You may not have noticed, but our planet is becoming increasingly unstable. According toVolcano Discovery, 40 volcanoes around the globe are erupting right now, and only 6 of them are not along the Ring of Fire. If that sounds like a very high number to you, that is because it is a very high number. As I have written about previously, there were a total of 3,542 volcanic eruptions during the entire 20th century. When you divide that number by 100, that gives you an average of about 35 volcanic eruptions per year. So the number of volcanoes that are erupting right now is well above the 20th century’s average for an entire calendar year. And of course we are witnessing a tremendous amount of earthquake activity as well. Nepal was just hit by the worst earthquake that it had seen in 80 years, and scientists are telling us that the Himalayas actually droppedby an astounding 3 feet as a result of that one earthquake. How much more does our planet have to shake before people start paying attention?

Of course the things that we have been seeing lately are part of a much larger long-term trend. Seismic activity appears to have been getting stronger over the past few decades, and now things really seem to be accelerating. The following is how one news sourcerecently summarized what we have been witnessing…

If it seems like earthquakes and erupting volcanoes are happening more frequently, that’s because they are. Looking at global magnitude six (M6) or greater from 1980 to 1989 there was an average of 108.5 earthquakes per year, from 2000 to 2009 the planet averaged 160.9 earthquakes per year: that is a 38.9% increase of M6+ earthquakes in recent years. Unrest also seems to be growing among the world’s super-volcanoes. Iceland (which is home to some of the most dangerous volcanoes on the planet), Santorini in Greece, Uturuncu in Bolivia, the Yellowstone and Long Valley calderas in the U.S., Laguna del Maule in Chile, Italy’s Campi Flegrei – almost all of the world’s active super-volcanic systems are now exhibiting some signs of inflation, an early indication that pressure is building in these volcanic systems.

But of course most Americans are never going to care about any of this until it starts affecting them personally.

Well, perhaps they should start paying attention to the warning signs. In recent weeks we have seen significant earthquakes in Michigan, Texas, Mississippi, California, Idaho And Washington. In addition, it is being reported that pressure is building in dormant volcanoes in Arizona and California. Just because we have not had a killer earthquake or a large volcanic eruption in the U.S. in recent years does not mean that it will always be that way. Right now the entire planet appears to be waking up, and this especially seems to be true of the Ring of Fire.

If you are not familiar with the Ring of Fire, just imagine a giant ring that runs around the outer perimeter of the Pacific Ocean. Approximately 90 percent of all earthquakes and approximately 75 percent of all volcanic eruptions occur within this area, and the entire west coast of North America is considered to be part of the Ring of Fire.

For so long, the west coast has been incredibly blessed not to have experienced a major seismic event. But scientists tell us that it is only a matter of time.

And right now, just about every other part of the Ring of Fire is shaking violently.

For example, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake just hit Japan on Wednesday…

A magnitude-6.8 earthquake that shook northeast Japan on Wednesday was an aftershock of the devastating 2011 quake that triggered a massive tsunami and nuclear power plant meltdown.

“We consider this morning’s earthquake to be an aftershock of the 2011 Northeastern Pacific Earthquake,” said Yohei Hasegawa, an official at the Japanese meteorological agency.

The temblor, which struck just after 6 a.m. local time (5 p.m. ET Tuesday), was sparked by the Pacific tectonic plate “subducting,” or moving under, the main land plate, he added.

Hasegawa warned that more tremors may be on the way.

One Japanese expert is warning that Japan “might have entered an era of great earthquakes and volcanic eruptions“, and considering the immense devastation that the great earthquake and tsunami of 2011 caused, that is a very sobering assessment.

Meanwhile, a series of very strong earthquakes have struck Papua New Guinea recently as well. The following comes from the Washington Post…

A powerful earthquake rattled Papua New Guinea on Thursday, the fourth strong quake to hit the South Pacific island nation in a week. The temblor prompted officials to issue a local tsunami warning, but it was lifted shortly afterward with no reports of damage.

The 7.1-magnitude quake struck about 150 kilometers (94 miles) southwest of the town of Panguna on Bougainville Island at a depth of 23 kilometers (14 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

Once again, just because things have always been a certain way does not mean that they will always be that way.

As Americans, we are not accustomed to being concerned about major earthquakes and massive volcanic eruptions, but that could soon change in a big way.

The truth is that our planet and our sun are changing in ways that are unpredictable and that our scientists don’t completely understand.

For example, a recent LiveScience article discussed the fact that scientists are deeply puzzled by the fact that the magnetic field of our planet is getting weaker 10 times faster than previously believed…

Scientists already know that magnetic north shifts. Once every few hundred thousand years the magnetic poles flip so that a compass would point south instead of north. While changes in magnetic field strength are part of this normal flipping cycle, data from Swarm have shown the field is starting to weaken faster than in the past. Previously, researchers estimated the field was weakening about 5 percent per century, but the new data revealed the field is actually weakening at 5 percent per decade, or 10 times faster than thought. As such, rather than the full flip occurring in about 2,000 years, as was predicted, the new data suggest it could happen sooner.

And in a previous article, I discussed how one scientist has discovered that activity on the sun is declining at a faster pace “than at any time in the last 9300 years” right now.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers for why these things are happening, but clearly some very unusual things are taking place.

So what do you think?

Do you believe that you know why our planet and our sun are experiencing such dramatic changes?

Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro and the AP's Tales Azzoni have each written stories about what has been going on with the stadiums in recent weeks, and they don't paint a pretty picture.

Brazil spent more than $3 billion on the stadiums, some of which were built in far-flung locations without popular local professional teams to sustain them after the tournament. A year later, some sit empty and others are running at a loss, and even the stadiums that host regular domestic games have been plagued by disputes between the clubs and the stadium operators.

The country's sports minister has even acknowledged the failed investment of the 2014 World Cup stadiums, telling Reuters of the 2016 Rio Olympics, "Differently from the World Cup, we are leaving a legacy."

Here's the rundown of the problems facing the stadiums:

The Arena Amazonia in the jungle city of Manaus cost $300 million to build, even though there's no top-flight team in the town and it's hundreds of miles from the more populated areas of Brazil. NPR reports that the stadium isn't even hosting local league games because it's too expensive. In addition, the promised income from things like concerts isn't coming in as expected. Kiss even skipped the Amazonian city on its tour of Brazil. The stadium hosted just 11 events in the five months after the tournament.

(REUTERS/Bruno Kelly) The Arena Amazonia in Manaus cost $300 million.

The Estadio Nacional in Brasilia, the most expensive of the stadiums, is being used as a bus parking lot. The stadium cost $550 million to build, NPR reports, but without a top-division team in the capital it has little use after hosting seven World Cup games.

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Dushanbe (Tajikistan) (AFP) - Farrukh Sharifov, a 25-year-old Tajik who repented after joining the Islamic State group in Syria, spoke softly as he addressed a room full of journalists and police in his Central Asian homeland.

"Hundreds and hundreds of young men from the countries of Central Asia go to war in Syria," Sharifov warned at a press conference last week called by Tajikistan's authoritarian government.

Several days later, reports claimed a top police commander had joined the jihadists in the Middle East, sparking even more alarm over IS's potential penetration in the majority-Muslim country of eight million.

Ex-Soviet Tajikistan, where remittances from migrants working in Russia account for around half of economic output, is the poorest of five former communist republics in Central Asia.

Sharifov, who returned home on May 6 after escaping IS, said the group had its sights on the region, echoing President Emomali Rakhmon's warnings that cast Islamic radicalism as the country's main challenge.

Emissaries from the IS group -- which Sharifov condemned as "un-Islamic" and "evil" -- are looking to "direct the flames of war towards ex-Soviet countries," he said.

There are no exact figures for how many people from the five ex-Soviet Central Asian states are now fighting in the Middle East, but the International Crisis Group (ICG) says between 2,000 and 4,000 people may have travelled to Syria and Iraq since 2011.

Tajikistan, which says 386 of its nationals are living in the two countries, has launched a crackdown on Islamism at home, with some accusing authorities of going too far.

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Rebel fighters walk through the rubble following an alleged bombing by Islamic State (IS) group in M …

The government is offering amnesty to repenting IS returnees and waging an aggressive media campaign against the group.

On the street, authorities are even forcibly shaving men's beards, imposing restrictions on the annual Hajj pilgrimage and campaigning against the hijab.

"It seems likely that appearing in front of the media was part of Sharifov's plea bargain," said Edward Lemon, a researcher at the University of Exeter tracking Tajik fighters in the Middle East.

- 'Sophisticated propaganda' -

Fears have multiplied since the interior ministry confirmed Tuesday that a special forces commander, Gulmurod Halimov, had been absent since the beginning of the month.

Citing sources in the security services, Tajik media claim he and several others left the country to fight for IS, after spreading the group's ideas among friends and subordinates.

"He has not been at the service since the beginning of May," a spokesperson told AFP. "Whether he is alive or not, or where he is, we do not know."

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Iranian Assyrian Christians take part in a protest in front of the United Nations office in Tehran o …

Sharifov claims he was recruited by an old classmate who "declared her love for him" via the Russian social network Odnoklassniki (Classmates).

Sources close to Halimov told local media he had combed the Internet for information about the group and its tactics.

IS has previously released footage purporting to show adult and child recruits from Central Asia.

One boy, who identified himself as Abdullah from Kazakhstan, was shown in a January clip apparently executing two alleged Russian spies.

IS is a "new threat" to the region, said ICG Central Asia director Deidre Tynan.

"Their propaganda materials are more sophisticated, and they have more channels to reach Central Asians of widely varying backgrounds," she added.

- Settling scores -

Critics say Central Asian governments are using the international spotlight on IS to justify increasing repression of religious groups, undermining the sanitised version of Islam they promote.

Across the region authorities have moved to ban websites and block social networks viewed as furthering the IS cause.

Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are among an elite group of religious freedom offenders deemed countries of "particular concern" in an annual report prepared by the US State Department.

Uzbekistan has used state-produced documentaries to shame citizens it said were arrested for attempting to join IS and carry out terror attacks at home.

In neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, police arrested Rashot Kamalov, a prominent imam and outspoken government critic, in February over incitement to join jihadists in Syria, charges rights groups said were fabricated.

But analysts in Tajikistan, which last week sentenced 19 people to prison on extremism charges with terms ranging between 9.5 and 17.5 years, said the country's population is vulnerable to the group's lure.

"Unfortunately our country is in a transitory period with the poverty level around 32 percent," Khudoberdi Kholiknazar, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies under the President of Tajikistan, told a round table this month.

"Various forces use high rates of unemployment to ensnare our people with financial enticements."