Scientists warned that Planet Earth could be approaching a “hothouse” state that would be extremely difficult to reverse. Several key parts of the Earth’s climate system appear closer to destabilising than previously believed. These include critical “tipping points” – such as the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the Amazon rainforest and major ocean currents – could shift abruptly once certain temperature limits are crossed. When one system destabilises, it can intensify warming elsewhere. Melting ice reduces the planet’s ability to reflect sunlight, causing further warming. Thawing permafrost and dying forests release additional  greenhouse gases, which trap more heat.

Many of the world’s largest river deltas—home to hundreds of millions of people—are sinking faster than rising seas, according to a sweeping global study. Using satellite radar maps, researchers found that human activities like groundwater pumping, reduced sediment flow, and rapid urban growth are driving widespread land subsidence across 40 major deltas.

Burning time for North American wildfires is going into overtime. Flames are lasting later into the night and starting earlier in the morning because human-caused climate change is extending the hotter and drier conditions that feed fires. And many of the world’s largest river deltas—home to hundreds of millions of people—are sinking faster than rising seas, according to a sweeping global study. In 18 of the 40 deltas, this downward movement, known as subsidence, already exceeds local sea-level rise. That trend is increasing near-term flood risk for more than 236 million people.

The Colorado River is currently facing the worst drought in 1,200 years. Seven US states share the river must reach a new water sharing agreement before the current one expires at the end of 2026, or the federal government will step in with a Trump plan. And Central Asian countries lack sufficient water for spring planting of food this year, setting the stage for massive population flight and even for military conflicts across the region. Also rivers are driving hidden permafrost meltdowns, with thaw 15% faster than expected said the Seismological Society of America.

More than 17 million people along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at the highest risk of being affected by flooding, with New York and New Orleans standing out, according to one of the most comprehensive studies ever of flood risk. Marine heat waves are supercharging damage caused by hurricanes and tropical cyclones across the globe, a new study found.

Researchers looked at 1,600 tropical cyclones — the broader category of storms that includes hurricanes — that made landfall since 1981 and found those that went over the extra-hot water were more likely to intensify rapidly, a problem that’s becoming more frequent. This resulted in 60% more disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage — adjusted for inflation — when they hit land, says a major study in the journal Science Advances.

Both Judaism and Islam teach their followers to take care of the earth. Muslims and Jews also believe that humans should act as guardians and trustees (stewardship and khalifah) for our planet, and that they will be held accountable by God for their hateful wars and climate actions.

If humans will not reduce man made carbon magnification, not even the coming of Messiahs and a Mahdi may be able to overcome human unwillingness to reverse human pollution. God demands that humans fulfill their God given responsibilities.

So Israel sent Iron Dome anti-aircraft systems and dozens of IDF soldiers to the United Arab Emirates during Iran’s war. This is the first instance of the Iron Dome being used operationally outside the United States or Israel. And Trump said “The United States is going to work with Lebanon to help it protect itself from Hezbollah.”

Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam has a powerful eschatological strand. Islam anticipates the end to the world as we know it, a final historical confrontation between the forces of good and evil; after which human life will be transformed in a positive way.

Many Islamic traditions (Ahadith) say that Prophet Jesus, will return and will join forces with the Islamic messiah, the Mahdi, in a battle against a false messiah, the cruel one eyed Dajjal, called Armilos in Jewish tradition. Now would be a good time for one or more Messianic figures to get to work.

As mentioned in Qur’an, Torah, Gospel, and Psalms sent down to Messengers who lived in past centuries: “We sent down the Torah containing guidance and light, and the Prophets who had submitted themselves gave judgment by it for the Jews as did their scholars and their rabbis by what they had been allowed to preserve of Allah’s Book to which they were witnesses. (Qur’an 5:44)

As a Reform Rabbi who believes that the world wide upheavals we see, are part of the birth pains of the Messianic Age, I offer Christians and Muslims some positive insights from Jewish Prophets and Rabbinic Sages.

Many millions of Jews, Christians and Muslims believe the wars of Gog and Magog (Gog u-Magog in Hebrew and “Yajuj and Majuj” in Arabic) which started in the 18th to 20th centuries will come to an end in the 21st century.

