Understand The Times, International

Comment from UTT:

The fact that natural disasters are on the increase should be no surprise to Bible believing Christians. While many will ignore this evidence by saying that natural catastrophes have always occurred on this planet, the Bible predicts that this would be one of the signs of the last times before the return of Jesus Christ.

This time of warning proceeds a time of global disaster that is coming upon this planet. The birth pangs are underway, however fewer and fewer people, including Christians are paying attention.

June 5 - Natural Disasters Up More Than 400 Percent in Two Decades

Article: Signs Of The Last Times

(NaturalNews) The number of natural disasters around the world has increased by more than four times in the last 20 years, according to a report released by the British charity Oxfam. Oxfam analyzed data from the Red Cross, United Nations and researchers at Louvain University in Belgium. It found that the earth is currently experiencing approximately 500 natural disasters per year, compared with 120 per year in the early 1980s. The number of weather-related disasters in 2006 was 240, compared with 60 in 1980.

At the same time, the number of geologically related natural disasters has held steady. Oxfam has attributed the increasing disaster rate to global warming

"We are talking about some very unusual floods in West Africa, very unusual floods in East Africa, extraordinary floods in Mexico and parts of Central America, and heat waves in Greece [and] eastern Europe," report author John Magrath said.

"This is no freak year," said Oxfam director Barbara Stocking. "It follows a pattern of more frequent, more erratic, more unpredictable and more extreme weather events that are affecting more people."

Between 1985 and 1994, Oxfam found that 174 million people were affected by disasters each year. In the following decade, this figure increased by 70 percent to 254 million people per year.

"There is a basic global injustice in this," he said. "It seems to us that the rich nations of this earth have the historical responsibility to act first and fastest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to show an example and to lead the way."