According to Pope Francis, that may just be the case.
Speaking to Italian writer and chaplain Marco Pozza, the pope warned that just as God in the Bible unleashed a massive flood for 40 days and 40 nights due to a desire to cleanse the Earth, He could very well do so again.
Just as the biblical flood was sparked by mankind's apathy and sinful nature, so too this new flood, specifically due to man's sinfulness and apathy towards the planet leading to the ongoing climate change crisis.
Humanity, the pope said, is going to face another "great deluge, perhaps due to a rise in temperature and the melting of glaciers. [That is] what will happen now if we continue on the same path," according to an excerpt from Pozza's book, Of Vice and Virtues, which was published Sunday by Corriere della Serra.
In the Bible, the only survivor of the great flood was Noah and his family, as he was the only righteous one on Earth. Following the flood, God vowed to never again flood the Earth, setting a rainbow in the sky as a symbol of this promise.
The publication of this excerpt not only coincides with the book's publication, but also ahead of the pope's awaited trip to the Middle East, where he will visit Christian communities despite the ongoing turmoil in the region.
Francis was the first pope to ever visit a Middle Eastern country.