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.

Conservationists urge Mexico trade sanctions over near-extinct porpoise. Pestilence of earth’s biodiversity.

Nina LARSON. AFP•August 23, 2019

Geneva (AFP) – Conservationists are urging countries to slap trade sanctions on Mexico over its failure to rein in illegal fishing that could doom the vaquita marina porpoise to extinction within months.

With only around 10 vaquita believed to remain in their sole habitat off northwestern Mexico, environmentalists insist only “drastic measures” can rescue the world’s smallest porpoise from disappearing altogether.

They are appealing to countries attending the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Geneva to wield the treaty’s harshest sanction in a bid to force Mexico to ensure the vaquita’s survival.

“The parties should sanction Mexico and put a ban on trade of CITES-listed species from Mexico until they get the situation under control,” Zak Smith, Director of International Wildlife Conservation for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), told AFP.

CITES, which regulates trade in more than 35,000 species of plants and animals, has the power to sanction countries that break the rules or fail to rein in illegal trade in species protected under the treaty.

Known as “the panda of the sea” for the distinctive black circles around its eyes, the vaquita has been decimated by gillnets used in the Gulf of California to fish for another endangered species, the totoaba fish.

– ‘Cocaine of the Sea’ –

The totoaba’s swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China and can fetch up to $20,000 on the black market.

The lucrative market for the swim bladders has turned the Gulf of California into a battleground, as armed poachers use drug cartel-like tactics to get hold of the “cocaine of the sea”.

Policymakers from more than 180 countries attending the 12-day CITES meeting are due to discuss the plight of the vaquita on Monday and could — in theory — heed environmentalists’ calls for sanctions, although such a move is unlikely.

Environmentalists say they hope the parties will at least warn Mexico that sanctions will be on the table if it does not show progress in safeguarding the vaquita.

“If the CITES parties don’t respond at this meeting and take drastic and dramatic action to compel Mexico to do more… this could be the meeting where the final nail is put into the vaquita coffin,” said DJ Schubert, a wildlife biologist with the Animal Wildlife Institute.

Mexico, meanwhile, is adamant that it is doing everything possible to save the vaquita, and should not be sanctioned.

“I don’t believe that a simple solution like penalising Mexico will serve the vaquita,” Hesiquio Benitez Diaz, the country’s Director-General of International Cooperation and Implementation, told an event last week on the sidelines of the CITES meeting.

In 2015 Mexico’s government declared a ban on fishing in a 1,300 square kilometre (500 square mile) area off the coast of San Felipe, but has been unable to rein in the rampant illegal fishing in the area.

“The situation of organised crime that is operating in the region goes beyond the capacity of many governments,” Diaz said, stressing that “these people are better armed than our authorities.”

However environmentalists insist Mexico could police the small area where the vaquita live if it were willing to put in the resources.

The region “is smaller than the size of the city of Los Angeles,” Smith said.

– ‘Tragedy’ –

Mexico, meanwhile, is calling for a “more creative” approach.

It has asked for CITES approval to set up totoaba fish farms, which it maintains would satisfy the demand for swim bladder and drive down the price, thereby removing the incentive for poachers.

Critics warn that opening a legal market for captively-bred totoaba would provide an opportunity for laundering illegally poached totoaba.

And even if the plan worked, they say it would not help in the short term, since the demand is for large swim bladders, from large fish, which would take years to breed.

“By that time, it would be too late to save the vaquita,” Alejandro Olivera, who works in Mexico for the Center for Biological Diversity, told AFP.

Mexico has also made other “creative” attempts to save the vaquita porpoise. In 2017, it launched a plan to round up all remaining vaquitas and relocate them to a protected area.

But the project was aborted when one of the first captured vaquitas died.

Now, Olivera said, scientists are trying to gather vaquita DNA samples “so that in the future, we can bring them back.”

If the vaquita does become extinct, it would be the first species listed under CITES highest-priority Appendix I to suffer that fate since the treaty took effect four decades ago.

“It would be a tragedy,” Smith said.

“If we can’t save the vaquita, what does it say about all of our efforts to save wildlife?”