Will Man Ruin the Earth Beyond Repair?
“A generation is going, and a generation is coming, but the earth remains forever.”―KING SOLOMON, 11TH CENTURY B.C.E.*
To the ancient Bible writer, the fleeting nature of man stood in sharp contrast with the permanence of the earth. Indeed, for thousands of years, generations have come and gone, and yet the planet Earth has proved to be remarkably resilient and stable in its ability to host life―until now.
The years since World War II have been dubbed by some as the Great Acceleration. In a single lifetime, people have seen remarkable advances in transportation, communication, and other technologies, which have brought unprecedented economic changes. Many enjoy a standard of living once thought impossible. In the meantime, the earth’s population has nearly tripled.
All of this, however, has not come without cost. Human activities are said to be pushing the earth beyond its natural cycles. In fact, some scientists say we have entered a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene―an age in which humans are making an increasingly notable impact on the planet.
The Bible foretold a time when man would ‘ruin the earth.’ (Revelation 11:18) Some wonder if we are living in such a time. How much further damage will be done? Is there a point of no return? Indeed, will man ruin the earth beyond repair?
A POINT OF NO RETURN?
Is the earth headed for a point of no return? Some scientists feel that the effect of changes can be difficult to predict. Because of this, they are concerned that we might be approaching “tipping points” where sudden and unanticipated climate changes could bring disastrous results.
Consider, for example, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
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Nuclear war:
If you were a fan of old movies or books you'd have spared yourself a lot of worry. There was an entire industry of nuclear war stories in all the media they had - back in the 1940s-60s when it was fashionable to believe nuclear war was inevitable. Now you can get these old nightmares in formats the people of the time would have thought impossible.
Pollution/resources:
When you move up to the 1960s you get to: "pollution, running out of resources, anything, and I even read online that a NASA study suggests civilization as we know it will end most likely in the next few decades". I mean that's about as 'cut and paste litany of doom' as you are likely to find. Yet we're still here.
Climate change:
In the 1970s the weather turned cold and we were told to abandon our wicked industrial prosperity or we'd be punished with an Ice Age.
Then the weather changed, as it tends to do.
In the 1980s the weather turned warm and we were told to abandon our wicked industrial prosperity or we'd be punished with a catastrophic Global Warming.
Are you seeing a pattern here? Note that the 1980s are about a third of a century ago now. Nothing was done. Yet we aren't taking boat tours of the coastal skyscrapers.
People have been supposing that the world will end forever ago. It always comes up. The world may eventually end, and yes that is a scary thing to think, but don't think about it on a daily basis. You being only 15 and worrying so much will have a bad affect on your health. I don't know if you are religious or not, but if you are, look into what it says about the end of the world. The book of Mormon actually has signs on when Christ shall come, if you believe in that Anyways, don't read too far into it on the internet, some sites can just be fakes, and they'll just scare you,
The world is not going to end. It didn't end with the fall of the Roman Empire, it didn't end when Easter Islanders ran out of trees, and it didn't end when smallpox decimated native north american populations. But things may get uncomfortable and a lot of people may die younger than they had hoped. Probably not that soon, though. You still have a better personal chance of being killed in a car accident.
It is unarguable that sustained exponential growth (such as we have seen in the post-WW2 economy and now think of as normal and necessary) will lead to some kind of crash in a finite solar system. Same as breeding rabbits in your bedroom - pretty soon they will start dying. It doesn't have to be that way - we can think ourselves out of the problem, but not by pretending it doesn't exist. Theoretically, the sun can power a much larger (but still limited) human population in this system, but we need to engineer a sustainable economy for food, clothes, toys etc. from cradle to grave (or recycling plant) and quit treating the sea and air as an unlimited communal garbage dump.
Part of the problem is the timescales. Limits to Growth came out when I was at university, predicting trouble in some 150 years or so. Then oil prices yoyoed because of OPEC, the brakes came off and people started buying large cars again. Everyone said World3 was wrong as it didn't predict falling oil prices. But ever since, broadly speaking the world economy and population have been tracking the predictions. But it's still not a problem for this generation, let alone this government (global warming, maybe), even though collapse might be frighteningly close compared to the span of human history or even the lifespan of some cathedrals.
Wow you are in a bad way, when I was 15 a long long time ago all I thought about was girls and motorbikes.
The world is far better now believe me, the biggest problem is the gullibility of people, people can be persuaded to believe anything, even to the extent of strapping on explosives and blowing themselves up in the name of some cause or other.
Please don't be a sheeple, stop listening to others and use your mind.
There has always been talk of catastrophes (the end of the world is nigh stuff) it what humans like to do, but it just nonsense, the world just keeps on rolling along.