It is true that human society changed more rapidly, violently and fundamentally in the last 250 years than ever before in history. Doctors saved the lives of millions. Dictators sacrificed the lives of millions. Populations are exploding in Africa and populations are declining in Europe. Technology produces both worldwide prosperity and worldwide pollution at the same time.

Should we look upon the future with optimistic hope or with fatalistic trepidation? Is the world and our society heading towards a wonder-filled new age, or toward a doomsday? Or are both occurring almost concurrently because breakdown is always a prelude to breakthrough?

Jews, whose Biblical prophets were the ones who first wrote about a future Messianic Age, recognize that the birth of a Messianic Age must be preceded by its birth-pangs. But the prophets of Israel also emphasize the glories of a future world living in peace and prosperity with justice for all. Ancient Jewish prophecies did proclaim that there would be an end to the world as we know it. But they did not prophesy that the world will come to an end, nor did the Prophets of Israel offer an exact date for the transition. The exact advent of the Messianic Age is not knowable because humans have free will and much depends on what we humans do.

The beginning of the Messianic Age is a time of transition from one World Age into another. How we move through this transition, either with resistance or acceptance, will determine whether the transformation will happen through cataclysmic changes or by a gradual reform of human society; which will lead to a world filled with peace, prosperity and spiritual tranquility.

The Prophets of Israel conceived redemption as a transformation of human society that would occur through the catalyst of the Jewish community. This transformation, which will take place in this world at some future time, is called the Messianic Age. The transition to the Messianic Age is called the birth pangs of the Messiah. The birth of a redeemed Messianic world may be the result of an easy or difficult labor. If everyone would simply live according to the best moral teachings of his or her religious tradition, we would ourselves have helped bring about the Messianic Age.

But, if we will not do it voluntarily, it will come about through social and political upheavals, worldwide conflicts and generation gaps and most obvious of all climate change which will affect both nature and the economy-society. The Messiah (Mahdi) refers to one or more human agents of God who help bring about a non-destruction positive transformation.

The Jewish tradition teaches that this agent of God (together with several forerunners and many disciples) will be a human being, a descendant of Prophets Abraham and David, with great qualities of national leadership similar to Prophets Moses and Mohammed. The arrival of the Messianic Age is what’s really important, not the agents who bring it about, since they are simply the instruments of God, who ultimately is the real Redeemer.

The Islamic 1400s we are now living in, is the age of the coming of Hazrat Mahdi. Prophet Jesus will also return to Earth in this century. As Prophet Micah states: “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; and exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.

“The Torah will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD GOD has spoken. All the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we (Jews, Christians and Muslims) will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.” (Prophet Micah 4:1-5)

One of the signs of the End of Days is the arrival and defeat of Gog and Magog (Ya’juj and Ma’juj or Ajuj and Majuj). Gog and Magog appear in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Islamic Quran as individuals, tribes, countries and catastrophic acts of nature.

The Quran mentions Gog and Magog twice: “He said: “This (barrier) is a mercy from my Lord: but when the warning of my Lord comes to pass, He will reduce it to dust (and Gog and Magog—the Colonialist Empires, the Nazis, and the Communists would be released into the world); and the promise of my Lord is true.” (18:98) So Gog and Magog are destructive groups like the Colonialist Empires, Nazis and Communists, who near the time of the end of days will penetrate into every part of the world.

Thus, humanity has so far passed through the most devastating era of human history. However, we have not yet reached the goal of the Messianic Age when “They (all nations) will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD GOD has spoken.” (Prophet Micah 4:2-4)

There will be no world peace until both Palestinians and Israelis declare the chant ‘From the river to the sea’ becomes an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, and not death, destruction, or hate. We can make it truly aspirational by making it focus on both peoples first, and the land second. “From the river to the sea Palestinians and Israelis should be freed of hatred and suffering by ‘a two state for two peoples sharing of the land peacefully solution.’”

This era will come about when Israelis and Palestinians make a long lasting two state partnership of peace; thus fulfilling the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel  will join a three-party  alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”… (Isaiah 19:23-5)

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