Extreme warm and cold phases have occurred throughout the Earth's evolution. It is still debatable that the sole cause of the current rise in temperature is due to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The current rise in global temperature, major disruption in weather patterns, and geopolitical extremism may have to do with the fact that the winter solstice point is slowly crossing the galactic equator (the center line or plane of the Milky Way Galaxy). This astronomical event is quite rare.

Ancient civilizations, the Egyptian and Mayan for instance, refer to solstice and equinox junctures with the galactic equator as heralding New World Ages.

The Mayan calendar ends in 2012 because this is roughly the midpoint in the current shift between one age and the next. Several ancient civilizations were aware of the Precession of the Equinox, the movement of the intersection of the solar equator and ecliptic (path of earth and planets around the Sun). The precession causes the equinox and solstice dates to slowly move backward through the Zodiac (or celestial longitude) about 10 every 72-years.

As the equinox and solstice points slowly move in the opposite direction of the planets, one of these four points crosses the galactic equator every 6,424 years. Each time this happens a new World Age commences. The winter solstice point has now moved to the galactic equator so that on December 21 the Sun is aligned with the galactic equator. This will not happen again for 26,000 years! In a little over 6,000 years, however, the spring equinox will align with the galactic equator and another World Age will begin.

The Sun is one-half degree wide so it takes the winter solstice Sun 36 years to precess through the one-degree Galactic equator. The rim of the Sun first touched the equator in 1980 beginning the gradual transition from one World Age to the next. The precise alignment of the solstice point with the center of the Sun as viewed from Earth took place in 1998. The disk of the Sun will no longer touch the galactic center after 2016.

The transition to the New Age will then be complete.
Why could the winter solstice/galactic equator alignment be responsible for the records breaking Earth changes that have been going on since the early 1990s? There are flows of intense energy coming from several “hot spots” near the galactic nucleus. Astrophysicists debate the meaning and effect of these immense outpourings of unusual energy. But one thing is certain: the Earth has experienced rapid extinction and evolution of species in the past.

The climate has changed dramatically from an asteroid strike, a great flood, droughts and famines and various pestilences. All major religions refer to previous world disasters. Four ancient civilizations – the Hopi Indians, Vedic India, Aztec, and Maya – believed in four or five World Ages within the 25,625-year precessional cycle. All of these traditions cite a cataclysm that begins each new age.

WE ARE CURRENTLY LIVING DURING THE CHANGE OF A NEW WORLD AGE!
The New Age transition is the real cause for the rapid changes in weather, the world economy, regional instability, natural resource depletion, and progressive political policies that attempt to bring balance to a very unstable world.
[This important topic is covered in more detail under the “Articles link.”]