Fears of an early end

The world has been increasingly destabilising in the last few decades. A number of natural disasters, wars, economic and financial disasters have hit our planet like the tsunami in 2004, cyclone Nargis in 2008 and the devastating earthquakes in Sichuan and Pakistan earlier. The new decade has also started with indications of a similar trend like the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, record-breaking winter storms in Europe and North America and the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland.
Metrolife finds out what Bangaloreans think about these incidents and whether Mother Nature is finally taking back what’s hers. 

“Earth has been very kind to us in every way till now, but these disasters are a kind of warning that it’s time to clean up our act,” says Manish, a student.

There have been prophecies before too. From the ‘Third World War’ in 2000 to the ‘War of Gods’ in 2012, each of these dates have predicted the ultimate demise of mankind.

“People say that Mumbai will be completely submerged by 2020, which may even come true but still I don’t see the world ending soon,” says Amit, a professional.
Even religious prophecies in the Bible speaks of the world coming to an end, otherwise known as the Armageddon.

“It’s just a conspiracy to put fear into mankind and to create chaos like all conspiracies try to do. There has certainly been some changes but that in no way will lead to the extinction of living beings,” says Sachin, a student.

But in the face of the increased natural disasters in the past decades, which only seem to increase every year, do people think any differently?

“Seeing the recent trends, I feel that eventually the world will end through these natural disasters. The situation will worsen but maybe not during our lifetime,” says Abhinav, a professional.

“I think it was predicted by the Mayan civilisations that the world will end on December 21, 2012 and even the scientists are saying that that it’s going to happen by global warming. So the world is definitely going to end, but maybe not so soon,” says Sanjana, a student.

In spite of this, the present generation prefers to concentrate on correcting the mistakes instead of fretting about the future.

“I believe if calamities are bound to happen, they will happen. But let us take it on ourselves to make this earth a better place by taking small steps towards turning it into a eco-friendly environment,” says Manish.

“Earth has gone through far worse conditions, right from the start, but it does put a threat to human existence. Still we need to respect the place we live in,” says Kaushik, a professional.