Natural disasters and other acts of nature around the world have given new rise to talk about the coming Apocalypse (end of the world).

Giant earthquakes such as the one that killed over 250,000 Haitians this year, and the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile that knocked the earth off its axis and shortened our days, has given new life to theories about the end of our days.

Last week, an active volcano (pictured above) on the European island of Iceland near Greenland in the Atlantic ocean, erupted spewing tons of thick ash into the cirrus stratus where commercial airliners fly at cruising altitude of 30,000 feet.

For that reason, airports all over the world cancelled flights and grounded jets leaving thousands of people broke and stranded far away from home. For many travelers the earliest possible flight home could be May 12. But travelers say they are strapped for cash now and they are wondering how they will pay for hotel rooms and food. The cancellations have so far cost airlines $250 million.

Heres a photo that should give you some perspective of how bad the ash problem is in Europe. Thats not snow the car is plowing through, thats ash thick enough to choke a commercial airliners engines and send jets plunging out of the sky.

Many people think the end is near as a result of the onslaught of viruses (HIV, H1N1), deadly earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, and other acts of nature that has killed millions of people.

Others say the natural disasters and epidemics are a sign that Nature is attempting to bring the earths human population into balance before its too late just as nature does with the animal and insect population.

They point to the fact that the recent deadly natural disasters mainly has affected densely populated areas, such as Haiti, where birth control isnt practiced as diligently as it is here in the states.

If the earth becomes over populated, the earths resources such as food and water will be quickly used up, leading to widespread famine and starvation.

If it werent for natural disasters keeping the earths population within reasonable limits, the sheer numbers of humans occupying every inch of land would eventually lead to the extinction of the human race on earth.

It is said that a volcano eruption similar to the one on Iceland killed off the dinosaur population millions of years ago (they choked to death on the ash).

Others say the natural disasters all lead up to 2012, the year that marks the end of the Mayan calendar, the first known calendar dating back to the 6th century BC (before Christ). Supposedly the calendar predicts a catastrophic destruction of earth because it records no more dates after 2012.

But they said the same thing about the year 2000 (Y2K).