Welcome to Gaia! ::

I know, there have been a lot of disasters lately. The question is, have they been a result of what we've been doing to the earth, or Mother Nature acting out?

Or proof for my friends End-Of-The-World theory...

Earth - Earthquakes
Water - Tsunami
Wind - Hurricanes
Fire - Forest Fires(allthgouh those are standard, and hardly getting any worse than normal)

Well, I hardly know enough about science to say for sure, but I'd be going with its a direct reaction to what we're doing to the planet.

Melting ice caps=more fresh water and cooler temperature. That would probably disturb an equilibrium. Cool water affects the tempteratures below the crust, a whole bunch of stuff.

My friends keep talking about how the Incans prophesized 2006 as the big final.

Then again, I've tried researching it, and haven't found anything.

St. Malachi has prophesized the current pope to be the second to last before the Apocalypse, but that has the standard Prophetic loophole.

So don't worry about it.

I'm going to be very cautious in treading here, the last Guild I was in went out of control in thinking everything meant armageddon.

Anyway, yeah, it's kind of odd that we're on the 27th (a record) tropical storm, and that brutal tsunami that hit was... well very devastating indeed. But I don't think it's mother nature being angry, it's more that we're living where we shouldn't. These things have been happening since the oceans formed, we just think coastlines are beautiful and want to live there, so we suffer when the storms hit us.

The excess of storms lately is probably because of El Nino combined with the global warming they're telling us about. 2006 is supposed to actually be a very mild eyar compared to 2005... not that it'll be hard. sweatdrop

Nostradamus had some pretty intense predictions, as well. Both World Wars, the fall of Napoleon, and I've seen some literature on his having predicted the fall of the Twin Towers (The Two Brothers will fall, heralding the arrival of the 3rd AntiChrist). What you have to keep in mind with these sorts of predictions, however, is that when they're taken out of the larger context they were made in, of course they can be made to fit modern events! Prophesies are always vague, and we can never be absolutely certain what the prophet saw. I read tarot cards for a livelihood, and it's unbelievable to keep in touch with some clients; what I saw turns out to be completely different from what happens, but both events (predicted and actual) are both applicable within a context.

As for natural disasters, I'm going to try to approach this from a counter- End Times perspective. Yes, we are experiencing an increased volume of natural disasters than we have in the past. We also have larger populations, make harsher demands on natural resources, and leave our mark as a civilization on Mother Earth. If a butterfly fluttering it's wings in New York can cause a tsunami in China, imagine what umteen-billion people is doing!

Some people decry polution as the cause, as we're destroying the ozone and causing global warming. However, there in new research that suggests that this is a natural function of the ozone layer, and that polution is playing a lesser role than we had believed previously. Perhaps in some 60 or 70 years scientists will discover that drilling for oil has had a direct impact on earthquakes, which cause tsunamis and tidal waves.

Forest fires are on the rise, and for a variety of reasons: 1) We're getting less rain than in the past during the summer, and in applicable areas less snow in the winter. Frost levels are becoming less and less, and ground water tables are falling due to these natural factors and increased demand for industry and human consupmtion. The forests are drying out, like a Christmas tree with not enough water. 2) Camping is cool! People are out enjoying nature, in all its dried out splendor, and sparks carried on the wind or imporperly doused fires ignite brush, which spreads, etc. 3) People are living closer to forests, so when they burn things such as grass clippings or leaves (although they're not supposed to) this sets the stage for fires. 4) Kids playing with matches. Every spring, the fire bugs come out at home, and start lighting fields on fire simply to watch them burn. Little fires can get out of hand very quickly.

Whether it's divine will, I am in no position to speculate, not being a deity myself. However, it's my personal opinion that divine action would be less easily explained, and were it me, a bit more dramatic. I'd go with some Monty Pythonesque apendage of God squishing people at random. xd

My point: A correlation can be made between just about any cause and effect, especially with environmentl issues. My personal favorite is pirates. Did you know that there is a direct correlation between the decrease in the number of pirates and the increase in natural disasters? It's true! As my graph will demonstrate:


Solution: We must all become pirates, thereby ending natural disasters and appeasing Mother Earth. Because pirates are just that cool.

I always just go with the explanation that it's population control. Nature decided there's too many of us and she's ready rearrange how home looks to her. ^_^ Her version of "Spring Cleaning."

Hehe, I just got a mental image of Mother Nature picking up a bunch of people in SUV's, and tossing them into the sun saying "we don't need them anymore..."