Maybe it's just me, but there seemed to be an anti-Christian undertone to some of the excessive press coverage of the radio preacher who habitually predicts the end of the world. To ridicule him was for some, by extension, an opportunity to ridicule all Christians.
Actually, predicting the end of the world seems to be a common activity, not to mention a frequent story topic in the media. Courtesy of an Australian columnist, Tim Blair, here's a gathering of environmental predictions of Doomsday. By the way, these sometimes come at a cost, in terms of raised taxes and strange, mandated light bulbs, as opposed to some crackpot on the radio whose ramblings are free.
Go to this page to find the highlighted links from which these dire predictions come.
• 1992:
There’s still hope for saving the planet from ourselves … 10 years left.
• 2005:
We can only have a few years left, maybe a decade, to change societal attitudes towards progress before we have “lit the fuse” for inevitable environmental catastrophe in later decades.
• 2006:
We may have as little as forty years left before global warming passes a tipping point.
• 2006:
Larry David says, “You know, Al is a funny guy, but he’s also a very serious guy who believes humans may have only 10 years left to save the planet from turning into a total frying pan.”
• 2006:
The world only has 10 years to develop and implement new technologies to generate clean electricity before climate change reaches a point of no return.
• 2007:
Scientists say eight years left to avoid worst effects
• 2007:
The scientific consensus is that we’ve got only ten years left to address global warming.
• 2007:
EU, US agree 15 years left to avert climate disaster.
• 2008:
We have only seven years left to peak global emissions before facing escalating dangers of runaway global warming.
• 2008:
The Stern Report said we’ve only got eight to eighteen years left to significantly reduce global emissions or risk costly and irreversible damage to the planet.
• 2009:
We have, at best, 100 left before a new, far more dangerous phase of global warming begins … With at best 90 months left on our clock.
• 2009:
Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of NASA scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen.
• 2009:
Runaway climate change is almost inevitable without specific action to implement low-carbon re-industrialisation over the next five years. The point of no return is estimated to be 2014.
• 2009:
Tim Flannery, the well-known Australian environmentalist, was on CBC Radio the other day to issue more alarms about global warming. He was more pessimistic than ever. “It’s now or never,” he said. “We have about 20 years to address climate change or else our entire future is in jeopardy.”
• 2009:
Prince Charles flew to Chile yesterday with a dramatic message for world leaders on global warming: “You have just eight years to save the planet.”
• 2009:
Gordon Brown said negotiators had 50 days to save the world from global warming and break the “impasse”.
• 2011:
The Climate Commission report says the world has at best 10 years to cut carbon emissions or it will face dangerous atmospheric warming and sea level rises.