Blog note. Jesus indicated
that ‘fearful sights’ (various natural disasters) would occur leading up to the
time known as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation (a combined seven year
period of great destruction on earth). Although these types of things have
occurred in the past for centuries and thousands of years, they could be
identified as the ‘season of the times’ due to the ferociousness of these
events. They would be occurring in greater intensity, severity, frequency,
size, duration, scope … just like the pains that a woman experiences in labor
the farther along she is in the labor process. We are in the ‘season of the
times’ that comes just before the seven (7) year Tribulation/Great Tribulation
period
… And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and
famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be
from heaven. (Luke 21:11).
… And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and
in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea
and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)
… Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after
those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be
shaken; (Luke 21:26)
… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall
come. (2 Timothy 3:1)
Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for
as the age of grace comes to a close. These verses are several of many such
prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded
history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a
large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes,
hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in
unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records
everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This
list can go on. Most studied Eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and
massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this
Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are
familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like
a woman having labor pains, growing in intensity, frequency, size and duration.
Arctic sea ice (what’s remaining) loaded with microplastics
Marlowe HOOD. AFP•August 16, 2019
Paris (AFP) – At first glance, it looks like hard candy laced with flecks of fake fruit, or a third grader’s art project confected from recycled debris.
In reality, it’s a sliver of Arctic Ocean sea ice riddled with microplastics, extracted by scientists from deep inside an ice block that likely drifted southward past Greenland into Canada’s increasingly navigable Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“We didn’t expect this amount of plastic, we were shocked,” said University of Rhode Island ice expert Alessandra D’Angelo, one of a dozen scientists collecting and analysing data during an 18-day expedition aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden.
“There is so much of it, and of every kind — beads, filaments, nylons,” she told AFP from Greenland, days after completing the voyage.
Plastic pollution was not a primary focus of the Northwest Passage Project, funded by the US National Science Foundation and Heising-Simons Foundation.
Led by oceanographer Brice Loose, the multi-year mission is investigating how global warming might transform the biochemistry and ecosystems of the expansive Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
– ‘Punch to the stomach’ –
One key question is whether the receding ice pack and influx of fresh water will boost the release into the atmosphere of methane, a greenhouse gas 30 times more potent that CO2.
The Arctic region has warmed twice as quickly as the global average, some two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Average Arctic sea ice extent set a record low for July, nearly 20 percent below the 1981-2010 average, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported on Thursday.
But plastics has inserted itself onto the research agenda all the same.
“The ubiquity of plastic, for us it was kind of a punch to the stomach,” Loose said.
“Just to see what looked like a normal ice core in such a pristine environment chock full of this completely foreign material.”
A study published Thursday in Science Advances concluded that a large quantity of microplastic fragments and fibres are transported by winds into the Arctic region, and then hitch a ride Earthward in snowflakes.
At the same time, several million tonnes of plastics find their way each year directly into oceans, where waves and the Sun break them down into microscopic bits over time.
– ‘Acts like a sieve’ –
For the samples collected by Loose’s team — near the hamlet of Resolute — the low salinity and thickness of the ice left no doubt that it was more than a year old, and had originated in the northern Arctic Ocean.
The concentration of plastic bits in the ice was far higher than in surrounding water.
“As water freezes it forms crystals,” explained Jacob Strock, another member of the team from the University of Rhode Island.
“Water passes through these crystals as they form,” he told AFP. “The ice acts like a sieve, filtering out particles in the water.”
Tiny plants and animals, called plankton, also get trapped in the ice. Some plankton ingest the plastic bits, which then work their way up the ocean food chain.
Plastic particles have recently been found inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean, called the Mariana Trench, and blanketing the most pristine snows in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.
In the last two decades, the world has produced as much plastic as during the rest of history, and the industry is set to grow by four percent a year until 2025, according to a recent report by Grand View Research.