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.
Trump administration rejects new protections for iconic Alaska tree. 1,500 miles of coastline. 75 other species declined.
By Yereth Rosen Reuters•October 5, 2019
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – An iconic Alaska tree that is dying off from rising forest temperatures and diminished winter snowpack was deemed ineligible by U.S. wildlife officials on Friday for special protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
The Trump administration, though acknowledging that climate change is a factor in the decline of the yellow-cedar, rejected a petition to list the tree as a threatened species under the landmark environmental law.
The trees, which can grow to be more than 1,000 years old, are mostly found in the coastal temperate rain forests of southeastern Alaska and British Columbia, though some stands occur as far south as northern California.
Environmentalists seeking the threatened species listing were trying to secure new safeguards for the trees in Alaska, where a long-running die-off extending across more than 1,500 square miles is concentrated.
A 2016 University of Alaska-led study found at least 70% of the trees had been lost in the hardest-hit areas.
Scientists blame the die-off on human-caused climate change, stemming from rising levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere.
Warmer-then-normal temperatures have converted much of winter’s precipitation from snow to rain in southeastern Alaska, ironically exposing yellow-cedar’s shallow roots to freeze damage from soil less insulated by snowpack, scientists say.
But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has jurisdiction over Endangered Species Act protections for plants as well as animals, determined that the die-off is not widespread enough to justify a threatened listing.
The yellow-cedar decline likely peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, and the current status of the die-off affects only 6% of the species’ range, the Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement. “Therefore, it is not having population level effects on the species,” the service said.
Larry Edwards of Alaska Rainforest Defenders said the decision misses the long-term picture.
“It’s not just the concern about the present but looking ahead, as the climate continues to warm,” Edwards said.
The die-off has become an obvious part of the landscape.
“You see stands of dead stems on the mountainsides,” said Edwards, who lives in Sitka. “If you go up and look, those stems are yellow-cedar.”
The yellow-cedar, actually a type of cypress and not a cedar, is prized for its high-value timber and its significance to indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest.
Denial of the yellow-cedar listing proposal comes as the Trump administration is seeking to expand logging in southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest and to revise Endangered Species Act rules in a way that environmentalists say will weaken protections under the law.
The yellow-cedars could benefit instead from selective logging that thins the forest, planting of seedlings and development of a new browse-resistant strain “that would make seedlings less palatable to deer,” the Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement.
The yellow-cedar was one of a dozen imperiled plants and animals for whom Endangered Species Act petitions were denied on Friday, including the Berry Cave salamander in eastern Tennessee, the Panamint alligator lizard in California and the Southern hognose snake in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida.
The Trump administration has now declined protection for almost 75 species and granted safeguards to 18, the fewest of any president at this point in an administration, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.