How many of you actually live in quake zones? I live along the San Andreas Fault and this place is ALWAYS shaking somewhere. California rests on the Pacific Plate, the edge of which is called "the Ring of Fire". There's lots of volcanic activity, which is where the name comes from. On the average, I'd say that this plate is always shaking at about 3.2 magnitude at some point along the rim. It's only when the pressure builds up in an area without adequate means of escape that we get the big ones and the whole concept of "solid ground" becomes a fantasy. An earthquake, even a big one, is not a sign of the apocalypse. It's only a sign that pressure has built up beneath the Pacific Plate in a place where it hasn't had a chance to vent itself yet. To the media, however, the "Look Out Here Comes The Big One" razzamatazz is a godsend that helps scare people into buying copy.
As for famine, let's look at eastern Africa. The land has been over-farmed with no field allowed to lie fallow (take a break from yielding nutrient-draining crops). In a desperate attempt to base their economy off of farming, they have killed their very life's blood. Tribes and villages may not migrate to more fertile grounds because of the political situations there. This is also not a sign of the apocalypse but a sign that the societal structure in that nation has fallen apart. Defenseless unarmed civilians are at the mercy of avaricious warlords in a scenario that could be taken from the days of Genghis Kahn.
Hurricanes are on the rise? It sure looks like it. But let's look at the larger picture. It's near the middle of October and I still have my fans turned on. Has anybody else been experiencing unseasonal weather? I believe the poles are in the process of shifting again. It happens as part of the life cycle of a planet. As temperatures shift to their new physical environment, air pressure is going to shift, winds will shift, and we will see a rise in weather phenomena for a while. This is not a sign of the apocalypse. It is a sign of the planet doing what it is supposed to be doing under its conditions. These things happen from time to time. We just happen to be the generation that is here when it's happening.
When the Black Plague swept Europe, they were so certain that it was the apocalypse (and not lax customs regulations) that one man wrote a letter to any generation who might survive. The letter reads like it could have been written by anyone today who believes that the end is near. It begs forgiveness from those of us who would have to live in what was sure to be a wasteland and describes the "final days" so that we might learn from the sins of our fathers. Given that we are here and life is really not as bad as the press would have us believe, I'd say that was just one of many apocalyptic doom-sayers who missed the mark. There are others, such as the Millerites, who drifted off into historical oblivion, and I will look them up if you like. Rest assured, I prophesy that the end is NOT near and the only apocalypse we are facing is if Al Gore and Dan Quayle team up and run on the same ticket. (No disrespect meant to anyone who may be a fan of these guys, but they're just such easy targets. Al Gore once claimed that he invented the Internet to which Dan Quayle replied "Yeah, right. And I invented spellchecker.")
Say, next year, are we still gonna party like it's 1999?