Are hurricanes, fires and earthquakes signs of the apocalypse?

Is this the end of the world as we know it? Is the apocalypse upon us?
Hurricanes, fires, massive earthquakes and more are wreaking havoc across the country and around the globe. Doomsayers are having a heyday. Bible-thumping fanatics are warning us of God’s impending wrath. Global warming warnings abound. (And somehow this is all Donald Trump’s fault!)
I’m not a scientist and I have no expertise in this area, but it seems to me that Mother Nature is making some adjustments. Before I get into that, I want to comment on my belief as a Christian. We are living in the end times. We have been for two millennia. Every time there is a war or natural disaster, there is a groundswell of fear that God is preparing us for the end.
This comes from the warning in Matthew 24-6-7: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.”
Personally, I do not fear the end times. As a follower of Christ I believe Christians will be called up in the rapture and not have to suffer the apocalypse. That does not mean we will be spared the events leading up to it.
Switching back to a different worldview perspective, the Earth is clearly trying to restore balance. As the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum. Whenever one thing gets out of balance, something happens to restore order. If a predator consumes its food source, the predator dies off. If an area is overgrazed, the livestock starves or moves on and the land recovers.
I’m not ready to say I’m a global warming believer or denier; all I can judge is what I see (or what is shown me). There is more than abundant evidence that glaciers and ice caps are melting. Whether that is a natural occurrence, manmade or a combination of the two I can’t say. I believe that the shrinking ozone layer, deforestation and other forces are probably at play.
If the Earth is indeed warming up, I suspect that melting ice and rising seas is nature’s way of cooling off. If humans are the cause of global warming, then nature will strike back at humans. If the cause is natural, then the earth will follow its natural course as it always has.
That we are seeing record-breaking hurricanes, massive wildfires, and huge earthquakes is an indicator that Mother Nature is making a correction. I don’t know if human overpopulation is the problem but humans do appear to be holding the proverbial smoking gun.
No creature in history has done more to alter the environment than man. If you look at the United States, we have nearly exterminated the bison and other major species, altered courses of rivers, and significantly sapped the aquifers and oil deposits. Those are going to have consequences.
From a health perspective, we are consuming unnatural amounts of sugars and artificial foods and preservatives and now we have epidemics of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, food allergies and other maladies. We invented antibiotics and now diseases are mutating and becoming resistant to our medicines. New diseases are rising all the time from HIV/AIDS to Ebola, West Nile, and Zika. The more we resist disease, the stronger the diseases become.
This is all pretty scary stuff and I don’t like to think about it, let alone write about it. It’s undeniable, however, that we are experiencing it. Ultimately something has to give. Either humans will learn to adapt to the environment (rather than adapting the environment to serve humans) or the environment will falter and no longer be able to sustain mankind.
It just seems logical that we would make a concerted effort to take better care of our environment before it takes care of us. This planet is all we have. We don’t get another one. Each of us bears the responsibility of changing our lifestyles to better accommodate nature. We can all do the obvious small things like recycling, using less water, driving less, eating natural foods and basically engaging in a more green lifestyle. We need to embrace alternative sources of energy and modes of transportation. Eventually, bigger changes will have to come – either by choice or as a force of nature.
We can no longer sustain the status quo. Even if the Earth is undergoing a natural cycle unrelated to man’s meddling, we must all do our part to preserve, protect and restore what we have. God gave mankind this planet to care for. Judging by the job we have done, I’m honestly afraid we might soon be relieved of our duty.