Category: News

I came across an interested video clip on YouTube recently that I found quite entertaining.  My wife didn’t think so and I know there are those of you who after watching this video will also question how I could enjoy watching such events.  Nevertheless, I’ve always enjoyed seeing Hollywood’s depictions of end-times scenarios.  I get a kick out of seeing just how overwhelmingly devastating they can create each scene with the aid of today’s super CG effects.  It really is quite amazing and realistic.

This video has taken clips from twelve such movies and put them together.  There’s very little voice-over during the video, but the first sentence you’ll hear is what I would classify as a very accurate statement.  Something I struggle with constantly and wish I had the answer to.  A young girl is heard saying, “Everyone was warned, but no one listened.  A rise in temperature, ocean patterns changed and ice caps melted.  They called it extreme weather.  They didn’t know what extreme was.  In the year 2019, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts unleashed a wave of destruction upon our planet.”

First of all, based on many of these clips, living near a coastline doesn’t appear to be the safest place to reside.  That solar flare deal didn’t look too appealing as well.  Not sure where you could find safely in a situation like that!

But back to the underlying reason I wanted to share this video.  I believe that such movies actually have the opposite effect you may think on the surface.  One might think that the viewers would be incentivized to evaluate their preparedness levels and possibly commit to doing better to be prepared to confront and mitigate the effects of such devastations.

I believe it does just the opposite.  I believe such movies, in spite of their entertainment value, have a tendency to marginalize such potential events.  In the movies, these events are depicted on such a grandiose scale that it becomes very easy for viewers to believe such events will never really happen – it’s just the movies.  These events appear so over-the-top on the reality scale that’s it’s somewhat like old time cartoons where one character is constantly being shot, blown up, smashed or thrown over a cliff just to reappear in the next scene as if nothing ever happened.

That’s the underlining problem – these films foster the belief that such things will never really happen.

So such movies simply turn potential future events into a wild roller coaster ride that temporarily scare and excite the riders.  Then it is all quickly forgotten as other interesting and distracting activities present themselves. Nevertheless, I hope Hollywood keeps making such films – I really enjoy them!

Now let me be clear – I personally don’t believe that such major natural disasters will present themselves in the manner depicted in these films.  If they did, there would be basically no need to prepare as everyone would be totally wiped out.  I do believe however, the frequency and magnitude of earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and droughts will increase.

It’s been concerning to watch the increase of wildfires this summer.  I can’t remember a time when there’s been so many large and devastating wildfires in the western states.  California alone has had 18 such wildfires with many deaths of fire fighters reported along with millions of dollars of property damage and loss.

I believe such events will become more and more prevalent.  Even though I don’t believe California will fall off into the Pacific Ocean as a result of a major earthquake, I do believe earthquakes will present themselves is a fashion that could cause power, gas and water disruption for many weeks or months.  The same could happen with hurricanes and tornadoes as well.

What if the water lines had been broken or the water supply contaminated, how would you survive?

Just think about what it might be like if you couldn’t flush your toilet for a month.  What would you do?

Once the shelves have been cleaned out at the local grocery store, where are you going to go to feed your family?

If there’s a medical emergency and calling 911 or heading to the hospital isn’t an option, are you prepared to provide the medical care needed?

I’ve talked with people who have the attitude of “just let me die” or put the target on the roof of my house so if bombs are dropped, one will fall directly on me and I won’t have to deal with the aftermath.  I do believe there are those who are serious about choosing death over tribulation.  But when it comes right down to it, I also believe the overwhelming desire to survive will trump such feelings.  That’s why water-boarding is so effective.  People will do anything to avoid the feeling of drowning.

The facts are that most of us will survive the initial effects of natural disasters or other catastrophic events.  The question of survival really hangs on how long after the event we will survive.  When food, water, shelter and medical supplies are limited in supply or are used up in the first few weeks – then what?

Military experts in the field of a potential EMP attack (electromagnetic pulse caused by a nuclear explosion at high altitudes) have calculated that within one year after the national grid goes down, 80% of the U.S. population would have perished, primarily due to starvation.  It wasn’t the EMP that killed them, it was being unprepared for the after-effects.

So it will be for the majority of natural disasters, wars, conflicts and collapse scenarios – the events themselves will indeed cause much damage and some deaths but it’s the weeks and months thereafter that will prove far more catastrophic in deaths and disease due to basic unpreparedness.

So please, enjoy Hollywood’s end-of-the-world movies but view them as entertainment, not accurate predictions of how things will unfold in the last days.  Yes, things will continue to get worse and more problematic as it relates to our day to day lives.  It may unfold like the old fable of how to boil a frog.  If you put the frog in cool water to keep him from jumping out and slowly turn up the temperature, eventually the frog will get cooked, simply because he becomes comfortable and complacent with his surroundings until it’s too late.

Let’s not be like the frog, let’s allow ourselves to be uncomfortable enough to take action now before such action is no longer an option.  Remember the statement, “Everyone was warned but no one listened.”  Let’s both listen and then act.