“When questioned, Jesus of Nazareth had this to say on the subject of the end of the world: ‘But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.’ (Mark 13:32) We don’t seem to have improved on that forecast since and not all the research associates and interns toiling at Mead GHQ crunching all the computers that money can buy have been able to come up with anything more precise.
“But whether or not we get the Big Bang or the Big Whimper, the new decade is going to be haunted by the specter of an approaching apocalypse; a lot of people will think the world is ending, or could end, and the mixture of hope, fear and apocalyptic energy unleashed by that perception will be affecting both national and international politics on an increasing scale as time goes by.” So, predicted Walter Russell Mead on his blog in January 2010, at the beginning of the new decade.
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2010/01/19/2010s-7-end-of-the-world/
But I’m not sure. The global warming scare appears to have almost run its course. What comes next or what just for this new year, 2012?
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
In the early 18 hundreds there were various apocolyptic religious groups
The 7th Day Adventists were created by a ‘prophet’ who predicted the end of the world in 1843 or near that time.
I’ll bypass all the current predictions thank you only to say I’ll still be here in 2013 with bells on.
The neo-Malthusians predict that the end will come when humans have consumed everything they can. Then all humans will disappear, and the Earth will revert to its ‘natural’ state. But they don’t know when that will happen either, though many of them yearn for it.
All life has such a positive attitude to survival and this will always defeat the doomers. Yesterday I found a baby Sugar Glider with its fur all wet from falling out of its nest during the rain. In spite of its predicament it was full of fight and “getting on with it” as we all have to do.
Our DNA will overcome.
“And all the water shalle retreat to the desolate ponds in the South
and so shalle all the rice and the spuds and grains wither and die
Even the grapes shalle wither on the vine and the wine become bitter and smalle
And the Oceans SHALLE BOILE and the great fans stop turning and DARKNESS shall fall on the
empty halls of the supermarkete and even the fish fingers shall thaw to waste
Much will be the gnashing of teeth and wailing in the aisles at the ende
But King Brown and Princess Pennywong shalle righteously be united with their spouses in preparedness and shall ascend to the right hand of Gaia
And all shalle be as it shoulde as the blight of Humanity shalle pass from Her sight ”
Whew, praise be , they didn’t mention beer.
Here is a fringe group predicting Armageddon that doesn’t get much press, and they are close to having the hardware to cause it!!
http://www.wnd.com/2012/01/iran-preparing-now-for-armageddon/
John Sayers:
“I’ll bypass all the current predictions thank you only to say I’ll still be here in 2013 with bells on”
You are coming out if you make it to 2003?? 8>)
Ian, too bad they don’t have a like button here! Would have pushed it for your post!
I think we are in for big change. The global power balance is going to rapidly shift to Asia. I’m not saying its going to be Apocalypic… except for aspects of Western culture. Interestingly the Chinese are producing/supporting/publishing much new science in english language journals. So the english language may be the legacy…
I spent 2 weeks at Beijing University in 91 and they were very proud of their English skills. Every Friday night the students would meet in the University gardens and only English was allowed. We were encouraged to attend so they could try out their English on us plus check out our pronunciation of words.
I always find it interesting when the conspiracy freeks keep talking about how THEY are doing this and THEY are doing that – the club of Rome conspiracies etc etc when in fact the money power has moved from the west to the east.
You could contemplate an influenza pandemic or multiple resistant TB or the like?
Surely superpower military conflict remains a possibility?
But who says AGW is over as an issue – better tell the research community – this is a 50 to 200 year time horizon issue. And what’s the difference between inconvenient/challenging, bad, very bad and catastrophic.
Jen should define what class of global or regional event would be considered an “Apocalypse”
Ian,
I would have pushed the ‘like’ button too.
Great post Jen!
It is rather ironic that the highly pampered ‘western’ civilizations who generally have a stable roof over their heads, food in their tummies and laws to help protect their children are the ones who live in a constant state of fear.
It is soooo incredibly easy for them to be terrified of some type of looming catastrophe.
The ‘developing’ nations are way too concerned about just ‘getting on with it’! They are way more vulnerable than us yet they don’t seem to harbour those fears.
I once saw this as an acronym definition of fear:
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
It sort of looks appropriate re this discussion 🙂
I also once read that modern civilized man wastes over 60% of valuable brain space worrying about things that never actually eventuate.
I can’t remember the source. I know that I often find myself worrying about stuff that did not later eventuate.
Another well known (almost cliche) ditty is the serenity prayer:
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
I would suggest that there has been rather a lot of misplaced courage due to a lack of wisdom in our current political agenda re climate change.
And I agree Ian….thank goodness they left the beer alone!
I suspect martial law in the USA before any elections are held.. some supposed emergency.
Hi VinceOz,
The people won’t let that happen. They will tell the telephone pollsters that they are going to vote for Obama even though they have no intention of doing so. But as long as his polling numbers are acceptable, he’ll keep the Army in the barracks.
2012 will indeed be an era of great change.India and Japan are distancing themselves from the West and look like aligning themselves with Russia/China.The Oligarchical Western Banking system look like driving us deeper into recession.
China is going from strength to strength mainly because of manufacturing and the money for its increases in growth is mostly created by its Govt debt free or as a tax credit for the people.We in the West get our increases in productivity expressed as debt by a private banking system.Money is not wealth.Money only represents human potential.Wall St has turned money into a commodity which perverts the true course of human potential.
Either we all become aware or enter a new dark age.see http://globalresearch.ca/
Yes Ross – BRIC – Brazil, Russia,India,China.
Brazil signed up to be China’s soy bean source. China built the ports, the roads, the infrustructure so Brazil can export Soy Beans to China.
We could have got that contract if we’d been smart as we are closer!! We blew it.
The collection of various essays under the title “Mankind in Amnesia” has been republished last year (Angus and Robertston etc). It was a posthumous publication after Velikovsky’s passing away and which he considered to be his most important contribution to science and knowledge in his capacity as a psychoanalyst, (being a contemporary Freud and Jung etc).
Velikovsky’s principal concern was not so much his interpretation of ancient history as of humanity’s inability to accept it. He recognised that some individuals, traumatised by personal experiences, then try to relive that trauma in order to understand it. His inspiration was to recognise, as Jung seemed to have done with his ideas, that cultures and nations also were so affected, and as a group attempt to relive past catastrophes by imaging future ones that might be mitigated by personal sacrifice in the here and now.
The website http://www.thunderbolts.info is a useful compilation of relevant data.
The social mania of AGW may be passing. But what of the political legacy that is hurting Australia, UK, USA, the EU, etc.?
Many tens of billions in wasted windmills and solar panels and subsidies for the same, and of course the faux research lUke and ilk rely on.
Judith Sloan has an interesting perspective on this in here Australian column – seems the World Economic Forum is run by socialists judging by the dominance of government intervention as the solution to unemployment etc. The whole mess has to be simply social democracy in action in all its glory. Obviously things are not going to get better.