Air quality is much better than 30 years ago. The world is not going to end. There are people that produce scare stories, and as you get older, you will see that it was all made up. Before there was Y2K, nuclear winter, overpopulation, and now it is global warming.
Paul Ehrlich wrote a book called the Population Bomb saying there would be famines and the world was running out of resources. He later lost a bet with Julian Simon over prices of minerals, with Julian Simon believing in innovation and capitalism to make things better. Indeed, it has been 30 years since Julian Simon wrote the Ultimate Resource about how things are getting better.
The only real worry you should have is about your own fears.
Fear of global warming is responsible for about 1/3 of mental illness
Civilization has been on the edge of destruction for as long as it has existed. We get through somehow, with varying levels of disruption.
You're 15, so you're having your first experience of impending doom. Over time, as you see a few waves of fear, you'll learn perspective and realize the fear is exaggerated. Civilization probably won't end this time, just like it didn't when I was 15 and we were approaching nuclear destruction (for the 3rd or 4th time, though I didn't know that).
A small number of people never develop that perspective and become paranoid fanatics encouraging panic each time. Ironically, these are the people most likely to destroy everything.
I don't know about the NASA study, but NASA doesn't claim to be expert on the fate of civilization so I doubt they studied it.
Edit: This is becoming a forum for global warming deniers. The flip side of the paranoid fanatics is the nothing-will-ever-happen fanatics who try to prevent us from fixing problems. That's not what I was saying.
If humanity manages to clean up its energy sources and protect itself against climate change problems, we'll get through that problem with minor disruption. If we stick our heads in the sand we'll get through it with major and painful disruption. Either way, people will adjust to the new normal and civilization will continue in some form.
The only one can answer that question is the one who created the earth. This is what God;s word says:
THE Bible has much to say about the fact that “the world is passing away.” In many places it contains specific information about the time that it also calls “the conclusion of the system of things.” 1?John 2:17; Matthew 24:3,
God does not have to destroy the earth in order to eliminate the frightful conditions that are so prevalent on it. The earth is not causing the problems in human society today. People are responsible, especially people who have little or no regard for the Creator, Jehovah God, and his laws. They are the ones who are turning life on this earth into a nightmare for so many. But God does not have to destroy the earth to rid it of such ones
Jesus also likened “the end of the world” to what happened at the time of the global Flood in Noah’s day. (Matthew 24:37-39) At that time it was not the earth itself that was destroyed. Rather, it was ungodly humans. Because of the shocking behavior of the people living back then, God said: “I am going to wipe men whom I have created off the surface of the ground.” (Genesis 6:7) Likewise, the apostle Peter spoke of the ancient “world of ungodly people” that was destroyed back in Noah’s time. It was not planet Earth that perished.―2?Peter 2:5.
Why, though, do many confuse the expression “the end of the world” with the destruction of planet Earth? One reason is the prevalence of such teaching in many of today’s religions.
So rather than forecasting a nuclear holocaust or similar disintegration of the material universe, including planet Earth, the Bible teaches us that it is the wicked system of things on earth that will be brought to a sudden end. This includes all forms of corruption, falsehood, and hypocrisy now existing, whether it is political, commercial, or religious. All degradation and immorality, all wickedness, and all godless humans existing on earth at that time will be forcibly removed. Ecclesiastes 1:4, Isaiah 45:18 This destruction by Jehovah God will be called Armageddon or Gods War. Only the wicked will be destroyed. Zephaniah 3:8.
Zephaniah 2:2,?3.
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Well the world is not ending "soon" or even not so soon. Now the world as we know it is always changing. For example back in the 60's we worried about nuclear war, being drafted, and many other issues that we no longer have. Relax and do your best to be productive and if you are really worried get professional help.
I'm 15 and all. I tend to get anxiety a lot and I recently have been freaking out over the end of the world, as in the end of civilization as we know it. Through nuclear war, climate change, pollution, running out of resources, anything, and I even read online that a NASA study suggests civilization as we know it will end most likely in the next few decades. Is this a reliable study? Is the world going to end? Is there anyway we as humans can prevent civilization from crumbling? Please help me I wont be able to focus at all as long as im not comfortable about the subject
I am much older than you and have heard about impending doom the entire time I have been alive. Further, I have read history and seen discussion of impending doom for as far back as there are written records. Every generation is horrible and going to cause the end of civilization. Being a Gen X'er, I have certainly heard how bad we are.
I wouldn't put much stock in it. We have problems to solve and issues to deal with, just as every generation has had.
