NASA’s James Hansen wrote, “The Coming Climate Catastrophe.” Jesus in Revelation forewarned the worst of global warming. Global collapse is coming.
Today, scientists around the world are sounding terrified predictions of coming catastrophe that echo Revelation’s warnings that global warming– “fierce heat“–is on the horizon. NASA’s climate scientist James Hansen informed a U.S. Congressional hearing on June 23, 1988 that greenhouse gas emissions rising in our skies were altering earth’s climate.[1] God says the earth is going to get hot. Revelation is global. “Men scorched with fierce heat” will smother our planet in rising temperatures.[2] Global warming’s worst-case scenario predicted by scientists and prophesied by Scripture is coming by the end of this century.
The Fourth Trumpet
Rev 8:12 The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.
Rev 8:7 And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
The Fourth Bowl
Rev 16:8-9 The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.
In consideration of the literal (descriptive) view of the fourth trumpet, it should be noted that many things could darken the sky: extreme storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanic ash, chemicals, smoke, smog, etc. With regard to the fourth bowl, there are many consequences and ramifications of “fierce heat”: less snowpack, melting glaciers, decreased mountain runoff harming summer crops across expansive plains feeding millions of people on different continents, increased pumping of aquifers, water shortages, extreme weather events augmenting in intensity and frequency, air pollution, and darkening skies. All of these are the I.P.C.C.’s (the International Panel on Climate Change composed of the largest group of scientists from major countries around the world producing regular reports on climate change for all the nations) “business as usual” worst-case scenario of climate change; the path we are still on.
The fourth trumpet and the fourth bowl spiral into a vicious cycle; from black skies to hot skies and back again even worse. This is a complicated meteorological system that interacts with the systems of the first three trumpets and first three bowls; land, ocean, and terrestrial waters all tied to the atmosphere–one huge system. For example, rising atmospheric greenhouse gases increases oceanic and atmospheric temperatures, increasing the atmospheric energy and holding capacity of water vapor producing bigger clouds, darker skies, stronger storms, wider floods, longer droughts, higher heat waves, and greater damage to lands.
Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Before the industrial revolution beginning in 1750, carbon dioxide (CO2) was below 280 ppm (parts per million). From the industrial revolution beginning in the 1750s to 2019, atmospheric CO2 has steadily risen to 416.8 ppm by June 2020. According to NASA’s Charles Miller who works on atmospheric greenhouse gases, CO2 amounts are increasing 2.75 ppm annually.[3] The year 2018 hit 2.7% growth in global emissions.[4] This is “business-as-usual” with no indication of slowing down. The world pours 40 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year.
The most famous curve in history–the Keeling Curve–started in 1958 by Charles Keeling taking daily CO2 measurements on Mount Mauna Loa in Hawaii has continued to date by the University of California at San Diego with Scripps Oceanographic Institute. It shows the steady, unbroken rise of CO2 in earth’s atmosphere.[5]
As of January 18, 2017, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) revealed that 2016 was the warmest year on record globally since modern record began in 1880.[6] Then on January 18, 2018, 2017 became the warmest year globally. The year 2018 was the 4th hottest year on record.[7] Nine of the 10 warmest years globally have occurred since 2005. The last five years have been the five hottest years recorded.[8]
NASA reported that 2010 through 2019 was the hottest decade ever recorded. The World Meteorological Organization ranked 2019 second warmest for earth (2016 still holds first place.)[9]
In graphs, the rising slope of global temperature is directly related to the rising slope of increasing greenhouse gases (especially CO2 and CH4) in the atmosphere.[10]
“The warmth last year factored into extreme weather around the globe that brought widespread death and destruction from hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and heat waves. ‘Temperatures over the planet as a whole continue the rapid warming trend we’ve seen over the past 40 years,” said NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt. “The five warmest years on record have taken place since 2010 with the past four years rising to the four warmest since 1880.'”[11] The planet’s average temperature has risen 2˚F (1.1˚C) in the past century, placing it consistently and significantly above the average global temperature (57˚F) for the twentieth century. “Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record occurring since 2001.”[12]
NASA’s measurements come from 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and data from Antarctic research stations. NOAA scientists use most of the same raw data with different methods to investigate earth’s polar regions.[13]
Most global winters are also warmer than usual, except in 2009, 2010, 2014, and 2015 when cold snaps swept across the northern U.S. due to Arctic wind currents breaking out of the polar vortex, an enormous air current circling the North Pole usually corralling cold air in the Arctic, but the vortex was destabilized from warmer temperatures in the Arctic circle.[14] Ironically, even the unusual cold snaps are caused by global warming.
