Fly me to the Moon

We live in momentous times. Only one year short of 2012, a year heralded by many religions as the 'End of Days' or at least the end of life as we know it.

A few years ago, I took a liking to Geography, not only because we were learning about plate tectonics, which I find extremely interesting, but because I realized that there were extraordinary things happening all around us. Things that might be some sort of prelude of what's to come.

Disaster movies always know how to draw a crowd (with the exception being Disaster Movie itself, which is a spoof of course) and maybe they attract that much attention because we secretly want to see this world shake up and break down? But why are we so gung-ho on seeing this world perish when all around us efforts are being made to ensure this planet's survival? Fuel alternatives, green energy, solar power, recycling, call it whatever you like, but there definitely is a fenomenal interest in keeping this little blue gem shining as it once has.

By way of a link posted by G on Facebook, I came across this site that maps freak occurences in the weather and in earth's activities. Now I know that there are hundreds if not more of these sites circulating the web and I would've looked at them all, but since this one seemed to fulfill my immediate quest for these worldwide catastrophes, I saw no reason as to why I should look any further.

In 2010, nearly 300.000 people were killed by natural disasters. The American heartland has experienced a record freezing point; minus forty degrees Celsius. 2010 has been the hottest year to date. Sixty-six earthquakes were registered in Belgium in 2010. A new supervolcano, the Campi Flegrei, threatens to lay waste to all of Europe upon eruption. Haiti sees itself confronted with a cholera epidemic, with infected numbers rising to 400.000 by 2011. The list goes on and on.

Are we on the fast lane to global extinction? Or is Mother Nature just experiencing one hell of a vicious period? And will these disasters worsen or will this rock settle back into equilibrium?

I for one am a firm believer in 21.12.2012 (judge me however you like) and so I believe this situation can only get worse, although I remain to be optimistic. I mean, surely we can't all die on that faithful Friday? Surely this world won't meet its on a Friday night? Can this so-called God of ours be that cruel and filled with irony? I suppose we'll have our answer within less than two years now, won't we? And if by then, we're all still here, in one place, without floods, without quakes, without massive tectonic displacement, we'll be quite alright and we can safely say we can live to see another day. And if not, well, there's always the Moon we can try out?