We Cannot Afford to Ignore the Hopi Prophecies.
In December 1992, Thomas Banyacya, a Hopi elder, spoke to the UN General Assembly. He was one of multiple indigenous speakers who addressed the UN’s conference on ethnoclimatology, the study of the climate based on the specific geographic knowledge of local people.
Long before An Inconvenient Truth thrust environmental collapse into the mainstream, indigenous people had been sounding the alarm about Earth’s growing inhospitably. They saw the desecration of the natural world being wrought by the world’s major powers – many of which were built on stolen indigenous land – and knew Mother Nature would fight back.
Banyacya, who passed in 1999, warned the UN that our world was approaching mass extinction. But Banyacya was not merely scolding world leaders. The Native American elder used his time to share the prophecies of the Hopi people. A profoundly spiritual culture, the Hopis (meaning “people of peace”) believe it is humanity’s responsibility to be Earth’s caretakers.
In failing to do this, Banyacya warned, we were bringing about the end of “the fourth world.”
The Hopi prophecies
As Banyacya explained in the opening of his speech, according to Hopi teachings, humans had already seen the rise and fall of three previous worlds. The last one ended with a colossal flood – great floods are present in numerous religious traditions – which killed most people on Earth. Those who survived were commanded by the Great Spirit Massauu to “live [a] poor, humble, and simple life way” in the new world.
Humanity didn’t do that, and now our world is ending. For the few who remain, the prophecies say, the coming fifth world will be one of peace and abundance. There is hope in this prophecy: life will continue for a select few in a world better than any ever known. But most of us will not survive the destruction of the fourth world.
The Hopi are not the only indigenous people to warn about climate disasters. The need to care for and use natural resources prudently is a message of many native peoples. These groups have often come together to spread this message.
But the Hopi prophecies, given by the Great Spirit, are especially relevant because they have predicted so much of what has come to pass in recent centuries. “This is how we know the timing is now to reveal the last warnings and instructions to mankind,” Banyacya told the UN.
Among those predictions that someone would travel to the moon and bring something back, and soon after, nature “would show signs of losing its balance.” Only three years after America landed on the moon and brought back rocks, a British meteorologist named John Sawyer accurately forecasted global warming over the next three decades.
Hopi prophecies also described the creation of powerful weapons and destructive wars, including a “gourd of ashes”: the atomic bomb. Furthermore, the prophecies stated world leaders would gather in “a Great House of Mica with rules and regulations to solve the world problems without war.” That is the very United Nations that Banyacya addressed.
But perhaps no prophecy is more trenchant than the warning against forsaking or manipulating spiritual teachings. The Bible teaches that humans are stewards of Earth, yet many Christian leaders have abandoned this responsibility to support unfettered Capitalism.
As Banyacya said, “It is because of this great sickness called greed, which infects every land and country, that simple people are losing what they have kept for thousands of years.”
The state of the world
Perhaps the dire warnings of the Hopi people don’t impress you. Such prophecies are “supernatural hokum,” right? One only needs to read the news to understand these warnings are coming true.
This summer, the United Kingdom broke records by surpassing 40°C (104°F) for the first time in recorded history. It will not surprise anyone that the next three hottest days on record in the UK all occurred in the 21st century, with two occurring within the last three years.
Furthermore, heatwaves across Europe broke records from Spain to the Netherlands, with wildfires ravaging multiple countries. Meanwhile, parts of India have reportedly seen land surface temperatures of 60°C (140°F), hot enough for roads to literally melt.
Lest we forget, June 2021 saw parts of the US and Canada experience the most extreme heatwaves in the region’s history – and scientists predict even more severe heatwaves are coming. Dire prophecies, indeed.
It isn’t just the heat, though. Precious resources are being depleted around the world. In the Southwest United States, a worsening water crisis is causing severe droughts and deadly wildfires. Nearly half the world’s population is suffering from water scarcity, a number that will grow over the coming decades. Of course, with water scarcity comes food scarcity and the depletion of other natural resources. Water sustains life.
A recent UN report warned that the rate of species extinction is “accelerating,” finding that “around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history.” The global ecosystem is corroding.
Time is running out. For millions of the most vulnerable people, it already has. The canary in the coal mine is dead; we must cry the warning. Planet Earth is on a crash course to doomsday’s destruction.
Let’s be clear: the planet isn’t dying. Earth will go on. We, however, won’t. It is us inhabitants who are heading for mass extinction. We have wasted, misused, and abused the natural resources of our home, and Earth is fed up. Call it Mother Nature. Call it climate change. Call it anything you want. Time is up.
As Banyacya told the UN, “It’s up to all of us, as children of Mother Earth, to clean up this mess before it’s too late.” Thirty years later, the countdown to the fourth world continues unabated.