WSC 2026 4. The End is Nearish

caretaker government

Temporary ad hoc government that performs functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed

• maintain the status quo

Lame ducks

elected official whose successor has been elected - less influence due to limited time

• free to make decisions without backlash + lose credibility

Doomsday Clock

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - track how close humanity was to annihilating itself

• combine all potential risks from past year into a simple form

1666

calculations tried to show that the year 1666 would be the end of the world or the return of Jesus and heaven on Earth

• Albert Durer’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse(1498)

• one millennium since christ appeared on Earth

imaginaries

philosophers combined social and technological inspirations for a desired world

end of the world: 1844

William Miller and Millerites

• baptist preacher who predicted Christ would return on March 21st, revised - the Great Disappointment

end of the world: 1910

Camille Flammarion

• predicted1910 appearance of Halley’s Comet would kill all life on planet, comet pills

2012 Maya Apolcalypse

Dec 21st, 2012 - the end of the first Great Cycle of the Maya Long Count misinterpreted to mean an end to the calendar

Harold Camping

predicted end of the world based on biblical numerology

• 1994 as the end of the world, then 2011, 7000 years after the biblical flood

True Way

religion blending Christianity, Buddhism, UFO conspiracy, and Taiwanese folk religion

• Hon-Ming Chen

• said God would appear on tv channel 18 an come to earth as him, prophesied mass human extinction

Joanna Southcott

announced in 1813 she would give birth to the second messiah, signaling the last day of Earth

Prophet Hen of Leeds

hen in Leeds England laid eggs inscribed with “Christ is Coming”

• hoax

Great Fire of London

1666, 666 is the number of the beat, but only 10 poeple died

The Great Flood

german mathematician Johannes Stoffler predicted a great flood would occur on Feb 24th, 1524

• all planet under Pisces

Montanism

schematic movement of Christianity - the second coming was coming and believers migrated to Phrygia

Pope Innocent III

used apocalyptic theology to rally Europe in launching a 5th crusade to capture Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Ayyubid Empire

The Mystical Nativity

Sandro Botticelli - lower part depicts devils and rocks with inscriptions that it was painted in the troubles of Italy and the apocalypse will be from losing to the devil

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse(1498)

Albrech Durer

• famous woodcut from Durer’s series of illustrations for the Apocalyspe

  • “and i saw, and behind, a white horse, and its rider had a bow; and a crown was given to him”

The Mystical Nativity(1500)

Sandro Botticelli

• infant christ reaching up toward the Virgin Mary without knowledge of visitors

  • angles and men embrace, demons scuttle for shelter

  • trouble of italy references

The Last Judgement(1536-1541)

Michelangelo

• depict the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity

• reference to Dantes Divine Comedy

The Triumph of Death(1562)

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

• showing an army of skeletons wreaking havoc across a blackened, desolate landscape

The Course of Empire: Destruction(1836)

Thomas Cole

• depict the growth and fall of an imaginary city on the end on a river valley

  • distinct landmark of large boulder

  • pastoralism seen as the ideal phase of human civilization

The Great Day of His Wrath(1851-1853)

John Martin

• storms and volcanic eruptions crashing, inspired by a night journey through the Black Country - Englands West Midlands

  • inspired by rapid industrialization

  • shows destruction of Babylon

World War I prints(1924)

Otto Dix - drypoint and aquatint etching depicting scenes of executions, famines, trenches, and corpses

• based on photographs, dix’s own memories, horiffic reality of modern warfare

Apocalypse ‘42(1942)

Viktor Schreckengost - image of frightened horse bearing Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito, and a figure od death acorss the globe

• protesting rise of facism

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse(1946)

Harry Louis Freund

• lithograph depicting four horsemen in the sky moving above a battle scene

• different modes of combat in WWII

The Last of Us: Season 1 Concept Art(2025)

Saby Menyhei

• realistic concept art set 20 years into a pandemic caused by mass fungal infection

“Where Are We Going?”(2013)

Kevin Sherwood & James McCawley

• four mobsters are trapped in Alcatraz and are forced to relive their failed escape and violent deaths over and over again

Quartet for the End of Time: “Abyss of the Birds”(1940)

Olivier Messiaen

• french soldier captured by German army, performed quartet with fellow prisoners, end of linear time not something catastrophic

“Electric Funeral”(1970)

Black Sabbath

• bleak dystopian vision of a post-nuclear world, doom metal

• reflects Cold War anxieties, antiwar sentiment

“It’s the End of the World as We Know It”(1987)

REM

• frenetic and dense lyrics and ironically upbeat chorus

• “its the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine”

Jonathin Cole

revealed how variability in key ecosystem processes can help scientists identify early warning signs of ecosystem collapse

Rebecca Speare-Cole

climate passes a point of no return

Stardust Solutions

Finn Murphy

• deflect sunlight into space

• solar geoengineering firm

Make Sunsets

VC Tim Draper

• release sulfate-filled weather balloons that pop when they reach the stratosphere

geoengineering

deliberate, large-scale manipulation of Earth’s climate systems to counteract the effects of human-caused climate change