"Gone are the days when people considered sparrow nests in their homes as a good omen," cried a website in India. "Other causes include the widespread use of packaged rice grain which leaves little hope for insects and pests -- the favorite food of the sparrows. Even unleaded petrol is not helping the cause, which apparently is so 'eco-friendly' that it is killing small insects and thereby depriving food for the sparrows."

They're calling it the "case of the missing sparrows." A sudden drop in the number of birds and insects (other than bees) has been reported elsewhere. "The mosquitoes, fruit flies, and bugs have not materialized here in Mahopac, New York, about fifty miles north of New York City," wrote one concerned resident recently. "It has been hot, humid, and there is a swamp and stream in the backyard. After sitting outside again this evening, we finally noticed the absence of these pests. It is a bit strange; are we the only ones noticing?"

Those numbers should return to a level that makes bugs more noticeable as summer kicks in. But there's no question many animals -- mainstays of the human diet -- are in some way stressed or threatened, including an estimated eighty percent of oceanic fish species.

In the Mediterranean, experts say the blue tuna is headed for extinction.

These "signs of the times" may be attributable to over-fishing, use of artificial chemicals (which are now found in every corner of the world, and every species of fish), fertilizers, climate shifts, and perhaps trends that are more mysterious.

In the case of bees, one researcher theorizes that the cause may be pesticides called neonicotinioids which damage an insect's nervous and olfactory systems (its memory, motor activity, and smell, inhibiting its means of navigation back to its hive).

The irony: bees are crucial to the pollination of the very plants (orchard fruits, berries, and other crops) upon which the pesticides are being used! One third of all plants we eat depend on bees, whose colonies have been reported in major collapse in at least 25 states. (The exception: colonies that are organic.)

These too are signs. Other scientists have found organs that are strangely blackened in those few bee carcasses that have been dissected. Thousands of chemicals are now used in the United States, some in the hives themselves. More than ninety percent of humans harbor industrial chemicals in their blood and fatty tissue, especially the breasts.

It is like nature is in rebellion as similar effects are being noted around the world.

The question for many: Could the use of such chemicals -- many also suspected of causing cancer in humans (and miscarriages in pregnant women) -- be in God's Plan? While the focus of human evil has been on abortion, crime, and sexual sin -- and rightfully so -- might the abuse and disruption of nature also play into events expected in prophetic circles?

Along with others, they are issues explored at length in Tower of Light -- which is based on two prophecies with surprisingly far-reaching statements about modern technology.

This is territory that must be approached with caution because those involved with the New Age or the drive for a single world government are using environmentalism as a reason for dissolving borders. They would also like to form a global "eco-religion" based on Mother Nature. In short, ecological protection, long held by Rome as a Christian cause, and indicated many times in the Bible, has been hijacked by those from the far left with a proclivity for nature worship.

But distress there is. The main prophecy on which the book is based cites "fundamental errors" in the way modern life has progressed -- claiming that this was stated by Jesus in a recent revelation and that the artificial aspects of the world are on the verge of being broken down, especially the unreported horrors of human genetic manipulation. 

Many are feeling the same in the Spirit.

"I have been seeing many articles on the disappearing bees and scientists have been trying to point the finger at viruses and other aspects of true nature," noted a viewer. "I find it interesting and perhaps intentional that scientists are not pointing their fingers at themselves. 

"Here's my point. The scientific community has been going at great lengths to alter the genetics of plants. If  plants that are pollen producing and require pollination have been genetically altered,  then do you think that the little tiny bodies of these bees cannot tolerate these alterations and this might be the cause of their demise?"

Gail H. E. Ramplen of University of Stellenbosch in New Zealand quotes an alleged Australian seer as claiming she "was about to use the microwave when suddenly my angel said: Child of God, do not use this machine, for it changes the food to make it dangerous to the body. I am here to guard you from the entangling snares of this world through the wisdom of God. (Read Peter 2:20: "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ..."). The harmony with nature is mangled with the use of this tool. You can hear me more clearly today, for you have the ears of fasting. Fasting brings the body to suffering, resulting in a closer union with the Lord Almighty, who imparts to you now the truth of this machine through His Spirit upon me."

"The seasons will be altered, the earth will produce nothing but bad fruit," said a famous prophecy from LaSalette, France, which correctly foresaw disease, a crop failure, and famine in northern Europe. "Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles with dread at what must happen to the earth stained with crime. Tremble, earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves, tremble for God will hand you over to His enemy, because the holy places are in a state of corruption."

The prediction of a "strange rumbling" plays a part, ironically, in the Tower prophecy -- which also foresees an unusual light and the end not of the world but of an era -- a stage in history.

Major change -- good change, but perhaps startling change -- is coming.

How soon? No one knows. It is close but no one knows how close "close" is.

Rumblings. Prompts. Time moves. We ignore it at our own cost.