is very popular.
Most people nowadays believe it to just be a legend, but what if it was real?
What if there was a thunderbird flying around to this day?
Let’s explore.
If you want more What If videos, check out our “Biggest What Ifs” playlist on the
channel.
Now get ready, it’s time to ask the question: What if the Thunderbird was Real?
Specific beliefs about the Thunderbird vary a great deal from tribe to tribe, but it is
generally believed to be an enormous bird that causes thunder with the flapping of its
wings.
How big is this bird?
Well, according to some tribes, it’s large enough to lift a killer whale from the water
like an eagle would carry a fish.
So, yeah, it’s kind of a big deal.
Many iterations of the Thunderbird see it as a god-like creature, and while most believe
it brings thunder with it, other tales say that it is accompanied by lightning as well.
Some believed that it brought with it storms that would allow crops to grow, and plants
to bloom.
It’s relatively easy to follow the logic that started this belief.
Thunder has long been assumed to be related to the gods or powerful beings.
And thunderstorms tend to become more prevalent at the beginning of Spring, when things begin
to bloom, crops grow, and animals return.
It makes sense that one would assume this great unexplained noise would be bringing
about the changes that come with Spring.
This is an example of the Post Hoc fallacy, where you assume that since something happens
after another thing, it must have happened because of the other thing.
But I digress.
Let’s step away from the origins of the belief, and explore a world in which this
legend was actually true.
Believe it or not, this idea of a bird flying around changing the weather is not a first
for LBQ.
We previously did a video on the Pokemon Lugia, who brought about great winds as it flapped
its wings.
However, in Lugia’s case, it would have caused significantly more destruction, and
it also had a home deep in the ocean.
So a world with a thunderbird could be rather different.
For one, the way we experience thunderstorms might change.
This would largely depend on one big question: Would ALL thunder and lightning be caused
by the thunderbird, or would the thunderbird simply cause additional thunder and lightning?
If the latter, then not much would change.
The vast majority of thunder and lightning we saw would be due to a natural phenomenon,
just like it is now.
So for the purposes of making a more interesting video, we’ll assume this isn’t the case.
So, if ALL thunder and lightning was caused by the Thunderbird, this would change the
way the world views the phenomena a great deal.
Every thunderstorm would have people rushing to their windows, hoping to catch a glimpse
of the Thunderbird, maybe even rushing outside to snap a sweet photo.
It would basically be like playing Pokemon Snap, with everyone trying to get the thunderbird
in the centre of the frame, doing a cool pose.
This would also change weather around the world a great deal, since there could only
be thunder occurring in one place at a time.
This would make these storms much less frequent, and would further exacerbate the scrambling
to get a good photo of the thunderbird, since you wouldn’t know when your next chance
would be.
This would cause storms to be at once more predictable, and less predictable.
They would be more predictable because you could just follow the flight of the Thunderbird
to know where storms would hit.
However, the Thunderbird would probably change direction somewhat more than clouds, so you
might expect a storm to hit one place, but it will suddenly end up somewhere else entirely.
Of course, it should be noted that all this is assuming rain could still occur without
the thunderbird.
If rain also depended on the creature, this would have huge effects on the world, and
could result in drought if the bird didn’t fly around evenly.
Human history would be greatly affected, especially if the Thunderbird had favourite areas to
visit.
Those places would become far wetter, with swamps and pools forming where none may have
been.
At the same time, areas avoided by the thunderbird would become very dry, with deserts forming
and new species migrating to or from them.
This would greatly affect the way human and animal populations were distributed, with
much greater density near bodies of fresh water.
In modern times, it’s possible that we would attempt to work around this in a few ways.
For one, it’s possible that we would attempt to draw the Thunderbird to places that needed
water.
If we found a way to attract it to certain areas, we could map out a path for it to follow
that would fit our needs.
It’s also possible that this would spur on scientific development in the movement
of water, and drawing it from larger bodies to be used.
Transportation and procurement of water would be prioritized, in hopes of dealing with the
potential lack of rain.
Both these methods would be effective at getting water to populated areas experiencing drought,
but could also be very useful in changing certain environments to be more suitable for
life.
And now we return to our question: What if the Thunderbird was Real?
Well, if all thunder and lightning was caused by this bird flying around, it would change
the way we saw thunderstorms.
They would become a time of great glee, with people clamoring to snap a great photo of
the thing.
Storms would become less common, as they would simply follow in the wake of this great bird,
and could occur in just one place at once.
Furthermore, if rain also depended on the Thunderbird, ecosystems around the world would
change depending on its preferences.
This would change the distribution of animals around the world, and would lead to various
strategies made to acquire water, both through manipulation of the bird, and through scientific
means.
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions, I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into it further on your own.
If you liked this video, please thumbs up and subscribe to the channel down below.
While you’re down there, let me know what you would do if you could ride a Thunderbird.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.
Doing their job Another important point to make is that the
effects of the Thunderbird would largely depend on its temperament.
If it was peaceful and benevolent to humans, as it was depicted in most indigenous stories,
then there’s a good deal we could learn from it.
Not only would it be an incredible sight, it would be a scientific marvel to see a giant
bird that could create thunder with its wings.
We might even attempt to clone it, and create more thunderbirds.
This sounds dangerous, but with the way genetic science is going, it doesn’t seem too far
off that we’d be able to rewrite the genes to slightly modify these thunderbirds to be
less destructive.
We could potentially create huge, domesticated birds that we could fly around.
Which, needless to say, would be freaking awesome, albeit rather unlikely.
On the other hand, however, if the Thunderbird wasn’t quite so nice, it could be rather
destructive.
If it flew around cities, launching lightning this way and that, it would likely be hunted
to prevent further damage.
Unfortunately, given its huge size and impressive speed, catching it would be no small feat.
This would bring about a difficult decision: Do we try to kill the Thunderbird, and thus
remove thunder and lightning forever, not to mention killing a legendary creature?
Or do we allow it to survive, and accept the destruction caused when it flies through a
populated area?
This would be a difficult question, however it’s possible that it would be moot, since
the Thunderbird could well be immortal, given its divine origin in some tales.