On July 22, 2020 a major new comprehensive, international climate study concluded that the world is on course for doubling ppm of CO2 within 50 years. Doubling means 560 ppm compared to the preindustrial level of 280 ppm. Today’s steadily-growing level is 415 ppm with a high of 417ppm. Double ppm of atmospheric CO2 would raise earth’s global average temperature between 4.1° F to 8.1° F (1.5°C to 4.5°C). At that threshold, scientists say there will be “disruptive sea level rise, intolerable heat waves, and other extreme weather and permanent damage to ecosystems.” This study ruled out mild consequences and concluded that climate change is going to have severe global impacts. [14A]
The Consequences of a Warming Planet Included in the U.S. Government Report: Global Warming Causing Widespread Damage
By November 2018, the U.S. federal government released a 1,000-page report on climate change representing numerous federal agencies declaring that they were more certain than ever that climate change poses a severe threat to American’s health and pocketbooks, as well as the country’s infrastructure and natural resources. Coral reefs in the Caribbean, Hawaii, Florida and U.S. Pacific are experiencing severe bleaching events (due to heat). Wildfires are devouring ever-larger territories with longer fire seasons. Western mountain ranges are losing snowpack threatening water supplies in the valleys, especially during the summer growing season. Permafrost in Alaska’s Arctic is increasingly thawing (releasing more methane, a greenhouse gas stronger than carbon dioxide). By 2050, the country could experience 2.3 additional degrees of warming in the continental U.S. Key crops (corn, wheat, and soybeans) will suffer declining yields as temperatures rise during growing seasons. [15]
President Trump said later that he did not believe the report; he continues to support fossil fuel companies and roll back environmental regulations–actions that will fulfill Revelation’s prophecies of blanketing this planet in “fierce heat,” (Rev 16:8-9).
In 2017, the year that President Trump pulled out of the Paris accord and mocked global warming, the U.S. was slammed with extreme hurricanes, fires, and floods–after a drought that lasted more than a decade in various states.[16] “The country recorded 15 weather events costing $1 billion or more each through early October, one short of the record 16 in 2011, according to the federal government’s National Centers for Environmental Information in Asheville, North Carolina . . . (not including the recent wildfires in southern California).”[17] Killer hurricanes (Harvey, Irma, and Maria) and devastating wildfires in northern California tallied $210 billion in losses with $100 billion in insured damages, according to Mark Bove, a senior research scientist with Munich Reinsurance America in Princeton, New Jersey.[18]
At the beginning of the year, blessed rain briefly interrupted the drought in California producing bumper crops of grass and brush. When the rains stopped, high heat scorched foliage ripe for flames driven by high winds and low humidity burning county after county in central and southern California. The Thomas fire set a record as the largest ever in the state. “Prolonged drought and warming temperatures in California are not just extending the state’s wildfire season, they are increasing the evaporation rate of water,” Bove said. “This means that extreme wildfire conditions will return to California after a rain event more quickly today than in the past.”[19]
By April 2020, the biggest megadrought in over 1,200 years has been declared in the western U.S. covering California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Idaho. It began in 2000 and has continued to date. A megadrought is a severe dry period across a large area for many decades. The occasional wet period between parched years does not signal an end to a megadrought. This megadrought worsens conflicts between thirsty cities and struggling farmers (especially in fast-growing states), increases use of pumping water lowering aquafers, decreases food supply, and places ever-growing numbers of people in water stress.[20] The third trumpet and third bowl declare how people will suffer and eventually many will die because of the waters (perhaps desiccation, pollution, overuse, evaporation, or a combination made worse through global warming).
Retreating Ice
Ice never lies. If you want empirical evidence of Revelation’s coming fierce heat, look at ice.
In the winter of February 2018, scientists from the Danish Meteorological Institute reported that “although it is shrouded in the darkness of a 24-hour polar night, temperatures in the Arctic have soared well above freezing this week.”[21] Calculations from Cape Morris Jessup, the world’s northernmost land-based weather station, recorded February temperatures in eastern Greenland and the central Arctic were averaging about 15˚C (27˚F) warmer than seasonal norms. Robert Graham, climate scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute, explained Arctic warming as a combination of warm weather patterns coming into contact with retreating sea ice and rising, warmer sea levels. Shrinking ice (that used to reflect atmospheric heat and cool the air) with ever increasing exposure of dark water (holding heat and warming the air) allows warm southerly winds to travel further north; a vicious cycle that causes the Arctic to be one of the fastest warming places on earth.
