Podcast # 4: Our Environmental Crisis
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the fourth in the series, and is titled “Our Environmental Crisis”. Hello Allan and welcome. So what do you plan to talk about today?
Thanks Scott, In our last Podcast you asked me the question, how do we know that the ancient prophecies refer to the present time, and not to some other time in the past or in the distant future?
Well in my book I go to into the timeline of events outlined in these prophecies, and explain when and where they will begin.But in today’s Podcast I want to deal with this from a different point of view.
You may be too young to remember Scott, but many years ago there was a popular TV series called “Dragnet”.
Scott: Actually I do remember. Wasn’t it written by Jack Webb, who also played the part of Joe Friday?
Well done Scott. You are quite right. Well the leading character used to start each show with the words: “My name is Friday….I’m a cop”. The show also became famous for the line “Just the facts Ma’am”. Don’t bother me with your opinions, just give me the facts.
So that’s what I am going to do today. Most people today are too busy going about their daily lives to stop and take stock of what is really happening on this planet. So instead of referring to ancient prophecies as I do in my book, I want to take a look at the facts, and let people make up their own minds.
It is probable that at no other time in the history of our planet has so much information been available to so many people on so many different subjects. Yet it is clear that despite this avalanche of information, there has never been as much ignorance about what is really happening in the world as there is now.
It is as if the more we know the less we see, and instead of becoming more enlightened, our minds have become fogged with too much detail. Our entire world is in crisis. Surely we don’t need any prophets to tell us that.
Anyone who takes the trouble to follow world affairs must surely realize that we are rapidly plunging towards catastrophe.
Scott: What sort of crisis are we facing?
The omens of this impending disaster can be seen every day in the media, whether it is on television, in the news or on the Internet. Even those who limit their interest to their own local communities can hardly miss the warning signs.
The statistics alone are daunting. I am quoting here from the website (www.worldometers.info) According to latest estimates there are over seven billion people now living on the planet. And every day brings some 250,000 more!
Despite all those who die annually from war, natural disaster, old age, malnutrition and disease, there will still be an increase of about 80 million people this year. That is equivalent to the entire population of Germany, which is already the most populous country in Western Europe. And these figures continue to rise every year.
But every child born into the world is not simply a new mouth to feed. In due course they also have to be cared for, and provided with the necessary housing, education, employment and recreation if they are to become healthy and contributing members of society.
And if this is to happen, there needs to be a similar increase in the amount of new resources necessary to meet these needs. That means more food, water, energy, building materials and so on than we have now.
But instead of helping the earth to provide these additional resources, we are actually damaging our planet, and hampering its ability to sustain and regulate itself.
Scott: Can you give us some examples?
According to Global Forest Resources, some 5 million hectares (that’s over 19,000 square miles) of virgin forest will be destroyed in 2012. Added to this, the amount of agricultural land available for food production continues to shrink every year.
About 7 million hectares of land will no longer be arable due to soil erosion, and around 12 million more hectares will be lost due to desertification. Just to get a better idea, it means that fertile land about the size of the American state of Kentucky is turning into desert every year.
But it doesn’t stop there. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, it is estimated that about ten million tons of toxic chemicals will be released into the environment this year, as well as uncounted amounts contaminating the oceans of the world.
This is in addition to the 33 billion tons of carbon dioxide that are expected to be released into the atmosphere this year. In order to meet the needs of its economy, which is growing at an annual rate of about 7%, China is building two new coal fired power stations every week.
Last year these power stations produced 375 tonnes of coal ash that is the main source of air pollution in China. Unfortunately, this air pollution does not stay in China. Jet stream winds carry it across the Pacific to the United States, and ultimately around the world.
Our global biodiversity index is bad, and is getting worse, according to a report issued last week by the World Wildlife Fund.
Scott: What did the report say?
It said we are using the earth’s natural resources faster than we can replenish them. As the Director of Conservation Science at WWF wrote:
“We’re emptying the fridge, we’re not really taking care of the lawn, we’re not weeding the flower beds and we’re certainly not taking out the garbage. Humanity is essentially in debt to Mother Earth.”
