Environment vs Last Days
Rev 11:18 says,
"And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth." - AV
The NWT says,
"...bring to ruin those ruining the earth."
I will not debate the potential semantics between "ruin" and "destroy", but rather, I wish to address the issues of "environmentalism" and the WTS use of it to implicate that we are in the Last Days, or at least some aspect of Bible Prophecy is being fulfilled.
Watchtower Mantra: The WTS has been fairly steady in exploiting environmental issues and relating them to the fulfillment of Bible Prophecy regarding the Last Days, such as tying in Rev. 11:18 to their interpretation of what constitutes the Last Days.
Former VP Al Gore's Political Mantra: Al Gore wrote the book Earth in the Balance wherein he reported sets forth the issues of problems with the environment. He has been a champion in carrying forth the environment as his political mantra and his intentions to get government further involved in its clean-up and prevention. He somewhat discredits himself at times, however, such as the speech he gave in California prior to the 2000 Presidential Election wherein he claimed a "crisis" because of El Nino~ being caused by human industrial and automotive emissions. El Nino~ was discovered over 300 years prior to Al Gore's assertions, and has been shown to be a function of interaction between earth's weather cycles and solar cycles.
My Position: I have no argument with the fact that mostly industrialized nations have caused a good measure of environmental problems, especially with pollution of the air, ground, and water. These certainly need to be addressed between a cooperation of citizens, business, government, and international treaties. But, some issues with respect to global warming remain in question as to the cause and the level of "crisis." For example, it is claimed that human air pollution is causing problems with the polar ozone shield such that the ice caps are starting to melt and shrink. The fears are that this will lead to flooding of coast lines, continued 'green house' effects, and loss of fresh water.
One study examined the areas in Greenland where villages long abandoned where shown to exist in prior centuries. These villages exhibited much evidence of year-round habitation, farming, and raising of animals. Why? It is understood by experts that the earth has gone through long periods of significant global warming --- obviously not caused by industrial pollutants --- where people were able to migrate north to Greenland and live comfortably. Then, as the earth cooled again, these villages had to be abandoned. The earth has likewise gone through great ice ages, and I recall that when we got a couple of feet of snow in southern California in the mid-1960s, scientists were claiming that we were entering another Ice Age.
I have also studied various debate about how decades of C02, Freon, and other emissions with respect to the Ozone layer and how this compares to what a single Sun Flare can cause in a matter of hours. Also, I read one report that shows the chemical interactions that were believed to be a primary cause of Ozone depletion may not be producing the feared effects afterall, but that the real culprit has been the more severe Solar Cycles in recent years.
While, I am not interested in debating environmentalism at this juncture or what level of human pollution may be creating some kind of crisis. Rather, I am exploring this from the perspective of how truly 'serious' this problem is, and whether this could have any real connection with fulfillment of Bible Prophecy as claimed by the Watch Tower Society and other apocalyptic religions.
Any and all comments, source references are certainly welcome. But here are my main questions, Do any of you think that maybe the issues of the 'environment' may be another one of those Watch Tower scare tactics that is not really related to Bible Prophecy, such as their idiotic proclamations about 'earthquakes' in the Last Days? Do you believe that any human causal factors are within range of being treated and corrected, such that our only concern will be those causes outside our control, such as Solar Cycles? Are we just going through various weather and Solar cycles or could the Ozone and other environmental problems be a sign that we are indeed at the end of human rule? - Amazing