I got a really big issue. I had a talk with my best friends, Dydu and Diana in a library a few months ago about the world and the universe and things like this. There are lots of theories which say that The world will be destroyed. Like: The greenhouse effect. Because of the pollution, the atmosphere has become a greenhouse. They say that in a couple of years, the North pole and The south pole will melt, causing inundations, so we will all end up in the middle of the ocean.
Another theory is that in a couple of years a meteor will come and destroy the earth.
And the final one that I heard is that on 12.12.2012, at 12:12 the world will be destroyed.
If all these are true then are lots of possibilities to escape. But all of them include collaboration from all the countries. I just don't stand the people which are in war. I mean, c'mon, when the world is in danger we aren't Russian, or American or Japanese or Egyptian or Romanian, we are all human!! I'm not a hippie or something (you can tell from the music I listen) but in this case, we really need world peace.
What annoys me is that the people really don't care about this. All they care is fashion and what else they can put in mobile phones(no offense). If 39 years ago the people could go to the moon, imagine what people could've done by now, if we researched. but nooooooooo, its more important to know which is the latest skirt type.
Note:I don't agree with the fashion, people which dress like the fashion says don't have personality. It's my opinion, because I prefer to have my own style, not to be like the others.(like I said, no offense)
And i just wanted to see your opinions.

I am TOTALLY with you, not only that, they are not trying to do something!! They only think of Fashion(like my mother) and other stuff like sports! Can't they think that they are spoiling the environment?! Well, Global Warming, Green House effect and all these will destroy us if we don't do something soon! People, please listen!

Actually, that greenhouse estimate is a little extreme. There are quite a few scientists who don't even agree with global warming... If you want, I'll dig up some sites that can tell you we don't have to worry about the poles melting and turning us into ocean any time within the next few years. Those views are a little radical.
And the dates for the metorior (sp?) probably aren't that specific. It'd be extremely rare for it to happen exactly at that time... I think scientists were predicting something more in the next 100 years than four. I'm not positive on that, but do you have a source?
As for the world to work together, it'd be wonderful. The problems you run into aren't all fashion and things like that though. Let's take Palestine and Israel for example... Palestine is trying to destroy Israel, which doesn't work for good peace between them. Or the radical (I don't mean all Muslims, just a few) Muslims who believe all people who aren't Muslim should be killed and bomb American buildings as well as their own people. The reason we don't have peace isn't all fashion and cell phones.

@bassett: I've heard that too, and I'm not 100% sure about global warming. But I'd prefer to take the side of it is happening and trying to do something about it than take the other side and find out the hard way that it is.

I agree also. Unfortunately it seems to be human nature. Sometimes issues can be too big to properly comprehend. People can't relate to them, which is why people find it so easy ignore them or not take them seriously. I mean, take the destruction of all human life on this planet. That has never happened before in living memory (obviously), so people can't properly understand it. I had a conversation with my parents a while back posing the question "can we imaging anything that we haven't actually seen?". We came to the conclusion that you can't. Even stuff you imaging which seems new is made up of components of other things you've seen. Take Sci-Fi aliens, for example. They're all made up of different components of animals on this planet.

I try to help with things, especially Human Rights, but there are too many issues in the world to take on all at the same time.

I think it was Karl Marx who said something along the lines of "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely". That is the problem with us humans. There are very few of us (if any) who are not selfish in some way and many of us don't look far enough in the future to see the full consequences of our actions. I think that's why we have problems with countries not cooperating and people, as Love put it, being interested in sport and fashion rather than the environment.
People in power quite often want to grab as much power as possible, as quickly as possible. This causes all kinds of problems and eventually can lead to war. And, on a less extreme level, fashion and sport is the same. It's the idea of wanting to be powerful and be the "top dog".

I'm not trying to condemn anyone or trying to preach (I have lots of flaws as well), I'm just trying to articulate the reasons why I feel we have all these problems. The bottom line, I think, is selfishness in ignorance, which is something we all suffer from.

Quote:

No and no and no and no.

I am a muslim, my mother is palestiny, and Palestine's are NOT destroying Isreal, it's defending itself, but please let is not enter into those things.

@Love: I don't want to enter into them either. Let's just say that they're not going to be peaceful any time soon. Whoever's attacking who, I don't think a peace treaty will work there. We'll just agree to disagree.
Humans are selfish... It's part of human nature, as has already been stated. It would be extremely difficult for the world to work together. I don't know about global warming... I just don't think it's going to "destroy the world" any time soon. I can understand something needing to be done, if it really is a problem... But that's another whole discussion.

Me too, the world is in danger, in Britain, they throw 18 000 000 tons of rubbish every year! Just imagine! All this bring a big pollution to air and water, can't we stop?

this earth will never be destroyed by humans. all this are just theories. nonetheless, just like how everything on this earth is recycled so should human garbage. think about it, the sun, the moon, the water, earth, air they are all the same since begging and will always stay that way.

The greatest threat at our time is the fall of a meteor that should have 1 odd out of 35'000 to fall on us destroying mankind.

It should happen in 2029.

If it misses, it will have another 1 odd out of 42'000 to fall on us in the 2 years that follow.

Conclusion, mankind will be destroyed, there is 1 odd out of 69'999 that happens because of this threat.

(1 odd out of 70'000 is nothing, by the way, for astronomers.)

But I don't say we're doomed now. We will be, if mankind keeps going the current way. And sadly it is.

