[sid]

It is hard to tell. With so much better and faster communications these days, more and more stuff we would never hear about in the past except maybe on the local level become worldwide news today.

About ten years ago I read about a study of the number of volcano eruptions that occurred throughout the world in the last century. The researchers noticed a steady rise in the number of eruptions throughout the first half of the century. The exceptions to this rise were during 1914-1918 and 1939-1945, where there were noticeable drops in the reported eruptions.

Their conclusions: The reason for the apparent increase in eruptions was better communications; we were hearing about eruptions in remote places that we wouldn't have heard about in the past. The reason for the two anomalous drops: The world was too preoccupied with the world wars to be looking for volcanic eruption is obscure places. For the second half of the century, satellites eliminated any remote unobserved places from the earth.

Also, many people are suddenly looking for anything that could indicate environmental collapse or the end of the world. So obscure stuff which may normally occur frequently that few noticed before are suddenly getting attention.

So it is hard to tell if this is something new or life as usual that few previously noticed.