Is the end of the world coming?
Some people believe the world is on the brink of a nuclear war that will wipe out life as we know it.
ARMAGEDDON. End times. Extinction of humanity. The Apocalypse. Call it what you will, but are we facing the end of the world?
A chilling viral video that’s been shared on WhatsApp this week shows a BBC news footage of Nato forces and the Russian Navy engaging in open warfare. It then cuts to scenes of the Queen and the royal family leaving Buckingham Palace to an undisclosed location and finally (with an alarm going off in the background), a message from the ministry of defence warning of an imminent nuclear attack in locations such as London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow. The video ends with a call to seek shelter immediately.
Although realistic, the video was obviously fake but it still made me check British news websites for even a hint of such an occurrence.
Whoever created the video obviously went to great lengths to make it as authentic as possible. The almost fourminutelong clip bears comparison with Orson Welles’ famous War Of The Worlds radio broadcast in 1938. Back then, his report of a “Martian invasion” caused a nationwide panic in America.
Of course, the BBC clip would not have the same effect today because it’s a lot easier to verify fake news these days. But the one similarity they have is that both the radio and video clip were launched during a heightened period of aggression among the world’s superpowers.
Welles did his broadcast during Hitler’s annexation of large parts of Europe. In fact, months after the broadcast, World War II was declared.
And back to the present, the modernday allies – the United States, Britain and France – recently launched lightning airstrikes on Syria, ostensibly to obliterate the country’s chemical weapons facilities which they claim Syria had used against innocent civilians.
Damascus has denounced the attacks, saying that there is no evidence of chemical weapons in the country. Tensions are running high because Syria and her allies Russia and Iran have vowed to retaliate. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that fresh attacks would spark “chaos”.
Nato is now on high alert and was forced to scramble fighter jets to intercept Kremlin planes on four occasions last week. Russia has nuclear weapons and is capable of launching them at her enemies, precipitating World War III.
Despite a reduction in global nuclear tensions after the end of the Cold War, estimated nuclear warhead stockpiles today total roughly 15,000 worldwide, with the United States and Russia holding 90% of these.
The damage caused by international nuclear exchange is not necessarily limited to the participating countries, as the rapid climate change associated with even smallscale regional nuclear war could threaten food production worldwide – a scenario known as nuclear famine.
This is the last thing that both Putin and US President Donald Trump would want.
But the situation in Syria came to a head when the suspected poison gas attack hit Douma in the Eastern Ghouta region, killing dozens and leaving hundreds more in need of medical attention.
The subsequent airstrikes from the United States and its allies have escalated tension in the area and the world is now waiting for Putin’s reaction.
But even though the situation is tense, it cannot compare to other periods when the risk of nuclear conflict was much higher. Probably the closest the superpowers have come to a world war was during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
That hasn’t stopped the conspiracy theorists, though. They believe that codes in the Bible suggest the end of the world is imminent, with Earth set to be destroyed on April 23.
On this day, the sun and moon will be in Virgo, as will Jupiter, which represents the Messiah. Even though this happens every 12 years, another unusual planetary alignment will make this time the end of days.
I am not suggesting that we link the flashpoint in the Middle East and this April 23 theory, but scholars who ponder such things think a selfinduced catastrophe such as a nuclear war or bioengineered pandemic is most likely to do us in.
The late great Stephen Hawking himself spoke about how the world would end. He believed a number of other extreme natural hazards, including threats from space and geologic upheavals here on Earth, could derail life as we know it.
Humanity is at a “tipping point”, Hawking warned last July, saying that global warming would cause the Earth to become like Venus, with a global temperature of 250°C and sulphuric acid raining from the sky.
But he also believed that a nuclear holocaust – “because there is no sign of conflict lessening” – would eventually end life as we know it.