Jun 16
The Cost of Extreme Weather
Weather, by its very nature, is subject to change day by day, hour by hour.
Some years we have floods and other years we experience drought.
The extreme variance that we’ve seen in the first half of 2008 is far beyond
anything that could be called the normal fluctuation of weather patterns.
A couple of weeks ago, I reported that we were on course to beat the record for the
largest number of tornadoes in a single season, which currently stands at 1,817 set in 2004. The pace of tornadic storms has not let up. Since my last report, we have added 220 tornadoes to the total.
The past week has been very active for the Omaha area. On the 8th of June, the most destructive tornado in the past 32 years struck just down the road from me in the Millard section. Two tornadoes actually traveled through southern Omaha, and they struck at a very unusual hour of 2:30 AM on Sunday morning.
Three days later, twisters returned to the area. The tornado sirens went off fives time here in western Omaha. Here is a link to a couple pictures I took of the first storm. On siren #4, I decided to head for the basement as a low level of circulation headed over my house. I took these two photos of one cell before heading for shelter: Pic 1,
Pic 2.
No twister touched down in the city, but they did strike all around the metro area. One deadly twister struck 40 miles to the north at the Little Sioux Scout Ranch. Four young campers lost their lives in that storm. During that same night of deadly weather, the central part of Kansas was hit hard by tornadoes. Much of the small town of Chapman was destroyed, and there was extensive damage on the Kansas State University campus.
This year is also becoming noted for record floods. The year 2008 is looking like a repeat of the Great Flood of 1993. Many of the records set during that mammoth flood are being broken this time around. There have been major flooding events in Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Iowa.
A large portion of the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa was submerged under record floods. High water has shut down all barge traffic on the Mississippi River from southern Minnesota to central Missouri. I remeber the 1993 flood being called the
500-year flood. Fifteen years later, this one is also being called the 500-year flood. It looks like we're 485 years early.
The flooding is having a huge impact on grain prices. The corn belt has been hit hard, with millions of acres under water. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said American corn production will be 11.735 billion bushels this year, compared with 12.125 billion bushels forecast on May 9 and 13.074 billion bushels last year. As a result of the bad news, the price of corn has advanced to a record $7 a bushel.
Low stockpiles and poor weather are ``an explosive mix,'' said John Reeve, associate director for agricultural commodities at UBS AG in Singapore. ``Corn is central to the agricultural complex, so a sustained period of higher corn will see higher wheat, coarse grain and meat prices.''
We could be seeing just the beginning of food inflation. The 2007 drought in the U.S. and Australia put a heavy strain on global grain stocks. This year’s crop was seen as a chance to recover from a deficit. Now that 2008 is already doomed to fall short, we could see more of the kind of the food riots that swept Haiti, Egypt, and Cameroon.
Unless the Lord Jesus comes quickly, I can only see the increasing rate of birth pangs doing greater harm to our food production industry. As the world’s climate becomes more unstable, we will see the advent of the Bible’s prediction that a loaf of bread would equal a day's wage.
“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine” (Rev. 6:5-6).
-- Todd
Last-Days Violence
Global unrest, spawned by sin-engendered angers, has risen to levels of violence Jesus predicted for the time that would be near His second coming. The violence is manifest throughout the entire world.
Economic pressures caused by out-of-control petroleum costs fuel the engine of animosity that grows hourly. The following reports on this tension in one area of distress with perplexity exemplifies violence on a widespread basis. The proliferating anger portends armed conflicts between nations at a point perhaps not too distant.
“Violence has flared across Europe as hauliers, fishermen and taxi drivers protest against rising fuel prices they say are crippling their industries.
Some of the worst outbreaks were seen in Spain where prime minister José Luis Rodriguez pledged 'zero tolerance' of any disruption by 90,000 striking lorry drivers.
His warning came after a driver breaking the strike was burned when his lorry was set on fire…
In France, hauliers mounted protest drives on motorways set alight in violent protests.
Protests have now gone worldwide, with the Philippines and Thailand also seeing angry workers taking to the streets.
Spain appears to have been worst hit, with lorry drivers on either side of the dispute paying with their lives…
Anger: Drivers take their grievances onto the streets of Manila…Hundreds of lorries and minibuses blocked roads in Manila leading to Malacanang Palace yesterday to demand the lifting of a 12 per cent sales tax on fuel…
In Thai capital Bangkok, tens of thousands of heavy lorries threatened to cause havoc as farmers demonstrated and fishermen have begun burning their boats in nationwide protests against soaring prices of fuel and other essentials…”
The report continues with snippets laying out the mounting world-wide crisis.
“Opposition groups in Malaysia have vowed to push on with mass protests against a 41 per cent hike in petrol prices - despite a pledge from the Prime Minister to keep prices fixed for the rest of the year…
“Fury united: Activists from the Communist Party of India stop a train at Guwahati Railway Station during a protest against the hike in fuel prices…
Malaysia followed India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Sri Lanka by raising pump prices last week.
On Monday, Nepal became the latest Asian nation to [raise] prices to stem losses of a state firm.
Also in Asia, South Korean lorry drivers voted to strike on Monday, ignoring a £5 billion government aid package designed to cushion the impact of fuel price rises.
Malaysia is Asia's largest net oil exporter, earning £38 million a year in revenue for every 50 pence rise in crude prices.
Protesters demanded to know why rising profits from oil exports were not being used as subsidies to the poor.
A march was due today in Kuala Lumpur to the Petronas Twin Towers, headquarters of oil giant Petronas.
A million people are expected for another demonstration in the capital next month…” ("European protests against high fuel prices turn violent," Daily Mail, 13 June 2008).
Violence created by thirst for petroleum, at least at this point, looks to be a likely catalyst that will force all nations to the final battle in the Middle East. Armageddon is a war that likely begins with the galloping forth of the second rider on the red horse of war (Rev. 6:4). It culminates with the return of Jesus Christ in the clouds of glory to the one place on earth with the largest pools of oil (Rev. 19:11).
Last-days violence was predicted by Jesus: “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Luke 17:26).
We again look to Noah’s day, before the great flood that killed all people but Noah and his seven family members:
"The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth” (Gen. 6:11-13).
A quick review of some of the recent headlines of heinous nature within the United States and other countries gives proof that we are perhaps the most violent generation to have existed upon Planet Earth.
Two girls, aged 11 and 13, found gunned down in a ditch in Oklahoma
Babysitter admits to scalding two-year-old in bath water
Five teens accused of beating man to death on a dare
Wife of Zimbabwe Opposition Leader has hands and feet hacked off before being burned alive
Marine expelled, another penalized for Iraq puppy torture video
Stalker sends victim sex video as she files police complaint
NYC graduate student testifies against man who raped and tortured her, slitting her eyelids open after she refused to gouge out her own eyes and then set her apartment on fire while she was bound to the furniture
Southern Cal polygamist found guilty of torturing 19 children and 2 wives
This must certainly be last-days violence. The one-on-one personal killings validate the truth that we are all under threat of our lives. Whether by personal homicides and life-threatening assaults like those listed in these headlines, gang murders perpetrated drive-by shootings, suicide bombings, or 9/11 attacks by terrorists–all represent violence of the sort about which Jesus foretold.
Since the Lord gave his prophecy about the days of Noah for the generation who will endure the tribulation–the last seven years of human history before His second advent—the incredible violence of our time should alert every Christian who believes God’s prophetic Word that Jesus is standing at the door, ready to call: “Come up hither!”
--Terry
