There has been a serious debate going on this subject for quite a few years all over the world. People say that all the popular religions indicate the end of the world on this day.
They even say that Nostradamus had given a similar prediction. They also claim the Mayan’s calendar ends on this day.
They give so many reasons for the end of the world. It could be the result of the third world war. It could be the result of drastic changes in the solar system. It could also be the result of huge natural calamities.
It is also said that the earth’s magnetic field is changing to a great extent and so on and on. They also say that there is a serious threat to earth by some comets and asteroids that are fast approaching towards the earth.
The earth has been surviving for millions and millions of years. It had experienced so many disasters in the past but never failed in its survival. Of course, there have been many earth faults and notable changes in the global phenomenon.
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Will Earth Die a “Natural” Death?
According to recent research, the devastating, although not very urgent, news on the long-term status of planet Earth is now in. Clara Moskowitz, a staff writer for Space.com, recently reported that new calculations suggest the Earth will be sucked into the Sun and burned to a crisp in 7.6 billion years (2008). The new “findings” come from work done by Robert Smith, former professor at the University of Sussex, in association with astronomer Klaus-Peter Schroeder.
Smith warned that while 7.6 billion years might seem like too far in the distant future to cause concern, things would get deadly several billions of years before that. He proposed that in about one billion years the Earth will be so close to the Sun that there will be “no atmosphere, no water and a surface temperature of hundreds of degrees, way above the boiling point of water” (as quoted in Moskowitz).
The reason for Earth’s expected demise is a slowing down of the Earth’s orbit caused by gravitational forces from the Sun as well as forces from gas that the Sun expels. As bleak as Earth’s eventual destruction sounds, Smith is still upbeat. Moskowitz reported: “Some scientists have proposed a scheme for down the road to use the gravity of a passing asteroid to budge Earth out of the way of the sun toward cooler territory, assuming there is life around at the time that is intelligent enough to engineer this solution” (2008). Concerning this bizarre solution, Smith commented that it sounds like science fiction, but “[i]f it is done right, that would just keep the Earth moving fast enough to keep it out of harm’s way. Maybe life could go on for as much as 7 billion years” (as quoted in Moskowitz).
The problem with all this doomsday talk is that the biggest factor in the equation is left out—God. Humans have become so conceited and filled with a false sense of importance that some actually think we not can only predict our planet’s ultimate destruction, but also postpone it if there are still some intelligent scientists (like present ones) who are around when the time comes.
The fallacy of this line of thinking was pointed out almost 2,000 years ago by the inspired apostle Peter. In his second epistle, Peter discussed scoffers who would say: “Where is the promise of His [Jesus’—KB] coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). Notice the uniformitarian assumption of Peter’s scoffers. They assume that all things continue as they are now and will continue that way.
Apply that to Smith’s research. Since the Earth’s orbit is slowing down slightly at the present, he assumes that it will continue to do so for the next 7.6 billion years. But Peter reminds the scoffers that they are willfully forgetting something very important, “that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water” (2 Peter 3:5-6). The key factor in the world’s creation, preservation, and destruction is not ongoing, current natural processes, but the “word of God” that created the world and destroyed life on the Earth in the Flood of Noah. Peter concludes his thoughts by saying: “But the heavens and the earth which now exist are kept in store by the same word, reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7).
When the Lord enacts His plan to destroy the physical Universe, including our planet Earth, then it will be destroyed, not before (see Butt, 2003). All uniformitarian theories about Earth’s eventual demise are vain mental gymnastics. Instead of looking 7.6 billion years into the future, we all should realize that the destruction of this physical Universe will come as a thief in the night (at any time). “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness” (2 Peter 3:11)?
REFERENCES
Butt, Kyle (2003), “What Will Happen When Jesus Comes Again?,” [On-line], URL: http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2311.
Moskowitz, Clara (2008), “Earth’s Final Sunset Predicted,” Science.com, [On-line], URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080226/sc_space/earthsfinalsunset predicted;_ylt=AtenKy4HBtxHEO3FFWp5w.kiANEA.
Read more ...RAin water Harvesting
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The Northeastern hill ranges stretch over six Indian states Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya, extending over Bangladesh and northern Myanmar, touching the southern slopes of the Brahmaputra valley and the northern, eastern and southern slopes of the Barak valley. The Meghalaya plateau covers the entire state of Meghalaya and the Karbi hills of Assam. .
The climate and rainfall of the area varies considerably across the region. Encircled by hills and plateaus, rainfall varies even more than temperatures. The average annual rainfall reaches a peak of 13,390 mm in the Cherrapunji-Mawsynram region. But areas that fall in the rainshadow region of the Meghalaya plateau need irrigation. While the northern slopes of the Brahmaputra valley receive an annual average rainfall of 2,500 mm, the area south of the valley and the northern part of Meghalaya receive an annual rainfall of about 2,000 mm.
Distribution of the population in the Northeast is also very uneven. Within the plains there are pockets of very high population density, such as the Manipur plains (400 persons/sq km) and the Nowgong plains (302 persons/sq km). The vast hill tracts, however, have a low population density.
The water resources potential of the region is the largest in the entire country. Given its heavy rainfall, it also has abundant groundwater resources. But only a small part of the region has been studied to estimate the groundwater potential. The maximum scope for development of groundwater exists in Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh. The available surface water resources have hardly been tapped because of the rugged nature of the terrain. Hence, cultivation in the region is largely rainfed and jhum cultivation (shifting cultivation) has been widely adopted.2
Nonetheless, there are documented instances of some indigenous rainwater harvesting systems used for cultivation, of which some are ingenious. Settled agriculture is practised in the form of irrigated terrace cultivation in parts of Nagaland and a few villages of Meghalaya. Channels are dug to irrigate these fields. The other chief indigenous source of irrigation is the bamboo irrigation system found in parts of Meghalaya, and in some villages in the Mokokchung district of Nagaland Read more ...
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