I'm just reminded of a line from a movie here, in speculations such as these:
Captain Barbossa: So don't be talking about your fondness for ghost stories, Miss Turner ... You're in one!
(Quotation not exact...)
If you had asked me in 1999 about the end of the world, I would have p'shawed the notion, seeing it as a cycle in human thought and consciousness, especially related to the advent of millenia.
Surely, the downing of the Twin Towers was a symptom of something, though I believe its proper precursor was the destruction of those ancient Hindu mountain statues earlier. Down the towers went, with far more drama than Nostradamus could have inspired. Something surely to get our attention, one way or the other.
Then, for me personally, the skies in my Mid-Atlantic, US area changed. Hurricanes went on the increase, and the ominousness of them is a bit inescapable. A tree fell on my house! If the twin towers didn't get my attention, surely the tree was a sign for me, personally. Since then, I have been in the sky, literally, flying parallel to a band of deadly tornadoes, watching their utter lack of concern with the ground, fully engrossed in their own conversation.
Is the world rapidly changing? I'd have to say yes. Will there be more destruction before it's all said and done? I think perhaps, yes indeed -- though my conclusion may very well be biased by the experiences of the past 7 years. I hold open the possibility that I only say that because of the tree -- that it's only in my own "woundedness" that I hold this worldview.
I like the idea that what 2012 represents is a major shift in our consciousness -- my body and my gut tell me that we may see more horrors, though, before it's all through.