While February should be the height of the sea ice season, NOAA’s head of Arctic research, Jeremy Mathis, told CNN that 2017 marked the first time that he and his group of researchers, sailing around on a Coast Guard icebreaker, discovered no ice in the seas off Alaska. Last year (2017) was the worst year for greatest loss in volume of sea ice until 2018. “Every winter we get a new record minimum,” Graham stated.[22] Ironically, since the polar vortex winds no longer tightly swirl around the North Pole, keeping the cold air at the top of the world, they drop further south chilling the northern continents. Jason Box, an American scientist and professor of glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, stated, “A new pattern that we think is part of climate change is where the normal so-called polar vortex that keeps the cold air bottled over the Arctic Ocean, that cold air is spilling out . . . . The pattern that we have seen over the last 10 years is that the Arctic Ocean has been warmer than normal, and Northern Eurasia is colder; we call it ‘cold continents warm Arctic.'”[23]
By June 21, 2020, CBS News announced unheard of temperatures were blasting Siberia north of the Arctic Circle with 100.4°F in the town of Verkhoyansk (32 degrees above the normal high temperature and possibly the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle). Due to the hot, dry conditions raging fires were having a field day visible for thousands of miles on Satellite images. Parts of Siberia have been way above normal since January. These temperatures were not expected with global warming until 2100. However, the chronic pattern of heat made 2019 the worst fire season on record for Arctic fires. Over the past four (4) decades, sea ice has decreased by 50%. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as any place else on earth; white ice used to reflect the heat, but as ice melted, dark waters absorbed and maintained the heat. This also means that permafrost is melting releasing huge quantities of methane (CH4), a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2). This feedback system ensures heat waves like these will become more frequent and intensify.[23A]
Of the 42,298 glaciers atop the Himalayan mountains, at the current melt rate, 40% will disappear by 2050 and the rest by 2100.[24] In Asia, over 500 million people obtain some of their drinking and irrigation water from Himalayan glaciers.[25] In South America, scientists calculate that most Andean glaciers will be gone by 2030. The vast Yukon Territory in Canada had 1,400 glaciers. Three hundred are gone. Canadian glaciers are losing about 4 billion tons of ice a year.[26]
In 2020, data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment calculated that Greenland lost an average of 286 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2016, while Antarctica lost 127 billion tons of ice per year during that time. During the last ten years, the rate of Antarctica ice mass loss has tripled. Satellites observe that glaciers are retreating all over the world, including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa.[26A]
Permafrost is ice in the ground that is permanent year around in the Arctic Circle. However, this ice began to melt in the summer decades ago. In June 2019, the Canadian Arctic reported 231,000 sq. mi. of melting permafrost from satellites showing thousands of melt ponds and sink holes (where ice has retreated) making the land look like Swiss cheese. The largest group of international scientists (IPCC) predicted this kind of change would start in 2090.[27] However, as noted above, the summer of 2020 had temperatures in the Arctic Circle over 100°F. They underestimated the rising global heat.
In this permafrost is methane (CH4), a greenhouse gas far stronger than carbon dioxide (CO2). With melting permafrost releasing stocks of carbon which microbes will convert into methane and melting ice in the oceans containing methane clathrates (plus biomass burning and energy emissions) scientists expect an increase in methane emissions into the atmosphere between 500 and 1,150 Gt per year (a gigaton is a billion tons) by the end of the century.[28] Given its heating capacity, methane could rightly be considered a pollutant since it is 23 times stronger than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. NOTE: This is a vicious feedback cycle. The warmer it gets, the more methane is released. The more methane that is released, the warmer it gets. Along with massive loss of forests through fires, loss of marine plankton through warming seas, loss of Arctic ice no longer reflecting heat, and a dozen other feedback cycles, this entire interactive global system could spiral out of control, cross a critical threshold, fall off the cliff (aka the hockey stick or enter a new nonlinear trend), and catapult earth into a new state of rapid disintegration with runaway global warming.
The skies are darkening both metaphorically and literally in many cities due to pollution, countries due to hurricanes or fires, and globally due to rising heat.
Today, the rise in earth’s temperature is melting as much as 857 billion tons of ice all over the planet per year.[29]
Revelation’s prophecies are heating up. “Men (will be) scorched with fierce heat.” Since many of the Christians I talk with still doubt the coming heat, look at the ice. If the ice is retreating, the heat is coming. The ice proves the earth is warming. Scientists unknowingly echo Jesus’ words in their discoveries. NASA’s James Hansen wrote in the title of his last book, “The Coming Climate Catastrophe.” Jesus in Revelation forewarned of the worst-case scenario of global warming (Rev 16:8-9). God inspired the Bible. God created the world. All truth is God’s truth. Both biblical prophecies and scientific predictions agree that our planet will heat up causing catastrophes so severe that the eventual collapse of civilization will result.
[1] James Hansen, “Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity,” (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009). Dr. Hansen is NASA’s best-known scientist for testifying before Congress in the 1980s about the coming danger of global warming. Photo of Dr. Hansen courtesy of Pixabay.com.
[2] Rev 16:9.
[3] http://climate.nasa.gov/400ppmquotes. Dr. Miller specializes in the remote sensing of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. C.f. https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/Miller. C.f. Keeling Curve, https://scripps.ucsd.edu.