It might be reality sooner than anyone can ever imagine. Pollutions, global warming, greedness, selfishness, terrorism, end of clean fresh water, wars, end of food, deforestation, extinctions of animals and so on. And just because it's seems that we are going scaringly fast to World War 3, which could also be called nuclear war, which could mean the end of the world. We just have to hope and wish that sense will win and humankind would stop destroying the planet! And we all can make a change and difference by voting, recycling, stopping waste natural resources, holding on human rights, justice and equality and conservating of nature!
There has been many theories of when the world is going to end but there is one thing they all have in common... THEY HAVEN'T HAPPENED... they are scams for people to sell tickets to there "chambers" for MILLIONS OF DOLLARS - Jesus will decide when the world will end and that is the simple answer... No man will ever know - all you know is that you need to get onto the right track and follow the Lord Jesus Christ before this happens - if you do follow Jesus there will be no reason to worry and you can see joy in a moment like that because you will go to HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (In short: Jesus is the answer)
Don't worry about it -every generation has their doomsday stories & elderly people who like to spread them. It's more intense in our day and age with the internet, but no different than times passed . . . In 20 years there will be another huge threat & then in 20 years another huge threat & so on until you die of natural causes. Don't stress yourself out, focus on living & do a small part to fix the things that concern you.
I just finished a book called Apocalypses by Eugen Weber. People have been predicting the end of the world for at least two thousand years. Some people predict it based on religious beliefs, while others based on diseases, weather changes, meteors, or other natural events. So far, every prediction has failed. So, there's hope for us!
Last June a group that monitors the Earth's magnetic field reported it is collapsing; search terms: SWARM (all caps), magnetic, satellite. This is a predicted effect of global warming. If the prediction is correct, there will be a dramatic increase in volcanic activity as a result (Most of Eastern Oregon is buried under several thousand feet of lava as a result of the last several such occurrences). If this prediction is correct we will lose at least 70% of the world population in the next decade.
No. Stop worrying.
You are currently seeing how people try to manipulate you. First they invent a scare that you can't see a way out of. Then they offer you a way out. You are so grateful that you are prepared to throw your money at them or let them take away some of your rights.
This is a human characteristic and has been noticed before:
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)
The way out is to know your history. Failing that, when a "new" problem arises, find out it it really is new or has happened before. If it has happened before, and most things have, then see how it turned out last time.
We're all going to die eventually, but as for the world ending? I don't think it's going to be in your life time, least of all in decades, so you have nothing to worry about
The world as you know it will end in 2 seconds as all sorts of changes happen; however overall, the world will continue as before. I can visit my old stomping grounds in south of the former boundary of Rapid City and all the places I knew, Great Horned Owl nests, Red Tailed Hawk nests, bobcat, deer, coyote, porcupines, etc are all now somebodies neighborhood but further south there is a very similar wilderness. It all changes and yet it all sort of stays the same. Changes can be opportunities.
Relax - You will likely live through 20 to 30 end of the world events in your lifetime. So-called "global warming" is just one of them. They all have the goal of trying to separate you from your money, so don't fall for these scams.
No one knows how things will play out, but your generation definitely has a lot to be concerned about. I am optimistic because climate change is in the news much more lately and the countries of the world are getting serious about an accord in December. Dr. James Hansen, leading climate scientist formerly of NASA, suggests getting involved with citizensclimatelobby.org.
No....stop your anxiety, but the Sun is projected to over take the Earth 1 billion years from now.
WHAT a lot of intelligent grown ups forget is that mans first Job on earth was a gardener he looked after the trees; and plants he tilled the ground, he gave names to birds and animals so we are the most important creatures on this planet so ask your self and your friends what dose a top gardener have to know, THEN train yourselves in all the skills you can think off and you may HELP TO SAVE OUR PLANET
Yes it is going to end. The bible teaches that it may very well possibly end in October 2015. Go to www.ebiblefellowship.com, Learn more about the end of this world. Christ is returning very soon. People can doubt all they want but when it happens they will see.
The World as you know it ends each day. .... You have new experiences in the morning and new dreams in the night. How can you worry from one day to the next what will be
Wait a few billion years , The Sun will shift to a red giant
then you will get global warming
In my opinion, Yes it will.
But don't worry too much as it won't happen in your lifetime or even your children's lifetime.
I just cannot see the human race reaching the end of this millennium.
No, the earth is stronger than humans and will be around long after we are gone. the end is very unlikely to be within your life span. Hope that helps.
NO. By turning off Global Warming the first time, = it somehow alerted Haley's Comet into returning to its original mission and THAT'S what saved earth from destruction when Haley's Comet collided with the so-called incoming Asteroid. I saw the pictures after the collision of 10 large chunks drifting in different directions 13 away from earth from the Hubble Telescope. Mike
As we know it? Possibly, but the world will not end soon. It's been around for billions of years. Don't think the end is around the corner.
