Of Global Warming and of the Rising of the Sea, and of Prophecy

   Speak of global warming and the rising sea level. Remind us that a UN projection suggests waters will rise but one foot by the end of this century.
   But, pause to wonder that if instead of being too outlandish, that estimate might be way too conservative. Consider two large glaciers in the Antarctica, Pine Island and Thwaites. If that glacial area were to collapse and melt -- as it is in danger of doing? The world's sea level would rise by 4 feet.
   That is in the Antarctica. But, consider that it is in the Arctic where temperatures are rising faster than any place on earth.
   Consider that the Antarctic is roughly the size of the U.S. and Mexico combined. With all the ice piled up in the Antarctic -- it contains 90 percent of the world's ice -- if it were to melt, sea levels would rise . . .
   Two hundred feet.
   Okay, pretty thin chance that that will happen. But, consider that one study of ice cores pulled out of the glaciers suggests that ages ago, when the earth's temperatures were just a couple degrees higher than they are today, the sea level was 20 feet higher.
   One wonders at 20 feet, if it could happen.
   We do not know what will bring the conditions that might fulfill the prophecies of the New Testament. But, we can swing our head around at what is going on in our world today and wonder.
  "Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains," it says in Matthew 24:16. Judea proper is a hilly area. But, Judea can also refer to the much larger, whole area, which I understand would take in the coastline. "Let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains"? If waters swept over the coastal areas, the people would be forced to flee to the mountains of Judea.
  "Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house," says the next verse, Matthew 24:17. When the waters rise, yes, people flee to their housetops.
    In Luke 21:25, which is a separate account of the same prophecy, we read of "the sea and the waves roaring." As a modern-day prophet, Joseph Smith, translated that verse, he added to it: "The earth also shall be troubled, and the waters of the great deep."
   We do not know how those scriptures will be fulfilled. But, living in the 21st Century, and looking around at what is happening while wondering if there is anything that looks like it could bring fulfillment of the scriptures, one wonders.

(Index -- Climate change info)