[4] Brady Dennis & Chris Mooney, “The unmitigated growth of carbon emissions.” December 5, 2018. online The Washington Post. China’s carbon emissions grew 4.7%, the U.S.’s 2.5%, India’s 6.3%. Only the E.U. decreased by .7%. Thirty-seven (37) billion tons of CO2 was poured into our atmosphere in 2018.*
[5] https://scripps.ucsd.edu/graphs/mlo_full_record.png. C.f. https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127127417. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/05/13/climate-change-co-2-levels-hit-415.
[6] Doyle Rice, “Global warming roars on: Past four years have been Earth’s hottest on record,” USA TODAY, January 18:2018. “NOAA’s analysis does not include data from the Arctic, while NASA’s does,” according to scientist Deke Arndt. “The Arctic has been warming faster than any part of the world.” http://www.nasa.gov/press/
[7] Retrieved from https://www.noaa.gov/news/2018-was-the-4th-hottest-year-on-record-for-globe/
[8] Ibid. Data up to February 6, 2019. C.f. https://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics/the-10-hottest global-years-on-record/
[9] Retrieved from https://www.noaa.gov>news>2019-was-the-second-hottest-year-on-record/
[10] Retrieved from NASA, “Global Warming.” Https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/GlobalWarming/page2.php.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Sean Potter, “NASA, NOAA Data Show 2016 warmest year on record globally,” released January 18, 2017. sean.potter@nasa.gov.
[13] Rice.
[14] Ibid. The whirlpool of frigid air, known as the “polar vortex,” is usually strong enough to keep cold air swirling around the north pole. But global warming, which hits harder in polar regions, weakened this vortex and large currents of cold air leaked out hitting North America.
[14A] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/weather/major-new-dlimate-study-rules-out-less-severe-global-warming-scenarios/ C.f. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/07/22/climate-sensitivity-co2/
[15] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/major-trump-administration-climate-report-says-damages-are-‘intensifying-across-the-country’/as-BBQ1DIZ?ocid-spartandhp.
[16] Madeline Scheinost and Taylor Ward, “Hurricane season 2018 is forecast to be above average,” April 5, 2018. https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/
[[17] Bloomberg, “‘A Disproportionate His.’ 2017’s Weather Disasters Are Among the Worst in U.S. History,” TIME, December 28, 2017.
[8] Ibid.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Andrew Freedman and Darryl Fears, “The western U.S. is locked in the grips of the first human-caused megadrought, study finds.” Retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/the-western-us-is-locked-in-th-grips-of-the-first-human-caused-megadrought-study-finds/
[21] Kara Fox and Brandon Miller, “Arctic temperatures surge in the dead of winter,” CNN, February 27, 2018. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/msn/arctic-temperatures-surge-in-the-dead-of-winter/
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid.
[23A] Jeff Berardelli, CBS News, “Arctic records its hottest temperature ever.” Retrieved on June 21, 2020 at https://www.msn.com/en-us-weather-topstories-arctic-records-its-hottest-temperature-ever/
[24] Mark Hertsgaard, Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Hartcourt, 2012) 57. NASA’s Jim Hansen warns of the loss of most Himalayan glaciers this century. Another NASA scientist, Yao Tandong estimates 40% will be gone by 2050.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Kathryn Hansen, NASA’s Earth Observatory, “Alaska’s biggest (ice) losers are inland,” July 7, 2015. climate.nasa.gov/news/2305/alaskas-biggest-ice-losers-are-inland/
[26A] Earth Science Communications Team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Retrieved from https://climate.nasa.gov/shrinking-ice-sheets/ and https://climate.nasa.gov/glacial-retreat/ last updated: June 18, 2020.
[27] Grant Currin, “Arctic Permafrost Is Going Through a Rapid Meltdown–70 Years Early,” June 13, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/65709-artic-permafrost-melts-decades-early.html.
[28] Y. H. Chen and R. G. Prinn (2006), “Estimation of atmospheric methane emissions between 1996 and 2001 using a three-dimensional global chemical transport model,” Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 111: D10307 1-25. D. J. Wuebbles and K. Hayhoe (2002), “Atmospheric methane and global change,” Earth-Science Reviews 57: 177-210.
[29] Hansen, “Earth’s Energy Imbalance and Implications,” (2011) 13435.
[30] Image: Earth’s Atmosphere at Night by NASA
[31] Images in order of appearance: Earth’s Atmosphere by NASA; Melting Glacier by Adam Derewecki from Pixabay; Orange Sky Pollution by Chris LeBoutillier from Pixabay; Two Polar Bears by Gerhard G. from Pixabay; Arctic Ice Melting in 1984 and 2016 by NASA.
[32] Photo of Dr. James Hansen. Wikimedia Commons free images. Simple English Wikimedia; “James Hansen.”