Why Does it Seem that the 21st Century is the End of The World?

Question

Flooding, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Global Warming, Desertification, Deforestation, WHY DO I GET THE FEELING THE WORLD IS ENDING?

Answer 1

There was an interesting article on this I read just the other day:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080621/ap_o...

You might want to read it, if for no other reason than to know you're not alone in asking these kinds of questions.  

My personal answer is that this is the world we created for ourself.  We have become a culture of doom and gloom, the only difference i see between the different sides of the political aisle anymore are which kinds of doom and gloom they focus on. For Republicans it's terrorism, for Democrats it's global warming, etc.

Answer 2

Well, watching the news doesn't help.  It is understandable why you feel that way.  Most are natural disasters that occur normally.  These disasters are not evenly spaced out through history.  So there will be some periods of time when there are more natural disasters than at other times.  I live in Florida and where I live, we didn't have one single hurricane threat for the last two years.  However, the year before that we had five.  I am hoping for another "no threat" year this year!

Answer 3

Because EVERY century seems like the end of the world.  The  old Egyptians though it was going to happened in 5,200 BC.  Some Greeks said 320 BC was the big end.  Early Christians picked 120 AD, then 300 AD, then 500 AD, then 1000 AD....

The Mayans just knew that 1492 AD was the end of the world -- they were right (for themselves).  Since then, various people have said 1600, 1799, 1830, 1849, 1883, 1900, 1910,  .... the list goes on and on.

And those are just a few examples ....