Upheavals in Nature

Excerpt from The Rational Christian
Earthquakes and Upheavals in Nature (Matthew 24:7; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:11,25-26)
Copyright © 2006 Christopher Creek Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

Earthquakes have certainly become more evident and unusual, but what about other natural disasters? According to Luke 21:25-26, the sea and the waves will roar and the powers of heaven shall be shaken. This is consistent with the violent storms, cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, and other devastating weather phenomena that have drastically increased during the

past century. As many are already aware, the last few years alone have introduced weather patterns that are unlike any we have seen in history. The primary causes of the marked shift in worldwide weather are global warming and air pollution.

The 20^th century is prominent in that it has experienced the clear majority of destructive weather events found in recorded history. This is not surprising to the scientific community. The August 2000 issue of Scientific American reported that global warming would continue to cause temperatures to increase, glaciers to melt, and sea levels to rise, and that worldwide weather patterns would become more erratic and storms more severe. When releasing the World Disasters Report for 1999, Astrid Heiberg, president of the International Red Cross said, “Climate change is no longer a doomsday prophecy, it’s a reality…Changing climate means changing disaster patterns.” On February 19, 2001, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report that confirmed significant

alterations in worldwide weather patterns and cited increased weather-related insurance losses and public sector disaster relief payments. At about the same time, CBC News reported that the town of Vanguard, Saskatchewan received 334 millimeters (13.1 inches) of rain in just 10 hours. Described by the town’s mayor as a “wall of water”, the 10-hour rainfall total was more than the area normally receives in an entire year. The report went on to cite studies by climate scientists illustrating the trend that warmer, wetter weather has been growing in the United States and Canada and that “what we've seen so far may be a preview of things to come if the Earth’s climate continues warming.” The

U.S. National Climatic Data Center reports that there has been an overall 8 percent rise in annual precipitation since 1910. Since the 1950s, each decade has seen a marked increase in weather events, with the highest by far occurring during the past decade alone. Climatic changes in Asia have been even more dramatic, due to the severe buildup of haze, ash, acids and other particulates in the atmosphere. On August 11, 2002, BBC News reported that a brown cloud could now be seen extending as high as the top of the Himalayas, disrupting weather systems including rainfall and wind patterns throughout Asia, and triggering droughts.

A significant trend in changing weather patterns began in 1993 when Life Magazine printed a story entitled “The Year of Killer Weather: Why has Nature Gone Mad?” The story reported record flooding on the Mississippi and other Midwest Rivers causing an estimated $18.1 billion in damage. Although many in the scientific community assured a concerned public that such flooding is rare, 1995 boasted a repeat performance. Floodwaters have returned to the area nearly every year since. Floods have affected other areas as well. In 1994, there were record floods from Florida to Texas causing over $1.5 billion in damage. In 1995, floods in California caused more than $1.8 billion in damage, the greatest flood loss in the state’s history. The Red

River flood of 1997 submerged parts of two states, North Dakota and Minnesota, for several months – the worst flooding in the area in well over 100 years. In 1998, the Yangtze River overflowed killing more than 4,000 people and dislocating over 223 million, causing a whopping $36 billion in damage. That same year, Hurricane Mitch created flooding that caused half the population of Honduras to lose their homes. The flood

caused $4 billion in damage to Honduras and $1.5 billion in damage to Nicaragua – amounts equivalent to about half of each nation’s gross domestic product. The flooding was a result of the deadliest Atlantic storm in over 200 years, killing more than 10,000 people. In 1999, the Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers overflowed their banks in North Carolina and caused more than $6 billion in damage. Also in 1999, heavy rains in Venezuela caused catastrophic flooding and mudslides, killing as many as 20,000 people in the country’s worst modern-day disaster. In February of 2000, torrential rains in Africa resulted in devastating floods in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, killing about 700 people and leaving more than 280,000 homeless. That same year, the Mekong River and its tributaries overflowed and flooded large areas of Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, killing at least 235 people and leaving 4.5 million homeless.

According to the Storm Prediction Center at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 20 of the most deadly 25 tornadoes in recorded history have occurred during this past century, with the other 5 occurring in the mid to late 1800s. Although category 5 hurricanes are extremely rare, four out of five of these in the United States have occurred since 1969. The fifth occurred in 1935. Of all the most significant hurricanes in history since as far back as 1492, about half occurred during this past century – most of them in the past 2 – 3 decades. Out of the 30 most costly hurricanes in the past century, 18 have occurred in the last two decades alone. Droughts have also become more prevalent in many areas of the world only in the last 70 years. There have been 49 weather-related disasters in the United States in the last two decades that have caused over $1 billion of damage. Overall weather-related insurance losses worldwide for the 1990s topped $430 billion – more than five times the damage totals for the 1980s.

The statistics related to weather anomalies over the last century are staggering. Just as with pestilences and earthquakes there has been an extraordinary shift in weather patterns over the past decade alone. As this book was being written, CNN reported daily on an unprecedented string of tornadoes in the Midwest destroying homes, killing dozens of people, and flattening entire towns. It seems increasingly apparent that a powerful trend exists to focus our attention on the words spoken by Jesus in Matthew 24. But we still have other signs to explore. Each successive angle from which we observe the events in our world will help to clarify the big picture, and attest to the truth about our times.