In recent years much has been said about yet another cause of distress: man’s destruction of the environment. Although Jesus did not specifically mention this in his prophecy, Revelation 11:18 indicates that prior to the coming destruction, man would be “ruining the earth.” The evidence that this ruining is taking place is abundant. Quoted in the book State of the World 1988, environmental consultant Norman Myers gives this frightening message: “No generation in the past has faced the prospect of mass extinction within its lifetime. No generation in the future will ever face a similar challenge: if this present generation fails to get to grips with the task, the damage will have been done and there will be no ‘second try.’”

Consider the report in the February 17, 1992, issue of Newsweek magazine on the depletion of ozone in the atmosphere. Greenpeace ozone specialist Alexandra Allen was quoted as warning that ozone loss “now amounts to a threat to the future of all life on earth.”​—See the box on this page for further evidence of environmental ruining of the earth.

[Box on page 6]

Environmental Problems​—A Sign of the Times

◻ The protective ozone shield in heavily populated latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere is thinning twice as fast as scientists thought just a few years ago.

◻ A minimum of 140 plant and animal species are going into extinction each day.

◻ Atmospheric levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide are now 26 percent higher than the preindustrial concentration, and they continue to climb.

◻ The earth’s surface was warmer in 1990 than in any year since record keeping began in the mid-19th century; six of the seven warmest years on record have occurred since 1980.

◻ Forests are vanishing at a rate of some 40,000,000 acres [17 million ha] per year, an area about half the size of Finland.

◻ World population is growing by 92 million people annually​—roughly equal to adding another Mexico each year; of this total, 88 million are being added in developing countries.

◻ Some 1.2 billion people lack water that is safe to drink.

According to the book State of the World 1992, by Worldwatch Institute, pages 3, 4, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London.