Interestingly, the problems the world faces today are absolutely nothing like what the Bible supposedly predicts for the last days. The biggest problems have to do with looming water shortages, rising population, climate change and loss of biodiversity (all extremely serious, by the way). So for Witnesses to use any of those problems as evidence of the last days is dishonest, since the Bible is silent on those things. (Side: Rev. 11:18 which speaks of bringing to ruin those ruining the earth does NOT mean environmentally but ruining the earth with violence, as in Noah's day, which is what the marginal reference points to. Current Witness useage is eisegesis, plain and simple, and thank you again to Leolaia for a great word that sums up Witness biblical interpretation).
The old problems of apocalyptic scripture are famines, war and pestilence. With respect to famine, consider that the U.N. reports that there are more people obese (1,000,000,000+) right now than malnourished (800,000,000). With respect to war, we live in a time of unprecedented peace, relatively speaking. And the diseases that cut down populations a few hundred years ago are all but silenced today. Sure, swine flu approaches but there'll be a hundred million or more doses of vaccine available in a month or two, and more following. Can you imagine that happening at the first appearance of the Justinian plague? Further, it's also inaccurate to point to heart disease and cancer as a fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy regarding pestilences,since they do not fit the original Greek word used to describe communicable diseases (b/c they're not)
Last summer, I read Fareed Zakaria's The Post American World, about how the world is actually a much more prosperous place than even a generation ago. In fact, it is the rising prosperity of countries like India and China, where people are eating better, living longer and healthier than ever before, that are causing many of the looming problems like carbon emissions and empty aquifers and ocean degradation.