But, until then, we can still reproduce and adapt to new conditions. Only a lack of O2 (unlikely despite acidification of oceans), water (unlikely in most countries), a radiation that corrupts our DNA (we would need a terrible nuclear war, and well, that's not going to happen. Whoever 'wins', we all 'loose'.), a selection that prevents us from reproducing (either mass suicides or depression, or physical problems), blasting of earth (as I said, 1 odd out of 70'000, this is the most 'serious' threat.). Nothing else in the current times.

(Oh, by the way. Those 666 and 2012 prophecies do not count. They are wrong. They only counted on RuneScape, that MMORPG whose players were killed, how odd, on 6th June, 06, game time. And it was not even planned...)

Quote:
You are mistaken. Things are always changing, but they change so slowly that most of us don't take notice. For example, stars die and our sun is no exception to this rule. Although the sun will not be dying anytime soon, it will eventually.

Similarly, on earth, things change, too. Do you think the mountains always existed? Do you think the continents looked this way since the beginning of time? They didn't - they slowly formed this way over millions of years.

So, no, they will not always stay this way. They change and are already in the process of change.

Anyway...regarding earth's problems...the world will always have its problems. There has never been a time in the world where everything was peaceful and good. And, from what I can see, I doubt all of us will be able to work together. There are billions of people on this earth - it is very difficult to convince everyone to work towards the same goal and forget about their differences.

Furthermore, I agree with Count_Strangle that a lot of people don't show concern because, as far as they can see, there is nothing to be concerned about. Issues that concern the whole world are not easily understood and solved, and the consequences are not immediate. It's difficult for people to grasp and most have the mentality that they are just one person and therefore cannot make much of a difference.

Also, you have to remember that things such as environmental issues are extremely complex, especially in the political world. If the world is to be cleaned up, it would take a lot of money and effort...but who is to pay all this? Most countries (if not, all) will be unwilling to take on most of the burden while everyone else does only a little and reaps all the benefits. As a result, no one takes on this responsibility because they don't want to be the "losers".

Very well put Aeternus I agree. I think that a lot of people think "why should care it won't start affecting the earth for a 100 years or more, i'll be long gone by then". I wish that the world would come together for a common goal, but I don't see that happening. For instance, If all the countries of the world got together and said "let's remove all the waste from the earth, (clean up landfills, etc)" then all the countries would just start arguing about who made the most trash, who should pay more, who should pay less and the method in which to do it.
I was watching a show on products that are suppose to be more environmentaly healthy today. Such as cleaning products. I think it's a great idea, but I got online and looked some of these products up and they are way more expensive than normal products. Not every one has that kind of money. It's sad that products that are suppose to be safer or healthier for our environment are usually pricier. It just leads to a vicious cycle. People can't always afford to do the 'better" thing.

still we should appreciate what wehave left, whether we die either from star explosion, meteor impact, or anything else, we may only have as few years to live.

Well speaking from a Christian sense (because it is my religion, and I hope I'm not offending anyone here), everyone can make 'theories' about how the world will end, but no one will ever know for certain, because no one knows about Earth more than God.

that's true, but he did give us a clue, and the world will still end very soon.

With all the talk here this past week about the environment, Governments in turmoil, rising cost of food and gas, starving people, my mind keeps going back to the scripture in Luke describing the last days.
For there will be an anguish of nations not knowing the way out.

That's kind of eerie Oracle, but it does seem to fit what is going on with the world.

@s_tyong
Quote:
What clue are you referring to?

As far as I'm concerned, the dates that are often said to be the end of the world are just guesses. And if it is so inevitable, then why worry about it?

If anything, do you remember the big Y2K scare? People thought it would be the end of the world then, but we're still here

@Oracle
Well, if anything, I'm gonna go with my above argument and say that terrible things have happened in the past, as well (e.g. World War I and II, Great Depression), but the hasn't stopped turning just yet...!

Many predictions of the future tend to be quite general and can be applied to all sorts of situations, so unless they are very, very specific, it's difficult to say whether or not they are referring to a certain situation.

People don't care because they think it's not going to happen soon, it's true, but can't they think of their children or of the other people who will live after that?

world ending soon: Rubbish.

So called Armageddon prophecies are just trash from an active imagination. heck I can make one right now: World end tomorrow. Get your stuff ready!

The world won't be ending anytime soon because the world is not going to die anytime soon. I expect the sun to last at least 4 more billions years, that's at least how long this chunk of rock will live. Now, whether the pathetically egotistic human species will survive is a different story.

As for problems: have I mention my philosophy of taking care my own problems rather than worrying about other peoples? When someone is willing to give me enough money for suffocating education costs among other things, than I'll start paying attention to more 'outside' problems. Until then, it's not my problem what the the Brits are doing, or what's happening in South America. I rather worry about somehow paying $60,000+ for education and other outrageously inflated costs.

Guys! If you talking bout the world now days. . ., Yes it'll face it end I think least in then or twenty years again.
Well, you might don't know my country, but I'll tell you now.
Indonesia is the country full of forest. It says that my country is the oxygen sulier of all of the oxygen in Europe and America, They paid my country for it's forest.
But the bad part of this is that some ilegal woods man try to steal my forest (my country actualy). Some from Malay (well sorry bout this, but I really hear it from the news), and China(still what I heard from the news). They cut all the tree and bring it to their country.
Now with only a little forest left on the bigest oxygen suplier in the world, what will be happend to the world?

Global warming sure the bigest problem now. The problem is not the rubish but the decrease of the forest. Can you imagine "Earth with out Forest?"
For now on all I can do is try to plant something in my home. Well, there's a little space in my house, so I can only plant it in a little pot. But you can do it too!
We can prefent all of this if we want!
We can try to plant our forest again.
well check this site if you realy want to do it!
this is a program from Indonesia but you can participate too, here's the site

www.mybabytree.org