the question is not, WILL IT HAPPEN THIS YEAR, it is WILL IT NOT HAPPEN THIS YEAR

We are beginning to see hard hits coming our way. 

Mike Tyson level punches that spikes mortality rates. Everywhere and for a number of reasons, we are beginning to see the beginning of the end. And it sure looks scary. 

Countries worldwide are grappling to contain the chaos slowly spreading through society and as Harari says, this time the acceleration seems real. Our harmony with the higher power of nature has gotten irreversibly shaken. Gone are the days when even token respect to the sun, our earth, gusting wind was given and personifications of nature were what we better knew god as.

There is a clear difference between the ancient people who realised that they cannot control the benign and harsh elements of nature and in fact there is much use of the elements of nature. 

Competition over use of nature were regulated by customs and traditions. 

Jains believe that life force exists through 4 elements and to this day, they follow the practice of animal liberation and the environmental message of their philosophy is a gold standard for environmental ethos on deep ecology. 

Buddha grew up among trees and went to the forest. What he was doing was reacting to the rapid commercialization of his world of those days. He made compassion his dharma and asked for compassion to birds and animals. 

He challenged the proclivity of animal sacrifice and challenged Brahmanical imposition. 

Ashoka followed these ideas, so did Gupta kings. Buddhism thrived in other countries than in India as they adopted his methods better. 

(notes from a speaker's mouth during a workshop, I wrote it all as he spoke about such necessary things)