It’s hard to deny that strings of disasters haven’t been impacting the Earth. Many of these incidents have been theorized about, but they still leave many to see the ongoing flood of disasters as something concerning the end of the world.

These threads of disaster all began with the solar eclipse that crossed the United States on Aug. 21, the first solar eclipse the country had experienced in 99 years. This was four days before Hurricane Harvey struck the coast of Texas, pummeling the state with relentless rain. On Sep. 9, an earthquake rocked Mexico, it recorded 8.1 on the Richter Scale. A day later, Hurricane Irma poured rain upon Florida, causing vast amounts of destruction around the state. Less than a week after that, Hurricane Jose hit the East Coast, quickly followed by Hurricane Maria. On Sep. 19, Mexico received another crippling earthquake, recorded as 6.1 on the Richter Scale. As these natural disasters raged across the Western Hemisphere, conflicts have been arising between North Korea and the rest of the world, and the possibility of nuclear war is stronger than ever. Wildfires continue to rage across the Western United States and terrorist attacks are still taking effect around the world.

It’s not surprising to see how the threads of chaos are gripping the world at the moment.

“I feel like [the theories are] kinda dumb, because the Earth isn’t going to make itself a horrible place to live, it’s going to be an outside force that destroys it,” freshman Mitchell Price said.

However, there are reason for the theories.

“The Hurricanes, earthquakes, and the solar eclipse…are all really strange to be seeing at this time,” Price said.

These arguments do seem to have a coincidental chain, for they all have taken place in a short period of time. However, the formation of these conflicts can be easily explained and written off. Many believe that the Gulf Coast, currently being pummeled by endless streams of hurricanes, is caused by the change of climate. The current amount of climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels and industrial processes, is causing hurricanes to form more easily. Hurricanes have been forming in great numbers in the area in the Gulf of Mexico for decades, it doesn’t help that hurricane season was hitting hard upon the East Coast this year. The devastating amounts of homes that were destroyed by flooding in Texas were the cause of road design problems. Water produced from rainfall is easily soaked into the ground, but the many roads in certain cities such as Houston stopped the water soaking into the ground, therefore causing flooding.

Though the beliefs of the end of the world are not expected to stop, the conflicts gripping the Earth are expected to cease.

“This could just be a temporary event, just like something that blows over and we never see ever again,” Price said.