The world’s biodiversity is down 30 percent since the 1970s, according to this report, And unless humanity can find a way to change this, the picture will get even bleaker. As of 2008, the most recent year for which data is available, humans were outstripping Earth’s biocapacity by 50 percent.
Biocapacity is the amount of renewable resources, land, and waste absorption (such as sinks for carbon dioxide) that the Earth can provide. In other words, it takes the planet one and a half years to restore what humanity burns through in a year.
Scott: So what does this mean?
It means that that we cannot keep plundering these resources at the present rate, because by doing so, we are actually threatening other life forms on the planet. All of this resource use is taking a toll.
The Living Planet report issued by the World Wildlife Fund also tracks biodiversity and species populations across the globe. This year’s report details a startling loss of biodiversity around the world: They reported a 30 percent decrease in biodiversity on average, meaning a major decline in the number of different species of plants, animals and other organisms.
Temperate species are doing relatively well, but tropical species have declined by 60 percent since the 1970s. Freshwater tropical species are the hardest-hit, having declined by 70 percent in that same time period.
Scott: Did the report have anything to say about climate change?
No Scott, they were not focusing on that. But everyone must surely be aware that our weather is changing, and for the worse. You have only to watch the daily news to see examples of extreme weather all over the planet.
Again let me quote the facts, this time taken from National Geographic’s website.
Average temperatures around the world have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (or 0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880. This rate of warming is increasing. The last two decades of the 20th Century were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia.
And the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the warmest since 1850. The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average.
Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the loss of sea-ice.
Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana’s Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, compared to 150 back in 1910. Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching – or die-off in response to stress – ever recorded in 1998.
Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise. An increase in the number of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, tornadoes, heat waves and hurricanes are also attributed to climate change by many scientists.
Scott: What about things like drought?
The Journal “Nature” recently reported that severe drought is the most pressing problem caused by climate change.
They consider that the challenge of feeding some 9 billion people by mid century, in the face of a rapidly worsening climate, is the biggest challenge that the human race has ever had to face.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research reported that their studies showed widespread drying over Africa, Eastern and Southern Asia, as well as other areas over the last 60 years, and that most of this drying is due to recent warming.
Severe drought has afflicted numerous regions around the world in recent years, especially places like the American South West, Mexico, Argentina and Peru in the Western hemisphere, and places like Portugal, Syria, Australia, India and China in the East.
Richard Leakey, the world renowned paleoanthropologist from Kenya, who has dedicated his life to unearthing the origins of mankind through the study of ancient fossils, has this to say about climate change.
“If you look at the fossil record, the thing that strikes you is that extinction is the most common phenomena. Extinction is always driven by environmental change, and environmental change is always driven by climate change.”
In a recent interview, Leakey said he is less optimistic about the future. “We may be on the cusp of some very real disasters that have nothing to do with whether the elephant survives, or a cheetah survives, but if we survive.”
Scott: So what is the world doing about all this?
Well that’s the key question Scott. The difficulty is that the world is far from united on the subject of climate change, and every country is pretty much left to deal with these problems on their own.
We need to remember that there are now 225 different countries that are now recognized by the United Nations. Each of these countries has a mixture of cultures with a host of differing languages, customs, ideological and religious beliefs.
The task of dealing with these challenges has been made even more difficult because the Political systems of many of these countries are themselves in chaos. Again, anyone watching the news must surely be aware of this by now.
And even the United Nations is unable to get different countries to agree on the cause of these problems, let alone on their solutions.
So Scott, based on the facts I have just given, even the most sceptical observer must surely realize that humanity is in a perilous position. How long will it be before we are all plunged into disaster?
The prophets predict that a global disaster is coming. And it is coming soon. Exactly what it is that is coming is described in the pages of my book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. But I will have more to say about this in my next Podcast, which will be titled “The Doomsday Prophecies”.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be titled “The Doomsday Prophecies”.
