Lessons from the Roman Civilization
The Roman Empire is featured by exhaustive use of metal.
According to a survey of ice in Greenland, the level of metal components in the air in the era of the Roman Empire is equivalent to those in the era of the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century. Between the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the 18th century, no large metal components were included in the air. It tells how aggressively metal resources were mined and refined in the territory of the Roman Empire.
Figure 2.2. An approximation of metal production in the Northern hemisphere as revealed by lead emissions found in the Greenland ice cap.
http://www.econ.ku.dk/kgp/doc/Lectfrms/New%20lecture/Notes/Efter%C3%A5r%202008/Kapitel%202.pdf
It was from the Arabic world that Europe again obtained the metal-related technology in the 11th century, but its large-scale development needed the Industrial Revolution.
Our world today may be another Roman Empire. Like the fall of the Roman Empire, the modern world with full of advanced technologies might fall sooner or later. And for mankind to recover from the coming demolition, it might take 1000 years like the case of the metal use after the Roman Empire.
However, no one expects that a devastating catastrophe should occur in the world in the near future to destroy the present material civilization. Science and technology will develop and advance exponentially. And mankind will soon reach Mars. Mankind will find other energy resources and develop new energy technologies. Mankind will even control weather. There will be no poverty in the world. However, this optimistic view on the future of mankind lacks reflection on the evil nature of mankind. Avarice and hubris of mankind might cause such a devastating disaster as was observed in the fall of the Roman Empire.
Then, it might take 2000 years for mankind to recover from obscurity.
9 Ways Humanity Could Bring About Its Own Destructionhttp://io9.gizmodo.com/5967660/9-ways-humanity-could-bring-about-our-own-destruction
1. Nuclear armageddon
2. Global Ecophagy
3. Everybody uploads — but no one is conscious
4. Robopocalypse
5. Artificial superintelligence
6. Particle accelerator accident
7. Deliberately engineered pandemic
8. Anthropogenic global warming
9. World War III
Anyway, we had better still learn lessons from the fall of the Roman Empire.
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Joh 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.